WARNING! SPOILERS GALORE! IT'S THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S FAULT!
Title: Tower of Babel, Part III: Protected by the Cold
Release Date: September 2000
Writer: Mark WaidPenciller: Howard PorterInker: Drew GeraciJLA Members: Superman,
Batman,
Wonder Woman,
the Flash,
Green Lantern,
Aquaman,
the Martian Manhunter, and
Plastic Man.
Bad Guys: Ra's Al Ghul.
Special Features: Artist
Howard Porter's last JLA issue.
So what happens?With Ra's Al Ghul's
ultrasonic signals scrambling the language center's on every human brain on earth, no one is able to
read anything. Troops are accidentally crossing enemy borders, police and ambulances are unable to find addresses,
chaos reigns. And every member of the JLA is down, except for Batman, who is on the run from the
ecoterrorist's soldiers. Somehow, Ra's has been able to raid the
secret files Batman maintained on how to take down the JLA and used that information to get the Justice League out of the way. Batman is trying to send a message to the Watchtower to tell Aquaman how to circumvent his plans, but Ra's boosts the power on his
transmitter, causing all
spoken language to be
garbled as well. Batman is forced to jump off a
cliff to escape, and the
League of Assassins report to Ra's that the
Caped Crusader is dead.
Meanwhile, Plastic Man finally recovers enough to function (he still looks all
cracky, though) and he teleports the rest of the JLA back to the Watchtower. The Martian Manhunter, back inside the Atlantean water-suit, telepathically implants images of
dry deserts into Aquaman's mind so he won't realize he's being submerged in
water. Plastic Man very carefully stretches a
finger into Wonder Woman's ear and into her brain to extract the
VR chip inside. Superman uses his
heat vision to
laser out an electrostrobic device attached to Flash's
spine to stop him from convulsing. J'onn discovers that Green Lantern was hypnotized into believing that he was
blind, and his will-powered ring backed up the
delusion by temporarily blocking his sight.
Unfortunately, Aquaman and J'onn will just have to wait 'til the
nanites and
toxins in their systems wear off. Superman, his skin still as
transparent as glass, is feeling dangerously over-powered by all the
solar energy shooting directly into his organs--he'll also have to wait for the effects of the
Red Kryptonite to wear off.
Down on Earth, with both written and spoken languages gone, the whole world is going completely freakin'
nuts. Batman (of course he wasn't dead!) is able to sneak into Ra's Al Ghul's headquarters and discover the location of the language-scrambling transmitter. He transmits the
coordinates to the Watchtower and tells the JLA to meet him there.
Everyone's
pissed at Batman, though, for keeping secret files on how to seriously injure and/or kill all of them. They meet him at the
Antarctic transmitter site, but most of them would really like to knock his block off. Superman is able to get inside the transmitter and blow it to pieces. But Ra's' daughter,
Talia, angry that her father has abused her
trust to get her to harm Batman (they been
carrying on together behind the scenes) calls the JLA to tell them that Ra's plans to release a genetically-engineered
plague in the
Middle East to start a
nuclear war...
Cool Moments!The
Batplane passing through a
cloudbank and zipping past a very
angry-looking Superman.
Cool Quotes!Plastic Man, his finger buried in Wonder Woman's ear and brain: "Eeew. Eeew. EEEW."
Green Lantern: "Like putting you together from
jigsaw pieces was a pleasant experience."
Flash, after he recovers from his light-speed
seizures: "Oh, God...you couldn't imagine the
pain. There were whole days I prayed just to die. J'onn...just how long was I out?"
Martian Manhunter: "Twenty-two minutes."
Flash: "Can you two handle the
rifle corps?"
Plastic Man: "Yep."
Flash: "What? No
wisecracks?"
Plastic Man: "Not today."
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