WARNING! PLENTY PLENTY SPOILERS, MON! BREAK OUT THE GANJA!
Title: Half a Mind to Save the World
Release Date: June 2000
Writer: Dan Curtis JohnsonPenciller: Mark PajarilloInker: Walden WongJLA Members: Superman,
Wonder Woman,
Green Lantern, and
the Flash.
Guest Stars: The Atom.
Bad Guys: Those bad industrialist
bacteria.
So what happens?While assisting with
surgery to remove a
little boy's
brain tumor, the Atom discovers that the
tumor isn't
cancerous--somehow a
civilization of bacteria has formed, and they are strip-mining the kid's
brain to get energy for their city. Unfortunately, their tampering is causing
brain damage and killing him. The doctors were planning on
lasering the tumor, but they're willing to wait a little while to let the JLA go
microscopic to negotiate with the bacteria and get them to stop destroying their environment before their mini-world is destroyed. Since bacteria live and die so quickly, the Atom has figured out a way to
synchronize the JLA to the bacteria's scale of
time, allowing them to go in, complete their mission, and be out in the blink of an eye.
Once Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and the Atom are miniaturized, they are escorted to the bacteria's council chambers. They make their case, but the bacteria don't believe the
ridiculous story and suspect them of being infected bacteria from other organs. They move to take the Leaguers into
custody--for some reason, the JLA can't get their powers to work properly, so they are quickly captured.
The Atom theorizes that, in synchronizing their bodies to the faster
molecular rate of the bacteria, the heroes' control over their own abilities have become
unstable. He's hoping that their control over their powers will return the longer they're miniaturized, but that's little comfort for Superman, since he's being
tortured by the bacteria. Luckily, one of the
microbe scientists agrees with the Leaguers, and he sets them free. Unluckily, the scientist's followers start a
riot that damages the city's power station, causing an explosion in the brain. Since the
surgical laser is set to automatically destroy the tumor if the boy's
brain chemistry is drastically altered, the JLA now has 25 milliseconds--or 90 minutes, local time--to evacuate the city before it's destroyed.
They get everyone out, but after the Leaguers return to normal size, the boy's
immune system kicks back in, and the bacteria are all wiped out. But before the disaster, the scientist and its mate got together, put their child in a small
rocketship, and launched it on a course for the
liver, where the iron-rich blood would give the child powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal bacteria...
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