Characters / Justice League Founding Members

aka: DCAU The Flash

Superman (Kal-El / Clark Kent)

See here for more info about him.

Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Wonder Woman

Real name: Diana

Species: Amazon

Abilities: Superhuman strength, superhuman durability, superhuman speed, superhuman agility, superhuman reflexes, superhuman stamina, flight, highly skilled hand to hand combatant, amazonian training

Weapons: Indestructible bracelets and tiara, magic lasso

Voiced in English by: Susan Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning^note Magically rejuvenated

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Astrid Fernández (Justice League, Seasons 1-4), Marycel González (Justice League, Season 5), Yaraiví Acevedo^note Magically rejuvenated

Voiced in French by: Marie-Frédérique Habert (Justice League/Unlimited), Célia Charpentier (Justice League Unlimited)^note Magically rejuvenated, Barbara Beretta (Justice League vs. the Fatal Five)

Voiced in Japanese by: Mari Adachi

Appearances: Superman: The Animated Series^note Mentioned only/retconned | Justice League | Static Shock^note Mentioned only | Justice League vs. The Fatal Five

Wonder Woman, known also as Diana of Themyscira, is the princess of the Amazons and one of the original seven founders of the Justice League. She defied her mother's admonition to leave matters of Man's World alone despite the fact that the Imperium were attacking them at the time and stole her outfit from Athena's temple before venturing out in response to J'onn J'onzz's telepathic summons. Due to her efforts on behalf of Earth during the invasion, Diana was invited aboard the Watchtower and she took part in the formation of the Justice League. She took on the name Wonder Woman and continued to serve as a hero with the Justice League.

• Action Girl: Diana has consistently been portrayed as a strong and powerful hero, especially among females in the DCAU (as shown in "Grudge Match").
• Adaptational Badass: In For the Man Who Has Everything, Wonder Woman's sole contribution is distracting Mongul while Batman and Robin try to figure out how to free Superman from the Black Mercy, leading to a one-sided battle in which she is quickly pummeled into unconsciousness. In the eponymous episode, not only does Wonder Woman put up a much better fight, but she inherits Robin's role, being the one who saves the day by turning Mongul's trap against himself.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While this Wonder Woman is still unambiguously heroic, she is this compared to her comic book counterpart, who - especially under the iconic post-Crisis George Pérez run - was the kind of Friend to All Living Things Technical Pacifist that would apologize for punching Darkseid and was downright eager to rub elbows with non-Amazons. More than one fan has noted that this Diana acts more more like her comic book counterpart's '90s Anti-Hero Substitute, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Early mention by Lois Lane in Superman: The Animated Series notwithstanding, Justice League establishes her as not appearing until around the time the Justice League was founded, when in the comics she was active long before the Justice League was formed.
• Affectionate Nickname: She is called "Angel" by Steve Trevor in "The Savage Time".
• The Ageless: In Paradise Lost, she recognizes the artist who crafted an urn from the sixth century B.C. as a personal friend. In the Static Shock episode "Future Shock", she was mentioned to still be alive and active in some way during the 2040s. Also, in an alternate future created by Chronos, Warhawk informed Diana that her future self had been killed during the destruction of the Watchtower along with many other members of the Justice League.
• Alliterative Name: As per usual, Diana's superhero alias is Wonder Woman.
• Amazonian Beauty: Diana is a literal Amazon and she is definitely beautiful. She is also tall and has a voluptuous yet toned body, and has no trouble attracting admirers... Whether she wants to, or not.
• Ambadassador: In the final season, Diana (at her mother's request) represents Themyscira at the world global warming conference.
• Animorphism: In "Dead Reckoning", she is transformed into an ape by Grodd's Evil Plan, but Superman manages to destroy the generator, turning everyone back into humans.
• Art Evolution: Diana received a minor redesign for the second and Unlimited seasons through the fact that she does not have the cheekbones that she had in the first season.
• Artificial Human: In "Maid of Honor", Princess Audrey teases Diana about having "feet of clay," to which Diana replies, "You have no idea." This is a nod to her comic book counterpart during the Silver Age, who was sculpted out of clay by Hippolyta.
• The Artifact: In this adaptation, her costume's design makes even less sense than it does in most others, but (of course) it's far too iconic to change. In "Secret Origins, Part 2", Diana finds it laid out on an altar in an ancient Themysciran temple built to honor Athena; apparently, the American flag and the letter "W" both existed in Ancient Greece.
• Badass Boast: She delivers one to Felix Faust in "Paradise Lost".
  "If you break your vow, no magic in the universe will save you from me."
• Backported Development: Justice League vs. The Fatal Five features Diana wielding a sword, like her New 52, DC Extended Universe, and DC Animated Movie Universe counterparts.
• Berserk Button: Do not question what she wears (or doesn't in that matter), EVER.
• Big Anime Eyes: A subdued example. Her eyes aren't noticeably larger than any of the other characters, but she is the only one to have both pupils and irises, whereas others either only have Black Dot Pupils or Black Bead Eyes.
• Blood Knight: She has shades of this on occasion. In "Hawk and Dove", she is livid at a gang of bank robbers for disrupting her "day off" and was about to give the leader a very severe beating until J'onn J'onzz intervened and called her back for a mission.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In "Grudge Match", she is mind-controlled along with other female Leaguers to fight in Roulette's underground ring.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": The letters "WW".
• Chainmail Bikini: Her Chest Insignia, which is designed to resemble two W's. Also see the trope immediately above.
• Character Development: She initially began with having a low, sexist opinion of all men (though not as much as the rest of the Amazons). Her time in the Justice League has dropped those views. She also gains an appreciation for man's world and men in general and gradually learns to integrate into other societies while retaining her cultural identity as an Amazon.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: This is one of her notable traits in the DCAU. During the Thanagarian Invasion, she risked blowing her cover while hiding to save a couple from falling debris. Also, when they traveled back in time to the old west, she insisted they save a man taken to jail even though it hardly had any significance.
• Cool Plane: Her invisible jet, which is unveiled in Unlimited.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: An animated example. She is usually referred to either as "Diana" or "Princess" by the League members and people who know her personally. It is only the public at large and some enemies (along with the League members at times) who refer to her as "Wonder Woman". However, this is Averted in second and Unlimited seasons of Justice League through the fact that she address herself as Wonder Woman just like most of the other characters do.
• Continuity Snarl: In Justice League, she's presented as new to Man's World and a rookie. However, earlier in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Blasts from the Past, Part 1", Lois makes a snarky remark while talking with Mala that suggests that Diana was already active in the DCAU.
• Costume Evolution: Justice League vs. the Fatal Five still features her with her regular costume, but her attire now includes a sword and its scabbard.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Despite being super strong, she sometimes exclaims "Hera give me strength!", which maxes her strength out to the point where it rivals Superman's. She even states that there were times that without her belief in Hera, she would not have been successful.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In "Grudge Match", Wonder Woman is matched against Shayera, Vixen, Black Canary, and Huntress. They all have an Oh, Crap! reaction. Luckily, Black Canary and Huntress are able to break the trance before Wonder Woman is able to smash Shayera and Vixen's heads together.
• Defector from Paradise: When "Man's World" came under attack by the Imperium, she proposed to her mother Hippolyta that they send help. When Hippolyta refused to intervene, Diana still felt it was her duty to help. Diana took the goddess' magic armor. Urged on by the distress call of the J'onn, Diana left Themyscira and traveled to where she felt the summons originating.
• Determinator: Oh, yes. Just watch her fight against Mongul—he's thrashing her all across the Fortress of Solitude, yet she still refuses to stay down even when it becomes clear that she'll die if she suffers any more punishment.
• Does Not Like Men: Now surrounded by men, both on her team and the general population, Diana often finds that her Amazonian prejudices are confirmed in the thoughts and actions of those she would protect. However, she has also discovered that not all men act in the way her mentors have taught, as her adventures have brought her into contact with men who embody the virtues and nobility of her Amazon sisters, such as Steve Trevor and Batman, the latter of whom she deeply respects and identifies with for his warrior spirit and fierce determination.
• Dude Magnet: Just like her comic book counterpart and most versions, she is a young, beautiful woman who many men tend to be attracted to throughout the series.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Much like Superman, Diana sported cheek bones during season one, but lost them in season two and Unlimited.
• Eating the Eye Candy: In “Maid of Honor,” when Princess Audrey grabs several hunky dudes to party with them at a nightclub, Diana simply eyes one of them and says “Nice.”
• Et Tu, Brute?: Wonder Woman has no problem working together with Hawkgirl. That is, until "Starcrossed" when she finds out the latter had been spying on Earth for the Thanagarians. Later on in the series, when Shayera rejoins, Wonder Woman is still raw about the betrayal and has issues trusting her. Luckily, in "The Balance", Diana and Shayera make peace. They may not be friends, but they are both content with being good teammates.
• The Exile: She is exiled from Themyscira in "Paradise Lost" for violating the crime of bringing men onto the island (which was necessary, as her teammates aided in preventing the release of Hades from his underworld prison). She is eventually removed from exile in "The Balance".
• Fantastic Racism: Following "Starcrossed", she holds this against Shayera for her participation in the Thanagarian invasion. She likely now has this against Thanagarians in general due to the events of "Starcrossed".
• Flight: One of the powers that Diana has.
• Flying Brick: Diana can fly and possesses enormous superhuman strength, though she's not quite as tough as Superman, as she still has to block piercing weapons with her bracelets if she doesn't want to be hurt.
• Forced Transformation: In "This Little Piggy", she is transformed into a pig by the sorceress Circe. Batman managed to return her back into her normal form by making a Deal with the Devil.
• Fountain of Youth: In "Kids’ Stuff", Wonder Woman alongside Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern are transformed into eight-year-olds in a desperate attempt to save the world from the magic of Mordred. Wonder Woman's personality is now that of a bossy big sister, but still with a crush on Batman.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: As always, Wonder Woman is very Sanguine.
• Future Badass: Several episodes across the DCAU imply that Diana is still an active superhero and Justice League member well into the Batman Beyond era.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In "Maid of Honor", Diana says a variation of this trope when she disagrees with Audrey and Vandal Savage's wedding.
  Wonder Woman: Like Hades it is.
• Heroic Bastard: Her parents, Hippolyta and Hades, sculpted her out of clay despite the fact that they were not married.
• He Who Fights Monsters: A downplayed example. In "Hawk and Dove", Wonder Woman becomes frustrated about how senseless and belligerent humans are, but J'onn warns her that she is becoming dangerously hostile herself towards humans. At the end she learns aggression in a situation only furthers the conflict.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: She constantly swaps out "God" for the names of Greek gods, most often Hera. This even becomes the subject of an episode when Hawkgirl asks if her calling on Hera for strength really does improve her fighting abilities to which she claims it does.
• Hot-Blooded: This is one of her defining characteristics on the show. When she's enraged, she doesn't back down or repress her anger or contempt.
• Hypocrite: Some of the faults she sees in men are those she shares herself, something Hawkgirl called her out on in "Secret Society":
  Wonder Woman: Men! Unless you do it yourself, it doesn't count!
  Hawkgirl: It's not just the men, you stuck-up...
• Immortal Immaturity: If anything, she often acts significantly less mature than she looks, despite actually being thousands of years old.
• Immune to Bullets: She herself is not, but her bracelets are.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Diana usually wears a strapless leotard that highlights her impressive hourglass figure as well as her voluptuous, yet toned, athletic body and bust.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: She somehow manages to throw a dagger with her mouth and hit a tiny button on a control panel in "Starcrossed".
• Improbable Weapon User: She has silver bracelets that could deflect all sorts of projectiles, an indestructible golden lasso, and a tiara that could be thrown like a boomerang.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: This exchange from "Eclipsed" where her outfit has been criticized by a talk show host who's giving the League a bad name.
  Wonder Woman: (angrily) ...And what's wrong with the way I dress?!
  Flash: (to Green Lantern) You wanna take that?
• Jack of All Stats: She's one of the heavy hitters for the Original Seven members of the Justice League, but doesn't really have anything she excels at compared to the others. She can catch up to a flying jet, but she's not considered as fast as the Flash. She's strong enough to go toe to toe with the likes of Mongul (briefly) or Aquaman, but not in Superman's league. She can take a punch, but apparently she still needs to block bullets. She's also not as intelligent as Batman and lacks the special abilities of Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Since she is accustomed to being treated like royalty, Wonder Woman has a sense of entitlement. With her deep sense of honor, she is easily offended when she is not accorded the respect that she feels she deserves and she does not suffer fools gladly. Yet beneath this imposing exterior, she has a deep level of respect and concern for her teammates.
• Jumped at the Call: When Earth was in danger, she rushed to defend Man's world.
• Knight Templar: On at least two occasions, someone has had to stop her from breaking the Thou Shalt Not Kill maxim (The Flash prevents her from killing Toyman in "Hereafter" and J'onn stops her from killing a random crook and later calls her out on it in "Hawk and Dove").
• Leg Focus: Diana tends to wear a strapless body suit or other outfits (such as beautiful dresses, skintight pants, Themysciran armor, or dress skirts) that highlight her long and toned, yet shapely, legs.
• Leotard of Power: Just like her comic book counterpart and most versions, Diana tends to wear her trademark red, white, and blue star-spangled strapless leotard.
• Living Lie Detector: Her golden lasso contained the power to force the truth out of anyone wrapped in it.
• Love Interests:
  • In "The Savage Time", she traveled back in time with the rest of the League in order to stop Savage. During this time, she met Steve Trevor, who gave her first taste of romance. After successfully stopping Savage and restoring the timeline, she visited an aged Trevor, who still remembered her as his "angel."
  • Several episodes tease Wonder Woman's Unresolved Sexual Tension with Batman. The two kiss in "Starcrossed" to avoid being recognized by the Thanagarians; “This Little Piggy” focuses heavily on their feelings for one another; “The Once and Future Thing” has them share an awkward moment when Bruce downplays their obvious romance; they flirt throughout “Maid of Honor” and she kisses him on the cheek in “The Brave and the Bold;” she cheekily implied she’s got Bruce’s number in “Divided We Fall”; and she openly flirts with him in "Kid Stuff", though they never enter an actual romantic relationship.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: In "The Balance", Hades claims that he and Hippolyta worked together in sculpting her from clay. Shayera assures Diana that Hades is lying and she can use her lasso on him. Diana says she doesn't need to since she knows who her real family is.
• Male Gaze: Diana tends to get subjected to these, mainly through camera shots that present her bust, legs, and backside.
• Most Common Superpower: Diana has a very large bust. This is lampshaded not so discretely when she went to visit Hephaestus, a Greek god who had designed her armor. He notes that he created it originally for her mother, who doesn't quite have her... um... build, and offered to take it out a little sometime. This is lampshaded again when the Atom found out in "Dark Heart".
• Ms. Fanservice: Diana is a tall, curvy, beautiful, raven-haired, Amazonian woman who gets a significant amount of Male Gaze in the series due to the fact that she usually wears a strapless leotard that highlights her voluptuous, yet toned, athletic body. "Secret Origins, Part 2" features Wonder Woman pretty obviously getting naked when she drops her robe to put on her costume. In "Dark Heart", The Atom gets a ride to the fight in Wonder Woman's cleavage.
• Murderous Thighs: She has very long and toned, yet shapely, legs that are strong and have a lot of strength.
  • In this screencap of "Starcrossed", Wonder Woman has her arms and upper body tied to a metal pillar and appears to be defending herself with a bodyscissor. Judging by the Thanagarian's grimace, it hurts.
  • In "To Another Shore", Wonder Woman defeats Devil Ray while underwater through swimming behind him, wrapping her long legs around his stomach, and squeezing until it causes his helmet to crack. Judging by the way that Devil Ray's moans, this move is very painful.
• Naïve Newcomer: She is portrayed as this in the first season being unfamiliar with earth society. In "Maid of Honor", she begins to venture into "Man's World" for reasons other than to protect it and befriended Princess Audrey of Kaznia.
• Noble Bigot: In "The Balance", she reluctantly lets Shayera join her on her mission (after attempting to steal Shayera's mace, which she needed), despite Diana's grievances against her following the events of "Starcrossed". By the end of "The Balance", Diana finally fully forgives her for her past sins.
• Oh, My Gods!: "Great Hera!" is a serial offender, that's pretty much her Catchphrase. Parodied by Flash in the first part of "The Savage Time": "Great Jumpin' Hera!".
• One-Gender Race: She is one of the Amazons, a group of female warrior who inhabit Themyscira.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz. A specific example of this trope occurs in the episode "Destroyer" when she exclaims his name in happiness and hugs her friend who she hadn't seen in a long time since his temporary departure from the League.
• Politically-Active Princess: She has adopted the role of ambassador of the Amazons at her mother’s request in the final season.
• Power Limiter: The absence of her lasso's truth-forcing magic is conspicuous. It turns out her armor's power was limited because she stole it. Hippolyta unlocks the armor's full-potential, including the lasso's magic, in "The Balance".
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Her tiara. She used it to known down her Justice Lord counterpart in "A Better World".
• Primary-Color Champion: As per tradition, her superhero attire consists of red, yellow, blue, and silver.
• Really 700 Years Old: She acts young, but if she was crafted/conceived by Hades and Hippolyta then she has to be thousands of years old.
• Rebellious Princess: Diana is the Princess of Themyscira, but she willing to defy Hippolyta's edict to leave matters of Man's World alone for the reason being to to interfere in the Imperium invasion and help the other founding members of what's become the Justice League.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: She dons a more extravagant outfit of white and gold that possibly crosses over with Bling of War to attend Superman's funeral in "Hereafter".
• Royal Brat: She was this in the early episodes. It caused Green Lantern and Hawkgirl to address her as "princess" in a decidedly unflattering manner at times.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She is a Princess from an island of immortal warriors who is a very powerful member of the Justice League.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The contest to send an Amazon into Man's World was Adapted Out, with Diana instead deciding to defy Hippolyta's edict not to interfere in the invasion and help the other founding members of what'd become the Justice League.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Being Wonder Woman, she's already a strong, beautiful warrior, but "To Another Shore" presents her in a modern blue woman's suit and her hair in a lovely, yet practical bun. The result? BREATHTAKING!
• Ship Tease: Many times with Batman throughout the series.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: As with most versions, she wears an strapless body suit that shows off her toned arms.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: In "For the Man Who Has Everything", Wonder Woman grabs a BFG and fires it at Mongul, just as her comic book counterpart does in the story of the same name.
• Sour Supporter: She is initially not happy at all about Shayera being reinstated into the League despite her actions during the Thanagarian invasion and is not at all shy about voicing it.
• Statuesque Stunner: As with most versions, Diana is tall (as she stands just inches below Batman and Superman) in addition to being very toned and beautiful.
• Strong as They Need to Be:
  • In a single episode, she can go from only just fast enough to catch a helicopter to being able to catch up to a stealth bomber after stopping to talk to Hawkgirl first.
  • Her physical strength also fluctuates. In "Paradise Lost", she's able to brawl with Superman and even gain the advantage. In "Hereafter", she's quickly defeated by Kalibak, whom Superman regularly swats like a fly.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With the exception of her hairstyle and color, Diana gained all of her physical attributes from Hippolyta. It turns out that her black hair comes from her father, Hades.
• Superpower Lottery: The climax of "Grudge Match" has a brainwashed Wonder Woman effortlessly curb-stomping Shayera, Black Canary, Vixen and Huntress at the same time, firmly establishing her as not only the strongest female member of the expanded Justice League, but one of the most overwhelmingly powerful characters in this continuity.
• Super-Reflexes: She is adept at providing cover for her allies, utilizing her "bullets and bracelets" routine to deflect artillery fire, lasers, and Green Lantern-style energy beams.
• Super-Speed: Just like her comic book counterpart, Diana was "blessed by the gods" with amazing speed.
• Super-Strength: The gods also blessed her with amazing strength.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Diana is the member of the League most unforgiving of Shayera after the latter's treachery. It takes a while for the two to patch things up even after Shayera rejoins the League and they both admit their relationship will never be the same.
• Tiny Tyrannical Girl: She becomes this in the "Kids' Stuff" as a result of being transformed into a little girl:
  Little Girl: You can't tell us what to do! You're not our mom!
  Young Wonder Woman: No, but I promise you, we will find all your moms. And I'm gonna TELL!
• Token Religious Teammate: She is the only member of the League who openly shows her (Greek pantheon) religion.
• Tomboy Princess: The daughter of an amazon queen, and is a strong and violent warrior with little interest in anything considered "Feminine" in man's world.
• Top Heavy Girl: Her upper body is noticeably wider than her lower body, by virtue of her being an Amazonian Beauty.
• Tragic Bigot: Given what the Thanagarians did to her and her planet in "Starcrossed", it can be understandable why she ended up more aggressive than usual and was more distant with Shayera following her return to the League.
• Transformation Sequence: She performed this only once in the series in "To Another Shore", Diana transforms into Wonder Woman using the old Lynda Carter effect: spinning into her uniform.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Batman, to her frustration. Given how Batman Beyond occurs, she was never going to end up with Bruce anyway.
• Unstoppable Rage: In "Hereafter", when Superman was seemingly murdered by Toyman, Diana very nearly killed the villain in revenge. She was only dissuaded by Flash when he reminded her that Superman would never have advocated murder.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: "Dark Heart" features a sequence where she carried The Atom in her cleavage.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Diana implies that she would be one for Batman if he ever finally agreed to date her.
  Batman: And three, if my enemies knew I had someone special, they wouldn't rest until they'd gotten to me through her.
  [Diana crushes the head of the gargoyle statue her hand is on]
  Wonder Woman: Next.
• Warrior Princess: Considering she's princess of the Amazons, this was a given.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In "Paradise Lost", she gets banned from entering Themyscira due to violating the island’s edict forbidding men to be brought there. It's eventually revoked out of necessity in "The Balance". Having saved the day, Hippolyta rescinds Diana's exile at last, stating that she will face the gods when it comes to it.

Green Lantern (John Stewart)

^{Click here to see his JLU look}

Hard-nosed and no-nonsense when first introduced, John Stewart had been patrolling deep space as a Green Lantern for ten years prior to the start of the series. He had been recruited by the Green Lantern Corps and trained for ten years before returning shortly to Earth after Abin Sur's death. He became a founding member of the Justice League. Due to his by-the-book approach to super-heroics, John tends to treat his fellow Leaguers like well-intentioned rookies.

• Adaptational Early Appearance: In relation to the League itself. In the comics, John was created years after the League formed. Here, he replaced Hal Jordan as a founding member.
• Adaptational Job Change: The show presents John as a former Marine instead of an architect like he was in the comics. This got Ret-Canon to the comics, albeit with the caveat of he still went into architecture, but was in the Marine Corps before then.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In relation to Green Lanterns seen in the universe. While he was still a GL before Kyle Rayner here as in the comics, we don't see this version of John until after we meet Kyle.
• Amazon Chaser: If his relationships with Katma Tui, Shayera, and Vixen say anything, it's that John loves dangerous and formidable females.
• Amicable Exes: Despite some awkwardness and lingering tension, John and Shayera get along well enough, capable of working together and looking out for each other.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: A particularly jarring example early in the series through "The Brave and the Bold", where he expresses disbelief at Flash's story about a talking gorilla (Solovar). Flash, quite justifiably, calls him out on it.
  Flash: Hey, we've both got a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt here.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His 8-year-old self in "Kid Stuff" was this.
  Young Green Lantern: I'll make a laser cannon! No, a missile launcher! Oh oh! I know!
  Young Batman: Just pick something!
• Badass Creed: You know the one.
• Badass Longcoat:
  • He commonly wears a brown coat on his off-time. An emerald longcoat also appears to be Green Lantern Corps formal wear as shown in "Hereafter".
  • The Static Shock episode "Fallen Hero" has him with it when he gets to Dakota.
• Badass Normal: In "The Savage Time", when his ring runs out of juice, his previous skills at hand-to-hand combat and weapons usage from his time in the Marines serve him in good stead.
• Bald of Authority: John is this whenever he leads a mission in the Unlimited seasons. He's particularly strict with Supergirl and Stargirl due to their impulseiveness.
• Barrier Warrior: A frequent defensive use of his powers.
• Because Destiny Says So: In "Shadow of the Hawk", John believes that he and Shayera are destined to be together because they have a son in the future. Batman informs him that if he really believed that, he wouldn't be with Vixen. See Screw Destiny below.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Hawkgirl in the first two seasons of Justice League.
• Boring, but Practical: This is how he used the ring's powers during the first season. He used simple energy beams and spherical barriers for the most part. Katma Tui later called him out on it (giving an in-universe voice to fan backlash on the same point—he's known in the main DC universe for extremely detailed and complex constructs), following which his use of the ring became more Simple, yet Awesome. This is lampshaded later on in "Kid Stuff" where he is temporarily turned back into a kid and starts making all kinds of crazy constructs, showing how he lost a lot of his imagination when he reached adulthood.
• Brought Down to Badass:
  • In "The Savage Time", after having expended most of the ring's power to tow the Javelin back to the Watchtower, he's forced to rely on his prowess as a Military Superhero.
  • He becomes this again in "Starcrossed", when Hro Talak destroys his power ring and he has to fight him as just a mortal human.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Despite his hard-nosed exterior, he's got quite a soft and vulnerable side as his personal relationships will attest, even being brought to tears when Shayera left the team.
• By-the-Book Cop: He is this given his military background, especially apparent in the first two seasons. He loosens up a bit over the course of the series.
• The Cameo: Though he doesn't appear in person in Justice League vs. The Fatal Five due to being on Rann with the rest of the Green Lantern Corps to fight Dominators, a statue of him appears in the Green Lantern display of the superhero museum in the 31st century.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: He could travel across interstellar distances with his ring which he would often do whenever the League didn't have a spaceship available.
• Character Development: This ex-marine has his share of Hidden Depths. He grew up on cheesy comics, his favourite film is Old Yeller, and he's a bit of a romantic. By the time of Unlimited, he's even willing to make bad puns in Flash's absence.
• Character Focus: In the first two seasons, John manages to be the dramatic core of the show, either through his relationship with Hawkgirl, his struggles in proving he's more than just his ring, or another episode-specific problem. More episodes feature John as either the main Leaguer to follow or give him a significant B-plot in the story than anybody else in the cast during the initial two seasons. He’s also the one that deals with the main villain personally in both of the first two season finales. Following the apex of his dramatic story in "Starcrossed", his spotlight moves towards other characters.
• Chick Magnet: John Stewart is the Justice League member with the most romantic drama throughout the seasons. When J'onn assigns Shayera (his ex) and Vixen (his current girlfriend) on the same team, the former notes that difficult as it is to believe, he really doesn't take GL's love life into consideration when assigning missions. During the League’s mission on Kalanor, it's revealed John had a relationship with his mentor Katma Tui as well.
• Clear My Name: John had two episodes in the DCAU that feature this trope:
  • "In Blackest Night" for Justice League, he was charged with destroying a planet but framed by Kanjar Ro through the Manhunters.
  • In "Fallen Hero" for Static Shock, John was charged with Earth robberies but framed by Sinestro, who impersonated him.
• The Comically Serious: At first. Eventually, he becomes a Deadpan Snarker, possibly due to Flash rubbing off on him.
• Composite Character: His role of being the Green Lantern of Earth that co-founded the Justice League resembles Hal Jordan. Static Shock added to this by giving him Hal's role in Sinestro's removal from the Green Lantern Corps. Additionally, in the comics, Hawkman is the man who is destined to end up with Shayera after reincarnation. In this adaptation, it's John. While Shayera was married to Hawkman in a previous life, John was her one true love back then.
• Consummate Professional: John Stewart is at heart a professional soldier and a man of duty. He takes his roles as a protector of Earth, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, and a founding member of the Justice League with the utmost seriousness. At times, this has led him into conflict with comrades like the Flash or Supergirl, who do not appear to share this serious attitude. He later grows out of this and ends up enjoying himself more along with easing up with the other members.
• Determinator: On more than one occasion, John has been the last member of the League to be brought down by a villain due to his refusal to stop fighting. In "Hereafter", the future Vandal Savage even admitted that he was the hardest to kill when he slaughtered the League.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In "Starcrossed", it hit Green Lantern the hardest that Hawkgirl was revealed to the entire planet as a spy. To make matters worse, she revealed that she was engaged to the Thanagarians' commander, Hro Talak.
• Flight: He is able to fly thanks to the his Green Lantern Ring.
• Fountain of Youth: In "Kids' Stuff", Green Lantern alongside Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are transformed into eight-year-olds in a desperate attempt to save the world from the magic of Mordred. Lantern gets back his boyish enthusiasm for toys and costumes along with a shortened attention span, unable to decide what to do with his powers. He also is short-sighted as a kid, so he unintentionally forms a pair of Cool Shades. Taking advantage of his power ring, he creates a giant punching glove, performs Sky Surfing, and uses a Humongous Mecha that fires missiles.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: He frequently does this.
  • In "The Return", he questions Dr. Fate as he and the Green Lantern Corps have discovered that AMAZO, Luthor, and The Atom have apparently vanished.
    "What the devil's going on here?"
• Has a Type: As mentioned above, John is an Amazon Chaser.
• Hero of Another Story: In "Patriot Act", he's busy preventing a sun from going nova.
• Heroic Willpower: The power behind his ring.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Flash, though it took them a while to develop this. By the end of "Eclipsed", he starts calling Wally "buddy" despite being critical of him doing endorsements at the start.
• Honor Before Reason: He has a habit of this and it bites him hard sometimes, such as when he insists on fighting fairly against Hro Talak in "Starcrossed" despite the entire Earth being at risk. He also has a bad habit of assuming other opponents adhere to this, which Hro is only too happy to exploit by breaking John's hand and destroying his Power Ring when his back is turned.
• Hidden Depths: His favorite film is Old Yeller.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In "Metamorphosis", he meets his old army friend, Rex Mason who's made a successful life for himself. After, John admits to Hawkgirl that he's having misgivings about the choices he's made; had he taken a different path, he might have ended up like Rex. In the end after a climatic battle, John is left satisfied with his life after helping Rex and his fiancé.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: Obviously, the power ring can theoretically do anything. Its only limitations being the imagination and willpower of its wielder. In "Hearts and Minds", he was re-taught in its use by Katma Tui, who criticized him (and other Corps members) for using their Rings "like jackhammers."
• Important Haircut: As outlined above. However, Shayera didn't appreciate the change.
  John: (surprised to see Shayera again) Shayera?
  [Beat]
  Shayera: Hate the beard.
• Interspecies Romance: With Katma Tui (a Korugarian) and later with Shayera Hol (a Thanagarian). This is unintentionally (or not) played with later, as he has a romance with Vixen, who happens to have animal-based powers.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be abrasive and dominant (as shown in "Secret Society"), but he's a real softie deep down and a true friend.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": In "Legends", he meets his childhood comic book superheroes, the Justice Guild and credits his own heroic aspirations to them. At the end, he mourns their Heroic Sacrifice despite not having been real.
• Kryptonite Factor: The comics' Lantern's weakness to yellow is played with subtly in "Starcrossed" and "The Great Brain Robbery".
• Love Triangle: With Shayera and Hro Talak in "Starcrossed" and again with Vixen and Shayera in Unlimited.
  John: Why did you do that?
  J'onn: Vixen hasn't spent much time in space. Good experience for her.
  John: You know what I mean - sending my girlfriend and my ex on the same mission?
  J'onn: Difficult as it may be for you to believe, I don't take your love life into consideration when I make command decisions.
• Military Superhero: He served in the Marines prior to becoming a Green Lantern. He even has a marine tattoo on his shoulder. When his ring dies in "The Savage Times", John simply picks up a rifle and keeps going as part of Easy Company.
• Mundane Utility: He uses his ring like this occasionally. In "Comfort and Joy", he uses it to make a snowman.
• The Needs of the Many: In "Maid Of Honor", when a Kill Sat is hijacked, he argues stopping the Kill Sat takes priority and the staff onboard would lay down their lives for the sake of the Earth. Flash and J'onn convince him otherwise and GL ends up rescuing the men himself.
• Not So Above It All: He was shown to enjoy going sledding on snow during Christmas in "Comfort And Joy".
• Number Two: Due to Batman's more aloof nature and tendency to work apart from the team, Green Lantern often acted as the unspoken Second-in-Command and sometimes the actual leader of the team.
• Official Couple: He was initially this with Shayera in the first two seasons of Justice League. Then, he was this with Vixen by the time of Unlimited. This later becomes an awkward Love Triangle after Shayera rejoins the League and he discovers that they have a son in the future.
• Papa Wolf: In "The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped", he travels to the future and, to his surprise, meets his and Shayera's son Rex Stewart (who is the hero Warhawk). When Warhawk was nearly killed by Woof, John saved him by blasting the splicer with his ring.
  John: Get away from my kid!
• Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: In "Hearts And Minds", John's first encounter with Despero somehow messed with his head, leaving him unable to use the ring. Katma starts retraining him, and he ultimately recovers himself just in time to save her and Hawkgirl.
• Reincarnation Romance: A Love Triangle. Hawkman and Shayera's previous incarnations were married, but Hawkman's decision to focus on the expansion of Egypt caused him to neglect his wife (who desperately wanted to bear his child). The lack of intimacy eventually drove Shayera into the arms of John's previous incarnation, who was Hawkman's best friend.
• Remember the New Guy?: Everyone recognizes him - or at least his organization. Of course, the Green Lantern Corps and their individual members had already been shown back in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "In Brightest Day" (where new recruit Kyle Rayner was the focus character).
• Screw Destiny: At the end of "Ancient History" (which is the final chapter in their Romance Arc), he finally tells Shayera about the time he and Batman went to the future. He tells her about their son, Warhawk, but then contends that if they are destined to be together, it will be on their terms, not fate's, and for now, he is staying with Vixen.
  Green Lantern: I won't be destiny's puppet. Whatever the future holds, we'll make those choices ourselves.
  Shayera: Don't say you don't love me.
  Green Lantern: I'll never say that. But you need to know. I'm staying with Mari.
  • Bruce Timm has gone on record saying that Shayera and John do get back together and eventually have Warhawk. What happens between John and Vixen or how long it all took was left to speculation.
• Semper Fi: He's a former Marine. When the League got transported to WWII and his ring was running on fumes, his experience helped get him in with Sgt. Rock's Easy Company.
• Space Police: He is a member of the Green Lantern Corps in addition to being the most professional and by-the-book of the Justice League. He also has ambitions for the League to become a full time professional fighting force, noting that they have the potential to be the greatest in the universe. By the time season five rolls out, one can be sure that the League lived up to his expectations.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Well, he did receive a lot of screen time in the first two seasons. Although he’s a more well liked example.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: He is the Straight Man to Flash's Wise Guy.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: John's long absence from his homeworld has left him with some difficulty fitting back into normal Earth society, but his experiences with the Justice League have helped him to deal with this by the time of Unlimited. In "Only A Dream", his greatest fear is no longer belonging in the neighborhood he grew up.
• Strong as They Need to Be: In one episode he is accused of having destroyed a planet, and although destroying planets is not so special in the comics, the animated series tend to handle a much smaller scale, to the point that Superman is not sure he can survive a explosion of several Kilotons. Although John turns out to be innocent in the end, that he can destroy a planet is never in doubt.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Beneath John's hard-nosed military exterior, there remains a certain (and normally well-hidden) streak of playfulness and sentimentality. On the rare occasions he allows himself to let his guard down, he is not above using his power ring to play in the snow, fondly recalling the comic book heroes of his youth, or even admitting to a certain weakness for his favorite film Old Yeller.
• Teacher/Student Romance: It is all but said out loud that he had one with Katma while she was training him as a Green Lantern.
• Token Minority: This is one of the complaints made about him in the early episodes. Supposedly, this is why John Stewart was chosen for the team despite the DCAU already having an established Green Lantern introduced back in Superman: The Animated Series, (a Hal Jordan-like Kyle Rayner). However, it helps that Stewart did occasionally appear in the JLA comic book years before when he was Hal Jordan's backup.
  • Word of God is that the writers found casting him liberating: as a lesser-known Lantern, they got more creative freedom with his history and storyline.
  • Ironically, the show's popularity made people complain, when the Green Lantern movie started production, about the protagonist being the Caucasian Hal Jordan, as people unfamiliar with the comics believed John was the original guy rather than Hal, and casting a white guy was just Hollywood racism.(Hal isn't the original guy either, but Alan Scott is still another white man)
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • His relationship with Batman, who unexpectedly becomes his confidant about his relationship woes with Shayera (Batman not-so-discreetly ships them, albeit in his sarcastic, passive-aggressive fashion) while never losing his chance to needle him about his attraction to Wonder Woman.
  • He also develops this with Supergirl. In season five, on their mission against the giant turtle in Japan, he mockingly calls her rookie while the latter sticks her tongue out at him.
• Weaksauce Weakness: It's never directly referred to, but yellow objects just happen to break through his constructs. It doesn't seriously hamper his fights with Sinestro, however.
• Working with the Ex:
  • With Katma Tui in "Hearts and Minds", and later with Shayera after "Wake the Dead". Although with Shayera, it's the hardest on him due to knowing they have a son together in the future.
  • In "Task Force X", Deadshot taunts Green Lantern in an elevator, asking him if he's seen Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern is visibly bothered by this.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Continues his relationship with Vixen even after finding out about his son with Shayera in the future. Unfortunately, the Batman Beyond comic reveals that Vixen got murdered by Shadow Thief on the same night he was going to propose to her and he ends up marrying and having said son with Shayera afterwards.
• You Have to Believe Me!: "Fallen Hero" has him use this to get close to Static to plant his power-depleted ring on Static (so that it can't be stolen by Sinestro).

The Flash (Wally West)

The Flash is a young and popular superhero from Central City as well as a founding member of the Justice League. Apart from his vast speed powers, Wally's most significant qualities were his approachability and his down-to-earth, quintessentially human nature—qualities that many said made him the "heart of the Justice League". He made his first appearance in the DCAU via the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Speed Demons." He was initially portrayed as a show-boater and skirt-chaser and often ran ahead of the others and got into trouble about as fast as he could run. Eventually, his importance was expanded on within the series (starting with "A Better World").

• Adaptational Early Appearance: While Wally was around during the League's formation in the comics, he was Kid Flash, and thus not actually a member until the Justice League International days. Here, he's a founding member.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Wally is by no means an idiot in the comics, but he's also not a scientist. This version, due to being a Composite Character with Barry, takes Barry's role as a forensic scienist.
• Adaptational Job Change: This version of Wally isn't a mechanic for the Keystone City Police Department, but takes Barry's role as a CSI tech for the Central City PD.
• Adaptational Wimp: Played with. The writers deliberately did this to him since his super speed makes it that logically he can end most confrontations before they ever begin. However, just like with Superman, Flash gets a chance to show off how powerful he is and what he's really capable of when he finally takes out the merged Luthor and Brainiac singlehandedly. As demonstrated by Luthor while he was trapped in Flash's body in "The Great Brain Robbery", Flash is capable of using his powers lethally but refrains from doing so.
• Alliterative Name: His real name is Wally West.
• All-Loving Hero: In "The Ties That Bind", he helps two New Gods rescue their loved one via breaking into an inescapable prison on Apokolips. "Flash and Substance" explores this further. Flash talks a supervillain named The Trickster into turning himself in rather than resorting to violence, as he understands his situation. In the end, despite the Flash museum sustaining heavy damage, Flash shrugs it off, stating that what matters most to him is that no one was hurt and the good guys won in the end.
• Anti-Climactic Unmasking: In "The Great Brain Robbery", as Lex (in Flash's body) is being chased through the Watchtower by the rest of the League, he stops in a bathroom and muses that at the very least, he has the opportunity to learn Flash's secret identity.
  Lex Luthor: (in The Flash's body) If nothing else, I can at least learn the Flash's secret identity. [removes mask, looks in a mirror] ...I have no idea who this is.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence:
  • Subverted. In “Divided We Fall”, he nearly vanished after using the Speed Force, but was pulled back into reality by the Justice League.
  • Sadly, this is played straight in the Justice League Beyond comic (depending on whether or not you see it as canon), where it turns out he, Jay Garrick, and Bart Allen disappeared into the Speed Force at some point between Justice League Unlimited and Batman Beyond.
• The Baby of the Bunch: He's the youngest, most inexperienced, and without a doubt most immature member of the Justice League.
• Badass Boast: In "The Ties That Bind", while speeding around Barda.
  Barda: Unless you got an S on your chest, you're useless.
  Flash: Hey I might not be as strong as Superman...
  [takes rod from her hand]
  Flash: ...but I'm just as fast...
  [speeds around her]
  Flash: ...maybe faster...
  [reappears with a flower with the rod]
  Flash: ...friends?
• Bad Liar: "The Great Brain Robbery" plays it for hilarity, he tells a bunch of Blatant Lies and has Refuge in Audacity with his claims while in Lex's body, which the other members attribute to him acting out due to stress.
• Bash Brothers: With Green Lantern.
• Beneath the Mask:
  • Perhaps best revealed in "Hereafter", after Superman's supposed death.
  Flash: [dejectedly] I used to be able to goof around because I always knew (Superman) would have my back. Now all I've got is his example. And that's gonna have to be enough.
  • Despite Wally's cassanova tendencies to flirt with just about any woman who happens to be in the vincinity, he's actually a lot more mindful of them than he comes off. In fact, when he's not being a Casanova Wannabe, he's shown to be awkward and shy, unable to make an actual move regardless of the far from subtle hints given.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • In "Maid Of Honor", after Flash's near-suffocation, he responds to Green Lantern's assurance "You'll be all right" with a harsh (especially for him) reply: "Wish I could say the same for them..."; after which he zips throughout the station, taking the enemy mooks down.
  • In "Secret Society", after the League breaks up, Flash spends a whole night unsuccessfully trying to find Shade. It ends with him dangling one of Shade's goons out of a skyscraper window, and by this time Flash has gotten fed up.
  Thug: [unafraid] Who do you think you are—Batman?
  Flash: It's been a long night. Just tell me where Shade is, okay?
  Thug: Look, buddy, I know Batman. I once ratted out a counterfeiter to Batman. And believe me, you are no Bat— [Flash suddenly drops him] —maaaAAAAAAHHHHHH!
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's often regarded as an ineffectual manchild and little more than comic relief, but there is a very good reason why he's one of the founding members of the League. Case in point, his singlehanded dismantlement of Lexiac.
• Big Eater: Due to Required Secondary Powers ^note this does not nearly account for how much energy he uses, but hey, it's comic book physics, we're used to it. He considers a literal armful of hot dogs to be a "little snack".
• Blow You Away: The Flash can create miniature cyclones by rapidly spinning his arms in front of himself.
• Book Dumb: While the Flash is not stupid, he is characterized as this to downplay his abilities becoming too overpowered and also being the inexperienced of the group.
• Butt-Monkey: If we can believe him, even by the time of the Unlimited season, he's still treated as a kid despite being a founding member of the League.
• But Now I Must Go: Defied when the other Leaguers pull him out of the Speed Force.
• The Cameo: In Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, a statue of him appears in the superhero museum in the 31st century.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: In "Flash and Substance", he's too focused on anticipating an attack from his rogues that he doesn't realize that Linda Park (his main love interest in the comics) is trying to flirt with him, even quickly signing over a slip of paper she wrote her number on while signing autographs. After his rogues are defeated, she flirts with him again. He realizes this and sheepishly recovers.
  • It also happens in "I Am Legion", if only because Hawkgirl was trying to set him up with Fire. She was visibly interested, but he was very flustered by her advances.
• Captain Obvious: Flash after seeing the stuffed T-Rex in the Batcave in “Starcrossed”:
  Flash: That's a giant dinosaur!
  Alfred: And I thought Batman was the detective.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Played for Laughs in the Justice League Unlimited episode, The Great Brain Robbery. During his time whilst inhabiting Lex Luthor's body, he's asked by Polaris if he's going to wash his hands. Wally's response...
  Flash-as-Lex: No! [Beat] Cause I'm evil.
• Casanova Wannabe: He is flirtatious around women and would annoy Hawkgirl, but if truly taken with a woman as he was with Fire, he could be bashful, awkward and even shy.
  • In "Secret Origins", after first meeting Diana:
  Flash: Dibs on the Amazon!
  • In "The Balance", Flash plays himself off as this after the disastrous lunch with Diana and Shayera.
  Flash: I had dinner with two women at the same time! 'Cause I'm a stud! (smooshes his hand in his mashed potatoes)
• Character Development: Flash starts off inexperienced and lacking responsibility as a hero. Over the series’ duration, he’s managed to befriend every member of the team on some level; from his Oscar-and-Felix friendship with Green Lantern to the sarcastic remarks that he regularly trades with Hawkgirl. Through these relationships the Flash becomes a window with which we can get to know the other characters. On the other hand, in exchange for these benefits, the Flash is unconsciously forced to become a better hero by his association with the others. There is also the evolution of his character’s abilities: In the first season, the Flash was frequently seen being taken down by debris or by a slower target or simply doing something that undermined his status as a hero (one of the worst being his inability to pilot the Javelin in "In Blackest Night"). By the time of the second season, he appears to have improved in his performance through piloting the Javelin successfully in "Maid of Honor" and using his speed-related abilities in new ways (such as tricking the Justice Lords’ Batman into believing his heart had stopped in "A Better World"). Overall, he becomes The Heart of the League (as it was alluded to in "A Better World"), as his presence causes the other members to become better heroes.
  • In the first season, Flash comes across as a Leisure Suit Larry, obnoxiously flirting with every woman he sees. As the series progresses, this cools down considerably to where he’s given potential romantic encounters with no less than four women in the last season (Fire, Linda Park, Tala, and Giganta) and takes it all in stride.
• Chick Magnet: Two random women are seen drooling over him, reporter Linda Park (his wife in the comic) clearly has a crush on him, as does Fire, and Giganta takes time from her "Five Minute" head start to kiss him before fleeing the league. Also, when brain-switched with Lex Luthor, it's revealed by Tala that for all the jokes about his...prowess, he's actually a gentle, attentive, and in her words enthusiastic lover, leading to her being disappointed when they switch back.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He hits on Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl constantly, is thrilled at the prospect of visiting Themyscira, and is not above using his cred as a superhero to chat up the ladies. He's also, well, The Flash, a genuine hero and as gentlemanly as Superman when it comes down to it. Though, remember, "Because I'm a Stud!"
  • This is played for laughs in "The Brave And The Bold", where two girls are seriously turned off when he flirts with them. Then, a car crashes through the diner they're in and he has to move them to safety before they're crushed and then rushed after the driver. Then, one of them gets angry at the other for telling her to ignore him.
  • When he developed a crush on Fire, he becomes shy and nervous around her.
  • In "Flash and Substance", he was completely oblivious to Linda Park's advances until the end. Possibly justified at the time since he was busy prepping for a possible attack from his rogue gallery. Tie-in material from earlier on in the series reveals that he was already attracted to Linda and dated her at least once in his civilian identity.
• Clothing Damage: He gets this on a couple of occasions, most especially during "Divided We Fall" and "Flash and Substance". As the latter episode reveals, he's got a drawer full of costume-rings for spare uniforms due to this trope.
• Commuting on a Bus: He was largely absent during the first season of Justice League Unlimited through making only three voiceless cameos.
• Composite Character: This version of the Flash is Wally West with Barry Allen's superhero origin, day job as a forensic scientist, role as a co-founder of the Justice League, hometown/base of operations, Rogues Gallery, and Flash Ring. ^note In the comics, Wally was a police mechanic and operated in Keystone City
  • However, Barry did exist in the DCAU, but was only shown briefly in a flashback in a tie-in comic and "Flash and Substance".
• The Conscience: For the Justice League and especially for his fellow members of the Original Seven, as "A Better World" reveals. He tries to invoke this with Lord Superman when the other man has Flash at his mercy, but it doesn't work.
  • Also in "Hereafter", he's the one who stops Wonder Woman from killing Toyman just after Superman is apparently killed, reminding her that it's not what Superman would do.
  • When Green Arrow begins to doubt the League's mission after Luthor hijacks the Binary Fusion Generator, it’s Flash who points out the mission is to help people.
• Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: For Lightspeed Energy Bars in "Eclipsed". The last standee he has gets destroyed by Orion in "Flash and Substance".
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Okay, so he is touted as the Plucky Comic Relief of the founding members, he's a Big Eater who stuffs his face often due to Required Secondary Powers, he's a Chivalrous Pervert who rarely (if ever) has any luck with the ladies, frequently says the wrong thing at just the wrong time, and is capable of being taken down in one hit. Digested all that? Well, here's what this same guy is capable of doing when he quits fooling around: rewiring Grodd's Mind Control helmet so it'll fry the ape's brain (though he got better), holding his own against Lord Superman and throwing him hard and fast enough to momentarily stun him on impact, tricking Lord Batman into releasing him from his restraints, taking out an entire space-station of armed mooks when sufficiently aggravated, leading a successful infiltration of Apokolips, and curb-stomping Brainiac!Luthor all by himself...and this is all without taking his day-job into consideration.
  • In "Eclipsed", he took on the rest of the mind controlled Big Seven by himself. At this point, it only seems fair because he was trying not to hurt them and they were working without, well, him.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique
  • In "Divided We Fall", Flash took on Braniac/Luthor alone. In desperation, he pushed his powers to their limit, running as fast as he could around the world numerous times and tapping into the Speed Force in order to separate and defeat the two villains. As a result, Flash was very nearly pulled into the Speed Force, but was rescued by the teamwork of his teammates. The incident left Flash with the disturbing possibility that traveling that fast again might mean he would never come back.
  • In "The Great Brain Robbery", Luthor-as-Flash displays several abilities deriving from speed that Flash had never used. Among them: Threatening to use his fingers as a gun to vibrate them through someone's head, using vibrations to set up an unstable resonance in a bay door, causing it to explode, and using his fists to create an uncomfortable ringing in Dr. Fate's helmet. These abilities are not often exhibited for several reasons. As remarked by Green Lantern, setting up the resonance in the door was very dangerous, hence why Flash never performed it (the implication here is that Flash and the League have hypothesized or even tested these abilities before). Threatening to scramble someone's brains with your fingers is simply not superhero-esque and overall, Flash seems to prefer non-violent methods of disabling his enemies as opposed to hitting them really, really fast. It's also a Mythology Gag, where in the comics he'd cause things to explode by vibrating through them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Flash frequently treats the gravest threats with a flippant remark, often underestimating the true danger of the situation.
• Demoted to Extra: He had no lines in the first season of Justice League Unlimited because of voice actor Michael Rosenbaum's commitments on Smallville (though you may not notice simply on the basis that the cast is frickin' huge). He came roaring back for the second and third seasons though and even complained to a fellow Leaguer about not getting any respect despite being one of the original seven.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In "The Ties That Bind", he notes that he's treated like a kid sidekick despite being "one of the original seven."
  • It's subverted to some extent, since while Batman would formerly belittle him in the earlier episodes, he's considerably more respectful in "Flash and Substance", silently rebuking Orion's condescending tone. More importantly he accepts an invitation to visit the Flash museum in the hometown. As well, when he has the chance to flirt with Fire, whom he's expressed a romantic interest in, Fire misinterprets his shyness as him being "devoted to the mission" and expresses a lot of admiration for that mindset.
• Eagle-Eye Detection: "Flash and Substance" proves he's capable of this in his day job.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: His debut in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Speed Demons" depicts him with the outline of the circle on his chest insignia being colored black rather than yellow, the yellow ornaments on his temples being shaped more like wings than lightning bolts and his chin being less narrow.
• Fastest Thing Alive: He is self proclaimed and proven to be this trope, as always.
• Fiery Redhead: "Starcrossed" reveals that Flash has bright red hair to match his personality.
• First-Name Basis: He apparently knows every single person in Central City, happily greeting multiple people in "Flash and Substance" and discussing specific details about their personal lives. He's just that friendly.
• Foil: To the other Justice League members in season one. He is portrayed as still learning the full range of his abilities and being inexperienced in terms of sacrifice (his bewilderment over Wonder Woman’s banishment in "Paradise Lost" and inability to comprehend leaving a teammate behind in "The Savage Time" or in "Hearts and Minds"). Flash provides an interesting contrast when compared to his more seasoned teammates, who have been doing the job for years (and, in some cases, for centuries).
• The Fool: Although he does have superpowers and is far from incompetent, he's by far the most lackadaisical of the founding members of the Justice League. He certainly fits the characteristic of living on the edge all the while having a cheerful (and seemingly naive) attitude no matter how bad the situation gets.
• For the Evulz: Played for Laughs in "The Great Brain Robbery" when Flash is in Lex Luthor's body.
  Dr. Polaris: Are you gonna wash your hands?
  Flash-in-Lex: No...'Cause I'm evil.
• Fragile Speedster: Most of the time. He sometimes leans towards combining it with Glass Cannon, or even becoming a full-on Lightning Bruiser depending on how serious he's getting and how well his Required Secondary Powers are working this week. Especially early on, though, he's often taken out of the fight with one lucky hit.
• Freak Lab Accident: His hallucinations in "The Brave and the Bold" show the iconic chemical-bath-via-lightning-bolt-through-lab-window origin.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In "The Great Brain Robbery", Dr. Fate proposes that he try to locate Grodd by tracing the psychic resonance left when Flash was under Grodd's mind control. While at the same time, Luthor is extracting info from Grodd's mind. The two processes are started at the same time, and Luthor and Flash's brains are accidentally switched.
• Friendly Enemy: With the Trickster.
• Friend to All Children: As shown in "Comfort and Joy", where he seeks to bring a special toy to the children at an orphanage. Mirror Master later exploits this to trap him in "Flash and Substance", but it fails.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: As always, Flash is very sanguine.
• Fun Personified: He mostly takes this role, even in his serious moments.
• The Gloves Come Off: Similar to Superman, Flash actively holds his powers back. Part of it is due to the outright destructive potential of his powers and other part is his own fear of his powers. The Brainiac/Luthor fight shows the full effects of this; Flash runs so fast that not only does he almost end his own life, but he causes massive destruction in his path.
  • When Lex takes over his body later, it’s shown just how dangerous the Flash can be. John notes that Flash is well aware of this and takes great care not to do anything that will be so destructive.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Despite telling bad jokes and being a lecher, he is able to talk the Trickster into happily turning himself over without a single punch thrown and defeat Grodd by outsmarting him.
• Handsome Lech: He's a skirt chaser, but he's also shown to be fairly successful at seducing women. See his Chick Magnet section for more details.
• The Heart: As outlined in "A Better World", his death in the Justice Lords' universe was the trigger for their turning into Knights Templar. But it's better defined in this exchange from "Hereafter", just after everyone thinks Superman's been killed:
  Toyman: [as Wonder Woman holds him by the collar] Wh-what are you going to do to me?!
  Wonder Woman: [enraged] I'm going to punch a hole in your head!
  Flash: [restrains her free arm] We don't do that to our enemies.
  Wonder Woman: Speak for yourself!
  Flash: I'm trying to speak for Superman.
  [Wonder Woman's anger turns to sorrow, as she realizes what Flash is telling her and then dropping Toyman to the ground]
  • When the Justice League votes on whether Hawkgirl can stay in the League, the only two obvious votes are Wonder Woman (no) and Flash (yes). When she decides to quit before the vote is revealed, Flash gives her a genuine hug.
  • Also worth noting that while the rest of the founders try to tiptoe around the remaining tension between Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, Flash is the only one willing to try and get them to break the ice.
  • In "The Savage Times" he chews out Hawkgirl for leaving Green Lantern behind.
• Hero Does Public Service: Flash's friendliness went beyond simply heroism. Utilizing his super-speed, he donated a significant portion of his time to helping individual townsfolk and is on a first-name basis with many of the Central City's residents, offering to help paint one’s fence over the weekend. He also did charitable work for the city's underprivileged.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Defied in "Divided We Fall".
  Android Flash: Slacker! Child! Clown! We have no place among the world's greatest heroes.
  Flash: Says you. I've got a seat at the big conference table. I'm gonna paint my logo on it!
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Green Lantern.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: As with the below trope, he almost never uses his true power, as most of it is incredibly lethal. Phasing-induced Tele-Frag killing, mach punches, and the like aren't really skills befitting someone invoking the Kid-Appeal Character.
• Ideal Hero: He stands above all the other members of the Justice League being the hero that stays morally just; never wavering against villains, always rescuing lives of his teammates and innocents foremost, and never being corrupted against the world.
• The Idealist: He was in many ways the League's most idealistic member and his friendliness and compassion were the "glue" that held the disparate team of heroes together. These qualities were best illustrated by events in the alternate universe of the Justice Lords, in which Flash's murder transformed the League from heroes to tyrants.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The creators could see Superman potentially turning into a Knight Templar, but not Flash.
• Kid-Appeal Character: He also serves the role as this trope for younger viewers. Although, he is also quite popular with the older fanbase.
• Lame Comeback: He's responsible for several. Hey, they can't all be winners.
  Gorilla Grodd: You're a bigger fool than I thought.
  Flash: Yeah? Well, you're...naked!
  • In "Only A Dream", "Take that, you cur!"
  • In "Flash and Substance":
  Flash: Mirror Master!
  Mirror Master: You're quick as ever.
  Flash: Yeah? Well you're...you're not really all there!
  Mirror Master: Oh, nice try. If you had another minute you'd probably think of a decent comeback.
• Leeroy Jenkins: In "The Ties That Bind", breaking into an inescapable prison on Apokolips.
  Flash: Who needs plans? I've always been a spontaneous kind of guy.
• Legacy Character: "Flash and Substance" suggests he's not the first Flash since his old Kid Flash costume is seen in the Flash Museum, along with Jay Garrick's helmet). Later tie-in comics have Jay and Bart Allen make appearances and go back and forth on whether Barry actually existed, although the recent (and definitely canon) Justice League Beyond implies that there is no Barry.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: If things get really, really bad, he abandons his good-natured playfulness with devastating results.
• Like Brother and Sister: Has this type of relationship with Shayera. She even tries to help set him up with Fire in "I Am Legion".
  Flash: She loves me. She's like the big sister I never had. Only, you know...short.
• Loved by All: As shown on Flash Appreciation Day in "Flash and Substance", the citizens of Central City love him, and it's easy to see why. He greets several citizens by name, and is familiar enough with some of them to be concerned about relatively minor issues in their personal lives. On top of that, his secret identity seems to have a good relationship with his co-workers and even his Rogues Gallery is respectful of him. He even manages to convince Batman to attend the opening of a museum in his honor.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Tie-in material for Justice League reveals that Linda Park, his love interest in most adaptations, dated him as Wally West, but broke up with him after being frustrated with his seeming lack of focus. On the other hand, as "Flash and Substance" shows, she oozes over for the Flash.
• Magnetic Hero: In Central City, pretty much everyone who isn't a supervillain loves Flash. ^note  And even the rogues of his home town respect him. Superman used to have almost as much of a rapport with his home city, but even he wasn't on a first-name basis with the citizens.
• The McCoy: In "The Ties That Bind", he debates helping Mister Miracle and Big Barda rescue someone over The Needs of the Many side of the arguement coming from J'onn. He gets involved anyway, and J'onn himself agrees to Flash's viewpoint in the end.
• Morality Chain: If anything were to happen to him, the Justice League may become Knights Templar.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: In "The Great Brain Robbery", Flash is terrible at trying to act like Lex Luthor using every known villain cliche in the book.
  Flash-as-Lex: My fellow bad guys. I, Lex Luthor, your leader, will speak now about my, Lex Luthor's, plan. My villainous, villainous plan. Question the plan at your peril! Uh...any questions?
• Mythology Gag:
  • In "Flash and Substance", Wally's employer at his Forensics job looks like Barry Allen, and Flash later mentions that his uncle is flying in to visit for the celebration.
  • In Issue #9 of the Justice League Adventures tie-in comic, Wally dates a blonde girl named Jessica. This might be a reference to Jesse Chambers, the civilian identity of Jesse Quick and the second Liberty Belle. She was partners with Wally West's Flash and had a brief romantic relationship with him.
  • In Issue #11, while time-traveling with the Atom on the Cosmic Treadmill, the Atom assures the Flash that it's unlikely that they'll get into some sort of quantum disruption, adding that it's more likely that you'd be hit by lightning...which Flash has been through, in fact being his origin story. Then the Atom changes it to being more likely to win the lottery, which Flash has also been through at one point in the source material.
• Nice Guy: Flash has a very kind personality, which is why the residents of Central City love him.
  Orion: [about Flash] Central City builds statues to this...fool. Who makes bad jokes! Who concerns himself with pitiful men like the Trickster! I don't understand.
  Batman: No...you don't.
  • To expand: Beyond the regular super-heroics, Flash knows the names and hobbies of almost everyone in town, greeting them personally as he runs around town. He also uses his powers for more mundane help, like painting an old lady's fence. He plays minigolf with some of them and also does various charity work.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Secret Society", Grodd is revealed to have developed innate telepathic abilities as a result of Flash "crossing a few wires" in his helmet.
• Not Afraid to Die: It's never focused on, but when Shayera pulls Wally out of the Speed Force after pleading with him to take his hand, it's shown she grabbed his wrist instead. This, plus the fact he seemed content upon being found, heavily hints he has no problem dying via a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Not Quite Flight: Flash once kept himself from falling to his death by using his cyclone arm trick to hold himself up in the air.
• No One Gets Left Behind: In "The Savage Time", he chews Hawkgirl out for leaving Green Lantern behind on the battlefield. This is one of the first instances of his Hidden Depths of caring for his teammates.
• Noodle Incident: Sometime between the events of Justice League Unlimited and Batman Beyond, Flash, Jay Garrick, and Bart Allen got stuck in the Speed Force.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: As Orion declares, "You play the fool to hide a warrior's pain".
  • Flash responded with the character quote at the top of this section and observant readers may note he's not actually confirming or denying what Orion said. He is a scientist in his day job and has shown that he has deep fears about what his powers could do to him, but he really is that happy when things go well.
  • He also deliberately played up his foolishness in his first battle with Gorilla Grodd by daring him to fight him fairly. He took off the headband shielding his mind from Grodd's control if Grodd would take off his mind control helmet. Grodd called him an idiot and tried to brainwash him again, only for the helmet to fry his brain. Flash had crossed some wires in it earlier and was goading him into using it again.
• Oblivious to Love: For a guy who's known for hitting on the ladies at every chance, Flash is amazingly oblivious to Linda Park's not-so-subtle crush on him in "Flash and Substance". When she finally gets to outline it to him, he's a bit embarrassed and covers with a joke.
  • In “I Am Legion”, Flash demonstrates a crush on Fire, prompting Hawkgirl to put them on a mission together. During the flight to Blackhawk Island, Fire drops some not-so-subtle hints that she’s actively interested in him. It takes Hawkgirl faking turbulence and getting Fire on his lap before he snaps out of his awkward shyness.
• Odd Friendship: He and Kilowog immediately hit it off and are shown as good friends throughout "Hearts and Minds" despite their differences.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While this applies to the other members of the Original Seven on various levels, he's the one that gets it most significantly. Whenever he's not cracking a joke or chasing a skirt, you know the situation is bad. "Divided We Fall" provides perhaps the best example of this trope in action.
  Flash: Shayera, it's so beautiful here! There's a force...a Speed Force...it's calling me home. I have to go now.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: In the DCAU, Flash's status as "The Fastest Man Alive" is always appended by saying Superman and Supergirl are close and can do much more. Flash does however show more control over his speed than Superman ever does. He's a great deal more versatile in his application of super-speed, as well. "Eclipsed" and "Divided We Fall" suggest he is indeed faster by far.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Hawkgirl.
• Plucky Comic Relief: He usually provides the Lampshade Hanging in situations.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: He rains down who knows how many punches thrown at Super-Speed on the downed Luther/Brainiac fusion near the end of “Divided We Fall”.
  • In order to build up enough of a head start, he repeatedly ran around the world at super speed.
• Red Is Heroic: He wears a superhero costume that has the primary color of red.
• Sad Clown: A Defied Trope. Orion assumes he's this (see Obfuscating Stupidity), but Flash really doesn't care about a destroyed Flash Museum so long as no one got hurt.
• Science Hero: This is shown in "Flash and Substance", Wally West is actually a forensic science technician for the Central City crime lab.
• Secret Identity: Wally West. When Luthor swaps bodies with the Flash, he unmasks himself to find he has no idea who the Flash is.
• Sex God: If Tala's subtext-laden dialogue in "The Great Brain Robbery" is to be believed.
• Smug Super: Flash is often boastful of his accomplishments while trying to woo women. They are usually less than impressed.
  • This falls away as the series goes on as Flash becomes more genuinely confident and has to overcompensate less. By the last season, no less than four women actively want to get romantic with him while he takes it humbly.
• Speed Blitz: When he isn't playing around.
• Super-Reflexes: He's the only member of the League who successfully dodges the pieces of the Eclipso gem when Hawkgirl smashes it with her mace. However, during the first season, his presentations of power were limited by having him get tripped by obvious items. A lot.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: He is the Wise Guy to Green Lantern's Straight Man.
• Strong as They Need to Be: The Flash's speed is heavily inconsistent throughout the series considering he is often dealt with by Villains who shouldn't be able to handle his speed. Depending on the requirements of the plot, his fastest feats of speed include:
  • In "Legends", following an explosion, Flash creates a whirlwind to prevent a giant robot from falling over his teammates. However, he reaches a high speed that transports himself and his teammates to an alternate Earth that resembles an idyllic 1950's town.
  • In "Eclipsed", he and Green Lantern with the latter's ring create a wormhole, running towards the sun to swallow a generator bomb that endangered the earth.
  • In "Secret Society", Sinestro claims that his beams move as fast as Flash does, the speed of light, but Flash states Sinestro doesn't think at the speed of light.
  • In "Wild Cards", with exactly one second left, Flash grabs a bomb and disappears. A video replay shows him managing to run it out of the city, drop it, and get away as it is exploding.
  • In "Divided We Fall", Flash invokes the Speed Force against Luthor/Brainiac running at a speed so fast that he circles the globe in only a few seconds and continues to do so several times becoming faster each time, hitting Luthor/Brainiac several times with enough force to tear away a chunk of "their" android armor. Then, Flash stops and his body starts crackling with the speed energy he's tapped into, applies his vibrating hands to Luthor's Brainiac armor (tearing it completely away), leaving Luthor naked and helpless at the bottom of a crater.
• Super-Speed: As always, it is his main ability.
• Super-Strength: Because of the sheer speed and momentum his body generated, Flash possessed enhanced strength. Since his body was naturally protected from most of the effects of his speed, the ultra-fast punches and movements of Wally's limbs could produce devastating impacts that could stun or injure otherwise stronger or more powerful beings such as Superman or Brainiac. He could also throw objects at extremely high speeds, as he was able to hold off the likes of Lord Superman by throwing rocks.
• Thememobile: The Flashmobile, which is actually just a pimped-out van he bought with endorsement money he made appearing in commercials. As Green Lantern points out, it's completely ridiculous. Somewhat justified, though, considering its real purpose isn't getting around...at least not in that sense.
  Green Lantern: Why do you need a van...wait, don't answer that. I don't wanna know.
• Too Fast to Stop: Deconstructed. In "Only A Dream", Flash's greatest fear is being trapped in a world where he's moving so quickly that everything and everyone around him appears practically motionless.
• Took a Level in Badass: Played with. Flash always remains down to earth and cheerful, but he can pull off something unexpected and powerful when the occasion calls for it, in a way that truly changes the game for the entire league. The rest of the team, which tended to condescend to him for his clown-like behavior nature, quickly pick up on this and as such (even Batman) shows respect to him in the later episodes.
  • Two occasions stand out. The first one is when he outsmarts an Alternate Universe Batman by pulling a Batman Gambit on him by making creative use of his powers that neither him nor main-universe Batman was aware of. This earns him praise from the master himself.
  • The other is his defeat of Brainiac/Luthor, which is regarded in-universe and among his fans as his Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Tornado Move: Flash found many applications for his super-speed. One was the ability to generate whirlwinds by rotating his arms at an incredible rate or by running in circles. These whirlwinds could be used to buffet opponents, or perhaps to cushion the impact of falling people or objects. Flash could even use such a whirlwind to briefly propel himself through the air.
  • Lex tries this on the Watchtower in Flash’s body to propel him towards the teleport pad in zero gravity. Mr. Terrific then turns the gravity back on and Flash!Lex then knocks himself out from the impact.
• Time Stands Still: "Only a Dream" reveals that this to be Flash's greatest nightmare; specifically, that he'll one day go so fast he'll never be able to slow down again while everything about him appears frozen in place, and thus living out his entire life-span in the time it'll take a little girl to tie her shoelace.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • He seems to have a thing for iced mochas.
  • He is frequently seen eating large quantities of hamburgers.
• Tranquil Fury: He is rarely ever shown to be angry, or even aggravated. However, as "Secret Society" shows...
  (Flash is dangling a thug over a rooftop by his legs)
  Thug: (not intimidated) Who do you think you are—Batman?
  Flash: It's been a long night. Just tell me where Shade is, okay?
  Thug: Look, buddy, I know Batman. I once ratted out a counterfeiter to Batman.
  (Flash's face is totally without emotion)
  Thug: And believe me, you are no Batm— (Flash drops him) —aaAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!
  • There's also the moment in "Maid of Honor" after he's rescued from being Thrown Out the Airlock:
    Green Lantern: You're going to be okay.
    Flash: Yeah? Wish I could say the same for them.
    (He zips through the station one-punching each of the enemy mooks)
• The Trickster: Both himself and one of his enemies, The Trickster.
• Unconventional Courtroom Tactics: In "In Blackest Night", Flash stalls for time by offering to be John's lawyer with predictable results.
• Vibration Manipulation:
  • Like in the comics, Wally can use his super speed for vibration effects. This includes vibrating his molecules to phase through ice (as he did in an episode of Superman: The Animated Series). When fighting off his robot replica created by Luthor and Braniac, he destroyed it by shoving his hand through it and vibrating intensely; Flash avoids using this ability as much as possible because of how destructive the unstable resonance created by these vibrations could be.
  • In "The Great Brain Robbery", Luthor accidentally switches bodies with the Flash and shows how dangerous the latter's vibration powers can be when used without regard for other lives. At one point, he threatens to vibrate his hand through a person's head if they don't comply with his wishes.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Batman, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The sheer number of times he's tripped on involve things that he should've seen coming. Although, this may be him limiting his own power, as when he actually tries, he's arguably one of the most dangerous of the original seven.
• Willfully Weak: His powers are difficult to use safely. In "Divided We Fall", he finally stops holding back and just running down the road tears it apart and sends cars flying. Using his vibration abilities will make things explode, something he's not comfortable doing to people. Even if he was amoral enough to be comfortable causing that kind of damage, he simply can't go at his top speed or he could kill himself...kinda.
• Worf Had the Flu: Writers intentionally held Flash back in the series in order to keep him from being overpowered. This lead to the above trope where Flash would find himself struggling with mooks sometimes. The second season of Unlimited showed that when Flash fully stops holding back, he's arguably one of the most powerful members of the group.
• Xanatos Gambit: In "The Brave And The Bold", Flash proposes a fair fight, and takes off his headband, inviting Grodd to take off his own helmet. Grodd, of course, does no such thing. Smiling, he activates his helmet – and screams as it feeds back on itself, due to some subtle sabotage by Flash when he patted it down over Grodd's eyes.

Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol)

^{Click here to see her JLU look}

• Action Girl: Just as much as Diana. In fact, she is constantly looking for a fight and will be the first one to jump at the call, and when there are no fights, she will start them.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, Shayera and her husband Katar were sent to Earth in the pursuit of a criminal. Here she's an advance scout for the Thanagarian army sent to spy on Earth and evaluate whether it's useful in Thanagar's war.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The Shayera of the comics wouldn't join the League until years after it existed. Here, like with John and Wally, she's a founding member.
• Adaptational Intelligence: While Shayera was never portrayed as dumb, she was never one to be able to come up with a plan to systematically take down each member of the League while not even Batman knew about her intentions.
• Adaptational Job Change: A police officer in the comics, but despite claiming to still be this early in the show it's eventually revealed that she's actually a spy for the Thanagarian army.
• Adaptational Villainy: While the Thangarians were occasionally presented as villains in the comics, this was the first time that she has ever participated in any sort of plan that could be considered evil. Following the aftermath of that evil scheme, she abandons the superhero identity Hawkgirl as it has became a Fantastic Slur towards her.
• All of the Other Reindeer: A lot of people, including among the general populace, within the League, and even among the Thanagarians still haven't forgiven her for her role in the Thanagarians' conquest of Earth, as shown in "Hunter's Moon." In the Thangarians' case, it's more, "Because you betrayed us, Thanagar was conquered and Hro Talak is dead."
• Amicable Exes: Despite some awkwardness and lingering tension, John and Shayera get along well enough, capable of working together and looking out for each other.
• Angelic Beauty: Played for Laughs when the demons from Tartarus confuse her with an actual angel and run away scared of her.
• Anti-Magic: One of the properties of her mace is to destroy anything magic-related, to the point both Doctor Fate and Wonder Woman have to get her help at different points when going up against powerful magics because of how powerful it is.
• The Atoner: Post-"Starcrossed", beginning with her return in "Wake the Dead".
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Subtlety isn't her strong suit.
  Shayera: (vs. Brainiac) Less talking, more hitting!
• Babies Ever After: She ends up with John in the tie-in comics and has his son.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Shayera starts to wear a new superhero outfit that shows off her toned midriff after her Girliness Upgrade.
• Becoming the Mask: Before her cover was revealed in "Starcrossed", she played up her story very convincingly. Not even Batman suspected she was lying.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Green Lantern in the first two seasons of Justice League.
• Betty and Veronica: She eventually becomes the Betty to Vixen's Veronica in regards to John's Archie.
• Blood Knight: As we see in "Comfort And Joy", her idea of celebration involves starting a Bar Brawl.
• Boisterous Bruiser: "Less talking, more hitting!".
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In "Grudge Match", she is mind controlled along with other female Leaguers to fight in Roulette's underground ring.
• The Bus Came Back: She made a brief cameo at the end of "The Return", showing where she's been since the events of "Starcrossed". The next episode, "Wake the Dead", sees her rejoining the League.
• The Cameo: In Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, a statue of her appears in the superhero museum in the 31st century.
• Carry a Big Stick: She has an Anti-Magic mace made of Nth metal, which could generate electric currents and repel magical energy. She was skilled at wielding and throwing the mace accurately.
• Character Development: She starts off rather short tempered, quick to snap at other members of the league, and had a hard time seeing eye to eye with some of the members as a result. However, over time Shayera mellows out somewhat with her temper, becomes genuinely friendlier and understanding, and overall a happier person as she adapts to her life with the other members of the league.
• Civvie Spandex: Post-"Starcrossed". Once she rejoins the Justice League, she wears an outfit closely akin to a jogging suit. It's also very similar to the outfits of the regular staff aboard the Watchtower. As her last outfit was part Thanagarian uniform, and there was a need for her to be more connected to the humans after the incident, this change is likely intentional.
• Claustrophobia: In "Only A Dream", Hawkgirl's greatest fear is being trapped in a coffin and buried alive, after having her wings restrained.
• Combat Pragmatist: She has no qualms in doing whatever it takes to win, including biting the flesh of her opponent to get an opportunity to free herself.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: An interesting example. She initially only goes by "Hawkgirl", but she's exclusively called "Shayera" post-"Starcrossed". In this adaptation, the use of her real first name acts as a marker of Character Development, as it shows the team looking past her manufactured superhero alter-ego and coming to acknowledge her Hidden Depths.
• Composite Character: The final season of Unlimited reveals she is the reincarnation of Chay-Ara, like the Shiera Hall/Kendra Saunders version of Hawkgirl, though the idea of Shayera as a past life of Chay/Shiera/Kendra's would be Ret-Canon to the comics in 2019. Additionally, she takes over Aquaman's role as a founding member of the League and her role in "Starcrossed" partially incorporates elements of Batman's role in JLA: Tower of Babel.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Between her duty as a Thanagarian officer and agent and a member of the Justice League. Eventually, she has to make a choice, but it comes at a heavy price and indeed The Flash notes that she was in "the ultimate no-win situation". Alfred for his part consoles her and notes that despite what others say, he (not being a soldier or superhero) considers her actions heroic.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts this way toward Flash, when they're not sniping at each other. The best examples of this are "Divided We Fall" and "I Am Legion."
  Flash: She loves me. She's kind of like the big sister I never had. Only, you know, shorter.
• Cute Bruiser: This is played fully straight after she ditches her mask.
• Deadpan Snarker: She especially had a talent for dishing verbal ownage out on Flash:
  Flash: Fastest man alive.
  Hawkgirl: Which probably explains why you can't get a date.
  • In "Shadow of the Hawk":
    Batman: Until about five years ago, when he started claiming that aliens landed in ancient Egypt.
    Hawkgirl: Well, then, he must be a lunatic because we all know that there's no life on other planets.
• Decomposite Character: Shayera absorbed roles held traditionally by Aquaman (a founding member of the League) and Batman (a member who went behind the League's collective backs to devise ways to take them down that fell into enemy hands).
• Decoy Backstory: "Twilight", Hawkgirl initially relates to her teammates a Superhero Origin where she has been pursuing some criminals on her own world when a freak teleportation accident left her stranded on Earth instead, where she continued doing what she's always been doing: fighting crime. "Starcrossed", however, reveals this to be deliberate misinformation, since Hawkgirl is actually a spy for the Thanagarian military sent to Earth to prepare their invasion, and the origin she told earlier was just a clever cover story.
• Deep Cover Agent: She is revealed to be one in "Starcrossed". She justified her actions because she thought she was helping Thanagar in a way that wouldn't involve hurting Earth. She defected when she learned that Earth would be destroyed in the process.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In "The Terror Beyond", as much as the censors will allow:
  Ichthultu: Speak to me, child of Thanagar.
  Hawkgirl: I have nothing to say to you. I have a gesture, but my hands are tied.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Carter Hall, a.k.a. Hawkman, though she showed up in the series first.
• Double Agent: She is a spy for Thanagar. However, she's also a genuine hero with loyalties to Earth just as strong as those to Thanagar. When these interests come into conflict, she's left with absolutely no good choices at all.
• Dude Magnet: At least three men have shown an interest in her throughout the series: John Stewart, Hro Talak, and Carter Hall. While she was attracted to all three men, she only ever loved John and Hro, and in the end the love of her life turned out to be John.
  • The Flash also flirts with her when the team first convenes, before they settle into their “bickering siblings” dynamic.
• The Exile: From Thanagar (permanently) and the League (temporarily, and self-imposed^*We learned the League voted in favor of her staying, after a tie which was broken by Superman) after "Starcrossed".
• Fantastic Slur: She considered her superhero identity Hawkgirl as this against her due to her involvement in the Thanagarian invasion.
• Fiery Redhead: She has red hair.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Solomon Grundy in "The Terror Beyond". Hawkgirl still considers him a friend in the much later episode "Wake the Dead".
  Solomon Grundy: Bird-nose help Grundy? But Bird-nose and her friends hate Grundy.
  Hawkgirl: Grundy help Bird-nose, Bird-nose help Grundy, okay? Excuse me, Hawkgirl smash.
• Flight: Most of the League have the ability, but she seems most agile in the air (possibly the real purpose of the wings).
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Hawkgirl gives Green Lantern a whack on the rear after a pep talk. It could have been just the kind of encouragement seen between two fighters, but they're already deep into Unresolved Sexual Tension territory as it is.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Her reputation took a massive hit in Justice League among the people of Earth and has only started to recover by the time of her return in Unlimited. Shayera takes the booing and heckling in stride though.
  • After "The Balance", she and Wonder Woman reach an accord again. Wonder Woman is willing to forgive her, but their relationship just won't be the same anymore. The metaphor used is that they'll be like oil and vinegar: They can go together, but they don't mix.
  • Batman voted in favor of her expulsion from the League but doesn't seem to hold it against her as personally as Wonder Woman. Then again, Batman is just paranoid of everyone anyway.
  • Downplayed with Superman, who seemed to be on the verge of voting for her expulsion from the League but ultimately broke the tie by allowing her to stay.
• Foreign Fanservice: A sultry redhead from another world with a scandalous love life. Part of her appeal are her Thanagarian origins.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: As always, Hawkgirl is very Choleric.
• Glass Cannon: While Thanagarians DO possess greater strength and durability than ordinary humans and Shayera can deal out some heavy damage with her mace, expect her to get taken out more easily than her more invulnerable teammates.
• Girliness Upgrade: After the events of the Thanagarian Invasion of Earth, while she still remains a major Lad-ette, she returns in JLU as a more mature and calmer woman. She shows a more motherly side -as seen when she had to put down Solomon Grundy-, dresses up more feminine and starts to wear make up, has an active dating life and develops a more coy, seductive personality.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: To Green Lantern in "War World" and Superman in "The Terror Beyond". She's always the bad cop ("Why play against type?").
  Green Lantern: You can talk to me... [points to Shayera, who's got her mace in hand] Or you can talk to her.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: In "Comfort and Joy", she takes John to an alien club, drinks alien liquor and gleefully starts a bar fight.
• Heroic BSoD: In "Wake the Dead", it's revealed she's been a guest in Dr. Fate's tower. Fate explains she's trying to "find her way" after the Thanagarian invasion and her quitting the Justice League, both of which was very difficult for her. She breaks out of it hearing Grundy needs help and decides to rejoin the league when GL and Superman welcome her back.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Played straight and Reconstructed in "Wake the Dead".
  Green Lantern: (as several onlookers jeer Shayera) Back off! She doesn't have to take that from you people!
  Shayera: Yes, I do. But it's okay. I guess I deserve some of it.
  [Shayera's hand is taken by a woman she saved earlier]
  Mother: You saved our lives. God bless you, Chica Halcón.
  Green Lantern: You deserve that, too.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: She has this after the events of "Starcrossed".
• Hidden Depths:
  • This is true for most of the main cast, but this is especially in her case since her public persona seems to be the simplest one. She is actually a cover Thanagarian agent planning to prepare what she believes to be the occupation of Earth, gathering intel on her comrades. She was a spy instructor back on her planet, but eventually sides with the League, becoming The Atoner in the process. Even without the persona reasoning, she also shows a great brain for strategy, as seen below under Smart People Play Chess, in outsmarting Batman and Aquaman.
  • As "Starcrossed" demonstrates, she has figured out Batman's identity with him none the wiser and casually walks right into the Batcave to give the Justice League the intel they need.
• Hollywood Atheist: A complex example. Though she claims Thanagarians have Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions, she also wonders aloud that Diana's belief in gods must be comforting. The truth is that Thanagarians once worshiped Eldritch Abominations. They didn't outgrow them, they rejected them and their Nth Metal technology was developed to kill them. This led to them being a culture of Nay Theists.
  • She also implied she doesn’t believe in an afterlife when comforting Grundy; despite the fact she is talking to a monster who has risen from the dead countless times and the fact that afterlifes/spirits exist in the DCAU.
• Hot-Blooded: She is very passionate and intense.
• I Did What I Had to Do: She tries to justify her betrayal in "Starscrossed, Part 3".
  "I came to this planet as a patriot. I had a mission and I carried it out... what I couldn't know, was that I would come to care for the Earth and her people, that I'd come to care for all of you. I've spent the last five years torn between my feelings and my duty."
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: It is emphasized more than Diana's.
• Informed Ability: She is said to be extremely intelligent and an expert in strategy and espionage, she isn't shown on screen to employ strategies other than Attack! Attack! Attack!. This is justified however, as her Blood Knight nature shows that she prefers that sort of strategy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She sometimes comes across this way, she can be loud, abraisve and not one to filter herself or what she says, but she's someone who cares very much for her friends and the people of Earth, and is willing to do anything to keep them safe.
• The Lad-ette: Her hobbies include smashing things, chugging Gargle Blasters, eating gross foods, and starting intergalactic Bar Brawls. Interestingly, this aspect of her characterization is majorly downplayed in "Starcrossed" and afterward.
• Leeroy Jenkins: She's quite capable of formulating and following plans when absolutely necessary, but usually she eschews this in favor of simply smashing things with her mace.
  • In "Hunter's Moon", one of the Thanagarians flat-out says that in a hostile environment, she is far more skilled than all of them combined, having been an instructor in espionage strategies. So you can either think that it is what she prefers, or that her strategy of choice is part of her cover story. Considering that in this story she is supposed to be a member of a Space Police, the former may be the most believable.
• Love-Interest Traitor: To Green Lantern in "Starcrossed".
• Love Triangle: She is involved in three, with John Stewart/Hro Talak, then with John/Vixen, and then again with John/Hawkman. The lady is certainly busy when it comes to romance.
• Man Bites Man: In "Hunter's Moon", Shayera restrained by Kragger resorts to this and overpowers him.
• Military Superhero: Not as much as Green Lantern, but as a former member of the Thanagarian military, she had extensive training in tactics, military science, and personal combat skills.
• Ms. Fanservice: Not so much in Justice League, but in Justice League Unlimited, after some Girliness Upgrade, she becomes just as fanservice-y as Diana. She starts to wear a gym suit-like hero gear, dresses that makes a man scream "Judas Priest", a lot of Male Gaze on her derriere, and shameless allusions about her very active sexual life.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: She notes in her resignation speech that she considered her work as a spy as patriotic duty to Thanagar, but she came to care for Earth and the Justice League. She loyally served the Thanagarian government until they decided to sacrifice Earth.
• Nay-Theist: Thanagarians used to worship an Eldritch Abomination of a god before rejecting its influence; they are now staunch "atheists" with respect to it as a result. Of course, given her experiences, it's hard to assume the complete absence of the divine. In "The Balance", she visits Tartarus, and when demons believe her to be an angel after realizing her wings aren't cosmetic, she decides to play into the presence of god(s).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Eclipsed", the League is able to separate the mind control diamond from Green Lantern. Then Hawkgirl recklessly smashes it with her mace into fragments which scatter throughout the area and stick to every other League member, except Flash, the only one fast enough to evade them. Now Flash is the only one of them not possessed and ended up saving them.
• Not His Sled: In the comics, she really was a Space Police officer. In this adaptation, she is a spy and soldier.
• Not What I Signed on For: She switches sides after learning that the Thanagarian plan isn't to occupy Earth, but rather to destroy it.
• Odd Friendship: With Vixen, her ex's girlfriend. The two have a lot in common, and talk quite casually about their awkward love triangle. Vixen at one point even dares Shayera to make a move on John Stewart while she's out of town, and the two just smirk.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: She is the smallest member of the Justice League (as far as the original seven members), but probably the most belligerent and will still kick your ass.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Flash.
• Power Nullifier: Her electrified Nth-metal mace is one of the few devices on the planet that can counter magic.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: The Unlimited opening credits consists of random quick shots from different episodes with HD images of six of the founding members flashing in between, but Shayera isn't included among them until "Wake The Dead", which is the episode where she officially returns to the League.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Of the Thanagarians. After the events of "Starcrossed", she's stripped of her rank and exiled, causing her to become depressed from losing a piece of her identity.
• Psychic Block Defense: Like all Thanagarians, she has a strong resistance to telepathy. In "Only A Dream", J'onn was unable to enter her dream.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of "Starcrossed", she resigns from the Justice League and flies off to go soul searching.
• Reincarnation Romance: She is involved in a Love Triangle. Hawkman and Shayera's is previous incarnations were married, but Hawkman's decision to focus on the expansion of Egypt caused him to neglect his wife (who desperately wanted to bear his child). The lack of intimacy eventually drove Shayera into the arms of John's previous incarnation, who was Hawkman's best friend.
• Reformed, but Rejected:
  • At the end of "Starcrossed," two founding members still vote against her rejoining the League even after she betrayed the Thanagarians to help them save the Earth. The individual votes are unspecified, but presumed to be Wonder Woman and Batman voting against her.^note It's mentioned the vote was 3-2 in Shayera's favor; with John recusing himself and Clark breaking a tie, likely citing his own offscreen redemption after "Legacy" ended his series. Wally and J'onn defended her during the League's debate, and Flash, who was always close to her, was eager to welcome her back. Diana was vocally opposed to her rejoining, and held a bigger grudge against her than anyone else upon her eventual rejoining. The process of elimination suggests that Bruce also voted against her, which fits with his paranoid nature.
  • Even after rejoining the team, Hawkgirl's former betrayal still casts a presence among the team. Of the two who voted against her rejoining, Batman is willing to let bygones be bygones while Wonder Woman continues to hold a grudge until she finally forgives her.
• Remember the New Guy?: She was a blatant example of this. She had never shown up anywhere onscreen in the DC Animated Universe prior to her first appearance in "Secret Origins" (the three-part premiere episode of Justice League) but the other main characters evidently already knew who she was. "Starcrossed" mentions that she's been on Earth for 5 years now. It is highly doubtful that the first two seasons went on for five years in-universe.
• Ret-Canon: As noted under Composite Character, the idea of Shayera Hol being part of Chay-Ara/Shiera Saunders/Kendra Saunders's past lives was imported to the comics in 2018.
• Screaming Warrior: On average, it was about one yell for every swing of her mace. The word is that her voice actor really enjoyed that part of the job.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Despite her status as The Lad-ette, Hawkgirl can still look feminine when she wants to, as exemplified in "Shadow of the Hawk" when she dons a short pink dress for a date:
  Green Lantern: Shayera, I wanted to... [sees her in the dress] JUDAS PRIEST!
• Shipper on Deck: She encourages Flash to tell Fire how he feels about her in "I Am Legion" and even shifts the position of their Javelin (while claiming it was turbulence) to get Fire to fall into Flash's lap.
• Shock Stick: Her mace can generate electric currents.
• Shoot the Dog: She has to do this to a resurrected and rampaging Solomon Grundy in "Wake The Dead".
  • She also references the most famous instance of this trope, John's favorite movie, before she goes through with it.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: She is the current page image, though her mask hid this for the original run of Justice League up until the ending of "Wild Cards."
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Her two costumes have her arms bare.
• Smart People Play Chess: Despite her short fuse and often brutal M.O., Hawkgirl has a keen mind, as she regularly defeated Batman at chess offscreen. Onscreen, Aquaman only beats her because she's too distracted by self-loathing to take him seriously.
• Space Police: Her cover story prior to "Starcrossed".
  • It doubles as a Mythology Gag, as in the early 1960s comics Shayera and Katar (they're a married couple) were in fact Thanagerian cops who pursued a criminal to Earth and decided to stay there and fight crime as the titular Hawk-heroes.
• Stationary Wings: Her wings don't actually move most of the time when she's flying, though if pinned she apparently can't fly.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Shayera's mace has Anti-Magic properties, can deflect planet-destroying beams and can generate electric currents, allowing it to be used to be used as a makeshift defribillator.
• Take My Hand!: She says the trope name verbatim before pulling Flash out of the Speed Force in "Divided We Fall".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • With Wonder Woman in "The Balance". Diana needs Shayera's Nth metal mace, which disrupts magic. She tries to steal it, but Shayera catches her. Swallowing her pride, Diana asks to borrow it, but Shayera insists on coming with her. In the end, Diana and Shayera make peace. They may not be friends, but they are both content with being good teammates.
  • With Vixen and Vigilante in "Hunter's Moon". Shayera is noted as not having been pulling her weight as a leader. Vixen is dating her ex. Vigilante spent time imprisoned and suffered under the Thanagarian occupation Shayera brought about. Despite all this, they settle their differences, and become Fire-Forged Friends.
• Tell Me About My Father: Inverted Trope. In "Ancient History", Shayera ends the episode by asking Batman to tell her about her son Warhawk.
• That Man Is Dead: Ever since the Thanagarian invasion, she discarded the identity "Hawkgirl", saying how it was a sham.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: With her mace.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Korschian Oysters mentioned in "Starcrossed" and "Shadow of the Hawk".
• Unobtainium: Hawkgirl carries a mace made of Nth metal, which could generate electric currents and repel magical energies.
• Unwitting Pawn: She was sent to spy on Earth and uncover its defenses. She assisted with the Thanagarian occupation, even tolerating the enslavement of human workers, but just barely. However, when she learned that the invaders were actually planned to destroy Earth rather than just subjugate it temporarily she immediately switched sides again. Unfortunately, it wasn't immediately enough: When John lowered his ring and trusted her before, she knocked him out because she didn't know what the actual plan was. Her reputation remains tattered at best for the rest of the series.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Flash.
• Was It All a Lie?: In "Starcrossed", before leaving, she told Green Lantern that she loved him and never lied about that.
• Weak, but Skilled: Compared to her teammates. Although she doesn't have Super-Strength to the extent of Superman and Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl is incredibly skilled in martial arts. An example would be how she single-handedly defeated four of the Green Lantern Corps members in hand-to-hand combat in "In Blackest Night".
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In her case, enclosed spaces. Her fear is so intense that she comes the closest to dying out of the Justice League's members who were victims of Doctor Destiny.
• Winged Humanoid: With the wings being part of her biological structure (as opposed to artificial like those of the Hawk-related heroes in the comics).
• Working with the Ex: with Green Lantern after rejoining the League.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Not only is she exiled, but the worst part is that after the Thanagarian invasion failed, their mortal enemies took over their home planet. At the end of "Starcrossed" when the League are about to vote to keep her in or out, J'onn cites this as part of the reasons to keep her, because she has become a pariah to her own people and the League is the only home she has left. However, Justice League vs. The Fatal Five does mention she's gone back to Thangar for an unspecified reason.

Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz)

After the conquering race known as the Imperium wiped out all other life on his home planet of Mars, J'onn J'onzz managed to seal them away and set himself as a guard over them to prevent their escape. However, many years later they were unwittingly released by Earth astronauts and set their sights on conquering Earth. With the help of six of Earth's mightiest heroes, J'onn was able to defeat the Imperium and eventually adopted Earth as his new home.

• 10-Minute Retirement: In "Tabula Rasa", he abandons the Justice League after he had seen the selfishness of humans.
• Adapted Out
  • His weakness towards fire from the comics isn't included in the DCAU. The only times it's remotely hinted are in "A Better World" where Doomsday set a van ablaze and J'onn had a momentary look of fear on his face at the sight of the flames before he gets taken out by the explosion, and later in "Paradise Lost" where he gets knocked down by a giant, fire breathing snake and must be saved by The Flash. In the later case he insists he can still fight and in fact knocks the beast out in spite of the flames, scaring The Flash.
  • In the comics Martian Manhunter is super powered compared to other Martians, which can't be shown here. His powers aren't different in any way beyond being greater but since he is The Last of His Kind there's no one else to contrast him with.
• The Ageless: He was guarding the shapeshifting invaders for 500 years prior to the start of the series. And according to him, he's not going to be dying from age anytime soon. In "The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped", one of Warhawk's comments implies that J'onn is still an active member of the Justice League in the Batman Beyond era. However, he was killed during the Watchtower's destruction, along with Superman. After Chronos was stopped, this fate ceased to be and he's presumably still active in the restored timeline.
• Alien Among Us: Although it only comes into play when he has to blend in with humans under a disguise. Most of the time, he is in his default human-Martian hybrid form and those who know of him or are familiar with him in this form know he's from Mars.
• Alliterative Name: Both J'onn J'onzz and the Martian Manhunter.
• Apocalypse How: This is the fate of his home-world prior to the start of the series.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Everyone seems to defer to the founding seven of the league, but J'onn seems to run and direct the League Station.
• Badass Cape: He wears one in his rather humanized form.
• Bald Mystic He is a bald, green colored martian who is a very powerful telepath.
• Batman Gambit: In "Tabula Rasa", he figures out Amazo is being used by Luthor to destroy the League, so he allows the android to copy his powers (namely his Telepathy). While this makes Amazo more powerful, it also allows him discover Luthor's deception and leaves him to defeat Luthor.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: J'onn is not a talker and quite emotionally detached. However, it wouldn't go well for anybody who truly angered him.
  Clock King: (showing a slide) Martian Manhunter. Flight; super-strength—
  Deadshot: —and a shape-shifter and he can read minds. The chair's starting to sound better and better.
• The Big Guy: He’s one of the most versatile and physically powerful League members, and one of the tallest.
• The Bus Came Back: He returns in time for the Grand Finale.
• The Cameo: In Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, a statue of him appears in the superhero museum in the 31st century.
• Character Development: He slowly realizes the implications of what it means to be the Last Martian, doomed to be eternally alone on Earth, and simultaneously grows detached and unfeeling towards humanity at large. He finally leaves the League in order to find some connection to humanity; when he reappears in "Destroyer", he has found a personal life and honest emotional companionship on Earth.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: An animated example. He is only referred to as either "J'onn" or "the Martian" by the Justice League members and other characters in the DCAU. However, he is referred to as "The Martian Manhunter" once in the entire series during the briefing in "Task Force X".
• The Comically Serious: Almost as much as Batman.
• Creepy Good: In "Task Force X", the Villain Protagonist group acknowledge this.
• Deadpan Snarker: He is shown to have a very sharp and deadpan wit like his fellow founding League members sometimes.
  Batman: (while helping J'onn fight a bunch of Brainiac drones) Having fun?
  J'onn J'onzz: (completely deadpan) Yes.
• Deal with the Devil: In "A Knight of Shadows", he almost hands the Philosopher's Stone to the sorceress Morgaine Le Fay, so she can use it's power to bring back Mars and his family, but he instead crushes it to powder. Shocked, Morgaine tells him he has given up his only chance for happiness to which he responds "the price was too high" because he would have lost the new family he made on Earth.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: In "War World", something on War World's atmosphere weakens the Martian Manhunter and presents him from rescuing Superman by brute force. This affects his attempt to impersonate Mongul.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: From losing his family and planet after years of living a highly introverted lifestyle short of interacting with the founding members, J'onn finds a new mate on Earth to share a life with, and he even becomes more accustomed to Earthly speech patterns in the last episode seeming more casual in conversation with others.
• The Empath: Because of his telepathic abilities, he acts as a counselor and empath for the League in the Unlimited seasons.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: In his true form...and, technically, the rest of the time as well, since he's a shapeshifter. Even then, he barely wears any clothes (as pictured). Only his Justice Lord counterpart and human alter egos are fully clothed.
• Flight: J'onn is not only able to fly, but is able to do so at speeds of the level of meta-humans.
• Flying Brick: Although it is not on Superman's level, he comes with his own set of unique powers on top of it.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: During his introduction in "Secret Origins", he is first seen in his natural Martian form. Upon being freed by Superman and Batman, he shifts into his more familiar hybrid form in an effort to gain Batman's trust.
  J'onn: (shifts into hybrid form) I am J'onn J'onzz.
  (He holds out his hand to Batman. The Bat doesn't take it, but continues to have eyes narrowed)
  Superman: Don't take it personally, J'onn. He doesn't trust anyone.
  J'onn: A wise policy.
• Future Badass: Implied by certain lines of dialogue to still be an active League member in the Batman Beyond era.
• Genius Bruiser: He is one of the strongest and wisest superheroes in the DCAU.
• Godzilla Threshold: When he needs to learn how to pilot a Thanagarian ship quickly in order to thwart their invasion, he pulls the information out of Kragger's mind, despite Thanagarians being resistant to his powers. The effort nearly kills him and causes permanent mental damage to Kragger, but he gets what he needs.
• Good Is Not Soft: Much to Task Force X's dismay.
• Healing Factor: In "Task Force X", he was torn in half by the Annihilator and pulled himself back to together in seconds.
• Heroic BSoD: In "Tabula Rasa", he's unable to continue being a hero having seen the selfishness of human beings. His faith in humans is restored having read the thoughts of a search party looking for a lost girl.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Superman, who J'onn looks up to as a kindred spirit, and the latter brought him to meet Ma and Pa Kent for Christmas.
• Humans Are Flawed: He learns about this in "Tabula Rasa". In an attempt to use his telepathy to track Luthor down, J'onn scans all of Metropolis at once and is overwhelmed by the selfishness he finds in humanity. He questions his reasons for fighting for humanity until he sees a search party looking for a lost girl, and ends up finding her himself with renewed faith in humanity. It came up again, albeit more subtly, in "To Another Shore". It resulted in him taking a sabbatical from the League so he could learn to live among humans.
  Wonder Woman: You don't actually like humanity all that much, do you?
  J'onn: I don't dislike them...
• Human Disguise: J'onn appears in a form resembling his comic book counterpart’s classic alter ego Detective John Jones in "Comfort and Joy", "Starcrossed", and "To Another Shore".
• Humble Hero: In "Tabula Rasa", J'onn brings a missing girl to the search party and departs before they can congratulate him.
  Wonder Woman: You're not getting away that easily. [hugs him]
• Intangibility: J'onn can alter his density at the molecular level, which in practice allows him to become invisible and pass through solid matter (and vice versa). In "Task Force X", he phased his hand through one of the villain protagonists and caused him to faint.
• Interspecies Romance: He eventually settled down with an elderly Chinese woman.
• Journey to Find Oneself: This is the reason why he gets Put on a Bus in "To Another Shore" after it's pointed out to him he has No Social Skills. Since he is The Ageless, J'onn realizes that if he does not learn to connect with humanity, he will be alone forever.
• Kryptonite Factor:
  • It's hinted through various blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments that he's vulnerable to fire, just like his comic book counterpart. Although, the very sight of it doesn't psychologically cripple him as it did in the comics. He still winds up flying through burning rocket exhaust quite often.
  • J'onn also seems to be particularly vulnerable to electrocution as he is taken down often this way to the point that when the Thanagarians bring out weapons designed to specifically take down each member of the League, J'onn gets electrocuted.
• Last of His Kind: He is the last martian. Morgaine Le Fay exploits it for all it's worth in "A Knight of Shadows".
• The Leader: The de facto in "Unlimited"; technically the Founding Seven all share the role but since J'onn serves as Mission Control he's more or less the one in charge. He was also able to expel Huntress from the League without consulting the others.
• Lightning Bruiser: He possesses strength and speed comparable to that of Superman and Wonder Woman.
• The Medic: J'onn has taken on the role of a doctor in episodes such as "Fury", "A Knight of Shadows", and "Hearts and Minds".
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: This happens to him in "Tabula Rasa", leading him to briefly conclude that Humans Are the Real Monsters.
• Mind over Manners: In "A Better World", he tells Batman (in response to the Dark Knight's suggestion to read his Justice Lord counterpart's mind to ascertain the truth of his cover story) that Martians can't and won't violate one another's private thoughts in such a manner. As far as most villains go, though, he'll delve into mind-reading to glean information, but that's about it.
• Mind Rape: In "Starcrossed", he needs to telepathically learn how to fly a Thanagarian fighter... except Thanagarians are naturally resistant to his telepathy. He grimly decides "I'll just have to try harder", and... irreparably brain-damages his subject. The safety of the entire planet depended on him getting that information, but the consequences are shown seasons later when Kraggar shows up again, partially paralyzed and drooling.
• Mission Control
  • In Unlimited, he delegates missions to the expanded League. J'onzz's main management style consisted of organizing the expanded League into smaller rosters with clear ranks and roles, with each unit having a rookie or someone who had no experience in the particular kind of mission (for instance he sent Vixen and Vigilante alongside Hawkgirl because the former two didn't have experience in outer space, while the latter was not pushing her weight as a Founding Member and taking these kinds of duties). Over time, the rookies became professionals, in turn helping out others. J'onn was considered to be incredibly efficient in this role and Grodd laments on how he made the League strategically unbeatable.
  • The downside of this role was that he spent nearly two years in the Watchtower, rarely taking active part in a mission and almost never interacting with other humans. Wonder Woman, who felt particularly close to J'onn, encouraged him to get out more. Realizing that she was right, and that he would be forever alone unless he learned to live among humans, J'onn took a leave of absence from the League and spent several months on Earth in a human guise. Mr. Terrific took J'onn's place as League coordinator.
• Mook Horror Show: In "Task Force X", J'onn is the Hero Antagonist. The final battle scene turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle as things go south during the Task Force mission, complete with looming music and the POV of the protagonists from their outmatched position.
  J'onn: Ask yourselves: Is being in here with me what you truly desire?
  Cue Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Naïve Newcomer: He was initially this on Earth.
• The Needs of the Many: J'onn's justification for refusing to get involved in the Enemy Civil War on Apokolips in "The Ties That Bind" in order to rescue someone. Basically, it's better for everybody if the two factions are focused on fighting each other rather than helping a few people. Flash gets involved anyway and in the end, J'onn assists him in rescuing the captured.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: An increase in his density results in a blue aura that increases his strength and invulnerability. Shown at his maximum level when battling Etrigan, who had been able to punch J'onn around until J'onn increased his density to the max and turned into something resembling a statue, causing Etrigan to injure his hand when he attempted to punch him. Of course, this begs the question of why he doesn't do that more instead of getting punched silly by the villain of the week every episode. This also allows J'onn to fully recover after sustaining severe physical damage, such as being torn apart into two by the Annihilator.
• Nonhumans Lack Attributes: J'onn's true form, and also every other Martian seen in flashbacks. His wife was drawn with narrower shoulders and a slightly emphasized "chestplate" on her exoskeleton, and that's about it.
• Not So Above It All: As the end of "The Ties That Bind" can attest.
  J'onn: I was only going to ask if you wanted to play Brawlin' Bots.
  Flash: Dibs on the green one! (runs off)
  J'onn: I wanted the green one... (smirks)
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Diana, who helps him out in his brief spells when he feels alienated from humanity.
• Pragmatic Hero: He is shown to be this at various points. One example is his refusal to help Mister Miracle and Big Barda free their friend from Apokolips. Why? Because it's in everyone's best interest if the Enemy Civil War there continues and as such he doesn't want to do anything that would help either side. He also advises Batman to kamikaze a nuke and doesn't even try to talk him out of it.
• Outside-Context Problem: He plays this to Lex Luthor at the beginning of Justice League; Lex is used to fighting Superman, so J'onn impersonates Superman to get Lex to try his usual tactics on someone who's not vulnerable kryptonite.
• Psychic Powers: It is usually of the Telepathy variety.
• Psychic Radar: He can detect the presence of other people. In "Tabula Rasa", he's able to find a missing girl who was lost in the woods at night.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of "To Another Shore".
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: In Unlimited, he's the highest authority in the Watch Tower, although equal with the other founding members. In "Task Force X", he shows the Villain Protagonist group just why he's in charge other than being The Smart Guy.
• Really 700 Years Old: He's at least five centuries old and still the picture of good health.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: His natural Martian form: his "everyday" appearance is an attempt at being not too green.
• Secret Identity: Whenever he masquerades as a human, he usually takes the appearance of a brown-haired Caucasian man (presumably named John Jones just like in the comics). Most notably, he uses this form when hiding from the Thanagarians alongside Superman (as Clark Kent) in "Starcrossed" and again when he gets Put on a Bus in "To Another Shore". He later takes the form of an elderly Chinese man prior to his return in the Grand Finale.
• Shadow Archetype: Of Superman. While both J'onn and Superman are powerful, heroic aliens who suffered the loss of their respective races, they are very different in the respect that Superman considers Earth his true home and sees himself as human. J'onn, on the other hand, grew into his adulthood on Mars. He accepts Earth as his new home but will always have reverence for Mars.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: A strange example of this. J'onn's familiar "superhero" form is a compromise between a human form and his true more alien appearance.
• The Smart Guy: Aside from Batman.
  • In "Starcrossed":
    J'onn: This technology is amazing. How does it work?
    Paran Dul: The circuits utilize Nth metal an element with properties you couldn't begin to understand.
    J'onn: Which properties wouldn't I understand? The hyper conductivity or the mason graviton inversion?
• Shoryuken: In "Task Force X", he hands an uppercut to the Annihilator and overpowers it.
• Sole Survivor: J'onn is the last surviving martian against their war with the Imperium race.
• The Spock: J'onn possesses a wealth of scientific knowledge and technological expertise, crucial to the success of the Justice League.
• The Stoic -> Not So Stoic: This trope is perhaps best exemplified in "The Ties That Bind".
• Superhero Speciation: In the comics, Superman and Manhunter have a good deal of overlap in abilities. Here, their power sets are largely distinct: J'onn favors his intangibility, invisibility, shapeshifting, and telepathy, while his Super-Strength is downplayed and he never demonstrates Super-Speed, Super-Senses, or Eye Beams at all.
• Super-Strength: This ability is downplayed due to Superhero Speciation, but he can still trade blows with Solomon Grundy or the Annihilator. His superhuman strength makes him much stronger than the other members of the League, with the exceptions of Superman and Wonder Woman.
• Telepathy: He can read minds and project his thoughts. He also rescues Green Lantern, Flash, and Superman from Dr. Destiny in "Only A Dream" by entering their dreams. He also had the ability to mental shield people from being detected. The other founding members can also contact J'onn without his effort, such as when Batman was held captive in "Injustice For All" and reached out to him after destroying the psychic shield he was kept in.
• Troll: He has his moments, especially as Mission Control.
  Batman: (battling Parasite) J'onn, we're in trouble!
  J'onn: Are you asking for help?
  Batman: Yes.
  J'onn: You never ask for help.
  Batman: Just get us some reinforcements.
• The Worf Effect: In the first season of Justice League, J'onn seemed to be the love child of Worf and Deanna Troi. He only got to show off his telepathy when the writers wanted to show what utterly impressive mental abilities the Guest Villain of the Week had. Unfortunately, J'onn spent much of his time dropping to his knees clutching his temples. When he finally got to show off his shape-shifting abilities against Metamorpho (who, after his Heel–Face Turn, by contrast is allowed to use his ridiculously overpowered version of Voluntary Shapeshifting creatively), he got his ass handed to him again, just to show that the Monster of the Week was tougher. Fortunately, he became much cooler as the show went on and the writers figured out ways to challenge him and allow him to use his powers without being unstoppable.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Batman tells Etrigan that he would trust J'onn with his life, but J'onn isn't above subtly trolling him over the intercom.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He is able to transform into any shape he desires in addition to being able to become intangible and invisible.
• Warrior Therapist: He acts as Wildcat's therapist in Unlimited. Likewise when Supergirl dreams about Galatea she consults J'onn.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: J'onn impersonates Superman, then pretends to be under the mercy of Luthor and his kryptonite, so the latter can drop his guard and get tricked into an Engineered Public Confession.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Although, his home planet Mars is still here, all life on it had been long gone before the start of the series.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite being over 1,000 years old, he maintains the appearance of a middle-aged man.
• Zen Survivor: As the last survivor of his race after their war with the Imperium, J'onn became this after centuries of guarding against the Imperium, traveling to Earth and goes from a pacifist to a veteran warrior.