Return market forces - there is serious consumer dissatisfaction. DC gave the new team a couple of years, but finally decided to terminate the title with extreme prejudice. In the middle of a giant crossover, "Legends" (which is more an allegory for the politics of the day than anything else), a massive anti-superhero movement engineered by the Glorious Godfrey (disguised as a character whose resemblance to G. Gordon Liddy is more than passing). The League is more or less driven underground and divided by how to handle the situation. This internal division makes them easier than usual prey for Professor Ivo, who is seeking revenge on the League and ends up killing two members, almost killing a third, and driving another to an extreme situation that causes her to question being a superhero at all. The shattered JLofA closed up shop with issue #261.
Enter the JLI. This is the UN sponsored team, and the start of the BWAH-HA-HA era. The League in these days was a farcical team, squabbling and silly and financed by billionaire Max Lord (a saga unto himself). The initial UN team was in the US, so a JLA, and the huge success of the book as an option to the extreme grim-and-gritty movement of the late 1980s led to "Justice League Embassies" all over the world, with the JLA taking responsibility for the Western Hemisphere and a new, affiliated team, the Justice League Europe, taking over the Eastern Hemisphere. There was a shortlived Justice League Antarctica, but that's a whole OTHER story.
So for a while, the JLI was two books, JLA and JLE. The teams periodically crossed over (often in the quarterlies) but mostly went along their own ways. Around the late 30s of the JLA issues, an occasional serious story line was creeping in, and when the creative team behind the JLI finally was ready to hand in the towel, they did a massive yearlong crossover called "Break Downs." There were more character deaths, possessions, crises, headquarter destructions, etc, and when all was said and done, the JLE and the JLA folded back together into the JLA. It was... not pretty.
For a while, the JLA was answerable to various government agencies, and initially the JL Task Force was intended to be a showcase book - missions would be assigned not to the JL generally, but to some hand picked team from among the by now cast of dozens of Justice Leaguers. The teams would be tailored to the missions, with Martian Manhunter and Gypsy from the Detroit days providing continuity. This was a hit or miss exercise with a rotating cast of writers and artists until Mark Waid took it over midrun and changed it's focus. The team shifted to being training group for potential future Justice Leaguers, with J'onn in charge of the training. The Waid run is good, if requiring a fantastic grasp of canon to follow, and there is a big crossover with JLA called "Judgment Day" that is worth the price of admission. JLTF is wildly uneven, and the Priest run plays fast and loose in redefining characters in ways I'm not crazy about.
Anyway, the JLTF ends up way too focused on a weird space faring mission involving the brain of a L-Ron in the body of Despero and the neverending saga of Triumph being a general prick and finally dies at issue 37. I can't speak to the later part of the second series JLA because I lost interest.
So the second series finally folded in the early 100s, and shortly thereafter we get the Grant Morrison reboot of the current League, coupled with stories like JLA: Year One and Midsummer's Nightmare.
continuing...
Enter the JLI. This is the UN sponsored team, and the start of the BWAH-HA-HA era. The League in these days was a farcical team, squabbling and silly and financed by billionaire Max Lord (a saga unto himself). The initial UN team was in the US, so a JLA, and the huge success of the book as an option to the extreme grim-and-gritty movement of the late 1980s led to "Justice League Embassies" all over the world, with the JLA taking responsibility for the Western Hemisphere and a new, affiliated team, the Justice League Europe, taking over the Eastern Hemisphere. There was a shortlived Justice League Antarctica, but that's a whole OTHER story.
So for a while, the JLI was two books, JLA and JLE. The teams periodically crossed over (often in the quarterlies) but mostly went along their own ways. Around the late 30s of the JLA issues, an occasional serious story line was creeping in, and when the creative team behind the JLI finally was ready to hand in the towel, they did a massive yearlong crossover called "Break Downs." There were more character deaths, possessions, crises, headquarter destructions, etc, and when all was said and done, the JLE and the JLA folded back together into the JLA. It was... not pretty.
For a while, the JLA was answerable to various government agencies, and initially the JL Task Force was intended to be a showcase book - missions would be assigned not to the JL generally, but to some hand picked team from among the by now cast of dozens of Justice Leaguers. The teams would be tailored to the missions, with Martian Manhunter and Gypsy from the Detroit days providing continuity. This was a hit or miss exercise with a rotating cast of writers and artists until Mark Waid took it over midrun and changed it's focus. The team shifted to being training group for potential future Justice Leaguers, with J'onn in charge of the training. The Waid run is good, if requiring a fantastic grasp of canon to follow, and there is a big crossover with JLA called "Judgment Day" that is worth the price of admission. JLTF is wildly uneven, and the Priest run plays fast and loose in redefining characters in ways I'm not crazy about.
Anyway, the JLTF ends up way too focused on a weird space faring mission involving the brain of a L-Ron in the body of Despero and the neverending saga of Triumph being a general prick and finally dies at issue 37. I can't speak to the later part of the second series JLA because I lost interest.
So the second series finally folded in the early 100s, and shortly thereafter we get the Grant Morrison reboot of the current League, coupled with stories like JLA: Year One and Midsummer's Nightmare.
So that's the short form primer. Hope it helps!