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Giffen, DeMatteis, Hughes.

This story arc begins with a “heroic” Justice League associate using wealth and power to crush a reporter researching the truth about the team. You probably think I’m talking about Max Lord, right?

We first met said reporter digging through the League’s garbage in Justice League America #35…

And then, in #38, we got a mockup of the piece as it might appear in a contemporary magazine…

As you might notice from the indicia, this parody of Spy was produced with Spy’s permission. The photo-comparing "Separated at Birth" was Spy's most popular regular feature. Lasting from 1986 to 1998, the magazine was an influence on other publications, which copied elements of its insider irreverence. It satirized Washington and New York elites and “high society,” so it won the love of the intellectual set (and even scored a TV special) but struggled to turn a consistent profit. That might explain why it was open to cross-promotion with a freakin’ comic book.

Maxwell Lord has some 1980s-era Trump in his DNA, and Trump was Spy's favorite target. It ridiculed him relentlessly yet dared to suggest he would become a forgotten nobody once the excess-loving Eighties were over. Which was almost true, for awhile.

But enough of this wishful thinking, let’s get back to fiction. This should be a triumphant moment for our rubbish-raking writer, but there's another layer to the Justice League story he hasn't exposed, and that's going to come back to bite him.

Back in 1990, this probably played as a refinement on the heroic power fantasy: “Wouldn’t it be great to be rich and have all kinds of soft power as well as punching people in the face?” But in 2026? It’s a little more disquieting. Gotta be honest, I do not miss the Crimson Fox.

Especially since she may have not just killed the piece at Spy but gotten Tortolini blacklisted. Now, to be sure, Tortolini's kind of journalism can ruin people's lives for the public's amusement as often, or more often, as it actually afflicts the comfortable. But even so, he's an underdog when we catch up to him in #43:

The Justice League is chasing Sonar, AKA Bito Wladon, whose attempt at a “back to basics” bank robbery has gone south. Bito manages to shake them for a bit by shattering the glass windows of a few skyscrapers, creating a rain of shards from which the League has to protect the public. But a mean punch from Orion has lowered Bito's odds of escape…

Wally not only gets Bito into a cab, he finds him the kind of doctor who'll patch him up without alerting the authorities. He's hoping for quid pro quo, of course, but he is so open about that fact that Bito ends up bonding with him anyway.

Bito takes Wally to the Dark Side, DC's answer to Marvel's Bar With No Name, a hangout for the humbler members of the supervillain set. Notice the announcement board in the background of the first panel below, which indicates that members of the Injustice League used to drink here before they tried going straight.

Bito continues to introduce his new friend to his social circle and inducts him into a game of cards:

BITO: You play, Wally?
WALLY: Not very well.
BITO: “Not very well’s” better than most of these guys.

Bito is not exaggerating: a couple of hours in, Wally has nearly all the chips and money on the table.

George Plimpton was known for "participatory journalism," not just observing but getting involved with sporting events, comedy clubs, movie acting, and classical music performance. Roger Ebert, better known today, was a prolific reviewer of movies.

The next day, Wally’s playing around with his new gear and accidentally blows open his apartment wall. Scared of retaliation from his landlord and the police, he starts to flee. The Men in Black waiting outside his apartment mutter, "Damn. How'd he know we were here?"

In a London skyscraper at dusk, a mysterious man in a suit watches Tortolini battle his agents on his monitor. We will later know him as Mr. Bigger.

This mayhem leads to scattered reports of a supervillain rampage...and reporters recognize the weapons being used, so they blame Sonar and company. The JLI is minutes away, so the MIBs retreat, covering their escape with a flash grenade that blinds Wally for a few frames. When he recovers his sight, he finds himself surrounded by the Dark Side patrons.

J'Onn himself takes out Sonar, grabbing his tuning-fork gun while invisible. When we next see Sonar/Bito in post-Giffen JLI comics, he will have a completely different personality, somewhere between Doctor Doom and Phantom of the Opera. Or, if you prefer, he will be doing his best to pretend that this whole phase of his life never happened (Justice League Europe #48).

But none of the JLAers have the slightest suspicion of who actually started this "supervillain rampage," and Wally prepares to melt into the crowd. After all, any of the supercrooks who might resent him are in prison themselves, and that just leaves the Men in--

I don’t think Tortolini’s based on any existing comics writer, though maybe he borrows a trait or two from people Giffen and/or DeMatteis knew. They showed a lot of sympathy for the little weasel, though.

He’d turn up once more in Justice League Quarterly #12, blowing the whistle on a staged super-fight. Bottomfeeders have their place in the ecosystem.