"Justice League: Checkmate"
A whirlwind in Africa threatens to wipe out a city, people panic and trip over each other. From out of a bug airship, The Justice League spring into action. Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Atom and Blue Beetle rescue citizens from falling debris while Firestorm and Booster Gold fly the citizens to safe locations. Mr. Terrific directs the citizens via his floating spheres to safe bunkers around the city. Terrific gives Flash the go-ahead, and The Flash runs towards the tornado, trying to run reverse of it's cycle to disperse it. Though he isn't fast enough at first, Wonder Woman and Vixen use their respective super-speeds to help destroy the tornado and save the city. Wonder Woman rights today off a victory for The Justice League.
On televisions around the globe, ARGUS (Advanced Research Group Uniting Superhumans) debut their new worldwide security system, Brother Eye. Brother Eye is a satellite that monitors all superhuman activity on Earth and, if no superheroes are around to prevent a crime, Brother Eye will activate an OMAC (One Man Army Construct) to protect citizens. Brother Eye has undercover officers on Earth throughout countries who has been given a biological device that turns them into a superpowered cyborg via Brother Eye's activation. Brother Eye and the OMACs are said to be "the black to The JL's white".
Wonder Woman, The Flash and Vixen watch this in The Hall of Justice HQ, discussing whether it's right or wrong. Their conversation is interrupted when Supergirl knocks on the top floor's window and is let in. Supergirl wants to join The Justice League, claiming her training and experience has readied her to be a full-fledged hero. Wonder Woman agrees to let the team vote on it. The heroes get a call by Black Canary and find out that Green Arrow has been heavily injured, following this Blue Beetle tries to tell Wonder Woman about his research on Brother Eye, but Wonder Woman is too concerned over Green Arrow to listen.
In Gotham City, a woman is being attacked by a group of men. Batman looms overhead, but before he can act, a man appears in the ally and turns into an OMAC. The OMAC entangles the men and almost approaches Batman, but recognizes Batman is human and flies away. Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Flash and Vixen visit Green Arrow who is in a coma. When the doctor claims the damage can only be undone via brain surgery, Wonder Woman sends The Atom inside Green Arrow to asses the damage. At the same time, Blue Beetle is trying to tell Booster Gold at The Hall about his research, that he found funding from Wayne Industries, Queen International, and Terrificorp poured into Brother Eye. Booster is too busy trying to turn Skeets back on, as his robotic buddy has been deactivated for days. Blue Beetle stomps out claiming he'll finish his research on his own.
Inside Green Arrow's head, The Atom makes repairs on Arrow's brain by repairing tissue. He is attacked by a strange worm creature and Green Arrow starts to have an aneurism. By replicating the powers of an electric eel, Vixen generates electricity to Green Arrow's brain to keep him functioning. The Atom comes out of Arrow's head, confirming Green Arrow will recover and showing the League the strange worm he found.
The League (Firestorm, Mr. Terrific, Green Arrow and Booster Gold included) meet at The Hall and study the strange worm. Terrific analyzes that the worm seemed to generate brain waves that overwrite it's host, essentially granting whoever controlled the worm mind control. The Atom wants to check everyone's brains and Arrow's again to make sure they are all clean, but Supergirl-who snuck in-uses her X-ray vision to determine Green Arrow and Mr. Terrific still have worms. Suddenly, Skeets activates and starts attacking the League, using the Hall's own security weapons to battle them. Blue Beetle is meanwhile about to break into a warehouse in Hub City and finds its a monitor room for Brother Eye being ran by Maxwell Lord, the media agent of The League. Lord has an OMAC beat Blue Beetle to a pulp as he explains that superpowers should be in the hands of the citizens and not self-made gods. He reveals that he used the worms to mind control Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen, Michael Holt and even Ted Kord himself into funding money and helping the construction of Brother Eye, then erasing any memory of those events. Lord offers Kord a chance to join him, to which Kord replies "Rot in Hell, Max". Lord shoots Kord through the skull.
After destroying Skeets, The League receive a call from Batman-who is still untrusted by them-and learn Batman has removed his worm from his skull. When they gather, Batman explains the worm's have a signature pointing towards Doctor Sivana, the enemy of Shazam (another hero kicked out of The League). While the others go find Shazam for help, Booster tracks down Ted Kord and finds his body on a trash boat. Through Beetle's mask-mouted video recorder, the League learn Max is behind Brother Eye and The League recruit Batman and Shazam once again to attack Maxwell Lord.
The League arrive in the fields of Ireland where Maxwell's secret organization Checkmate have their castle. Mr. Terrific is revealed to be a double-agent and almost sabotages the mission, but is stopped by Booster Gold's relative Dan Carter/Supernova who wields his own suit and was called by Booster to help.
Maxwell has his own army though. He sends out Russian mercenaries called The Rocket Red Brigade, the mind controlled Doom Patrol (Mento, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man and Robotman), the reprogrammed Metal Men (Gold, Platinum, Iron, Lead, Mercury, and Tin), two ionic-powered soldiers (Captain Atom and Major Force) and many Checkmate foot-soldiers. One fight heavily featured is Supergirl defeating a reluctant Captain Atom only to be weakened by Major Force who generates Red Sun Radiation. After Shazam defeats Major Force, he flirts with Supergirl and the two heroes continue the battle (having Shazam think "I hope she doesn't find out I'm a kid" and Supergirl thinking "I hope he doesn't find out I'm in my fifty's"). Batman and Green Arrow charge in as several OMACs fly in. The two are beaten and brought to Maxwell Lord. Max reveals Doctor Sivana created a super-intelligent worm named Mr. Mind who "produced" smaller worms that could act as mental remotes for Max. Max used the worms to steal the money of The League's richest members and create a tool to "even the playing field". He also put a worm in Skeets to distract the League. Booster Gold tries to get revenge on Max, but is defeated by an OMAC. The League begins to lose, but Mr. Terrific has a change of heart about superheroes and uses sonic waves to kill the mind control worms in The Doom Patrol and reprogram The Metal Men into heroes. Captain Atom switches sides after a pep talk by Flash and defeats Major Force.
As the tide turns, Max gets mad and uses a batch of mind worms to control Batman. He gives Batman a gun and tells him to shoot Booster Gold. He tries to fight it, but Batman shoots Booster through the shoulder. Max commands he kill Booster, but when Batman shoots again the bullet is blocked by Wonder Woman who has sped in with other heroes. Shazam-with the Wisdom of Solomon and earlier info from Batman-tells the OMACs that they were not programmed to fight people without powers. Guys like Batman and Green Arrow shouldn't be targeted and Booster Gold and Shazam himself get their powers by other means. The OMACs malfunction upon this revelation. Outmatched, Max reveals one last plan. He activates Brother Eye's "Falling Glance" program to make the satellite fall on the Checkmate Castle. Flying heroes try to stop the satellite, but a legion of OMACs protect the satellite. Max reveals those protection OMACs are linked to his heart, meaning they won't deactivate unless he is killed. Batman is stunned in horror by the thought of almost shooting someone, but everybody is debating how to stop the crash as heroes in space struggle to get past the OMACs. Everyone goes silent as the sound of Wonder Woman snapping Maxwell Lord's neck fills the room. The OMACs deactivate and Supergirl, Captain Atom, and Shazam slow the satellite down, push it back into space and blow it up with their respective blasts.
Upon these events, the U.S. government and the public blame the whole thing on The Justice League. "If the League wasn't so high and mighty and actually worked with our government instead of over it, there would be less casualties in the middle" says one late-night show host. The incident of Wonder Woman killing a man with no powers causing the UN to kick both Atlantis and Themyscira out of their ranks and The Hall of Justice to be torn down. All the heroes return to their cities, now considered dangers to the public: Green Arrow and Black Canary retire from being superheroes, Mr. Terrific sells his company to Bruce Wayne who, in turn, purchases Kord Industries, Booster Gold becomes distant as his robotic friend, his love interest, his sister and his best friend are out of his life and his relative Dan Carter/Supernova and Captain Atom are seen as "America's real heroes", The Metal Men go into hiding with their creator Will Magnus after he is released from Argus custody, The Doom Patrol go under the radar too. Batman tells Alfred that he feels all this is his fault. His paranoia triggered Maxwell Lord's secret doubts, his contingency plans spawned Brother Eye, and now all heroes will be hunted just as he was when "Batman" first appeared in Gotham. Queen Diana puts away her Wonder Woman uniform and claims to only focus on her home now, looking at a photo of herself, Superman and Batman at a diner before meeting her people.
After the credits, Queen Diana steps into the rebuilt Batcave and welcomed by Alfred. Bruce gets off his chair-now wielding a cane-and explains if Diana is truly done being a hero, she and him have one last job, just like they did after "Tower of Babel". Yet again, Bruce and Diana say "We have to build a better League".
Thank you for reading.
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