Living With Le$ is an online comic strip about a Wall Street money manager who loses his job and has to move back in with his parents. Start here then read all 36 episodes to date.

Yesterday, we told you about Ecocomics, a site devoted to examining economic principles represented in the storylines of comic books. Today here is a post from that site: Economics Themed Superheroes (and supervillains), submitted by readers using Marvel’s Create Your Own Superhero tool. Check out The Toxic Asset, Taxing Colossus, and Gold Standard. More superheroes/supervillains [...]

After months of delving into unemployment, real estate, health care, and financial markets, EconomyBeat finally gets to the heart of the matter with this post, asking the question:

Does Superman really need the rest of the Justice League?

The answer can be found in Ecocomics, where “economics and comic books collide.” The site is devoted to examining economic principles represented in comic books storylines.

On the question of Superman and the Justice League, we find the answer in a post called The Justice League and Comparative Advantage.

When you think about it, Superman doesn’t need the rest of the Justice League.

In conventional wisdom, every member of the Justice League has a particular strength. Green Lantern can handle weird and alien threats. Aquaman can talk to fish. The Flash can handle armies of lightly armed minions in a heartbeat. Wonder Woman usually takes point on mystical threats. And Batman is the World’s Greatest Detective.

If we consider each of those types of crime-fighting an output, we see that each member of the Justice League is a uniquely skilled producer of that output. Sure, Batman can beat up henchmen almost as well as the Flash can. But Flash can do it better. If Batman specializes in detective work, and Flash specializes in henchman-stomping, the two of them produce more Justice on net than if one tried to do both.

But what if we bring Superman into the equation?