WARNING! IT'S AN INFESTATION OF SPOILERS! CALL THE ORKIN MAN!
Title: Tower of Babel, Part II: Seven Little Indians
Release Date: August 2000
Writer: Mark WaidPenciller: Howard PorterInker: Drew GeraciJLA Members: Superman,
Batman,
Wonder Woman,
the Flash,
Green Lantern,
Aquaman,
the Martian Manhunter, and
Oracle.
Bad Guys: Ra's Al Ghul.
Special Features: First Appearance of
Red Kryptonite in the
post-Crisis DC Universe.
So what happens?With Ra's Al Ghul garbling the meaning of the
printed word worldwide, the planet is in
chaos.
Stock exchanges are crashing, warning signs and newspapers are meaningless, medical charts are
gibberish, no one can use
Linux (okay, that last one's not actually in the comic). And half the JLA has been neutralized: Aquaman's dehydrating because he's afraid of
water, the Martian Manhunter's skin has been bonded with
nanites that cause him to burst into
flame when exposed to oxygen, Plastic Man is slowly recovering from being frozen and shattered, and Green Lantern is
blind.
Batman quickly tracks Ra's to his headquarters in the
Himalayas, but Ra's has a
nasty surprise for him: he has the bodies of Bruce Wayne's parents, and he's planning on dipping them into one of his
Lazarus Pits, which can restore the dead to life...
Back on the Watchtower, Aquaman realizes how the
assassins have been able to track the JLA so easily: they've tapped into the Justice League's
signal devices and are able to track them anywhere. He barely has time to get a
warning out to Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern before the
League of Assassins burst into GL's apartment and attack.
The assassins fire a
nanobot into Wonder Woman's
ear that lodges a
VR chip in her brain, making her believe she's fighting a neverending
battle against an
unstoppable opponent--the assassins figure she'll eventually have a
heart attack. Meanwhile, they shoot the Flash with a weapon that makes him experience constant, light-speed
epileptic seizures. Green Lantern tries to stop the assassins, but blinded, he can't target anyone and is quickly knocked out.
Meanwhile, Superman and Oracle have figured out what Ra's is doing: broadcasting a
sine wave signal that interferes with the
language centers of the brain to make it
impossible for anyone to read anything. Superman is able to place a
forcefield over
Metropolis that blocks the signal, but that still leaves most of the world suffering from
aphasia...
In the Himalayas, Batman quickly decides that he'd rather be worthy of his parents' memory than to surrender the world to bring them back to life. Besides, he's more than a little pissed off at Ra's for using their bodies as
bait. Ra's brags that he's been able to eliminate the JLA and displays a glowing red rock which, for some reason, surprises the hell out of the Dark Knight.
Meanwhile, Aquaman gives the Martian Manhunter a special suit designed to allow Atlanteans to breathe
water while on land--it keeps him covered in water while allowing him mobility. J'onn attacks the assassins in GL's apartment, but they soon pierce the suit, and the resulting
fire puts the Martian down again.
But then Superman shows up to trash the League of Assassins. Back in the Himalayas, Batman is trying to radio for Superman to get out, but it's too late. The assassins pull out a glowing red rock like Ra's had, explaining that it is
Kryptonite with an accelerated half-life, which caused it to turn
red. It isn't
lethal, like regular Kryptonite, but it hurts and it causes unpredictable changes in
Kryptonians' cellular structure. In Superman's case, it ends up turning his skin
transparent.
Icky.
As Batman escapes from Ra's HQ, pursued by the madman's soldiers, he realizes that all of the
traps and signal trackers that took the JLA down were originally concocted by Batman himself...
Cool Moments!Ra's
devious plan to bring Bruce Wayne's long-dead parents back to life; Green Lantern's
doomed attempt to stop the League of Assassins; the first shocking image of Supes with
see-through skin.
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