Sue Dibny gently held her husband's arm and hand as Ralph placed a call to a mutual friend. "Look, Iris, it's me, okay? I know I'm just a JLA second-stringer and I'm lucky when I get called to tutor the Teen Titans. But I'm feeling kind of like an outsider here. Where's Barry?" The Flash had been missing for hours, and none of the rest of the League was returning the Elongated Man's calls. "Well, Batman never answers my calls, but..." Ralph had at least placed calls through to Rex and Zatanna...
Aquaman lay still and bloodied on an operating table. Lex Luthor wondered if he was dead, like most of the rest of the Justice League. "Does it matter," answered Brainiac. The Coluan knew Luthor was plotting against him, and said so, but everyone still had their roles to play. Brainiac had a handful of black marble "cities" whose time would soon come...
The Batman had his cave invaded by Captain Marvel and Superman, and when he protested, was decked and tied up with his butler. There were, of course, extenuating circumstances...
Dr. Jonathan Crane used a special solution to allow the blind to see in an impoverished land. Super-villains in civilian guise continued these miraculous acts around the world, while the media (including Vicki Vale) wondered what had become of the status quo enforcing super-heroes who had gone missing. The Joker, left out of the fun, continued his inquiries.
The Martian Manhunter helped Hawkman and Hawkgirl find Toyman in Metropolis.
Batman was bound in his newly amazonian Batcave by Poison Ivy, when he was appropriately rescued by Wonder Woman. However, the Dark Knight was being mind controlled, and return the favor with an electrocution attempt. The Lasso of Truth restored the Caped Crusader's psyche, and he made short work of Ivy. Super-Gorilla Grodd, speaking through the still-bound Alfred Pennyworth, cursed the stupid human animals. "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to dance on your bones. I will feast on your flesh. You have no idea what's coming."
"Shut up, Alfred. Are you okay, Wonder Woman? I'm so sorry." The Amazing Amazon was feeling raw, but Poison Ivy and Batman each had to be secured. "Your lasso is the only thing that's keeping whatever's inside me from controlling me... I need to be free to make sure whatever did this to me pays for it."
Elongated Man called in Green Lantern John Stewart from off screen.
Zatanna was quite busy this issue, despite not actually appearing. She was just in time to magic what was left of Red Tornado off the soon-to-explode League Satellite and send him to Doc Magnus for repairs. Aquaman's location was still locked in the android's head. Zee also guided John Stewart to Ferris Aircraft in Coast City to aid his search for Green Lantern.
The Martian Manhunter fretted as he made his way to the location Red Tornado had determined was Aquaman's last whereabouts. Using J'Onzz as a magical anchor, Zatanna materialized at his location. She remained hopeful against J'Onn's crestfallen pessimism, and was horrified at the state in which they found the Sea King's body. "What have they done to him, J'Onn? What have they done to his brain?"
Batman, still held in check by the Lasso of Truth, flew to the Fortress of Solitude with Wonder Woman. They were forced to wait outside until Superman arrived to lift his massive key.
Outside Atlantis, Aqualad fled the eye lasers of the Black Manta.
As other heroes arrived at the Fortress of Solitude, Batman apologized to Red Tornado for the damage he had wrought. Superman arrived to let everyone inside.
"People of magic should never be required to wait," griped Zatanna to Martian Manhunter at the headquarters of the Doom Patrol. She was concerned that Caulder couldn't "do more than he was able to do for Cliff Steele." Robotman took offense to that remark, while the Chief explained that there was nothing that needed to be done for Aquaman. While Caulder and J'Onzz compared notes on why Arthur had been assaulted in this manner, Zee thought, "The hole doesn't seem so large anymore. Did you replace some of the tissue?" Caulder assured her he had done nothing. Instead of offering a proper answer, the Chief directed his staff to place Aquaman in a healing tank he'd prepared. Zee asked Cliff "Is Niles always like this?" Robotman responded, "What, having three different conversations at once? Yeah, pretty much."
As part amphibian, Aquaman could regenerate the portion of his brain that had been removed. "He really is a man of untapped potential. Extraordinary." While Beast Boy covertly brushed against Zee's legs in cat form, the Sea King was revived with a name on his lips. "Mera...?"
Aqualad made his way to the royal palace to warn Mera about Black Manta, or so it seemed. Instead, Garth punched the queen out cold, then took her infant son from her arms. Clearly under someone's mental thrall, Aqualad fled the city to deliver Arthur Jr. to his father's greatest enemy. "I can't tell you how happy this is going to make Brainiac."
Still under the influence of the Lasso of Truth, Batman explained to Superman that there was little difference in their methods, only their effectiveness. Since Superman makes a point of letting everyone know how omnipotent he is, nobody in Metropolis wants to commit a crime based on the assumption the Man of Tomorrow knows all. The Dark Knight tried to make a parallel to the League's false assumption of safety, but Kal-El blew him off to chill out in space. Once there, he recognized the handiwork of Brainiac in the black sphere cities.
The Flash delivered Captain Cold to the Fortress of Solitude for questioning. While the rogue sat in a Plastic Man chair, sweating under a light, Batman threatened the icy villain with his own pistol. When Batman extorted information out of Cold at the potential expense of his larcenous digits, the lasso made clear it was no bluff.
Elongated Man bounced into a meeting elsewhere in the fortress to announce Batman's findings, as well as to enlarge an eye to inspect one of Brainiac's mind-controlling worm creatures under study. "Hmmm. Carter found this? Leave it to a bird to find a worm. And can someone tell me why
I wasn't attacked? What's wrong with
me? I have a lot of power.
I'm formidable."
In a conference hall, Batman explained that the Legion of Doom had suffered reoccurring nightmares abut the world coming to an end despite (or perhaps partially because of) the Justice League's best efforts. "And so, our enemies have formed an alliance to either stop the coming end of life, or prepare a remnant of humanity to survive it." This involved killing off the heroes, seizing power, and "healing" people through the mind-controlling worms.
Zatanna materialized at the fortress, with Martian Manhunter, the Doom Patrol, and the revived Aquaman in tow. The Sea King immediately chastised the heroes for hiding in the fortress...
The Joker, pretending to be some sort of Amish preacherman, managed to score a ride to one of the black sphere floating cities.
Elongated Man decided to confront Plastic Man about his non-League presence. Eel retorted, "...Another one of
those talks, is it? I'm sorry you're not the only stretchy guy...
I wasn't attacked either. Maybe none of us are important. Feel better now?" Plastic Man kept trying to chill Ralph out, but Elongated Man kept insisting that the League didn't need this particular two of a kind. Eel rightly refused to leave, pointing out the similarities between Captain Marvel and Superman. Ralph insisted on being a jerk, while Plas thought maybe Elongated Man could take the form of "something the League actually needs one of these days."
Mera had Lord Yuko govern Atlantis while she searched for her missing son, beginning at the Fortress of Solitude. Elongated Man helped Mera inside, where she was reunited with her husband. Learning about the kidnapping, Superman wondered which other loved ones of the super-heroes were in danger.
Zatanna had asked the Phantom Stranger to find the missing Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and both returned from the furthest reaches of uncharted space. Zee thanked the Stranger for his aid. "It was a privilege, my dear. Perhaps now he really will be the greatest Green Lantern of them all one day." The Emerald Gladiator used his power ring to extract all the worms from Batman's body.
Aquaman stated his pleasure about everyone else being all right, but worried about his kid being in the hands of the enemy. "J'Onn told me that he had learned that Brainiac cut me open in an attempt to discover a means to control Grodd." The Sea King was furious with the Coluan and his war on all life. "He's a machine. Only a machine. And maybe that's for the best. Because I'm going to kill him."
Meanwhile, Aqualad had joined other mind-controlled teen heroes in kidnapping the supporting casts of heroes that matter (i.e. not the Martian Manhunter.)
"Justice, Vol. 2," collecting issues #5-8 of the 2005 mini-series, was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite.
Ryan "Count Drunkula" Daly of the Black Canary blog Flowers & Fishnets has played casting director for a Warner Brothers Justice League film, including the Motor City members! If you hit his Aquaman role sheet, you'll find Alexander Skarsgård as his Sea King. I previously went with the late Paul Walker, but truthfully feel we need to both start over again. Skarsgård would be spot on for Namor, which is the problem. I strongly agree with his Mera, though, and have suggested her myself in the past. I'm also excited by his excellent suggestion of Giancarlo Esposito for J'onn J'onzz.
Justice League Satellite & Detroit was the go-to point for our team. In Daly's selections, he demonstrated an appreciation of the cast of Game of Thrones, including Emilia Clarke as Zatanna. I may be tainted by her royal countenance on that show, but Zee seems more like a cute neighbor than a queen in waiting, which is why I offered Zooey Deschanel.
The Vixen was the single most challenging and longest delayed casting pick I've ever attempted. Tika Sumpter was on my short list, so I approve of Daly going that way. I ultimately went with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, but continue to second guess the selection.
Gael Garcia Bernel is one of the most famous Latin actors in the movie industry, and one of my girlfriend's personal favorites. Vibe is frankly beneath him, but perhaps not Jake T. Austin. I wasn't too picky about emo bohunk Steel, so Jack Reynor is as good as Robbie Amell, and more age appropriate.
Will Forte as Elongated Man? Sure, Whatever. I haven't gotten around to him myself. Much as I like his missus, I think Daly overshot for Sue Dibney. Nina Dobrev is probably too big for Gypsy as well, but I'd be happy with her, though I prefer Raquel Castro. The villainy of Despero, Amazo, Ivo and more are also represented, so go fish in the links below!
Count Drunkula Casting Department
The Joker continued to blow up parts of the synthetic cities. "It's my party now! But don't act surprised I showed up. You should have expected me to crash. You really should. You're a regular Brainiac." Meanwhile, as villains from the Legion of Doom were teleporting to other cities, Poison Ivy asked Brainiac sarcastically if everything was still going according to his plan. "Yes."
At the big battle between the Super Friends and the Legion of Doom, Action Stealth Armor Batman™ (from Mattel®) fired real working phosphorous projectile pellets at Solomon Grundy. Meanwhile, Green Lantern John Stewart destroyed the nanite worms that were mind-controlling errbody while simultaneously liberating the non-powered supporting casts previously held hostage by teen super-heroes. This allowed the reunion of Batman Family members Batgirl, Robin and Commissioner Gordon. Zatanna had nothing but her white cloak and the company of Captain Marvel, who would oddly start wearing a white cloak himself in mainstream comics around this time. Conquering, err, saboteurs Black Canary and Green Arrow helped support a clearly weary Elongated Man as Sue Dibny and Martian Manhunter looked on. Plastic Man even gave Ralph a pat on the back, a too subtle not-quite-pay-off for the page devoted to Ralph giving Plas grief issues ago. Aqualad lingered alone from a remove. Zatanna teleported all the civilians to the Fortress of Solitude while the heroes prepared to deal with the escaped bad guys.
Aquaman followed Brainiac and son to Toyman's city, and despite a considerable lead, the Justice League caught up with him inside five panels. They would be needed, as thousands of Brainiac and Arthur Junior robot duplicates swarmed the streets. Beyond the dumbfounding specificity, there's a stupefying two-page spread of the heroes destroying all the robots savagely, relying on Superman's x-ray vision to determine that none of them were the real deal. But say, the Ductile Detective and the Pliable Paladin had a friendly team-up in the midst of it!
Zatanna contacted Superman. "I know if anyone can hear me, it's you. Brainiac- the signal I've been following for him, it's gone. And I can't find a trace of Aquaman's son in the city anymore, either. There are people here, children we need to save in addition to Aquaman's son." Superman stayed in Toyman's domain, while Zatanna magicked other heroes to Scarecrow's bleak Transylvanian-style fake city. The citizens of that plane were mind-controlled and sent against the heroes. "You only need to ask yourself how you are going to save them. How will you fight back when your every defensive blow will crush a soul. Break an arm? Make a cripple? We are legion! Green Lantern then showed up to fix that, then Scarecrow unleashed fear gas to make folks kill one another. Why Lantern didn't just fix that too, I assure you I don't know.
"Chapter Eleven" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite. Zatanna is little seen, but she seems to have the extraordinary power to fix continuity errors through patches in the script whenever needed. Since when does Zee track electronic signals and act as a message relay center? Yeesh!
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Meanwhile, Batman knocked Riddler and Poison Ivy around in his "Beyond" looking red and black armor. Martian Manhunter preoccupied himself with Gorilla Grodd and Giganta. Zatanna secretly teleported Green Arrow and Black Canary to a sewer, then returned to the battle before she could be missed. Members of the Metal Men pretended to act as protective armor for the two missing heroes, while in fact working independently to conceal their absence. Still, the ruse was eventually detected, and Clayface dispatched to stop the duo. In a moment the creators failed to establish beforehand, Elongated Man (wearing a sort of Shadow Thief/ninja alternate costume) turned out to have been pretending to be Ollie's "shadow" in near light-less tunnel. "I want to see Plastic Man do this." Elongated Man encapsulated Clayface, who continued to writhe and press within. The Emerald Archer thought to himself "Ralph's wife isn't even one of those that were taken. He's here for us... Some look at Ralph as a joke. Next time anyone says anything about him, I'll tell them of this moment..." Elongated Man cried that Clayface was chewing on his insides, and that there was only so much pain and stress he could take. Ollie called out, "You're a helluva Leaguer, Ralph." Queen went on to locate the kidnapped supporting casts of the various heroes, and smuggled a power ring to John Stewart...
"Chapter Ten" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite. I'm guessing Ross and company thought they'd crafted the Elongated Man redemptive moment that would be praised by Wizard Magazine for years to come. Instead, it established that he was still motivated by his ego to go up against a second rate Batman villain and whine about it all being too much for him within the span of a few panels. Plastic Man gets a lot more done in subsequent issues, a reminder of what Ralph tried to keep from getting accomplished because of his stupid pride, and then throws a spotlight at his minimal competence for unflattering measure. They had better luck inspiring Geoff Johns' very popular "Have Trident, Will Skewer" take on Aquaman, but despite this being out of continuity, the guys he stabbed regenerate like video game players without a scratch on them in later issues. The Aqualobotomy subplot dragged on unbelievably, but "a Brainiac ate my baby" does its best to match it for incredulity. Mad props for giving Aquaman his big moment in the series while wearing a lame all-green armor that renders him virtually unrecognizable, by the way.
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