Summary: The Legion of Doom steals a mystic power source from the temple of Nanda Parbat, killing the monks who reside there in the process, and invades Gorilla City. Coming to the aid of their simian allies, the Justice League—with the aid of Deadman, who seeks to avenge the deaths of the monks—defeats the Legion, but fails to prevent Grodd from setting his master plan into motion: to transform all of humanity into apes. In the end the plan fails, however, and Luthor, disgusted by Grodd's ambitions, stages a mutiny and assumes leadership.
JL Mission Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman
LD
Mission Roll Call: Gorilla
Grodd, Lex
Luthor
Featured Character:
Deadman
Villains:
Gorilla
Grodd, Lex
Luthor
Supporting Villains: The Legion of Doom
Cartoon Network on “Dead Reckoning”: “The ghost of a circus performer convinces Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to help him retrieve the stolen souls of a mystic order of monks (courtesy of The World’s Finest).”
Dwayne McDuffie on Grodd's De-Evolution Ray: "It's magic. It rewrites DNA into ape DNA; it doesn't care what the code was before. Wonder Woman has DNA (she got it when she was brought to life) and, on the evidence, Superman does to. [...] The beam hadn't spread [far enough to affect the entire planet]; it was moving at something like 30 miles an hour (courtesy of DwayneMcDuffie.com).”
Dwayne McDuffie on the monks of Nanda Parbat: “[The Master] said it straight out: there is no death in Nanda Parbat. The theft of the heart was the problem, not the building that fell on him (courtesy of DwayneMcDuffie.com).”
Bruce Timm on Deadman’s punishment for “killing” Devil Ray: “Whether this justifies it or not, the whole bit is right out of the comics, in spirit anyway (no pun intended). In the comics, Deadman is always getting jerked around by the frustratingly enigmatic Powers That Be. Unfair? Hell, yeah…but interesting (courtesy of Toon Zone).”
Commentary
Commentary coming soon!
Image courtesy of Toon Zone.