WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! HELLOOOOO! McFLYYYYYY!


Title: Last Call
Release Date: Early December 2002
Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Yvel Guichet
Inkers: Mark Propst and Bob Petrecca
JLA Members: Nightwing, Faith, Jason Blood, Firestorm, Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, Major Disaster, and the Atom.
Guest Stars: Zatanna, Lex Luthor, and Green Lantern.
Bad Guys: Giant Zombie Gamemnae.
Cameos: Tempest and Manitou Raven.

So what happens?
Last issue, we were with the regular JLA in ancient Atlantis; this time, we're following the replacement JLA in the present.

We start out with Nightwing and Faith, preparing to airdrop onto Atlantis to investigate the continuing worldwide drought. We learn a little more about Faith here -- one of her powers is inadvertantly making everyone around her feel more confident and trusting; she had some sort of close relationship with Batman; and the members of her last team (called "The Crew") used to call her the Fat Lady.

Meanwhile, the Atom reveals that so much water has been drained towards Atlantis that the extra weight is actually causing the Earth's rotation to wobble a bit. That could end up destablizing the planet's orbit.

Once Nightwing and Faith are in Atlantis, they investigate the skeleton wearing Superman's costume, but there's no way to tell whether it's the real deal or not. And our villain takes this moment to reveal herself -- she's a Kong-sized monster zombie with magic powers and a bad case of megalomania! And judging from her powers and her patter (if not her appearance), it's pretty clear that this is the former ruler of Atlantis, Gamemnae, from 3,000 years ago. When she attacks Nightwing, Faith teleports the rest of the Justice League in, and the brawl gets started.

The League scores what looks like a quick victory. Hawkgirl and Faith knock her down, Firestorm changes the air around her into an unbreakable metal called Prometheum, and Major Disaster gets a half-dozen meteors on standby to crash on her if she tries to escape. Jason Blood analyzes the situation magically and reports that she's so large because of a spell called a Quagmire, which allows her to physically absorb the bodies of others to gain their strength; he says that she's absorbed at least nine people, including Zatanna and Tempest. That's when Gamemnae uses Zatanna's backwards-speaking spellcasting to change the Prometheum to paper and burst free.

She quickly injures Green Arrow and Firestorm and absorbs Major Disaster (Oh, great. Disaster's only purpose in the Justice League was to get captured? Grrreat.). Nightwing demands that Jason summon Etrigan the Demon, but Blood refuses, tells Nightwing that Gamemnae is too strongly bound to Atlantis to be defeated, and informs him that they must "go back and disrupt the source," whatever that means. Then he leaps into the giant zombie, magically taking Zatanna's place and popping the sorceress free.

And then the jets fly over and nuke the island.

Back in the Watchtower, the Atom is understandably pissed. But hell, Lex Luthor's the president, and he saw the opportunity to wipe out a few more superheroes, as well as Gamemnae. Too bad Gamemnae is completely uninjured...

But on the bright side, the JLA is also able to get free, though they don't know how. Turns out their rescuer was, from the looks of it, the ghost of Green Lantern! And he reveals that there's another visitor from ancient Atlantis: the Indian wizard Manitou Raven, 3,000 years old, holding someone's glowing green heart, and spoiling for a fight with Gamemnae...

Cool Quotes!
Nightwing, quizzing Faith about why everyone seems to trust her: "...Even Green Arrow, the grandfather of the conspiracy theory, only throws you a sideways glance if he's checking out your butt. Why?"
Faith: "It's a nice butt?"

Faith, touching down in Atlantis: "We're clear that this is a trap, right?"
Nightwing: "Sure, don't you see that anvil hanging over the plate of birdseed?"

Green Arrow, getting a glance at giant Gamemnae: "That's a 'she'? Sweet Lord! Any more libido-crushing content on this job and I'm off to Amsterdam."

Gamemnae, absorbing Major Disaster: "Oh... he makes earthquakes... Delicious."

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