Justice League’s Murder Mystery: Every Suspect Ranked by Suspicion

There’s a murder mystery in Metropolis, and the only suspects are… The Justice League! Here are all the suspects and their motives in Human Target.

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Human Target #1!

It’s a murder mystery special in DC Comics’ Black Label maxiseries The Human Target by Tom King and Greg Smallwood, and the suspects are every member of the Justice League International. The Human Target, Christopher Chance, is a private investigator who poses as targets for assassination in order to expose criminal conspiracies. His life is turned upside down when he takes poison meant for Lex Luthor, leading him down a path of noir-esque sleuthing in a race against his own failing health to find the culprit. His only clues are that LexCorp was developing multidimensional communications, and the culprit or culprits are among Earth’s greatest defenders.

King is taking his inspiration in this series from the now classic late ‘80s-early ‘90s run of Justice League International by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, known for its bonkers, off-the-wall approach to narrative while still maintaining a dramatic and hard-hitting tone when needed. The roster of King’s JLI resembles that of the 1989-1991 run. In an effort to uncover the perpetrator, here’s the list of potential perps, ranked in order of suspicion from least to most.

10. Rocket Red

Let’s get the clearly innocent out of the way first: Rocket Red, also known as Dimitri Pushkin, joined the JLI as a token of brotherhood from the USSR, following the original Rocket Red being revealed to be an alien robotic spy. While it would be interesting to see King repeat the original storyline, the novelty would likely fall flat. Ultimately, Rocket Red’s possible motivation of international espionage, while tantalizing, would almost certainly prove too obvious for this kind of miniseries.

9. Guy Gardner

Guy Gardner was a sexist, abusive monster while a member of the JLI, and started more fights than he won among its members. He was so amoral and belligerent, in fact, that he was actually booted out of the Green Lantern Corps during his time with the JLI. But regardless of whether or not he hates Luthor, Gardner wouldn’t resort to poison, and it likely wasn’t him.

8. Blue Beetle

Ted Kord is a conscientious man who makes friends easily and isn’t afraid to put his life on the line, but that’s exactly the kind of image a sociopathic killer might project! It’s possible this whole murder plot springs from some bit of unknown info pilfered via corporate espionage by Kord Industries upon their rivals LexCorp. This however seems unlikely.

7. Batman & Martian Manhunter

The old mainstays should be above suspicion here. While the Batman of Justice League International was a prickly sort, known for his stubbornness and condescension towards the newer members, it is highly unlikely Batman would resort to murder. This is especially clear given the then-concurrent death of the second Robin, Jason Todd, and the guilt Batman was under during this time. Likewise, Martian Manhunter has often been considered the heart of the Justice League, and his trademark empathy would suggest he is incapable of cold-blooded murder. Likewise, his telepathy would tip him off to the Human Target’s impersonation. That said, perhaps Batman’s grief has gotten the better of him, and J’onn simply can’t handle any more of Luthor’s wicked ways. Or an alternate version of J’onn has reached out through the Multiverse and possessed him to commit this vile scheme.

6. Mister Miracle

King returns to Scott Free after his critically acclaimed 2017-2019 run on the character, and perhaps this might be the best time to flip the well-known, squeaky-clean, do-gooder on his head and turn him into a murderer of passion. Dealing with the trauma of having been raised under the yoke of Darkseid’s totalitarian rule on Apokolips might have caused the heroic New God to break and attempt to kill Luthor out of a general hatred for his megalomania, megalomania which could only remind him of his former captors. That said, Mister Miracle is a light-hearted character despite his past, and beyond that a dedicated family man, and, as such, he probably wouldn’t commit such an act.

5. Fire & Ice

Relative newcomers to the JLI, Fire and Ice, otherwise known as Beatriz Bonilla da Costa and Tora Olafsdotter, are two fantastically powered superheroines from the rival superteam the Global Guardians, mostly remembered for how amazingly cute they look together. Ice in particular is depicted as forthright and personable, but both are known for their honesty and dedication to defeating evil. Their motivation might stem from having to witness such an exploitative criminal like Luthor escape accountability for his crimes time and time again, and poison is just outside their modus operandi enough to deflect suspicion.

4. Captain Atom

Nathanial Christopher Adam is a military veteran and Air Force intelligence officer whose love of country and duty surpasses even his own framing for murder and subsequent disintegration and transposition forward in time 18 years. If Captain Atom received an order from someone high enough, perhaps the President, to kill Lex Luthor, he would likely not hesitate to commit such an act, and poison is quiet enough to do the job without implicating the armed forces. Could Luthor’s plan to broadcast through the Multiverse have caused the U.S. government to plot his death? It’s not so far-fetched compared to other suppositions.

3. Black Canary

Given the scant knowledge we have of the future events of this series, one concrete plot-point alluded to in Chance’s jumbled death-bed flashback is the presence of Dinah Laurel Lance, also known as the second Black Canary, adapted as a classic femme fatale character in King’s tale. Dinah’s portrayal among the JLI was that of a winsome, yet tough, headstrong warrior who was among the more stable and competent of the members. It is this very characterization that lends credence to the possibility that, far from being an innocent bystander in Chance’s investigation, she might be behind the whole operation.

2. G’nort

The first question one should be asking when looking at G’nort is, “What kind of cruel god would create such a horrible thing?” G’nort is an anthropomorphized dog with a Green Lantern ring he incessantly talks to in a manner he believes is folksy and cute, but is actually incredibly grating. Where did he come from, a reader might next ask? The answer is that G’nort was encountered by the team randomly on an alien planet in a relatively benign exchange in Justice League International #10 and sort of just continued showing up randomly until they unofficially allowed him to join the team. Best known for his inane chatter and constant attempts to seem “cool.”

Imagine what it would be like experientially to be some kind of grotesque dog-man. Would a reasonable person employ a creature like this to handle situations necessitating complex moral judgement like those a superhero might encounter regularly? No, of course not. His animalistic instincts make him functionally impossible to trust with anything more than the most menial of tasks. He probably tried to kill Luthor because he’s a cunning, deranged freak. And, for the sake of argument, the idea that he must be competent because he has a Green Lantern ring and the ring only chooses one pure of heart is countered by the fact that Guy Gardner also has a GL ring.

1. Booster Gold

Most superheroes do what they do because they feel they have a moral obligation to their fellow man to help other people. Not Booster Gold. Notable future time-traveler Booster, also known as Michael Jon Carter, claims he went back in time to the present day to become a famous, wealthy hero with the aid of futuristic technology. While Booster is rarely afforded the opportunity to actually become famous and wealthy in the comics, instead mostly serving as an honest and reasonably dependable hero, the fact remains that a hero with knowledge of the future could easily stop such an attempt on Luthor’s life, but chooses not to. This immediately casts suspicion upon him chief among the league. The most likely reason is obvious: that Booster Gold actually went back in time to stop a world-ending catastrophe by killing the man who caused it: Lex Luthor. After all, if Booster Gold were really here from the future to get rich, why aren’t there more like him?

But which Justice League International member really tried to kill Lex Luthor? Find out in future installments of The Human Target, on sale now.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/human-target-justice-league-international-murder-suspects-ranked/