JLA #108 (January 2005)

"Syndicate Rules Part Two: The Favor Bank" (22 pages)

Credits

Character Appearances

Villains

Other Characters

  • Jackson “Rat-Eyes” Drake (Head of a criminal syndicate operating out of the Anti-Matter Gotham City; anti-matter doppelganger of Jack Drake, father of the positive-matter Robin)
  • Lucius Fox (Head of a criminal syndicate operating out of the Anti-Matter Gotham City; anti-matter doppelganger of Bruce Wayne’s second-in-command at Waynetech)
  • Strategoes & Tacticos (attendroids - floating head-shaped robotic aids to the supreme leader of Qward)

Groups and Henchmen

  • Thunderers of Qward (The army of Qward; long-time opponents of the Green Lantern Corps)
  • Weaponers of Qward (The technicians and engineers of Qward; designers of Sinestro’s yellow power ring)

Story Details

Locations

  • Anti-Matter Earth - grpThe planet Qward

Continuity

Jackson Drake’s son is logically an analogue of the third Robin (Tim Drake). Owlman gains custody of him, but his intention is unrevealed. References to characters mentioned in passing: Grayson Aviation (Dick Grayson is Nightwing, the original Robin); the Cobblepot hijacking (Cobblepot is the Penguin’s surname); Rannian Invasion (Rann is the adopted world of Adam Strange); Loring Mob from Ivy Town (Jean Loring was the Atom’s wife).

Comments

The Justice League do not appear in this issue. The JLA/Avengers mini-series takes place between pages 20 and 21 of this issue. The events on pages 18-20 duplicate the events pages 2-3 of JLA/Avengers #1 (Nov 2003). Special thanks are given in the credits to Grant Morrison.

The JLA message board Kurt Busiek confirmed that this is the first time that the CSA were aware of the Weaponeers and the Thunderers. He also commented about his redefinition of Qward:

Qward has always been a great idea with no compelling characters to dramatise it. (General Fabrikant? Gimme a break…!) So all I had to do was put some characters out front - figure out what the Weaponeers would be like, what the Thunderers would be like, why they’d be different, and what that means for Qward’s history and future. But it’s all extrapolating from what was there, with a few changes - no minstrels, no sci-fi lederhosen.

The “favor bank” is the only thing that really balances the powers in Earth-2. It is, ironically for that world, an honour system based on the principal that a person may request assistance (a “favour”) from another, but they are then indebted to that person until some undisclosed point in the future when they must repay the “favour” in like kind. Repayment is a matter of honour in a manner similar to that seen with many closed feudal societies including the American mafia and the European medieval nobility. As Owlman put it, “When you owe, you pay, even if your grandmother is bleeding out in the gutter. You don’t get to set the terms.” Failure to repay a favour brings the person to the attention of their superiors and in rare cases even the Crime Syndicate itself.

Synopsis

On the mirror Earth of the Anti-Matter Universe mob boss Jackson “Rat-eyes” Drake’s luck has finally run out. He ignored a request to repay a favour from Lucius Fox’s mob - a cardinal offence on a world only held together by the honour system of the “favour bank.” Owlman has Ultraman execute Drake as an example. Owlman gains control of Drake’s assets and his son, but he also owes Ultraman a favour. It’s been six months since the Crime Syndicate of Amerika crushed the last remaining pocket of resistance on their Earth and the villains are becoming increasingly bored with the lack of opposition. After returning to the Panopticon Owlman beats Johnny Quick into a pulp for upsetting one his carefully crafted schemes. They are interrupted when Power Ring bursts in with an announcement that he’s just discovered a planet of worthy adversaries for them to fight.

Meanwhile at centre of the universe on the planet Qward, Thunderlord Brikan watches an impressive massed procession of his warriors, but it has been sometime since the legendary Thunderers blazed a path across the stars. The technocracy of the Weaponeers has undermined the Thunderer powerbase and now only pays lip service to the status of the Thunderlord. Thunderer Commander Roval is brave enough to voice his descent and for his concern he is sent to a remote province to oversee the life selection of Qwardian youths. Roval is joined by Weaponeer Council Member Diataria Lysis (the only woman on the Council), but their conversation is interrupted when the Crime Syndicate make a devastating surprise attack on the capital city.

The Syndicate’s rampage is stopped when the entire anti-matter universe dies.. A meaningless “time” later the universe is recreated and recent history replays itself, but the reconstruction is imperfect. Owlman and Ultraman replay their return to the Panopticon and Owlman’s beating of Johnny Quick. However, the Power Ring that interrupts them is not the same Power Ring that existed in the previous version of their universe.

Review

See JLA #107 for a complete review of this story arc.

(7/10)

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