JLA: Act of God is a DC Comics story published under the Elseworlds imprint, written by Doug Moench about heroes everywhere losing their powers and learning to live with it. This story was somewhat different from other DC Elseworlds, which normally recast the heroes in completely different times and places, rather being set in a copy of the then current DC Continuity (similar to the What If? stories at Marvel Comics).
One day, all the heroes and villains are shown going about their business. Superman is fixing a dam, Green Lantern is battling a supervillain and so forth. Then suddenly a large mysterious purple energy wave sweeps over the planet causing everyone to lose their powers except for normal crimefighters and tech-based heroes (except Green Lantern, who loses his connection to his ring despite it being technological). Nobody can figure out how it happened, as all the magical heroes have gone missing, and the world begins to adapt. Mostly.
Superman becomes despondent, seemingly traumatized over the last disaster he was unable to prevent as his powers were fading, and is seen doing nothing but moping all day, to the point that Lois leaves him, causing him to go mope with Wonder Woman, until she converts to Catholicism and gets a job as a stock broker. Green Lantern can't get over his defeat by Sonar and, after months of rampaging around his apartment, begins channeling his aggression into a boxing bag looking for a rematch. The tech-based heroes, consisting of Steel, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, each in turn lose their tech or have it stolen. Supergirl (Linda Danvers) tries joining the police force, but is frustrated with all the paperwork that comes with fighting crime "by the book."
Eventually, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, and Supergirl all decide to go to Batman, concluding that the Badass Normal school of crimefighting is the only option they have left. And thus a new generation of heroes is born.
This story contains examples of
- Age-Appropriate Angst: Billy Batson, an actual kid, is naturally frustrated when he doesn't turn into Captain Marvel when he yells "Shazam!".
- Angst: This story focuses on the angst of all the superheroes after they lose their superpowers.
- Babies Make Everything Better: The ending, with Superman and Wonder Woman's kid.
- Black Dude Dies First: Steel, who also fell victim to The Worf Effect, since right before he dies a reporter is explaining how he's the most powerful hero left.
- Brought Down to Normal: Every powered character in the DC Universe. Only Badass Normal and Powered Armor heroes are unaffected and the Powered Armor heroes all get their tech damaged or stolen eventually.
- Derailing Love Interests: Lois Lane breaks up with Clark due to him no longer having powers. This is done so he can get into a relationship with Diana.
- Deus Angst Machina: Mostly for Superman and Green Lantern, but Wonder Woman also gets it pretty bad.
- Deus ex Machina: The story's repeated Title Drops is the closest it comes to an explanation of the Black Light Event. In other words, the story's title calls its divergence point a Deus ex Machina.
- Driven to Suicide: Diana contemplates suicide after a week of praying and nothing happening... while also pregnant. Clark shows up in the nick of time to stop her.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Superman turns to the bottle after losing his powers.
- Empty Piles of Clothing: The cover of Book 2 (pictured above), though in this case, it's because everyone took off their costumes rather than the usual
Inferred Holocaust of this trope. - Epic Flail: Justice's double sided 'Scales of Justice' has one spiked flail on each side of a foot long pole. It looks... awkward to actually use in battle.
- Goo-Goo-Godlike: Superman and Wonder Woman's child was born with superpowers.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Done inconsistently with the main characters of the story violating of the rules of the black light event. Metahuman powers go away, magic-users vanish, tech remains the same, right? Well, in that case, Superman and Martian Manhunter should be completely unaffected (as they aren't Metahumans, but extraterrestrials whose powers stem from their inherent biology. Martian Manhunter's powers are normal for Martians, Superman's are normal for Kryptonians under a yellow sun; they don't have powers by their races' standard). Magic-powered Wonder Woman should have vanished instead of being depowered. Green Lantern should be unaffected, since the ring is alien technology.
- The Plot Reaper: The real reason why the magical superheroes have simply vanished: they'd be able to explain what's going on.
- Power Loss Depression: The story has every single superpowered hero becoming complete wrecks after losing their powers. Particularly sad cases are Superman who becomes drunk and homeless after his relationship with Lois ends; Wonder Woman who nearly commits suicide; and Kyle Rayner who obsessed with Sonar, a villain Kyle failed to stop when his ring was deactivated.
- Recycled Premise: Depowering supers was part of the premise of the Genesis Crisis Crossover just a few years prior, and the Black Light bears more than a passing resemblance to the Godwave. None of the characters comment on this, despite the similarity to the still-recent Genesis event.
- Returning the Wedding Ring: Lois gives Clark back her engagement ring because she (in this universe, at least) only ever loved him for his powers.
- Riddle for the Ages: Why did the event happen at all? It's implied it really was an act of God, but no definite answer is ever given.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Wally West does this halfway through his training under Batman. When he comes back, Bruce just tells him to pick up where he left off.
- Sudden Humility: The basis for the plot is this trope, as applied to anyone with superpowers.
- Suddenly Shouting: This:Linda: Alcoholism is a disease which-
Aquaman: WE ARE NOT ALCOHOLICS!!! - Took a Level in Jerkass: Batman takes about thirty levels in arrogance. Which breaks the already Broken Aesop about humility even harder as the story takes his side.
- Twilight of the Supers: Everyone with superpowers not based on tech loses them, no explanation given.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Superman is holding back a broken dam when he loses his powers and the dam breaks, flooding a nearby town; the townspeople immediately start chewing him out as if he did it on purpose, despite the fact that he's clearly injured and disoriented.
- Useless Without Powers: The comic depicts all superheroes with powers as being like this. For example, Superman becomes a moping depressive after he loses his Kryptonian powers. However, some former superheroes, like Supergirl, still try to help out as Badass Normals.
- Variable-Length Chain: Very noticeable when the "Scales of Justice" has the chain on one side go from about a foot to at least six feet so Linda can twist and hit a guy.
- A Wizard Did It:
- There is no Meta Origin that encompasses all or even a majority of the DC Comics superheroes, making it highly unlikely that any phenomena could depower all of them. For example, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Starfire and Aquaman all have innate abilities (caused by how their DNA is made up, no less) that are somehow stripped. This wouldn't be such a bad thing in itself,note but there is serious inconsistency; a few characters that have ties to mysticism (and could probably explain the whole thing) have conveniently vanished, while characters who get their powers from the gods, like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, or are mystical in nature, like Red Tornado, just lose their powers. It's even inconsistently applied with regards to tech heroes. Booster Gold's future tech keeps working while Green Lantern's ring, which is explicitly a technology made by Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, stops working. Hank Henshaw is somehow still able to use his powers, despite the fact that the only reason he can be Cyborg Superman is the result of a superpower that allows him to inhabit and control machines. The list goes on.
- The story later implies that God (Yes, that one) caused this whole mess in order to teach the DC heroes a "lesson of humility".
- There is no Meta Origin that encompasses all or even a majority of the DC Comics superheroes, making it highly unlikely that any phenomena could depower all of them. For example, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Starfire and Aquaman all have innate abilities (caused by how their DNA is made up, no less) that are somehow stripped. This wouldn't be such a bad thing in itself,note but there is serious inconsistency; a few characters that have ties to mysticism (
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- A group of supervillains attacks with stolen super technology. Sure, Batman's little crew stopped them at the end, but there is nothing stopping other villains from trying this again. With all the more potent tech heroes either killed or just giving up entirely after one loss, what's to stop other villains from trying the same thing. The biggest super-tech bad guys on Earth are still around and Batman's small team alone isn't nearly enough to stop them all.
- No one questions any cosmological changes to the universe from the Black Light event when divinely-connected characters either lose power or suddenly disappear. Similarly, no one expresses any concern regarding the other alien races several of the members come from, or even the fates of the Atlanteans or Amazons as a result of the event.
- Despite Superman being chastised for failing to finish saving people from breaking dam in the beginning, none of the other heroes are worried about the fact that none of them are equipped to address larger scale natural or technological disasters afterwards.
- No government officials get involved in what would be a society changing event and the sudden loss of the world's greatest defenders.
- Since it's never stated if the Black Light event affected the New Gods, they have no mention, despite the fact that an Earth with only Badass Normal and tech-based superheroes would be the perfect target for Darkseid. It's especially baffling when you consider that Orion has been part of the Justice League, yet he doesn't even get a mention.
- Wolverine Publicity: It's not really a JLA story but at the time, Grant Morrison's extremely successful revival of the Justice League made anything with JLA in the title sell well.
