Crime Syndicate of Amerika

For the concept of crime syndicates in general, see Organized crime.

The Crime Syndicate are teams of fictional supervillain, from one of DC Comics' parallel universe, who are the evil counterparts of the Justice League of America. The original team was specifically known as Crime Syndicate of America and is sometimes abbreviated as CSA. This first superpowered Crime Syndicate team appeared in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #29 in August 1964. The primary successive incarnation, known as the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (with the variant spelling of America), first appeared in the 2000 JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel.

A related successive group on Earth-3 is known as the Crime Society of America and first appeared in 52 Week 52.

The Crime Syndicate of America originally lived on Earth-Three, a world where history was "reversed" from the world we knew (e.g. British colonists declared their independence from America, and President John Wilkes Booth was assassinated by Abraham Lincoln). It initially had no superheroes, only the supervillains of the Crime Syndicate, though this changed with the advent of heroic Lex Luthor who used his vast intelligence for good.