The Elite were initially formed by Manchester Black as a team to do what he felt conventional heroes "wouldn't", which amounted to the team killing their enemies. This brought them into conflict with Superman in particular, who was disturbed at how the public were so quick to accept the Elite as killers because they seemingly got "results". The Man of Steel eventually agreed to a confrontation with the Elite to prove a point, letting them seemingly defeat him and then rallying to defeat the Elite in a manner that made it look like he had killed them, culminating in him claiming to have essentially lobotomised Manchester Black with his heat vision to take away Black's powers. As Black protested about how Superman had ruined his reputation, Superman revealed that he had done this just to demonstrate how scary it was when heroes actively fought to kill; in reality he had used his superspeed to get the Elite out of the way at the last minute, and all he had done to Black was essentially give him a forced concussion that temporarily disabled his powers. Black vowed to come back and defeat Superman, but Superman vowed that he would keep fighting for an ideal world rather than give in to Black's cynicism.
After spending months working for the government on a new Suicide Squad, Black was able to escape with his powers restored. Having learned Superman's secret identity, Black rallied various other supervillains to mount a mass attack on Clark Kent's friends and acquaintances, even as the original Elite turned against him with Coldcast in particular now inspired by Superman's example. Menagerie was left in a vegetative state when Black triggered a stroke in punishment for her attempt to help Superman, while Coldcast and the Hat left the battle. After Superman had defeated the assembled forces sent against him, he returned home to find that Black had seemingly killed Lois Lane, but when he refused to kill Black (despite fantasizing about it), Black revealed that Lois's death was an illusion intended to provoke Superman into breaking his moral code only to learn that he had been wrong after the fact. Distraught, Black ended his campaign against Superman and committed suicide.
Months later, a series of natural disasters were identified as a "rebellion" by the spirit of Mother Earth itself by the Hat, now working with Menagerie's sister, Coldcast, and Manchester's sister Vera. After the Elite helped the Justice League deal with this problem by providing an enemy for the human race to unite against, Vera proposed that she be allowed to assemble a superhuman "black ops" team to deal with threats before they went public, the Elite essentially being reformed and mixed with various League members- including the Flash and Green Arrow- to become the new Justice League Elite.
Manchester Black is the team's first leader. A British telekinetic vigilante, currently inactive after realizing that he had become as bad as the villains that he wanted to fight. His Union Jack tattoo echoes the Authority's Jenny Sparks' t-shirt.
Vera Black is a British psionic cyborg, sister of Manchester Black, and the second leader of the Elite.
Coldcast is a very large and muscular African-American man who wore dreadlocks and chains and manacles around his neck and wrists. He is capable of manipulating electromagnetism. Coldcast was eventually inspired by Superman to fight on the side of heroes.
The first Menagerie is a Puerto Rican woman with a symbiotic suit of armor that allows her to transform into a chimeric creature. She was lobotomized and rendered comatose.
The second Menagerie is the sister of Menagerie I. She joins with an alien weapon cache that drives her insane, and later is incarcerated in a metahuman prison facility.
The Hat is a young and powerful Asian Earth elemental with a measure of invulnerability and an ability to breathe fire. He is armed with a magic hat from which he can pull any item he desires, summon demons, and wield magic. He quits the team shortly after Vera Black takes over.
Bunny is a bacterial colony that became a floating fortress before the Elite brought her to their universe to use as a base of operations. It contains many wonders such as Excalibur and the skeleton of Pegasus.
Collected editions
The Elite made their second appearance in the event story Ending Battle which was collected into a trade paperbacks of the same name:
Justice League Elite:
Volume 1 (collects: Action Comics #775, JLA #100, JLA Secret Files 2004, and Justice League Elite #1–4, 208 pages, 2005)[1][2][3]
Volume 2 (collects Justice League Elite #5–12, 192 pages, 2007)[4][5][6]
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