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Solo superheroes are great but superhero teams can be even better. Combining a wide variety of heroes, these groups have proven to be a big sales draw and DC has some of the best ever. The Justice Society of America was one of the first superteams and since then, DC has created some of the most popular teams in comics. Over the years, DC’s teams have become some of the most successful in all of pop culture.
For some of those teams, the road to popularity was a slow one. These teams didn’t make a great showing out of the gate but proved they had what it took to make it to the popularity finish line.
10 The Sentinels Of Magic Quickly Disappeared But Led To More Magic Based Teams
The Sentinels of Magic were a short-lived team introduced at the end of Day Of Judgement. Consisting of some of DC’s most powerful magic users, the team seemed poised to take a bigger role in things but it never really materialized. The team has name recognition, with magical bigwigs like Zatanna and Etrigan on the team, but it never happened for them.
While the Sentinels themselves never really caught on, the idea of a magic-based superteam would morph over time into the Justice League Dark, one of DC’s most beloved Justice League incarnations. The Sentinels were ahead of their time and presaged what was to come.
9 Justice Incarnate Was A Grant Morrison Idea That DC Took Forever To Capitalize On
Grant Morrison and DC have had a strange relationship. DC has no problem making plenty of money off their ideas but sometimes ignores the best parts. For example, their Multiverse map from The Multiversity is canon but it took years for anyone to pick up Justice Incarnate, the team of Multiversal heroes brought together to fight the Gentry and other Multiversal threats.
Fans loved the team and the idea of it. While they made background appearances, it wasn’t until recently that the team started making a lot of appearances and getting their due. It’s a great team that has intrigued fans since day one and it’s finally getting the recognition it deserves.
8 While Not Technically A Team, It Took Time Before The Amazons Of Themyscira Caught On
Wonder Woman’s origin has gone through a lot of changes and one of the biggest was to the Amazons of Themyscira. As years went by, they evolved from the peaceful and kind of bland women of Paradise Island to the fierce Amazons of Themyscira. As they got more fleshed out, more and more fans started to enjoy this latter version and they’ve caught on.
While calling the Amazons a superteam may be a little much, they have the same structure. They have a leader, Hippolyta, and consist of multiple well-known Amazons. They fight evil and have played a role in some of the biggest conflicts in the DC Universe, so they’re basically a superhero team.
7 It Took Years For The Birds Of Prey To Get A Solo Book
The Birds of Prey are one of DC’s most beloved teams, with a core roster of Black Canary, Huntress, and Barbara Gordon. Over the years, the team has expanded, taking on more members and working as one of the premier black-ops superhero teams in the DC Universe. Their origins, though, are more humble than all of that.
At first, the Birds of Prey were just Black Canary and Oracle and they were only in one-shots. The team got more and more popular as the years went by, eventually getting their own ongoing and adding Huntress to their ranks. The rest is history.
6 The Legion Of Substitute Superheroes Took Time To Get A Lot Of Love
The Legion Of Superheroes have gone through a lot of roster changes over the years but not every hero who tries out for the team makes it onto the main squad. That’s what the Legion of Substitute Superheroes is for. That team takes heroes who are almost ready for the main group and trains them, with members like Polar Boy finally making their way to the main team.
The Subs have been a beloved part of the Legion of mythos for years. Often played for laughs, especially members like Stone Boy or Rainbow Lass, the team has a legion of fans and transcended their simplistic roots.
5 The First Suicide Squad Was Nothing Like What Came After
When people think of the Suicide Squad, they think of a team of villains that takes high casualties and inflicts even higher ones. While this is exactly what the modern version of the team is, the first version of the Suicide Squad was very different. This version was a group of spies led by Rick Flag Jr. and consisted of members with a wide variety of skills.
This incarnation of the team had a six-issue starring stint in The Brave And The Bold but vanished afterward until the idea was revitalized in the 1980s and became the team that fans know and love nowadays.
4 The Authority’s Popularity Has Went Through Booms And Busts For Years
Superman And The Authority brought the Authority back into the forefront of readers’ minds but it’s been a long strange trip for the team. The Authority began as part of the Wildstorm line in late 1998 and while it was a critically acclaimed book, saying it was popular is a road too far. Eventually, writer Mark Millar would take over the book with the thirteenth issue and both would begin a meteoric rise.
After he left the book, the team’s popularity dropped but the team still had a core of fans who love it and are quite happy with the group’s return in the main DC Universe.
3 The Outsiders Have Gotten A Lot Of Chances
The Outsiders is one of those teams that people love in theory but the sales don’t always shake out. The Outsiders started out as Batman’s personal team, with members handpicked by him. The point of it was to take on the missions the Justice League wouldn’t and to do it Batman’s way.
The Outsiders has gone through a lot of changes over the years, with many powerful heroes having called themselves Outsiders. One of the best incarnations of the group was Nightwing’s team but that was the last time the group had any sales success. Other than that, the team is loved but doesn’t sell well.
2 The Teen Titans Took Ages To Become One Of DC’s Biggest Teams
When people think of the Teen Titans, they think of them as DC’s premier teen team but when they debuted, that was the Legion of Superheroes. The Teen Titans was just the sidekick book and while people liked it, it wasn’t the phenomena it would one day become. In fact, the Teen Titans disappeared for years until Wolfman and Perez made them into sales titans.
Since then, the team has become one of DC’s most popular, with successful cartoons, a movie, and a live-action TV show. Even people who have never read a comic know about the Teen Titans and they are one of comics’ most beloved teams.
1 The Doom Patrol Works Best When It Embraces The Weird
The Doom Patrol was introduced as the world’s strangest team and they lived up to that, battling threats like the Brain and the Brotherhood of Evil and Animal-Mineral-Vegetable Man. The team was made of misfits and thrived in bizarre situations. The problem came when DC tried to make them more of a tried and true superhero team.
It took Grant Morrison taking over the book and making it weird again for the Doom Patrol to truly become popular again. The book’s ’90s Vertigo run is widely lauded but several times over the years, DC has tried to bring them back as superheroes, something that never works for the team, as proven by the Young Animal reboot.
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