Justice League of America #66

Issue Details

Synopsis

DIVIDED - THEY FALL Generalissimo Demmy Gog and his rag-tag six-man army set out to conquer America, using the stolen "Morale Machine" invented by Prof. Howard Aiken.   At a tense meeting of the Justice League, some of the lesser-powered members have a falling-out with their mightier comrades, which results in Batman, Green Arrow, and Atom joining Snapper Carr on a seemingly-pointless task to investigate the Morale Machine's disappearance, while Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern remain behind, exchanging sharp remarks. Their conversation deteriorates in tone, and they bicker over routine chores, and profound, pervasive apathy settles over them. None of them feels the inclination, or even the ability, to exert their super powers, and Green Lantern's ring has stopped glowing. They decide to seek out their teammates at Snapper's college.   At Happy Harbor College, the Bat/Arrow/Atom team get into an unnecessary conflict with some ordinary college football players, and are publicly almost defeated before barely winning. They locate and interview Professor Aiken, and learn about his Morale Machine, and that it was stolen, earlier, at an international psychologists' convention in Offalia. This device detects and measures certain electric impulses in the brain, relevant to "morale", and is also able to influence those impulses. Its effect was to create an excess of morale in some people, and a deficit of it in others.   Behind the scenes, Generalissimo Gog has been using this device on students and faculty all across the campus, from a good vantage point, which clues Batman in that their unknown enemy is up in the Bell Tower at the center of campus. The tower's stairway has been rigged as a trap, dumping Atom, Batman, Green Arrow, Snapper Carr, and Professor Aiken into a second trap, and gluing them all in place. Demmy Gog steps into their sight and gloats about the stolen technology's amazing capabilities, and how foolproof his big plan is, while the Atom rallies the will to escape, and switches off the Morale Machine. After that, Gog and his Half Dozen are easily subdued, although Gog himself, filled with an excess of morale, attempts to overcome Superman singlehandedly, to no avail whatsoever.   According to Professor Aiken, Gog's use of the Morale Machine sent a harmonic wave of itself into the stratosphere which bounced off the heavy-side layer and back to Earth, which affected the JLA in their Happy Harbor Headquarters. The re-morale-adjusted Justice League members smooth over their earlier squabbles, and once again stand united.