The Justice League originally included Oliver Queen, Bart Allen, Victor Stone, and Arthur Curry; Clark Kent did not accept a role until three seasons later.

The original Justice League first appeared in the DC comic book The Brave and the Bold #28 (1960), and consisted of members Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter.

Series' writers wanted to make sure the characters had similar characteristics to their comic book counterparts, but at the same time, could become a means for Clark Kent to learn about himself.

The first member to appear on Smallville, other than Clark Kent (Tom Welling), was Bart Allen (Kyle Gallner), who was introduced in the season four episode "Run".

[1] Arthur Curry (Alan Ritchson), who has the ability to swim at superhuman speeds and create energy blasts through the water, is next to appear in the season five episode "Aqua".

Arthur arrives in Smallville to stop an underwater weapon developed by Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), which is killing the surrounding ocean life.

[3] Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), a billionaire who left Star City to live in Metropolis, arrives in the season six episode "Sneeze" to investigate Lex Luthor.

[6] In the season seven episode "Siren", Lex puts a bounty on Oliver and his team, convincing the vigilante Dinah Lance (Alaina Huffman), who goes by the name "Black Canary" and has the ability to emit an ultrasonic sound wave with a single scream, that these individuals are terrorists.

In response, Chloe turns a Metropolis clock tower, which is also the tallest building in the city, into the Watchtower base with the hope that the team will one day return home.

While preparing, Young expressed his pleasure in the fact that the producers decided to keep Victor's robotic parts internal, as opposed to the comic version, where half of Cyborg's visible body is covered in metal.

[33] When Steven S. DeKnight was writing the episode "Run" for the first official appearance of Bart Allen, he knew he had to give the character certain characteristics that embodied his comic book counterpart.

Gallner also suggested that in his character's initial appearance, Bart is living in a "confused" state, because he has developed these extraordinary powers, his parents do not accept him, and he ends up turning to thievery just to take care of himself.

[23] When he first appears, one of Victor Stone's key characteristics is that both he and Clark can relate to the fact that they feel their abilities inhibit them from having a true relationship with the women they love.

The designer tried to give Victor a more "futuristic" feel, along with "a bit of Transformer-y" essence, by including angular pieces on his vest and coloring them silver, black, and purple.

[31] Hartley was quick to point out that before "Justice", the series did not focus on "the costumes and the capes, the flying and the superhero stuff", because they had their "no flights, no tights" rule in effect.

Senior Producer at Entity FX, Trent Smith, explained that they wanted to give Bart's super speed a "more current" look, so they employed 3D techniques in conjunction with the 2D graphics from season four to create a "hybrid" image for the screen.

[38] For Victor, Entity FX tried to create digital imagery of the character's inner workings to give the audience the chance to see how his robotic side operates.

For instance, Entity FX visually walked the audience through the process of how Victor's CPU downloads the schematics and diagrams to Lex's Level 33.1 facility, as well as disarming the security.

He lacks the screen presence of someone like Carl Lumbly, who voiced the character on Justice League, but Morris holds his own and delivers the lines in that strong, straight forward tone that is signature Manhunter".

[42] Alan Blair, editor of Airlock Alpha, felt that Smallville's approach to Black Canary succeeded where the television series Birds of Prey failed.

First, Carabott did not appreciate the removal of Black Canary's long, blonde hair, or the addition of make-up around the eyes that gave the character the look of "Pris from Blade Runner".

[55] Gough explained that the Green Arrow spin-off would have introduced the idea of Oliver acting in more of a "Professor X" role, where he takes in people with superpowers who have no place to go and trains them.

[56] On April 19, a tie-in with Toyota promoting their new Yaris featured an online comic strip as interstitial programs during new episodes of Smallville—titled Smallville Legends: Justice & Doom.

[59] The online comic then directly ties-into the television series when Oliver and his team, off-screen, contact Clark in the episode "Prototype", and tell him how to defeat one of these soldiers.

Written by Bryan Q. Miller, who also wrote for the television series, the first issues feature Chloe Sullivan referencing that they're trying to establish an info hub, linked the Watchtower, in every city inhabited by a member of the organization.

[61] In the second issue, Lex Luthor discovers that Queen Industries is building a facility on the far side of Earth's moon as a base for the team, and its construction is under John Jones' supervision.

[64] Despite his efforts, Tess still manage to send her message to the team of her predicaments with Lex, and they extract her consciousness from him and uploaded it to the Watchtower computer system as a temporary home for her mind.

Batman, along with his partner, Nightwing (Barbara Gordon), arrive to Metropolis in search of his parents' killer Joe Chill, who works as a contact for Intergang.

[66] Bart Allen returns in the ninth issue, donning a new costume and explores the source of his powers: the Speed Force, as well as encountering the Black Flash from it while battling gorillas in Paris.

[68] In a story arc chronologically parallel to Clark and Bart's, while Batman and Nightwing chase members of the criminal gang in Gotham, the Mutants, the latter is attacked by a White Martian and left injured.