[black screen, modern epic music starts quiet]

What do you think makes a superhero?

[montage of comic panels flash on the screen, music swells]

Powers? Adventure? Cosmic scale?

[music calms down]

Those are great, but to me there’s something important at the core…

[montage visibly pulses and a heartbeat can be heard]

…

[panels quickly pull back with a beat to reveal they make a heart shape that still beats while the music changes]

Heart.

The beating heart of the hero is the most important part.

[cut to close up of 1st issue cover that turns and zooms out until it is fully revealed timed to an older style of epic music that fades in like the last section]

People using what they have...their skills...their powers...their hearts for good. We don’t need the Justice League, they’re out of our league. We need a society that’s more on our level. So today I’m going to talk about an underrated comic series: the 2007 version of the Justice Society of America.

[pause on cover]

…

[show pictures of characters as mentioned while non-distracting music plays in the background]

These comics happen just after a multiverse-shaking event that I don’t have time to get into. The important part is that the titular Justice Society is down to only a few members: Alan Scott Green Lantern, Jay Garrick Flash, and Ted Grant Wildcat. Some old cats with gray hair and experience.

But like every other super team the Justice Society can grow. But it doesn’t grow with more popcorn bones (even though some former members return), but with unpopped kernels if you understand the metaphor. Almost every new member is a grown child of at least one superhero from Damage to Cyclone.

[Show group shot of JSA at a table]

But as goofy as this series is, it’s NOT a light read.

[show Heywood family reunion right before things turn sour, text overlay reads “I’m not gonna show what happens”]

Heck, one of the legacy characters loses his family to neonazis.

But the darkness…

[Show Citizen Steel reconnecting with his family’s survivors]

...makes the good stand out even more. Because as much as I like when heroes…

[Show action panel]

...beat up the bad guys…

[Show alternate earth superman holding suicidal girl]

The smaller moments are why I love superheroes. And I hope that you’re the same.

[Transition to a charity pancake breakfast page]

Because as important as it is to do the big things, it’s still important to remember the small. After all…

[Cut to black]

“We need better good guys.”