3. The Atom

And you thought shrinking to the size of an ANT was impressive.

Ray Palmer was a scientist who came across a strange piece of white dwarf star matter that could shrink things. So he made it into a belt. A shrinkin’ belt. As in a belt that allows him to shrink, not just a belt that shrinks. That’s like the opposite of what I’ve been needing lately.  Palmer became The Atom, fought a buncha dudes, and went back in time a good deal and stuff.

He also became Hawkman’s best friend because…um…I legit can’t figure that one out. Literally no one likes Hawkman. He’s a jerk, and his solution to every problem is to hit it with a mace. His idea of dealing with something intimately is to use a smaller mace!

Ray was also one of the very few divorced superheroes. This was before his ex-wife Jean Loring murdered a close friend, got sent to Arkham, and became possessed by the supervillain Eclipso. Ugh, exes, am I right? But Ray has always been a League mainstay, and was the second person to join the team after its formation, preceded only by Green Arrow and followed by—ugh—Hawkman.

2. Red Tornado

Can an android dream? Can he feel pain or emotion? Does he have a soul? These are the questions that plague the Red Tornado.

I LOOOOOOOOVE Red Tornado. His first appearance in Justice League of America #64 is one of the most prized issues I own. Especially due to his time in the Justice League. Tornado was…okay, it’s confusing. He was originally retconned as the fusion of an elemental being called the Tornado Champion and a robot body built by mad scientist T.O. Morrow. Tornado spent a long time with the JLA, battling the nature of his humanity, until the Crisis.

Afterward, he served with Young Justice for a while before rejoining the Justice League and becoming a top-tier member. Since the New 52 reboot, he’s been reverted back to a typical, occasionally evil, android, which is a tragedy.

Red Tornado is an incredible character, and I truly miss his presence, especially in Justice League stories.