The Justice Guild of America is a pastiche of the Golden Age superhero team the Justice Society of America. The creative team wanted to use the JSA (even going as far as to first designing the team based on their JSA counterparts), but DC Comics declined as Paul Levitz (DC Comics president at the time) felt the story as written disrespected the JSA and the portrayals clashed with the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths JSA in modern comics. However, Levitz agreed to a compromise: The producers could change the names and designs just enough to make the team not quite the JSA but still get the point across. The Justice Guild members were intended to reflect:
- Green Guardsman/Scott Mason - Golden Age Green Lantern/Alan Scott
- Tom Turbine - A combination of Golden Age The Atom/Al Pratt and Golden Age Superman (with slight similarities to Starman, Star-Spangled Kid, Captain Marvel, and Hourman)
- The Streak - Golden Age The Flash/Jay Garrick
- Black Siren/Donna Vance - Golden Age Black Canary/Dinah Lance with some elements of the Golden Age Wonder Woman
- Cat Man/T. Blake - A combination of Golden Age Wildcat and Golden Age Batman (with a name matching the Batman supervillain whose secret identity was Thomas Blake)
Likewise, the Injustice Guild is a lampoon of the Injustice Society, the rivals of the Justice Society in the comics:
- The Music Master - The Fiddler
- The Sportsman - The Sportsmaster
- Dr. Blizzard - Icicle
- Sir Swami - The Wizard (with slight similarities to Sargon the Sorcerer)
Ray Thompson (an homage to
Roy Thomas, a DC writer who worked on 1940s and 1950s-style DC Comics such as All-Star Squadron and Secret Origins, and science-fiction writer
Ray Bradbury, who wrote many stories dealing with nostalgia for the past compared to the harshness of the present) essentially plays the role of the Golden Age Snapper Carr, both of them being "junior sidekicks" of the Justice Society/Justice Guild.
