Justice League of America #78

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE COMING OF THE DOOMSTERS! Green Arrow is on patrol through Star City when he spots a quick drawing security guard trying to stop some crooks. He decides to get their attention by shooting a flare arrow, and going into the fray he realizes that the arrow ignites chemicals in the nearby river. Needing more help he signals the Justice League and Superman and Green Lantern arrive and help douse the flames as Green Arrow deals with the crooks. They depart without realizing the guard was actually being attacked by his employers and they go before he can give them a briefcase with important information inside.   Superman and Green Lantern take Green Arrow to a nearby publishing outlet where the JLA have setup a teleportation chamber that takes Green Lantern to the Justice League's new headquarters: A satellite in constant orbit above the Earth. Green Arrow is shown around the satellite before they are all to report back to the surface to appear at a charity gala in Star City. Meanwhile, the security guard learns of the event and decides to try and get the information he has to the Justice League there and finds that he is still being chased by the men who hired him but manages to escape the men and their powerful ray guns.   At the charity even the Justice League officially introduces their new member Black Canary to the public. The event is interrupted by the arrival of the guard who is almost assassinated by his assailants when they are stopped by the Justice League. Upon their defeat Superman recognizes them as automations that are about to explode and shields the crowd. They take the security guard up to their satellite and learn that he was the retired super-hero the Vigilante and that he had taken up a job for the a company that appeared to be making nothing but pollution for the sole purpose of polluting the Earth. His snooping turned him from an employee to a target. In the attaché that has been brought to them they find a consolation map of the Serius star system. They decide to make a three pronged attack: While Superman and Green Lantern check out the location on the star map, Green Arrow would return to Star City and confront the crooked city manager Jason Crass, while Vigilante, Black Canary, Batman and the Atom go to work shutting down the operation.   Green Lantern finds that diplomacy won't work with the smug Jason Crass who has Green Arrow thrown out of city hall by the police. Superman and Green Lantern arrive on the world listed on the map and find that it is a dead husk that has had it's populations wiped out by pollution. Back on Earth, Vigilante, Atom, Black Canary and Batman break into the factory and find themselves attacked by more automations and are soon knocked out with gas and put in a net over a vat of toxic chemicals. The mysterious leader of this operation watches just as they are lowered into the chemicals. THE MAN WHO HATED SCIENCE This story is reprinted from Mystery in Space #6.