Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Beulah is always a delight. OL does know he's flirting with her though, right? I mean, that entire conversation was pretty textbook flirting with a hostile target.
misnumerated?
"The thought of spending time in your presence engenders a great desire in me to swear an oath of chastity."
"All should burn. But you may put them to the question first, that you may learn to better burn the rest."
"I am pledged not to use my pyromantic magic against another Christian. But I will not be made a warlock for using it against you."
There's probably some parallel universe somewhere where we're both Nazis
"Say, have you ever heard of something called Project Cadmus?"
Seriously... Can we just have the next couple books be about this guy?
GREEN ARROW: For the Love of GOD, get him his ring back before he makes things WORSE! He's already buying out my company!The League may have more trouble if Peter makes CADMUS a bit more competent in this universe.
Depends on if he can get the crazies like Eiling to back down better. Waller at least was never interested in a first strike, merely that CADMUS could effectively counter the League no matter what it took. If Peter could provide effective alternatives that don't involve morally dubious means, DCAU Waller wouldn't have a problem at all with the new methods. Eiling on the other hand is the jackass who took the order to kill doomsday as an excuse to launch a nuke not just at Doomsday but Superman and an inhabited island(with a drug trafficking history). Also keeping Milo from releasing Doomsday, that would be a good thing.The League may have more trouble if Peter makes CADMUS a bit more competent in this universe.
Depends on if he can get the crazies like Eiling to back down better. Waller at least was never interested in a first strike, merely that CADMUS could effectively counter the League no matter what it took. If Peter could provide effective alternatives that don't involve morally dubious means, DCAU Waller wouldn't have a problem at all with the new methods. Eiling on the other hand is the jackass who took the order to kill doomsday as an excuse to launch a nuke not just at Doomsday but Superman and an inhabited island(with a drug trafficking history). Also keeping Milo from releasing Doomsday, that would be a good thing.
He could act as a mole and give info to the League. It would help guilt trip the League even more.I'm betting that Peter may try to make CADMUS to be less trigger happy in this universe, maybe more like a government run metahuman agency that makes sure that metahumans can be policed by the government, but not like some of the crap we've seen in Marvel comics where it's just basically slavery.
As well as providing metahumans with training for how to use their powers and other job opportunities that don't involve the superhero/supervillain thing.
And hopefully he'll make sure that CADMUS doesn't deliberately antagonize the League in this story, but yeah if Eiling and Luthor are on the board then that will be a difficult thing to do.
Suing the League not going as well as you thought, Peter? I suppose it's hard to throw lawyers at people who've saved the world multiple times and not look like the bad guy...
Because of course Batman managed this. This ain't Bat-dad from Earth-16, after all. This is pure 'prep-time is god' Dark Detective era.A decidedly unfun part of British law which allows the muzzling of all UK-based media outlets for the duration of a trial. If this was from anyone other than Batman I'd assume that it was a stupid move made in a panic; it would basically an admission that I'm right in identifying him as 'Batman'. I was expecting some sort of public holographic appearance, or having Mr. Kent wear his costume while he was publically elsewhere. Something to undermine my claim.
Ah, a business lunch, eh? Or simply a lunch between business friends. At least this Max Lord isn't the cape-hating telepath... Is he?I mean, I could serve Batman as Batman. He's testified in court with his mask on before so that's not an issue. But that threat was supposed to be my leverage. I don't want to blow his secret identity. I want the ring back. All that injunction does is make it harder for me to bring non-nuclear pressure to bear.
"Hey, Peter. Rough day?"
I look up at Maxwell Lord as he reaches our table, and manage a weak smile.
Something which Peter would no doubt have issues with now and again. The joy of looking up minor or reformed super-criminals as your lead research staff members."Having a bit of an operational disagreement with the Justice League. It's a little trying."
"'Operational'?" He sits and waves his right hand at a waitress for a menu. "Are they trying to extradite one of your employees or something?"
I mean, he would probably assume Peter is talking about a Cosmic Rod, given he likely knows Peter carries them for self-defence..."No, that would be… I could handle that. They stole an object from me and don't appear… Either able or willing to return it."
He raises his left eyebrow as he glances up from the menu.
Hmm, now would that make him paranoid or just curious?"Was it dangerous?"
"Yes, but a gun's dangerous. This was drained of all power and sitting in safe."
Yay for the legal system..."Can you tell me what this object is, or do I have to guess?"
"Sorry, Max. They took out an injunction, and… Judges get a bit shirty if you bypass their authority, even outside of the country."
Doesn't matter how big your stick is, if you can't swing it...He shrugs sympathetically. "Can't argue with lawyers. Unless you've got a bigger lawyer."
"I've got some pretty big lawyers. But I still have to go through the motions."
Indeed. I bet more than a few have their suspicions that Peter is secretly a supervillain, just biding his time until he can unveil an army of super-powered soldiers to carry out a plan to take over the world (Of Course!) You just know the Question is investigating that very possibility.He nods. "Is this..? Thing..?"
"I-."
"I know, I know. You can't talk about it. But I always figured that if the Justice League went after you, it would be because of your employees."
Hey, as far as they know, he was working with an alternate, 'evil' League. And you know superheroes tend to be a bit shortsighted..."No, no, they've been nothing but supportive about that aspect of things. Apparently they had a run-in with a parallel universe version of me and it's got them all paranoid."
"You can't judge someone based on what some parallel universe version of them does. There's probably some parallel universe somewhere where we're both Nazis-. Oh, aah, scrambled eggs on rye toast, Caesar salad and mineral water."
Far too many examples of 'Evil' leagues to count, really. So many reverse-morality alternate Earths, or Earths ruled by 'undesirable' political groups... And the animated League ran into so many of them.
Ah, the old times, before broadband. I remember spending hours on the phone to download a hundred megabyte zip of fan-made Heroquest stuff... With a downloader plugin running on the browser in case my line dropped."It's kind of annoying, actually. There was some huge meet-up of parallel universe versions of me a few years ago, but Matthew Hagen… Clayface?" He nods. "Took my appearance and so he got dragged in instead. It would have been nice to hear what this was all about from the 'me' who actually did it." I shake my head. "How are things in the for-profit superhero business?"
"Good. Not great. I talked to our computer guys about doing what you said, going online?" He shakes his head. "Unless people want to spend all day downloading video clips, the bandwidth people get just isn't high enough for it to be practical. Maybe in ten years or so."
Ah, the naiveté of the early internet days..."Given all of the wires we'd have to replace, it might be better to skip that and upgrade mobile phone masts instead." Hm. "It's not really my thing, but I could do a feasibility study?"
He chuckles quietly. "Good luck with those antitrust lawsuits."
Ha! The ultimate paparazzi upgrade. Bet there were a few court cases over bonked noses or bruised foreheads... Never minding the sheer invasion of privacy they'd be capable of.I exhale sharply through my nose. Yeah. More of those. "Thanks."
"The drone camera were a big success. Once we trained the technicians not to fly them into the stars' faces."
Ah, private security services. For when you get raided by supervillains who aren't vulnerable to a bullet."I've never been completely sure what the revenue streams are for the whole 'Ultimen'.. thing are. Is it just the television series and merchandising?"
"No, no. There's also… It's not exactly 'insurance', but I've made sure our hotline number is out there for companies who are under attack by supervillains."
Heheh... What year did forensics-focused shows like CSI start, again? Imagine their plotlines in a superhero universe! 'Law and Order: Metahuman Crimes Division' would actually be a thing!I nod. "Their insurance would cover it either way, but if they're trying to protect a unique prototype or individual then it makes sense to pay for people with super powers to try and stop them."
He nods. "Which works for us, because none of our stars are trained investigators." He waves his right hand dismissively. "Which is fine, because criminal investigations -real criminal investigations- don't make good television. Being called to a crime scene as the crime is actually happening cuts the filler right down and shows the kids in the best possible light."
...Given what their background there said, possessive doesn't begin to cover it... Wonder how much it cost to produce them.."Kids'?"
He frowns introspectively for a moment, then appears to shrug it off.
"Sure. I mean, I'm their manager, but they're teenagers living away from their parents for the first time. Guess I feel a little possessive."
What, you think he'd stage supervillain attacks just to have something to grab ratings?I smile. "I guess that answers the question I had about how you actually found enough supervillains to fill the schedule."
"What do you mean by that?"
It is honestly amazing how long some guys can hide out before the itch drives them to commit some flashy crime that gets a cape on their case."Max, I actually look for supervillains with giant wads of money as a lure and I struggle to find them. Even in large American cities there aren't that many supervillain attacks each month, and even with a rocket plane you can only travel so far so fast. I did briefly worry that they might be staged, but I've seen the trial transcripts so I know it's not that. How many companies are in this… Referral scheme? And should I be offended that you haven't given me the number?"
That's (presumably Barbara Ann Minerva,) the animated Cheetah, for reference. Fluffy kitty hugs for the win."Well… It's… Ah…" He looks away. "Not as many as I'd like. And without point-to-point teleporters… You're right; we can only respond to calls from a certain distance away fast enough to stop a crime in progress. But I've also got… Ah… 'friends'."
"'Friends' like my girlfriend, or-."
Blame the mentality of the DCAU America and how they favour the independent vigilante over the government-sponsored types. Goes all the way back to cowboy days, if heroes like the Two-Gun Kid and The Vigilante are typical."No, no. No, it's not like that. Friends in law enforcement. No police officer armed with a six-shooter wants to pick a fight with a guy in power armor, right?" I nod. "So sometimes we get called in. And sometimes it's a false alarm, but we get more than enough footage out of it to fill the show."
I snort. "I honestly don't know why there isn't a Federal superhero team. I mean, I'm not one to criticise private entrepreneurship, but it seems that enforcing the law is something that the government should be interested in."
Good analogy. Not every superhuman will be equivalent to a walking nuke, but there are enough... Like Captain Atom. Or the Rocket Reds. Do the Great Ten exist in the DCAU? Government-controlled superhumans would be its own arms race..."Some people aren't comfortable with that sort of-." He leans back slightly as the waitress puts his meal down in front of him, then he picks up his knife and fork. "That sort of power in government hands."
"Has the American government mislaid its nuclear warheads?" … "Again?"
I see Peter has opinions on the power of mundane versus marvellous... I mean, sure, that might not work if that someone has bullet-resistant skin or a force-field... But there's always bigger guns."No, they're back up to pre-Carter levels. But the Federal Government can't deploy nukes in American cities."
"Sure, but a S.W.A.T. sniper can shoot someone just as dead as someone with… Laser fingers."
...Oh, boy howdy... Even if he doesn't remember DCAU specifics, he should know that name well enough from the comics. Admittedly, his memory won't be as clear, what with no ring-assisted recall."'Laser fingers?"
"For example. It just seems like a weird gap."
He chews on a bit of salad before nodding. "We have been getting some unofficially-official interest in something like that." He leans forward. "Say, have you ever heard of something called Project Cadmus?"
He could act as a mole and give info to the League. It would help guilt trip the League even more.
Depends on if he can get the crazies like Eiling to back down better. Waller at least was never interested in a first strike, merely that CADMUS could effectively counter the League no matter what it took. If Peter could provide effective alternatives that don't involve morally dubious means, DCAU Waller wouldn't have a problem at all with the new methods. Eiling on the other hand is the jackass who took the order to kill doomsday as an excuse to launch a nuke not just at Doomsday but Superman and an inhabited island(with a drug trafficking history). Also keeping Milo from releasing Doomsday, that would be a good thing.
While something like that would be a good idea, that's not really what DCAU CADMUS is about. CADMUS is about correcting the power imbalance between the League and the American Government, of developing contingencies so that if the Justice League ever did go rogue(like in that alternate timeline), the American Government would be able to defend itself rather then getting absolutely curbstomped.I'm betting that Peter may try to make CADMUS to be less trigger happy in this universe, maybe more like a government run metahuman agency that makes sure that metahumans can be policed by the government, but not like some of the crap we've seen in Marvel comics where it's just basically slavery.
As well as providing metahumans with training for how to use their powers and other job opportunities that don't involve the superhero/supervillain thing.
Yeah Luthor's a snake, and curtailing his influence in CADMUS could only result in good things. And it's a shame with how Eiling turned out, when he was first introduced he appeared as a generally good military officer who was fine with working with the League when needed and only developed an issue when he learned that the League had an orbital weapon pointing down(a rather big issue there).And hopefully he'll make sure that CADMUS doesn't deliberately antagonize the League in this story, but yeah if Eiling and Luthor are on the board then that will be a difficult thing to do.
Suing the League not going as well as you thought, Peter? I suppose it's hard to throw lawyers at people who've saved the world multiple times and not look like the bad guy...
Because of course Batman managed this. This ain't Bat-dad from Earth-16, after all. This is pure 'prep-time is god' Dark Detective era.
Indeed. I bet more than a few have their suspicions that Peter is secretly a supervillain, just biding his time until he can unveil an army of super-powered soldiers to carry out a plan to take over the world (Of Course!) You just know the Question is investigating that very possibility.
Hey, as far as they know, he was working with an alternate, 'evil' League. And you know superheroes tend to be a bit shortsighted...
Heheh... What year did forensics-focused shows like CSI start, again? Imagine their plotlines in a superhero universe! 'Law and Order: Metahuman Crimes Division' would actually be a thing!
...Oh, boy howdy... Even if he doesn't remember DCAU specifics, he should know that name well enough from the comics. Admittedly, his memory won't be as clear, what with no ring-assisted recall.
While something like that would be a good idea, that's not really what DCAU CADMUS is about
Yeah Luthor's a snake, and curtailing his influence in CADMUS could only result in good things. And it's a shame with how Eiling turned out, when he was first introduced he appeared as a generally good military officer who was fine with working with the League when needed and only developed an issue when he learned that the League had an orbital weapon pointing down(a rather big issue there).
"Say, have you ever heard of something called Project Cadmus?"
He basically ran head long into the reason why it's not usually a good idea for new money to challenge old.I'm not entirely sure what's going on here? Did he sue the JL? Mr Wayne? This sentence makes it seem like he didn't sue Batman? All I got from this is that trial's dragging and he can't go public with it without burning Batman? Could someone explain?
Basically put, Batman used his old money legal connections to bog Paul down in legalities.
Other universes: the Harrowing! AAAAAAAH!
Peter Wynne: complex socio-economics leading to lawsuits
Now, which one is scarier and potentially more damaging?