WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! HELLOOOOO! McFLYYYYYY!
Title: Last Call
Release Date: Early December 2002
Writer: Joe KellyPenciller: Yvel GuichetInkers: Mark Propst and
Bob PetreccaJLA 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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