The Nail

"For want of a nail the shoe was lost For want of a shoe the horse was lost For want of a horse the knight was lost For want of a knight the battle was lost ''So it was a kingdom was lost All for want of a nail"

The Nail (or JLA: The Nail) is a three-issue comic book mini-series published by DC Comics. It is a self-contained story by Alan Davis which stands outside of the mainstream continuity of the DC Universe.

In this universe, Martha and Jonathan Kent's truck has a tire puncture caused by a nail. This prevents them from discovering the spaceship containing the baby Kal-El, and so, there's no Superman. There is, however, still a Justice League of America, consisting of Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash (Barry Allen), Hawkwoman, the Atom (Ray Palmer), Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). There's also a great degree of xenophobia for the "metahumans," fueled by anti-metahuman propaganda from Perry White and backed by Metropolis mayor Lex Luthor; slowly 'metahumans' begin to disappear as other issues arise requiring the attention of the publicly disliked JLA.

The story was later followed up by a sequel in JLA: Another Nail which ties into the original story and wrapped up several loose ends

See also "Bullet Points" for this series' Marvel Universe counterpart.


 * A God Am I: He tells him to go to hell instead
 * A House Divided: The Justice League suffers from this a little bit since Superman was never there to be the even head that guided them.
 * Alternate Universe
 * Anyone Can Die: It's an Elseworld, so there's no harm done to the New Earth continuity.
 * Badass Pacifist:.
 * Badass Normal: Batman and Catwoman. The latter is especially noteworthy as she manages to take down a bunch of other Batman villains single-handed when the Joker pits them all against each-other.
 * Battle Couple: Batman and Catwoman again.
 * And in Another Nail, Big Barda and Mr. Miracle.
 * And let's not forget.
 * For worse/better/whatever, it's not over: see Another Nail.
 * Body Horror: Happens when  body starts to reject its new Kryptonian DNA during his climactic fight with Superman.
 * Broken Pedestal: Jimmy Olsen has this in spades concerning super-heroes.
 * Conspiracy Theorist: This world's version of.
 * Dating Catwoman: Aside from the Trope Namer, Green Lantern and Star Sapphire's relationship has shades of this
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The whole metahuman witch hunt thing.
 * Elseworld
 * Driven to Madness:
 * Evil All Along:
 * Elite Mooks: Played straight with the Liberators initially, but ultimately subverted when they're revealed to be GlassCannons
 * Faceless Goons: The Liberators, save one moment where Hal unmasks one and exposes them as
 * Fat Bastard: This version of Lex Luthor seems to have put on a few pounds
 * For Want of a Nail: Notably inspired by the Trope Namer.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!:.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Poor, POOR.
 * Heroic BSOD: Batman has an EPIC one after.
 * Hot Amazon: Wonder Woman obviously
 * Intrepid Reporter: Lois Lane as always
 * Joker Immunity:.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Robin and Batgirl.
 * Love Redeems:
 * The Man Behind the Man: Lex Luthor (believed by the Justice League to be the Big Bad) is implied to be manipulated by Starro until it's revealed that . The real Big Bad is none other than....
 * Monster Clown: The Joker, natch
 * Papa Wolf: Batman..
 * Person of Mass Destruction: . Their fight is even described as apocalyptic by other characters.
 * The Reveal:
 * Silver Age: Set in a pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths style universe, the story also features Silver Age features such as big splash pages featuring individual characters doing something impressive.
 * Technical Pacifist:
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
 * Would Hurt a Child: The Joker shows this to horrific extremes when he
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
 * Would Hurt a Child: The Joker shows this to horrific extremes when he