I've teased you with it before, but now we need a full writeup. Justice League Antarctica?
If I was a man prone to drinking I want you all to imagine this is the moment where I am approached, grizzled and sitting at a bar. Upon hearing those words in that order I neck my shot and sincerely consider throwing myself through the plate glass window.
And yet I do not drink and live FAR too high up for that, so here we go.
(This AMAZING photograph uploaded to what I am going to respectfully call the JLAnt's "website" still up and running from the dial up age)
The "JLAnt" as they are semi affectionately known can be traced back to one Paul Booker, enemy to the Green Lantern under the name Major Disaster due to his ability to cause natural disasters and accidents of probability at will. On his then most recent escape from prison he heard the news announcing the foundation of the then untested Justice League International.
Assembling a group of C List or below supervillains including:
Big Sir: AKA David Ratchet, not so much a supervillain but a man of low mental faculties due to an engorged brain gland leaving him easily manipulated but superhumanly strong
Clock King: AKA William Tockman, a normal human whose obsession with time and time pieces resulted in a large array of clock themed gadgetry
Cluemaster: AKA Arthur Brown, sort of a Temu version of the Riddler, a failed game show host trying to make himself feared as the second best user of his own gimmick
Mighty Bruce: An unknown small time criminal who had befriended Booker and seemed to only be there for moral support.
and Multi-Man: AKA Duncan Pramble, an archeological assistant exposed to an unknown chemical compound allowing him to revive with a new set of superpowers every time he medically dies.
Forming themselves under the well worn "Injustice League" name the groups clashed in the aftermath of the Dominator invasion and the Injustice League was pretty sharply put down, causing the members to scatter for a few months. It wasn't until they all happened to be at an unemployment office in New York City that Booker tried to restart the idea with the theft of a valuable diamond.
With a truly ghastly accident of fate the villains arrived at the same moment another group of thieves were attempting to make off with the gem. Battling the other group over rights to the treasure the Injustice League triumphed just as the police and media arrived in response to the museum's silent alarm. Because none of the villains were very well known or seriously feared they were quickly spun as having turned over a new leaf, an idea that excited Booker to some degree. Whether in genuine excitement for an off ramp to his criminal life considering his later trajectory or some kind of con taking shape in his mind's eye we may never know.
Pleading his case to the JLI's at the time manager Maxwell Lord, he decided to kill two birds with one stone. Appointing the inexperience alien Green Lantern G'nort as 'leader' and sending the group to found a new Antarctic branch of the JLI, probably assuming that the desolate continent would keep them out of sight, out of mind and out of trouble.
Until about an hour after the group turned up and discovered a research station overrun with maneating mutant penguins because sometimes life has a VERY avant garde sense of humor. The group battled the foul fowl and with some late assistance from the JLI and the JLE managed to contain the threat but their...less than stellar performance left Lord thoroughly frustrated, laying off the group with a month's advance pay and a kick in the rear on their way out.
It really is one of those little farces of history, a bunch of no name criminals who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Twice, and got themselves into a comedy of errors that would be hackneyed if it ever showed up in print.
Most of its members were scooped up by the Suicide Squad under unknown circumstances and perished along the way but Major Disaster seemed to have been genuinely bitten by the hero bug at some point along the way and he joined a short lived "substitute" Justice League that turned into a real position for the man. He remains in the JLA's reserves to this day, has been a part of their Justice League Unlimited initiative and seems more than happy keeping himself out of trouble...ironically.
