Justice League of America – Volume 3 – 7

Synopsis

Lex Luthor’s lawyers are pleased to announce that they may be able to get him out of prison, and put him back in charge of Lexcorp, but Lex is far more concerned with the headline on his newspaper – Superman has been accused of manslaughter. And, despite his feelings about the alien, he knows Superman was set up for a fall. While he is jealous, he is also curious. Why did whomever did this do it?

He is surprised, suddenly, by a visit from Pandora, who explains that she is on a mission to save the world from the evil she unleashed on it – and in order to do that, she needs someone dark of heart to open her box, and she thinks Lex may be that man.

Meanwhile, in the morgue at A.R.G.U.S., Plastique infiltrates the room where Dr. Light’s body is being kept, using Superman’s escape as a distraction. At her employer’s command, she places a device on the body, and escapes unnoticed.

In Pittsburgh, Doctor Psycho has captured and restrained a group of innocent people – though he is not so naive as to think that anyone is totally innocent. He intends to exploit the evil thoughts within them, and make them do evil acts on each other. He is displeased to discover, though, that the Martian Manhunter has found him before he can enact his plan. In fact, the Martian has brought a whole team of super-heroes with him. Though the hostages are rigged with explosives, Firestorm manages to transmute the C-4 so that it is inert. Unfortunately, Psycho manages to escape by tricking Green Arrow into thinking that Cyborg is Doctor Psycho, and using the explosion that his arrow causes as a distraction. Using Superman as bait, though, Martian Manhunter manages to get his hands on Doctor Psycho, and enter his mind.

Elsewhere, Steve Trevor and what remains of Batman‘s team are trying to get back inside the House of Mystery after the Phantom Stranger took the other half of the team inside, and left them locked out. The Flash wonders why the Stranger would have taken Batman, Katana, and Deadman with him and left the others behind. Catwoman suggests that perhaps the House itself can tell them, given that Constantine had said it was alive. She asks the House to open the door, and to everyone’s great annoyance, it works.

Working from that good-fortune, Catwoman approaches a window in the room they find, and asks where to find the Phantom Stranger. Soon, his image appears in the glass, and he speaks to them. He explains that he and the others attempted to interrogate Dr. Light in the after-life, but found that he knew nothing. Unfortunately, he made an error, and while he may not be able to return, he does send the remains of their team back through the mirror to them.

Martian Manhunter demands to know whether Doctor Psycho was in Kahndaq when Dr. Light was killed. Struggling to defy the alien, Psycho admits that he was sent there by the Secret Society, however, his orders never came. He now knows that he was sent to be used as a scapegoat for what happened. He hadn’t even known that Superman was in that country. When J’onn admits that the man is telling the truth, Superman begins to wonder if maybe Wonder Woman was right that it was Pandora’s Box that influenced him. However, they all now have a lead on this Secret Society. Sadly, The Atom admits that they would already know about the Society if she had told them the truth. She was a mole from the JLA, which was created as a fail-safe against the Justice League. Despite the friendships she formed there, she was working for Amanda Waller the whole time. Even so, she doubts that Waller could be behind everything that happened. Regardless, Superman orders that they return to question her.

Pandora presents the box to Luthor, who agrees with curiosity to lay his hand on it. Before he can, however, Pandora is yanked back by Wonder Woman’s Lasso. In her struggle to get the box away from Pandora, the Amazon touches it, and the box activates.

At the House of Mystery, the Phantom Stranger warns that Madame Xanadu is still alive, and must be found. She knows the truth behind Pandora’s box, and what it can really do. Before he can explain what the box really is, though, he fades from view.

Just as Superman and company confront Waller at A.R.G.U.S., the Secret Society detonates the device on Dr. Light’s corpse, and the resulting explosion knocks everyone back.

Wonder Woman, meanwhile, has Pandora’s Box – but it has her.