Part 1
Lex Luthor tries taking down Superman with a piece of Kryptonite. Superman turns out to be Martian Manhunter in disguise. J'onn reveals his real identity after Luthor spills the beans about a crime he committed. Green Lantern and Batman join the fight. Luthor escapes but is captured (by Superman) after he experiences chest pains and loses control of his escape vehicle. Lex is checked out by a doctor, before he is sent to prison. He finds out that he has a rare form of blood poisoning that comes from prolonged exposure to Kryptonite. There is no cure. Luthor blames Superman for his condition.
Luthor escapes from prison with the Ultra-Humanite. The pair of super-villains recruits five more super-villains (Cheetah, Copperhead, Solomon Grundy, The Shade) to help them defeat Justice League. They create a fake hostage situation which lures the League to the Metropolis Federal Building. The villains seem to have the upper hand in the fight that ensues but the tide turns. Six of the villains escape back to their hide out but not before Batman gets bit by Copperhead.
Batman recovers and goes after the villains. Joker finds the six remaining villains and offers to help. Batman shows up. He gets blindsided by the Joker and looks to be knocked out.
Luthor appears for the first time in this episode. This is the first time that Luthor's bad health is mentioned. It will come up again in future stories. Luthor was previously seen in Superman: The Animated Series.
Hawkgirl encounters Solomon Grundy for the first time. They do not exchange any words. Both will be part of a Defenders-like team in JLU.
Part 2
Luthor has Batman tied up real good. Joker wants to kill him but Lex wants to keep him until they can do away with the rest of the League. Batman refuses to play ball or tell the villains anything of use. First Lex has Grundy and the Ultra-Humanite keep an eye on Batman. He goads them into a fight. Luthor has Cheetah keep an eye on Batman but they end up making out.
Lex breaks into Batman's utility belt and finds the garage door opener for the Watchtower. He sends Grundy, Star Sapphire, and the Shade up to the Watchtower with a bomb. They overwhelm J'onn J'onzz, the only one on the satellite at the time. The rest of the team is at the island prison interrogating Copperhead. The villains plant the bomb and then head back to Earth.
Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl return to the satellite. They find the bomb before it detonates. Ultra-Humanite does what he can to help Luthor's health problems. He makes him better by building him a suit of armor. This sounds very familiar. The suit looks just like the suit that was introduced in Action Comics 544 but the reason behind it makes reminds me of Iron Man's origin story.
Batman finds a way to signal his location to his teammates. Luthor realizes that someone has betrayed him. He checks the video and sees Cheetah and Batman smooching. She claims she wasn't the one who told the League but Luthor doesn't believe her. The heroes arrive and battle with the the villains. The heroes win, naturally.
The turncoat among the villains is finally revealed to be the Ultra-Humanite. His motivations aren't entirely clear. But Batman keeps up his end of the bargain and sponsors a broadcast of the opera on behalf of the Ultra-Humanite.
This is a fun one but if I stop to think about it too much there are things that don't make sense. There is no commentary track on this one but I would love to hear some of the behind scenes on how this story came together, how the villains were selected, etc. I loved the interactions between the Joker and Luthor. In general I love the humor. I'm perfectly okay with how they introduced Luthor's power armor. This doesn't stand out as one of my all time favorites and I wouldn't consider it to be a must watch but it is a lot of fun.
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