The Conspiracy,what The JLU knows so far and what they should do. (Spoilers)

[Knight]

Warning this thread contains spoilers from Fearful Symmetry , Ultimatum and Dark Heart.

What do you think about the Conspiracy running loose in the animated DCU?So far we know that the US government has authorized the creation of their own "controlled" superheroes. This seems to have been majority influenced by the events of STAS Legacy in which Superman went rouge. Apparently the government has taken precautions so that in the event that any heroes go rouge again that they have a system in place for stopping them.One such program seems to be known as The Cadmus Project and according to Maxwell Lord its so big even his superiors are small fish. Professor Hamilton a Star Labs employee who seems to now be working for the government seems to be heading up the cloning process that to date has put out 6 distinct clones (The Ultimen and Galatea). Amanda Waller seemingly a high level government official seems to be the point person and pulling most of the lower level strings (it is possible that it was her calling to have the lab in Fearful Symmetry destroyed). It also brings up the question of the scientist and General Hardcastle being killed. Where they government sanctioned hits carried out by Galatea?.



The Justice League seems to have little knowledge of what is truly going on. The Question seems to have theories some of which have turned out to be true.The Utlimen clone Longshadow could also provide them with some information although very little.At the very least the events in FS and Ultimatum should tell the League that there is a secret government cloning operation going on.

So what does the League do with what the information they know so far? I'm sure the population at large might not take kindly to knowing that the government was now engineering there own superheroes even though they seem to be doing it under the pretence of there own protection.What's to stop the government from cloning regular people next. Batman has been in a situation similar to that with robots being used to replace people.Its that uncertainty that makes cloning dangerous if in the wrong hands. Batman being threatened not to look into it for fear of his identity being exposed may truly keep him. He does have loved ones to protect. But this is Batman we are talking about. I don't think there is any threats that will stop the man from doing what he feels is right no matter the cost.

So what about The Ultimen.Will they return? I cant see them just reappearing on the scene with The JLU knowing that they are possibly clones even if the clones themselves don't know. The League would never trust them.In order for things to play out the way the government wants they would have to scrap the whole Ultimen project as it once was and create a totally new batch of superhuman artificial life. .


Overall It seems the government is both thankful and mistrustful of The League. General Eling while thankful the League stopped the alien threat in Dark Heart was also upset that the League has a weapon of mass destruction in space that he didn't know about. So the government as a whole seems to be highly suspicious of the Leagues activities and they should be I guess, The JL and other heroes like them do operate outside the law that is more than enough reason to worry.

[Yojimbo]

The JLU needs to infiltrate the government via Lex Luthor running for president. It make for an interesting twist, though he agrees to help the JLU he inacts his own agenda and ultimately Luthor gains so much power that he takes the fore front as the government threat and then it becomes a final showdown between the League and Luthor in a way similar to "a better world" but much more better.

I wonder if the creative team are going to link General Eiling to Captain Atom project or just say he is involved in Cadmus.

[greg!]

I seem to remember in the comic books, a team of heroes created by the government that went after Batman & the Outsiders. There was a statue of liberty woman, 4th of July boy, a guy who multiplied himself(silent majority?) I dont remember their names, but they may be building up to that showdown.:shrug:

[awh1978]

I find it very hard to believe that somebody like Batman doesn't have some idea of what's going on, especially after the Galatea incident. He's far too paranoid (and intelligent) to just assume that some members of the government would just accept the presence of superpowered folks floating around without having a contigency plan. Bats has one himself, but his stops at neutralizing rouges. He has to realize that the power hungry (Lex Luthor, for example) would want to push things further than that, especially since cloning seems to be much more advanced than it was in the STAS days. Maybe Bats is just playing dumb and keeping his info to himself.

As for what they should do about it, MM is perfect for some covert operations if he ever decides to leave the watchtower. Bats could try it himself, but this seems like a long term operation and I don't think he wants to leave Gotham for that long. In any case, once they have hard evidence it'll be down to who backs down first. The public won't be pleased to hear that the government's secretly cloning their own super army, and the heroes don't want their IDs exposed. Of course, if you go by BB Bats certainly gets spared this fate.