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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Given how "illegal" chemical and biological weapons are you might want to consider that whatever's effecting you has no connection to Paul...


There are degrees of legality though. Tear gas and pepper spray, for example, are both chemical weapons. Many law enforcement agencies have their personnel pepper sprayed in training in order to prepare them for the possibility of it happening for real.
 
Bended (part 10)
2nd March
16:08 GMT


"I was the first one to die, wasn't I?"

I nod sympathetically as Mr Queen sits up on the bier. "Yes. But I'd like to say that thanks to your valiant sacrifice none of the police or ambulance personnel were exposed, and most of the Consolidated Applied Sciences who were also exposed survived."

His expression brightens up very slightly, then the brightness dies.

"But you can't, because they all died anyway, along with all the robot gang bangers, because I got exposed after all of them."

I nod again.

"Was it a.. poison, or a disease?"

"What knocked you out was a poison, an extremely safe one I had Euanthe develop to stand in for something nastier. I'm afraid that I won't be telling you what it was in-game until today's activities are concluded."

He gives his muscles a slight stretch, the last of the lingering effects vanishing. Things like this make me very glad that Euanthe isn't a supervillain.

"So what was I supposed to do? Not get close enough to get infected?"

"I was going to include that as part of my feedback at the end, but… If you really want to know now?" He nods. "Everyone in the League now uses the wards Sephtian and I developed to protect them from magic attack, but… Most of you haven't followed up. I don't use them, but there are wards against poison and disease."

"U-hh."

"Failing that, sealed armour like Roy wears or certain types of environmental energy shield or certain types of physical enhancement would have rendered you immune."

He-. He's trying to put a brave face on it, but I can see he's sagging.

"I can put you in touch with my supplier if you want."

"I've never-. I mean, I know it's a fair test. Joker does stuff like that all the time, and I think Barry had a guy-"

I nod. "Doctor Amar."

"-who-. Right." He hesitates. "What-?"

"Murmur."

"Yeah, that's it. I've never had a bio-weapon bad guy." He slides off the bier and onto his feet. "Think I've just gotten lucky?"

"I think it's the heavy industry. Star City never had all that much compared to Gotham in its heyday or Keystone City today. Chemicals get into the water, the air… Plus, heavy industry has suffered from relatively cheap imports, resulting in higher unemployment in primarily low and semi-skilled manual labour jobs. And, yes, a bit."

"So… You're not… I mean, all the guys the League are gunna be fighting-."

"I'm not trying to push you out of the League, if that's what you're working up to asking."

He hesitates again, then nods. "Yeah, it kinda is."

"Alright, to be totally blunt, based on the criteria I came up with for League membership, I wouldn't have recruited you. You're not alone in that category, and it doesn't mean that you're doing a bad job or that you're a bad person. If we were reforming the League to have a far broader base I'd be happy putting you in charge of a city or a region. Your skills and comportment are good. But several of the League's core functions call for a level of raw power or extraordinary skill which you don't have and don't appear to be inclined to get."

"Huh." He nods again. "So who else is on the list?"

"The initial seven members joined up due to fighting the appellaxians together, so skipping them-."

He shrugs. "Why skip them?"

"Alright. King Orin is borderline. I'd rather have had Queen Mera. He can contribute an army and the resources of a state, but he can do that without occupying a front line position. I wouldn't have recruited the Hawks when they were recruited." The same year as they started operating on Earth. The only justification I can think of is that Batman wanted them where he could keep an eye on them. There's no way they showed a level of ability and dedication in that period which justified their recruitment. Mr Freeman's dodgy for similar reasons. Not enough time active, Superman's 'I thought he was kryptonian' excuse notwithstanding. "Ms Lance, Mister Harper, Doctor Palmer, Mister O'Brian-."

He frowns. "Plas?"

"It's not a 'superpowers only' thing. I recommended Dmitri and I'd recruit Batman. Mister O'Brian's abilities just aren't useful enough to justify his inclusion compared to plenty of other people on Earth." I shrug. "Of course, all that only matters if we're talking about a 'small League' like we have now. If we switch to a broad based organisation, they're all fine."

"Okay, so, how about your team?"

"For Justice League membership?" He nods. "Kon, M'gann-."

"You don't think Superboy belongs on the League?"

"No, he does. I'm skipping the rest. Zatanna, if she wanted to join. Roy. That's it at the moment."

"Not you?"

"Gods, no. The lack of clear direction would drive me insane. I'm more effective left to my own devices."

"And everyone else?"

"Same sort of problem. Insufficient power, skill, experience or poor comportment."

"You.. told them you think that?" I shake my head. "'cause Arte-."

"Doesn't want to join the League. Oh, she wants to fight the good fight, partially to distance herself from her father and partially because she actually likes helping people. But the best way to utilise her would be to deploy her off in somewhere like Hub City. Somewhere with a high level of both street crime and official corruption. A long term medium intensity job."

"You told her that?"

"No. I might once she finishes college, if she decides to get back into it." I pause briefly. "Do you have any other questions? Because the wargame is still running-."

"Those wards. Orin can hook me up?" I nod. "And… Enhancements?"

"I'll include a few options in my report. Excuse me."

Under the circumstances I decide not to raise my right hand to my forehead, but instead just

step out

and reappear in the Watchtower's main room, Batman giving a summary to the rest of the League.

"-biological agent. Take extreme caution in dealing with anyone. If you notice yourself sweating or an increased heart rate, call for Doctor Mist, Accomplished Perfect Physician or Angelica immediately."

The heads on the monitor all nod. It appears that Mr Queen has been the only fatality so far. Ms Lance's eyes alight on me for a moment, then her face vanishes with the rest.

GM system, how are things going?
 
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Okay, that was fairly brutal, but

"Okay, so, how about your team?"

"For Justice League membership?" He nods. "Kon, M'gann-."

"You don't think Superboy belongs on the League?"

"No, he does. I'm skipping the rest. Zatanna, if she wanted to join. Roy. That's it at the moment."

is confusing, I'm not sure what he's talking about when he says superboy does not deserve to be on the league and Paul saying he's skipping people.
 
Okay, that was fairly brutal, but



is confusing, I'm not sure what he's talking about when he says superboy does not deserve to be on the league and Paul saying he's skipping people.

He's saying only Kon and M'gann make the cut by his standards, Zattana and Roy as well, but those are the only 4.
 
Okay, that was fairly brutal, but



is confusing, I'm not sure what he's talking about when he says superboy does not deserve to be on the league and Paul saying he's skipping people.

I think he is only mentioning the people he thinks should be in the league because the list is shorter.

And hey, Ollie is willing to learn now, so this was already a success. And hearing OL thinks of so many people as being a bad fit should go a long way to soften the impact of that assessment.
 
"I was the first one to die, wasn't I?"

I nod sympathetically as Mr Queen sits up on the bier. "Yes. But I'd like to say that thanks to your valiant sacrifice none of the police or ambulance personnel were exposed, and most of the Consolidated Applied Sciences who were also exposed survived."

His expression brightens up very slightly, then the brightness dies.

"But you can't, because they all died anyway, along with all the robot gang bangers, because I got exposed after all of them."
Smart guy. Realism overcomes optimism in this scenario.

I nod again.

"Was it a.. poison, or a disease?"

"What knocked you out was a poison, an extremely safe one I had Euanthe develop to stand in for something nastier. I'm afraid that I won't be telling you what it was in-game until today's activities are concluded."
Because Ollie might let something slip that J'onn might pick up, of course.

He gives his muscles a slight stretch, the last of the lingering effects vanishing. Things like this make me very glad that Euanthe isn't a supervillain.

"So what was I supposed to do? Not get close enough to get infected?"
Protection against sicknesses would have been enough...

"I was going to include that as part of my feedback at the end, but… If you really want to know now?" He nods. "Everyone in the League now uses the wards Sephtian and I developed to protect the from magic attack, but… Most of you haven't followed up. I don't use them, but there are wards against poison and disease."

"U-hh."
And now he's feeling like a dunce-cap just dropped on his head. :D Surface-world lack of knowledge in the field of applied magic strikes again!
Correction: 'protect them from'

"Failing that, sealed armour like Roy wears or certain types of environmental energy shield or certain types of physical enhancement would have rendered you immune."

He-. He's trying to put a brave face on it, but I can see he's sagging.

"I can put you in touch with my supplier if you want."
Or set him up with a Dannering, perhaps? Danner-enhanciles aren't immune to disease, but they are much, much tougher. The 'virus' might not have killed him in that case, merely incapacitated.

"I've never-. I mean, I know it's a fair test. Joker does stuff like that all the time, and I think Barry had a guy-"

I nod. "Doctor Amar."

"-who-. Right." He hesitates. "What-?"

"Murmur."
Ah, the creepy one. Seriously, did they design him after watching The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari? I always got that vibe from him.

"Yeah, that's it. I've never had a bio-weapon bad guy." He slides off the bier and onto his feet. "Think I've just gotten lucky?"

"I think it's the heavy industry. Star City never had all that much compared to Gotham in its heyday or Keystone City today. Chemicals get into the water, the air… Plus, heavy industry has suffered from relatively cheap imports, resulting in higher unemployment in primarily low and semi-skilled manual labour jobs. And, yes, a bit."
In other words, since it's a white-collar town, Ollie got lucky with thugs and martial artists, not mad scientists.

"So… You're not… I mean, all the guys the League gunna be fighting-."

"I'm not trying to push you out of the League, if that's what you're working up to asking."

He hesitates again, then nods. "Yeah, it kinda is."
Points for honesty, at least.

"Alright, to be totally blunt, based on the criteria I came up with for League membership, I wouldn't have recruited you. You're not a alone in that category, and it doesn't mean that you're doing a bad job or that you're a bad person. If we were reforming the League to have a far broader base I'd be happy putting you in charge of a city or a region. You're skills and comportment are good. But several of the League's core functions call for a level of raw power or extraordinary skill which you don't have and don't appear to be inclined to get."
Wow, also brutally honest. But I think Ollie needs to hear this...
Corrections: 'Your skills'

"Huh." He nods again. "So who else is on the list?"

"The initial seven members joined up due to fighting the appellaxians together, so skipping them-."

He shrugs. "Why skip them?"
Good point. Not everyone in the Big 7 would seem like team players. Batman for example.

"Alright. King Orin is borderline. I'd rather have had Queen Mera. He can contribute an army and the resources of a state, but he can do that without occupying a front line position. I wouldn't have recruited the Hawks' when they were recruited." The same year as they started operating on Earth. The only justification I can think of it that Batman wanted them where he could keep an eye on them. There's no way they showed a level of ability and dedication in that period which justified their recruitment. Mr Freeman's dodgy for similar reasons. Not enough time active, Superman's 'I thought he was kryptonian' excuse notwithstanding. "Ms Lance, Mister Harper, Doctor Palmer, Mister O'Brian-."

He frowns. "Plas?"
His only real benefit is shapeshifting and immunity to telepathic attack. And that shapeshifting is limited by colour.

"It's not a 'superpowers only' thing. I recommended Dmitri and I'd recruit Batman. Mister O'Brian's abilities just aren't useful enough to justify his inclusion compared to plenty of other people on Earth." I shrug. "Of course, all that only matters if we're talking about a 'small League' like we have now. If we switch to a broad based organisation, they're all fine."
And the League will have to do so sooner or later anyway, if only to cope with larger crises. The DCAU's Unlimited era comes to mind.

"Okay, so, how about your team?"

"For Justice League membership?" He nods. "Kon, M'gann-."

"You don't think Superboy belongs on the League?"

"No, he does. I'm skipping the rest. Zatanna, if she wanted to join. Roy. That's it at the moment."
Heh, even Ollie was confused by OL's statement.

"Not you?"

"Gods, no. The lack of clear direction would drive me insane. I'm more effective left to my own devices."
'Effective' is one way to put it...:V

"And everyone else?"

"Same sort of problem. Insufficient power, skill, experience or poor comportment."
Most of them are teenagers playing Superhero. I doubt many of them are in it for life, full-time.

"You.. told them you think that?" I shake my head. "'cause Arte-."

"Doesn't want to join the League. Oh, she wants to fight the good fight, partially to distance herself from her father and partially because she actually likes helping people. But the best way to utilise her would be to deploy her off in somewhere like Hub City. Somewhere with a high level of both street crime and official corruption. A long term medium intensity job."
Case in point. Like Ollie and William, she would not be a significant force multiplier in the League's bigger missions.

"You told her that?"

"No. I might once she finishes college, if she decides to get back into it." I pause briefly. "Do you have any other questions? Because the wargame is still running-."
I bet he's got a thread of consciousness running keeping track of the event, somewhere in the back of his mind.

"Those wards. Orin can hook me up?" I nod. "And… Enhancements?"

"I'll include a few options in my report. Excuse me."
I wonder how many will consider them. I have no doubt Batman will refuse flat out...

Under the circumstances I decide not to raise my right hand to my forehead, but instead just

step out

and reappear in the Watchtower's main room, Batman giving a summary to the rest of the League.

"-biological agent. Take extreme caution in dealing with anyone. If you notice yourself sweating or an increased heart rate, call for Doctor Mist, Accomplished Perfect Physician or Angelica immediately."
We're already down one Leaguer. I wonder how many more will get taken out...

The heads on the monitor all nod. It appears that Mr Queen has been the only fatality so far. Ms Lance's eyes alight on me for a moment, then her face vanishes with the rest.

GM system, how are things going?
Time for a status update!

And things begin to heat up. I wonder, will this be what drives the wedge between Batman and OL that we've been told will appear...
 
Yeah, what really did Ollie in is his lack of investigative skills. Batman (even if he was infected) would have noticed and called a doctor, though he would probably have noticed before he went in.
More lack of preparation. I expect that Batman has a air filter in his mask at least. Maybe even an alert.

Also he has less exposed skin in general.
 
"For Justice League membership?" He nods. "Kon, M'gann-."

"You don't think Superboy belongs on the League?"

"No, he does. I'm skipping the rest. Zatanna, if she wanted to join. Roy. That's it at the moment."
Surprised Richard didn't make the cut, especially now that he's Danner-ed. He's not on Bruce's level yet in terms of general investigative skills, but he seems to have more practical computing and hacking skills, which the League definitely needs as this is pre-Oracle. If it's an experience thing Robin has a heck of a lot more than Superboy; does OL just not like Richard's attitude?

More lack of preparation. I expect that Batman has a air filter in his mask at least. Maybe even an alert.

Also he has less exposed skin in general.
He does, but he rarely uses it until he's gotten a good whiff of something first (or he's deploying gas himself), which in this case may well have one-shotted him just as quick as Ollie.
 
He does, but he rarely uses it until he's gotten a good whiff of something first (or he's deploying gas himself), which in this case may well have one-shotted him just as quick as Ollie.
Really considering that Ollie took the gang down with gas arrows he should have used a gas mask anyway.
 
"What knocked you out was a poison, an extremely safe one I had Euanthe develop to stand in for something nastier. I'm afraid that I won't be telling you what it was in-game until today's activities are concluded."
Yea no, there's no way you did the necessary testing to determine potential long term effects in the super short time it's been since you starting planning this.
 
Yea no, there's no way you did the necessary testing to determine potential long term effects in the super short time it's been since you starting planning this.
Yea, no, there's no way you possess the necessary in universe knowledge to know whether or not the testing Paul performed was adequate or not.
 
Is Kid Flash currently active? I forget if he was taking a break like Artemis -- if not, I'm surprised he didn't get a nod.
 
One thing to consider might be to organize the league a bit more, make dedicated teams and similar sub-groups to deal with more specific issues.

This might also be a way to bring on 'civilian' staff since some of those subgroups should be dedicated to non-combat tasks.
 
Hmm....I think Paul's missing something with is break down on Ollie here. The Logic that goes against him, in the case of league membership, along with many others that OL would put on the bench aren't entirely based on their power or skill levels. True enough by the requirements that OL set forth but he's missing some less blatant aspects of team work and PR.

They act as force multipliers for the team itself due to their chemistry with teammates. Green Arrow, Black Canary and a lot of the 'low end' hero's don't just function as Righteous face punchers. They also function as a balancing element of down to earth points of view to their more powerful co-horts. As part of the league they've got a better boots on the ground understanding on how non-powered civilians react and behave, how they'll view the league's actions. They act as counsel, teachers and friends to beings that can ruin a cityscape on a whim or angry fit. They keep the league from running rampant internally. They keep them sane(ish) and keep them working as a family rather then a super violent, soul crushing day job. The league is NOT a military, and is not structured to operate with a ridged command structure with a huge support base. You need folks to be social and functional with the much looser and close nit dynamic.

From the PR side of things, they are held up as examples that the best of humanity can stand side by side with Aliens, Monsters, and Gods. They're approachable and far less threatening to the general public, while showing them that 'normal' people have a say on what the walking WMD's are doing.

Compare the League to the Green Lantern Corps when it comes to opinion of the public. Yes in places the GLC are seen as hero's or even gods to be held high and respected for their power and peaceful goals. But there are many that see them as an external militant force acting against them with brute force, or simply interfering on a whim of the distant and unknowable orders of the Guardians, on subjects that the population disagrees with.

A number of these folks OL undervalues are the lubricant that keep the JL motor running. Not everyone on the team can be Batman levels of productively crazy, nor As powerful as Superman, and internally and externally, you really don't want that. I mean, even if batman terrifies you or superman makes you lose sleep over the horrible things he might do if driven to it....can you really feel that threatened by a group where Plastic Man walks and talks like a complete goober yet stands equal to those two?

The best example of this sort of role in the internal soul of the team being held...honestly I think falls to Green Arrow of the JLU. He acts as a conscience to the team, a role model and advisor to younger members like Kara, and speaks his mind on how they should work. In the older comic works, getting back to some of the core of the character, was the short run of comics that stuck Green Arrow with Green Lantern, in a Leftist vs Right Wing buddy cop pair. Those comics were historic for how they worked off each other in both role and opinions as well as the harsh topics they covered.

Just food for thought.
 
A number of these folks OL undervalues are the lubricant that keep the JL motor running. Not everyone on the team can be Batman levels of productively crazy, nor As powerful as Superman, and internally and externally, you really don't want that. I mean, even if batman terrifies you or superman makes you lose sleep over the horrible things he might do if driven to it....can you really feel that threatened by a group where Plastic Man walks and talks like a complete goober yet stands equal to those two?

The best example of this sort of role in the internal soul of the team being held...honestly I think falls to Green Arrow of the JLU. He acts as a conscience to the team, a role model and advisor to younger members like Kara, and speaks his mind on how they should work. In the older comic works, getting back to some of the core of the character, was the short run of comics that stuck Green Arrow with Green Lantern, in a Leftist vs Right Wing buddy cop pair. Those comics were historic for how they worked off each other in both role and opinions as well as the harsh topics they covered.

Just food for thought.
I think OL would say... "If you want a manager, hire a manager. If you want an advisor, hire an advisor. If you want a counselor, hire a counselor." The notion that these diverse skillsets have to overlap with "costumed front line fighter" is part of the issue here.
 
Hmm....I think Paul's missing something with is break down on Ollie here. The Logic that goes against him, in the case of league membership, along with many others that OL would put on the bench aren't entirely based on their power or skill levels. True enough by the requirements that OL set forth but he's missing some less blatant aspects of team work and PR.

They act as force multipliers for the team itself due to their chemistry with teammates. Green Arrow, Black Canary and a lot of the 'low end' hero's don't just function as Righteous face punchers. They also function as a balancing element of down to earth points of view to their more powerful co-horts. As part of the league they've got a better boots on the ground understanding on how non-powered civilians react and behave, how they'll view the league's actions. They act as counsel, teachers and friends to beings that can ruin a cityscape on a whim or angry fit. They keep the league from running rampant internally. They keep them sane(ish) and keep them working as a family rather then a super violent, soul crushing day job. The league is NOT a military, and is not structured to operate with a ridged command structure with a huge support base. You need folks to be social and functional with the much looser and close nit dynamic.

From the PR side of things, they are held up as examples that the best of humanity can stand side by side with Aliens, Monsters, and Gods. They're approachable and far less threatening to the general public, while showing them that 'normal' people have a say on what the walking WMD's are doing.

Compare the League to the Green Lantern Corps when it comes to opinion of the public. Yes in places the GLC are seen as hero's or even gods to be held high and respected for their power and peaceful goals. But there are many that see them as an external militant force acting against them with brute force, or simply interfering on a whim of the distant and unknowable orders of the Guardians, on subjects that the population disagrees with.

A number of these folks OL undervalues are the lubricant that keep the JL motor running. Not everyone on the team can be Batman levels of productively crazy, nor As powerful as Superman, and internally and externally, you really don't want that. I mean, even if batman terrifies you or superman makes you lose sleep over the horrible things he might do if driven to it....can you really feel that threatened by a group where Plastic Man walks and talks like a complete goober yet stands equal to those two?

The best example of this sort of role in the internal soul of the team being held...honestly I think falls to Green Arrow of the JLU. He acts as a conscience to the team, a role model and advisor to younger members like Kara, and speaks his mind on how they should work. In the older comic works, getting back to some of the core of the character, was the short run of comics that stuck Green Arrow with Green Lantern, in a Leftist vs Right Wing buddy cop pair. Those comics were historic for how they worked off each other in both role and opinions as well as the harsh topics they covered.

Just food for thought.
I think this depends on what the role of the Justice League is.

If the Justice League are meant to be an organisation that allows superheroes to coordinate and collaborate and support each other, then obviously having people like GA in the League is good - he gets support from more powerful members or members with different skill sets, and can provide his own support to other heroes as you describe. The thing is that this applies to way more than just GA - if the League is a social club that allows heroes to support each other, then it should be accepting every hero who can abide by basic bylaws, regardless of their combat capability or effectiveness. In this case, there's no point talking about who passes muster to be part of the League, because if a hero isn't very capable that just means they need the support of being part of the League even more.

If the Justice League is meant to be a PR organisation that e.g. encourages meta-humans to be heroes rather than villains by providing good role models, encourages people to support meta-humans as heroes, and so on, then yes GA is useful as a humanising presence that encourages people to not be afraid of the League. This overlaps a lot with the first case just above.

But if the League is intended to function as a concentration of extraordinary power to answer severe threats that cannot be countered by ordinary military forces, which is how it first formed (the Appallaxian invasion mentioned in the recent update), then GA isn't really suited to being part of it. And all the other reasons you mention for having GA as part of it (good social bonds with other heroes letting them relax, acting as a voice of the common person in JL deliberations, humanising the League in the eyes of normal humans) don't really call for weighing down Earth's greatest defense with someone who can't actually help defend Earth. I'll just try to run through why:
  • If heroes need downtime and socialising to relax, it makes sense to ensure they get it, but that doesn't mean they need it while on the job - just like they should probably have counselling after stressful missions or traumatic events, but don't need a therapist on the actual League. Experts (counsellors, therapists, whatever) don't need to be part of the League's frontline to help the League members, and to the extent GA helps League members not crack under stress he can do that while not actually part of the League's combat forces.
  • Having someone representing ordinary people have input on League decisions that might impact the broader population makes sense. Obviously the League has incredible abilities, and it wouldn't be great to have them unilaterally decide what lines to cross without any oversight. But again, that doesn't mean the oversight has to come from within the League. In fact, it's better if it doesn't - it's more likely that GA would be compromised in providing oversight due to his social ties with the League if he is part of it. That's why oversight is typically provided by separate institutions, which is in theory what the UN provides to the League currently. If the UN is too cumbersome to act as oversight, the League could have a separate team of people who all large decisions get run past and who have privileged knowledge of League internal decision making. But why put those people on the front line? (Also, GA isn't a great fit there - he's a multi-billionaire who dresses up and fights crime, which is definitely not the background of the typical non-powered person.)
  • Humanising the League to outsiders is probably a good thing even for a purely combat-focused League, and is the one area where actually being a member of the League helps significantly. But I've got to say, in a team with Superman (Metropolis's favoured son), Wonder Woman (a much-loved public ambassador and, frankly, a beautiful woman who doesn't wear much), and the Flash (friendly, open, most often portrayed as the heart of the League), I'm not seeing why adding someone who actually can't help with the League's primary role to the League's combat roster is needed. If the League was highly reliant on PR it would make more sense, but they're an independent group that doesn't rely on government funding, is chartered by the UN (which isn't vulnerable to public opinion the way individual governments are, due to being multinational and having a lot of bureaucratic inertia), and whose job is to beat up aliens and bad guys (which doesn't rely on PR and is seen as so important in the wake of an invasion that they themselves stopped that there's no way it would be cancelled). They probably don't need GA's PR pull, especially as he doesn't really have much in the first place. He doesn't have a close relationship with the local police, presumably doesn't have one with the government (local or otherwise), isn't super famous, hasn't revealed his identity (so can't draw on goodwill he might have as Oliver Queen), doesn't seem to do outreach like interviews or publicity tours to help the League's PR, and basically doesn't actually advance this aim much at all.
The problem is that the League doesn't have a very firm idea of what it should be. It started as a defense force against alien invasion, in which case GA is basically never directly useful and all the points you mention don't really justify his inclusion into the League proper unless it's as a token figurehead who spends his time doing PR work (which isn't what he actually does). Then it added people for a variety of individual reasons (this update mentions the Hawks were maybe added to keep an eye on them, I assume Icon maybe because he can help beat up invading aliens, presumably Plastic Man to keep him out of trouble). It's moving towards being a broad organisation that allows almost every hero to coordinate and cooperate with other heroes, which GA should definitely be part of, but it hasn't officially made that transition and is currently confused over what it is. We've seen that with the recruitment issues earlier in the series (needing unanimous votes, which Batman realised was unwieldy with the size of the League now), and we're seeing mentions of it here. That's why OL mentioned being happy with GA in charge of a city or region in a broader League, but not fitting the current (really former) League - because he was told the purpose of the League is to stop alien invasions, and that hasn't officially changed yet.

Hopefully the League's charter gets updated to be a broader organisation than the original 'punch invading aliens until they stop invading' version. But in practice it's already a broader organisation - it just needs to realise that and officially recognise it, so it can officially do things like have dedicated training teams, and PR/outreach support to encourage heroism in met-humans, and supporting independent vigilantes so that e.g. teenagers with superpowers have some oversight and support even if they aren't part of the League directly.
 
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I think OL would say... "If you want a manager, hire a manager. If you want an advisor, hire an advisor. If you want a counselor, hire a counselor." The notion that these diverse skillsets have to overlap with "costumed front line fighter" is part of the issue here.
Counterpoint: People are more comfortable with advisors and managers who have spent time in the trenches, and are thus more likely to heed their advice. Part of what makes Batman and Green Arrow effective as manager and counselor respectively is their direct experience with the nuts and bolts of superheroing. Near-godlike beings are willing to accept chastisement from baseline humans who know what they're talking about.
Being a superhero makes you part of the League's psychological ingroup, which keeps them from resenting the advice given.
 

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