Justice & Injustice

"Justice League: Tower of Babel"

To every black, there is white. An immortal tyrant has raised his generals, the world's greatest heroes are at threat. Men and women of corrupted power stand to wipe the heroes off the table, and the alliance between the heroes is challenged by a paranoid Dark Knight. Who will destroy the League first: Batman or The Legion of Doom? Only Vandal Savage will know, as he holds all the cards in his hands.

The outskirts of Kahndaq, three cloaked men walk the sands, these men are revealed to be the immortal Vandal Savage and his former-God assistant Apollo. They toss the third man into a ritualistic circle in the sand and conduct a spell that summons ashes around the desert into the man's body. The man is told to yell "Shazam" and becomes Black Adam. Vandal tells Black Adam he has been revived and sealed into the body of his descendent, and-as tradition-Black Adam owes Vandal a favor.

At the Vasquez House, Billy Batson is picked up by Metropolis reporter Lois Lane and walked into the back of a cab. The cab is actually a Martian-build ship that morphs into a jet and flies off. Lois turns out to be Martian Manhunter in disguise and offers Billy some cookies. The ship lands in The Watchtower and Billy is walked into the main hall where he meets Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Rushing in after Billy is Wally West, the former sidekick Kid Flash who took on The Flash mantle after Barry Allen became trapped in The Speed Force (a season-ender in my ideal Flash show). Billy and Wally are officially welcomed into The Justice League and the heroes share a meal, but Batman wanders out. Wonder Woman walks in on Batman replacing the energy units in his exoskeleton. He has to wear this Kord Industries exoskeleton to help support his recently reconstructed back and Batman really doesn't want to draw attention to it. The two of them are unsure about letting Billy and Wally on The JL because of their respective ages, but regard them as better choices than "the Beetle and that Gold guy".

Batman returns to Wayne Manor after the party and is told by Alfred of something awful: the bodies of Thomas and Martha Wayne have been taken from their graves. In the middle of the Louisiana swamps, the masked villain Bane searches for a beacon on a monitor. He is led to a large body of water where he meets the beastly villainess The Cheetah, the criminal outcast Captain Cold and the underwater predator Black Manta. They are welcomed into a large skull-shaped base in the lake, built from a portion of Brainiac's ship ("Panic In The Skies") and enter to meet Black Adam, Apollo and their orchestrator Vandal Savage. Savage then presents them a teleportation device copied from JL files and transports Mal'a'fa'ak (or Malefic) to Earth. Malefic is a martian maniac with no psychic powers who killed the entire Green Martian populous, not counting one. Vandal claims he seeks to wipe the Earth clean and start anew with himself as it's ruler. To do that, he needs the Justice League gone. Vandal explains he was born a neanderthal and slept next to a radioactive meteor. The rays accelerated his evolution and made him immortal, so Vandal lived throughout history as a philosopher, a pirate, a knight, a general, an artist, but most often, a conquerer. If he can destroy the JL and wipe out half the planet's population, he will give segments of Earth to the villains in return. He mentions that it is because of The Flash that Captain Cold and other Flash villains have their consequential superpowers (again, Flash show stuff), and how Malefic lived in seclusion for generations believing he had killed his people and unaware of Martian Manhunter's survival. When asked how this "Legion of Doom" would kill the JL, Vandal answers "from the inside out".

New York City, Martian Manhunter-under his human disguise John Jones-enjoys a night out with his cop buddies, but has to leave as it his turn to watch the Watchtower monitors on the JL's space base. He enters the Watchtower, unaware of a small rat sneaking on board with him. Captain Cold stages a robbery in Keystone City and is met by Wally/The Flash. When he tries to fight Cold, Flash is tricked into having a device implanted into his wrist. Cold claims it's a bomb that will explode if Flash doesn't keep a consistent speed. Wonder Woman is lured into a fight with The Cheetah. From a grassy nolle, Apollo uses a magic bullet to knock Diana out, when she comes to she is tied to an anchor of a boat and dropped into the ocean by Cheetah. She tries to break out, but she is tied with her own unbreakable Lasso of Truth. Aquaman fights Black Manta in his throne room, but Manta seemingly vanishes. When Aquaman picks up his trident off the floor he begins to see aquatic monsters all over Atlantis and he attempts to fight them. Shazam flies home after a day of crime fighting to find Black Adam holding his foster family hostage. Adam forces Shazam into becoming Billy again and then attaches a device onto Billy's neck. If Billy yells "Shazam" it will explode. Adam then lifts Billy high into the air and drops him. After a long search, Batman finds the bodies of the Wayne's in their original graves behind Wayne Manor. Panicked and confused, Batman hurries back inside and he finds Alfred tied up in the Batcave. Bane sits before the Bat-Computer and uses a hacking device to malfunction Batman's exoskeleton. On the Watchtower, the little rat sneaks a serum into Martian Manhunter's drink and the rat is revealed to Malefic. Distracted by rage, Martian Manhunter doesn't realize the formula snuck into him turns his sweat into air-triggered lighter fluid. Martian Manhunter is engulfed in flames and locked in a prison bay by Malefic. Malefic leaves a briefcase in the Watchtower as Bane leaves one in The Batcave.

Batman wakes up buried underground next to his parent's corpses with no utility belt. Batman ignores the psychological damage and contacts Alfred, who is locked in the cave with a bomb set for fifteen minutes. Batman remembers Billy's calls over communicator and tells Flash to catch him. Billy is a few stories from the Fawcett City pavement when Flash zips over a roof to catch and drop off Billy safely. Putting the pieces together, Batman has to instruct the JL while buried. Batman begins punching his way out of the casket while telling Aquaman to stop fighting, doing this allows Queen Mera to take the fake trident away and reveal the planted trident made Aquaman see innocent Atlantean's as monsters. Aquaman is then ordered to swim after Wonder Woman to save her from drowning. Billy is told that the device on his neck activates from his voice, so Billy breaks into a toy store and uses a voice modulator toy to say "Shazam", slipping by the bomb's activation and turning him into Shazam, he rips the bomb off and flies away. The Flash is told to vibrate himself through an iceburg, something he's never done. But Batman-between bloody punches-gives Wally motivation and he successfully runs through an iceberg which dislodges the wrist bomb. Shazam flies into space to save Martian Manhunter as Batman breaks through the casket and crawls through dirt. Shazam shows up in the Watchtower and-using the wisdom of Solomon-brings the fiery MM out into space, the lack of oxygen stops MM's burning and the two fly off just as the bomb destroys The Watchtower. Batman-tired and weak-manages to get Alfred out his binds, Alfred carries Batman out of the cave, takes one look back and leaves as the bomb destroys Wayne Manor and caves in The Batcave.

At the Legion of Doom base, the villains celebrate their victory and Vandal explains he will be using a magically empowered magnet to draw a passing comet towards Earth. The resulting explosion will take out half the planet's people and their base can survive the blast. In humanities weakness, Vandal and The Legion of Doom will take over. Meanwhile, the JL regroup at Mount Justice, a reserve base for The League that Superman hollowed out back in the day. The League is healing after the full-scale attack and wonders how their enemies could be so coordinated, Batman claims they must have a ringleader and uses Wayne Satellite surveillance to spot Vandal Savage reviving Black Adam earlier. Wonder Woman and The Flash both recognize Vandal, but still wonder how the villains planned this all out. Batman reveals it was his doing. Since Brainiac's invasion, Batman has studied every Justice League member and cataloged their weaknesses, physically, mentally and emotionally. He then devised plans to kill each Leaguer if they should ever abuse their power or lose control of themselves. Vandal Savage must have stolen Batman's Contingency Plans. With the help of Apollo, Vandal accessed almost unbreakable files and got his hands on dangerous technology. The Leaguers become enraged by Batman's betrayal, more so when they learn he had a plan for Superman too. Surprisingly, the heroes attack Batman and he runs throughout the base trying to avoid his friends. Weakened from his fights, Batman hides and contacts Oracle/Barbara Gordon. Oracle tells Batman that someone has snuck pods of Scarecrow's modified "Fear Toxin" into the base, modified samples that trigger anger instead of fear. While Oracle works on a chemical formula to de-funk the gas, Batman uses his clever mind to trick the Leaguers into fighting each other.

Oracle sends the chemical mix to Batman and he creates vaccines to apply to his League members. He notes how extreme work must have gone into that modified batch for it to effect a Speedster, a Demigod, an Atlantean, a magical being, and a Martian. The League put Batman's loyalty on the back-burner to plan an assault on The Legion of Doom. They find and break into The Legion's base, but are expected. Vandal set up the Anger Toxin as a backup plan, but also accounted for if the League resisted the urge to kill each other. So the big fight commences: Batman vs Bane, Wonder Woman vs Cheetah, Aquaman vs Black Manta, Flash vs Captain Cold, Shazam vs Black Adam, and Martian Manhunter vs Malefic. While Vandal and Apollo tend to the magic magnet, the Leaguers struggle to win. Batman gets an idea and tells Martian Manhunter to link their minds together. By focusing the Wisdom of Solomon, Shazam is able to figure out what each Leaguer must do to defeat their opponents. Batman uses the darkness of the cargo room to hit several weak-points on Bane. When Bane catches Batman, he is left immobilized as Batman planted taser-patches all over Bane's nerves. Wonder Woman breaks a steam pipe to disorient the savage Cheetah, then tie her limbs together with the lasso. Martian Manhunter pushes his powers to the limit by shapeshifting into a council of Martian elders to judge Malefic and use his guilt to throw him off. The Flash lures Captain Cold into a room, moving slower because of Cold's powers. Flash takes an oil drum in the room and runs a path of it. He then used his intense speed to light the oil on fire, dimming Cold's powers. Aquaman gets close on Black Manta, teasing him on how he needed Vandal's help to defeat him and it didn't even work. Enraged, Black Manta doesn't notice Aquaman's water-structure hand flowing through the mask of his armor and paralyzing him with electrical bursts. Shazam fights Black Adam to a standstill, but is able to convince Adam that his favor is done and if Vandal wins, Kahndaq will not belong to Adam. Black Adam flies off, wishing the League luck.

The magic magnet is activated and monitors show the comet drifting towards Earth. Batman gets to Vandal Savage first and they fight it out. The League show just in time to hear Vandal admit the Legion base won't survive the comet and that it will actually act as a type of seismic bolt to extent the blast over the Earth, wiping out all of humanity. Vandal has a society of hostages hidden under the base and because he is immortal he will simply come back from the blow and use his hostages to start a new society under his rule. Wonder Woman takes him down and uses the Lasso to find out how to stop the magnet, Vandal is compelled to tell her the activation is irreversible. The only way to stop it would be to move the magnet. Batman-with the League's last amount of trust-calls the game plan: The Flash will quickly evacuate the defeated villains and the hostages out of the base, Wonder Woman, Shazam and Martian Manhunter will lift the entire base into orbit, Aquaman will hold Vandal under the swampy water to drown him without killing him. Batman increases the magnet's power so the comet follows the base deep into space. Martian Manhunter reaches inside and grabs Batman. As Wonder Woman and Shazam fly away, the comet hits the Legion base and explodes in the depth of space.

Vandal Savage, Bane, Cheetah, Malefic, Captain Cold, Apollo and Black Manta are locked up by the government organization Argus, but Black Adam is nowhere to be found. Alfred sets up home in The Wayne Industries Penthouse and Aquaman returns to a scared and confused Atlantis. Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Shazam and Martian Manhunter sit down in Mount Justice to discuss Batman's actions. Aquaman sends a hologram message confirming his leaving of The Justice League to tend to his kingdom. He also gives his vote for Batman to be kicked of the JL. Before the rest of the League votes, Flash thinks Batman should have a chance to defend his actions. Batman does not regret or apologize for his actions, his betrayal of the JL was absolutely necessary to assure the planet's protection. He claims Superman did not know of these plans and that The Atom's predictions ("Olympus of Heroes") were correct in assuming Batman would play a part in the League's downfall. That's why Batman created failsafes in private after Atom's predictions just to make sure he had control over the situation. Non-apologetic, Batman claims if The League can't see the danger of their power, he doesn't belong with them. Batman then quits The Justice League. After he is gone, Martian Manhunter announces his leaving too, as the breach of trust has made him unsure of his allies.

In the wake of the League breaking up, Wonder Woman meets with Batman in his in-repair Batcave. They pull together a list of canidates for a new Justice League. Though Wonder Woman is in disgust with Batman, she owes it to Superman to go through with this new roster plan. Wonder Woman welcomes The New Justice League into Mount Justice: Herself (Wonder Woman), The Flash (Wally West), Shazam, Mr. Terrific, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Firestorm, Vixen and The Atom (Ryan Choi). Now together, Wonder Woman leads this new League to protect the planet.

After the credits, several shadowy figures meet in a board room and discuss a satellite to "protect the unpowered", these shadows offer amounts of money to fund the plan and the leading shadow comes up with the name "Brother Eye". This leading shadow is revealed to be Bruce Wayne.

Thank you for reading.

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