The all-female Justice League book that could've been

Justice League
(Image credit: Bengal)

What if the Justice League were all women? That's the idea behind a recently-unearthed aborted project from 2015.

That's right, at the same time Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok were capping off the 'New 52' era with their 'Darkseid War' arc of Justice League, there was also talk of another league.

Lois Lane, Batgirl, Supergirl, Big Barda, Hawkwoman, Vixen, and a female Martian Manhunter - presumably Miss Martian.

(Image credit: Bengal)

"You will easily recognize the seven characters on those sketches: they could/should have been an all-women Justice League team project," Bengal tweeted recently. "Brenden Fletcher and I almost brought to life several years ago, right after I did a Batgirl issue."

Fletcher was co-writing Batgirl at the time, which explains the connection. .

When asked more about their all-female Justice League idea, Bengal tells Newsarama that he and Fletcher ultimately became too "busy with other projects" to pursue this idea further with DC.

"It could have been awesome, no?" Bengal adds.

Yes, Bengal, it would have.

And call it something in the air, but around that same time another Justice League series - the future-set Justice League 3001 - actually converted to be an all-female team. When asked about it at the time, series co-writer Keith Giffen said came about naturally.

"It's not because I decided I wanted to write all females. It's not there to say, 'Oh look, we've got an all-female team!' Who cares?," Giffen told Newsarama in 2015. "It's just the way it shook out. Some of the characters just seemed more interesting or more appropriate for the kind of stories we're trying to tell."

Here are the best female superheroes of all time - many of these prospective Justice League members are on that list!

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)