The Global Guardians is a team of DC Comics superheroes whose members hail from countries around the world.[1] The concept originated in the Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon, which aired after the comics stories in Super Friends #7-9, in which several heroes (Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief and El Dorado) were added to the Justice League to give it more ethnic diversity.
The characters that would form the Global Guardians first appeared in the Super Friends comic book series.[2] They were first introduced in a story (in Super Friends #7-9) in which an alien villain called Grax (an old Superman foe) planted bombs on Earth's seven continents to destroy it. Thanks to a warning from the Wonder Twins (in their first comic book appearance) the Justice League discovered the plan in time and recruited the heroes of the countries affected to find the bombs before they exploded.
These international heroes would later appear in other issues of Super Friends. However, it wasn't until DC Comics Presents #46 (June 1982) that they were introduced as a team,[3] in a story in which they helped Superman to stop an evil Atlantean sorcerer named Thaumar Dhai. This is also considered to be these characters' first canonical appearance in the DC Universe.[1]
After Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was revealed that the Global Guardians had been gathered together by Doctor Mist to serve as the enforcing arm of an international organization called "The Dome", which had been created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 to help organize the efforts of superheroes across the globe as an international police organization.[1]
Prior to that, in the early 1950s, several international heroes who had been the beneficiaries of the Justice Society of America's kindness during and after World War II, had banded together in an informal "Club of Heroes". They were integrated in the Global Guardians after its foundation. (Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth sends Christmas cards to the currently surviving members).
This original Global Guardians were based in a United Nations-financed headquarters building also called the Dome located in Paris. The original team was also funded by Doctor Mist and administrated by a woman called Belphegor who was gifted with psychic powers. Many of the Guardians individually assisted other international heroes during the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover and once teamed up with Infinity, Inc.