The Best View of Earth’s Seemingly Infinite Crises – We Breakdown The Justice League’s Watchtower
When Earth is in danger, the Justice League sees – from a safe distance, orbiting hundreds of miles away in space, thanks to the Watchtower.
The Justice League comprises some of Earth’s mightiest heroes from all around that pale blue dot nestled in a remote corner of the Milky Way galaxy. But a superorganization of superheroes needs a headquarters capable of withstanding the cataclysmic threats facing the Earth on a regular basis. Fortunately, they can watch it all from the safety of the Watchtower.
The Watchtower is an orbital space station that, despite watching Earth, is surprisingly interstellar in terms of its construction and origins. Because it’s not just the finest science that humanity has to offer – a veritable coalition of the various guardians the galaxy has to offer has gone into the construction of this station. But what do all those wonderful toys actually do? And how many times has it been destroyed?
The Justice League’s Watchtower – Alien Technology Looking Out For Earth
First and foremost, the Watchtower is constructed from the strongest metal known to humanity, Prometheum. This alien alloy is near-invulnerable (as near-invulnerable as anything gets in a world where Kryptonians, alien gods, and other uninverse-ending threats appear with frightening regularity), and forms the bulk of the station’s framework. Meaning it is armored enough to withstand all but the most dedicated assaults.
Besides the armor, the Watchtower is outfitted with a number of advanced sensors. As one of humanity’s generals put it to Bruce Wayne, the playboy CEO of Wayne Industries, humanity had been caught off guard byt hreats from space one too many times. So the Watchtower satellite/station became a hidden in the Wayne Industries R&D budget.
Besides its sensors, the station is a remarkable feat of automation. It requires no crew to operate, and can stay in orbit around the Earth completely uninhabited. In fact in one timeline, where humanity was wiped out after one of Superman’s many “deaths” over the years, the immortal Cro-Magnon, Vandal Savage, noted that even after he disrupted the Sun’s gravitational field, the station remained in orbit.
Requiring no crew, the Watchtower was restricted to only members of the Justice League, who were equipped with special transmitters that allowed them entry into the otherwise impenetrable satellite.
The Watchtower – More Than A Station, Also A Literal Tower and Later A Moonbase
Of course, nothing is truly indestructible. Even a nigh-invincible Kryptonian can be killed. And the Watchtower was no different. Originally, it was an actual tower, located on Earth. When that was damaged during an attack on Earth, the Satellite/Space Station was constructed. When that too was destroyed by Superboy, it was later rechristened as a Moon Base complete with a Hall of Justice and everything.
The insistence on naming their base the Watchtower might be confusing for archivists, but it is a testament to the undying spirit of the heroes of Earth and beyond. Even Thanagerians and Apokopliptic technology have been added to the station. There is no end to what the peoples of the galaxy and beynd can accomplish when they work together.
At least until the next crisis comes along and resets reality.
