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. Thereis, 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.

This works contains examples of the following tropes:

 * 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