Justice League #29

[superboyprime]

Comments

[locuatico]

someone else think there is something odd with Batman's face in that last panel? can't put my finger on why

[speedingtortoise]

Yeah it seems a little wonky. I can't quite pinpoint what it is either, but I think maybe it's because the cowl and eye seem to be at a slightly different angle than the mouth? Like the mouth part of the face is more facing us, while the cowl part is more looking away.

[bruinsfan]

Marlon Brando jawline and lips.

[mesmiranda]

It's the cowl's "ear" placement, I think. It should be over an inch or so to the left. As it is Bruce inadvertently looks like the guy in that slow-motion video getting hit by a soccer ball--face all smushed up to one side.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

It's not every day Batman has an "oh crap" moment at the prospect of getting a talking to from an angry wife.

[matrix_dragon]

Evil Future Cable whatever curbstomps everyone. About as expected.

On a much more amusing note, I love Lois's reaction on that last page. Clark might go 'oh, well, he's just making sure we're all safe if I get mind controlled or something.' Lois, while having her priorities focused on the current crisis, is much more reasonable about it, and I'm only sorry her verbally skinning Bruce will likely happen off panel. Because it will be glorious, Bruce will be left feeling like he went ten rounds with Bane, and Jon will once again get a reminder that both his parents are awesome.

[joetuss]

Bruce will get chewed out by Lois, say things to appease her, and he'll continue making weapons to kill her husband, rinse, wash, and repeat. The dude doesn't care what Lois, or any other secondary character thinks of him...Now if it was Alfred doing the chewing...

[matrix_dragon]

Oh, I never said he'd LEARN anything from the experience. Failing to learn from this mistake has been a habit of his since the mid-90s, after all.

[joetuss]

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call having contingency plans, against godlike beings a mistake, especially since Big Blue has on occasion co signed Bruce's contingencies himself.

[locuatico]

And then Lois publishes a best selling book titled "Bruce Wayne's Secrets", revealing all the embarassing details of his childhood, which is SO embarassing that people quote said book any time he tries to be edgy.

[joetuss]

What makes you think Bruce doesn't have a contingency plan for Lois?

[locuatico]

1) what makes you think she doesn't have contingency plans for Bruce?
2) Pissing off Clark.

[joetuss]

Yeah, he's got a app for that.

[thezmage]

Having not read the issue, I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like evil future Aquaman took out Superman while future Cyborg appears to be helping the Justice League.

[deepspaceartist]

The thing is that Bruce has a legit argument for having them even without "mind controlled Superman" on the table. What about Zod and his cronies? Or Supergirl's occasionally alive and evil parents? Or the evil Jor-El Clark is dealing with in his book right now? The fact is evil Kryptonians are not as rare as they're made out to be, so Bruce has every right to have a few defenses against them on hand. So Lois is going to have to accept that things that could hurt her family exist, just like everybody else in the world.

[mesmiranda]

It's possible she's less pissed off about "things that can hurt my family exist" and more "Batman, specifically, is making these things".

I'm not sure how close Lois and Bruce have ever become in continuity, but I'm sure Bruce's need for secrecy, misdirection, paranoia and showmanship ("I am the night!") sometimes grates against Lois's need for honesty and truth and accurate reporting. Not that either of them is wrong, per se, but I can see the personality conflict.

[deepspaceartist]

Execpt I would imagine Lois, if Clark has told her anything significant about Bruce, would consider Batman to be the best possible person to have such weapons if she's worried about Clark and Jon's safety. Bruce woild never consider just killing someone when there is any possibilty thay can be neutralized non lethally, and thus would make any anti Super weapons as non lethal as he can. Even if they don't get along, Lois should know Bruce having those weapons is her family's best chance of surviving their use.

[mesmiranda]

Definitely. But like matrix_dragon pointed out, she's pissed off and in mama bear mode, and I really do think this kind of thing--calculating how to most efficiently take out your best friends--is foreign to her, in the same way it would be foreign to Clark or Diana. I think it's necessary, when you exist in a world with telepaths and mind control and demonic forces and so on, but you can't deny there's something inherently... I don't want to say ruthless, but emotionally disconnected? And Clark trusts Bruce absolutely to make that kind of call, but Bruce doesn't have the same connection with Lois. So I get how that would be a bit subconsciously uncomfortable for her.

[q99]

I dig Lois here. She's both pissed *but* has her priorities straight, that comes later.

[nightauditguy]

Hope Bruce at least offers to get her kitchen redone.

[bruinsfan]

Er, this is still more or less the Post-Crisis Superman from before Flashpoint and the New 52, right? Red sun rays should just mean he's not continuing to absorb solar energy, not that what he's already stored in his body gets dissipated (as is the case with green Kryptonite exposure).

At any rate, Arthur has access to all kinds of ancient Atlantean enchanted objects, and presumably telepathic attacks he's used in the past against Martians and human beings would work against Kryptonians too (especially one whose mind is essentially human). He shouldn't need Batman's catalog of friend-stomping tricks.

[long_silence]

This is a future version Arthur, so even if Atlantis wasn't currently trapped in a magic bubble he probably wouldn't have access to its mystical armory.

Has nu52 or Rebirth Aquaman used his telepathy on humans?

[bruinsfan]

Not even future Atlantis' mystical armory? I assume it's not going to be walled off forever. And at any rate, Future Aquaman should know that magic exists, and Superman is vulnerable to it.

Not sure about the most recent versions of Aquaman using telepathy, I haven't been reading. Though writers rarely abandon clever tricks that previous writers have come up with—usually it's the reverse, like after Kingdom Come people who wrote Captain Marvel couldn't resist using that lightning bolt trick in present day stories even though it came as a surprise in the original Elseworlds story.

[long_silence]

Future Arthur isn't in charge of Atlantis. Apparently his daughter Eldoris is at war with Tempest over control of the city.

Of course Olympus has been brought to Earth and is the base of operations of Arthur and his boss the Sovereign (who is probably future Diana) so he should still have access to those magic weapons.

[q99]

-Er, this is still more or less the Post-Crisis Superman from before Flashpoint and the New 52, right? Red sun rays should just mean he's not continuing to absorb solar energy, not that what he's already stored in his body gets dissipated (as is the case with green Kryptonite exposure).-

Red Sun lamp type things usually caused fairly fast depletion of power post-crisis, way faster than, say, lack of light.

I headcanon that his cells are mistakening tossing out good yellow sun radiation in favor of red, so it actively zaps charge rather than just not building charge.

Green Kryptonite does a lot more than zap his charge, it's a poison that messed with the whole process and hurts him- but once it's clear, his charge is often still at full.

[nyadnar17]

Why is EVERYONE surprised that Bruce has a billions failsafes to deal with metahuman?


I mean come the fuck on there are almost double digit number of Kryptonians running around and people are surprised Bruce has ways of taking them out? I mean at least Bruce's stuff is non-lethal for the most part.

[matrix_dragon]

Well, it's less that, and more that Lois is in mama bear mode. Plus, I think Bruce wouldn't get so much crap over making countermeasures if HE STOPPED LOSING THEM TO THE BAD GUYS ON A REGULAR BASIS.

... Actually, now I want a story where a bad guy steals Bruces anti-JLA measures, only to discover he also installed theft protection, and the files they've got are WRONG.

[joetuss]

Agreed.

[janegray]

Plus, I think Bruce wouldn't get so much crap over making countermeasures if HE STOPPED LOSING THEM TO THE BAD GUYS ON A REGULAR BASIS.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Given the number of supervillains with mind control powers and tools, it's entirely logical to have contingency plans in case any of them ever get to Superman.

But jfc lock them up properly.

Also pull them out when you actually need them. The bad guys keep stealing and using them, but when the heroes need them, such as when Max Lord captured Superman's mind, somehow Batman is all out of ideas.

[q99]

Max Lord kinda shows the best counter to JLA members tends to be other JLA members.

[janegray]

Well, if you ask me, I agree that permanently putting down the guy who can control minds like a puppeteer is the best solution.

But the characters kept whining that Diana "went too far" and treated her like a pariah, and Batman in particular acted as though Diana had run over Ace and set it on fire. Yo Bats, if you had pulled out one of your contingency plans there and then, Diana wouldn't have been forced to take matters into her own hands, capiche?

[q99]

Yea, quite.

Heck, I didn't really hear much in the way of after-the-fact alternatives offered.

"So I should've held him there until... what? What was your plan at that point?"

"...."

"How convincing."

[deepspaceartist]

The League has the means to imprison an army of White Martians, each one of which can telepathically blow Max Lord out of the water as well as having physical powers that can go toe to toe with Superman. And they never got out, IIRC. Knocking him out and tossing him in there would've worked just fine. The idea that the JLA had no way of effectively containing Lord and inhibiting his powers is absurd.

[q99]

True, but the tower was trashed by Superman at Max's behast, a lot of those methods would be down, and it only took a non-telepathic message to trigger Superman in the first place, so total no-message-out would be needed.

[deepspaceartist]

As I recall the prison for the White Martians was in a pocket dimension or something along those lines, so it would be total no message out. All they need is the portal to still be working, or to keep Lord unconscious long enough to repair it. Which wouldn't be long if the can get Superman or Flash on the job.

[q99]

Phantom Zone. I can give you a list of people who've left the phantom zone :)

Anyway, yea, the scenario is a bit forced. I forget whether they knew about the threat of the army of OMACs yet either.. a trio of them came after WW within an hour or two of the event, so the threat existed.

[shadowpsykie]

ooh! ooh! instead they power boost the league!

[deepspaceartist]

To be fair, it isn't really a bad guy that took it this time. It's Aquaman. A pissed off Aquaman from the future with unknown intentions, but it's still Arthur Curry. As one of the founding members of the League, it makes some sense that Batman would tell him about one of his (less powerful) anti-Superman methods and where Batman keeps it. Don't want the world to be completely screwed if Batman's not around when evil Superman happens, after all.

[q99]

Yea.

"A new variety of kryptonite!"

"Oh yea, Bruce told me about this one. It makes my skin *shiny*. Reminds me of those Twilight novels... I can't charge solar energy til it wears off, but hey, it also reflects lasers and prevents red sun from draining me."

"Mess with your connection to the speed force!"

"Oh great, I'm still fast but things are gonna look blue for an hour..."

"Virus that'll paralyze you!"

"While a ton of Stream games *can* keep me busy for some time I would not call it 'paralyzed'..."

[shadowpsykie]

ooooh Lois is mad.... i bet he had a bladder spasm

[bradygirl_12]

If anyone could get through Bruce's thick skull, it's Lois.