All roads lead back to Earth for the final showdown over the Book of Destiny, whose possessor will have the knowledge of all that has ever been or will be! Every guest star involved will have the opportunity to glance inside the book, including Batman, Green Lantern, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Lobo and more!
This issue takes place before the JLA/JSA Lightning Saga.
Overview
In 31st-century Metropolis, Brainiac-5 quickly manages to separate Batman from Tharok, but alas, this version of the Legion of Super Heroes has no time-travel technology, no time-bubbles, no nothing, so Batman is stranded in this future world of condescending brats, who treat him like both a legendary hero and a foundling Neanderthal, at the same time.
The probability-altering Haruspex weapon has also arrived in this era, and despite Batman’s warning, the Legion are running diagnostic tests on it, and on him. These reveal that Batman’s system is ablaze with odd chronal radiation, which is likely to open cataclysmic temporal rifts. Sure enough, the next second, a portal appears, with a hostile robot army pouring through it, identified as “Intellagents” which earlier in history were banned, in “the great A. I. Exile.” Lightning Lad and Light Lass engage these things, while another rift opens, and a swarm of pterodactyl-looking critters fly into the room. These are Rimborian Rayzers, and Chameleon Boy adopts the form of their natural enemy, a really big Thachon, but he still needs reinforcements.
Batman jumps into the fray, efficiently disabling one of the Intellagents, and the Legionnaires quickly get the fight under control. Batman tries to tell them that the Haruspex is the key to sending him back in time, which would solve their time rift problem, but Brainiac-5, and his giant ego, just aren’t listening. Plus when they test-fire the darn thing, nothing happens. Fed up, Batman knocks out Brainiac-5 (and steals his Flight Ring), decks Lightning Lad, steals the Haruxpex, deploys a smoke bomb, eludes the whole crowd of Legionnaires, and leaves the building.
Meanwhile in the 21st Century, on planet Rann, Supergirl grabs Hal Jordan and Adam Strange out of their fight with the Thanagarian Hawkmen and zooms them away, at Mach-80. In fact, she’s out of control; they pass the same platoon of Hawkmen twice, in a low-altitude planetary orbit. Green Jordan brings them to a safe landing with his power ring, and it turns out that solar-powered Kara is being over-energized by Rann’s trinary starsystem. Supergirl asks about the Book of Destiny.
The Rannian thief had gotten loose from Green Jordan during their Zeta-Beam trip to Rann, but Hal remembered him mentioning the “Rannian Underground,” so he looked up his old pal Adam Strange to find out about that. A planetwide civil war was in progress, between displaced Thanagarian Hawkmen and native Rannians, with the Thanagarians unsurprisingly winning. But in the last day or two, the tide was turning, now that the Rannian militia had the Book of Destiny.
Adam guides Hal and Supergirl to the hidden base of the Rannian forces, and they confront General Mondath, who is of course the weaselly little thief who had stolen the book back on . His forces need the omniscient Book of Destiny as a counterbalance to the Thanagarians’ omniscient Absorbascon technology, which had been uncovering every bit of Rannian knowledge and planning.
Supergirl warns Mondath that his possession of the book is (a) due to the malfeasance of the sorcerous Luck Lords, and (b) a threat to the very structure of time and space. Mondath looks up “Luck Lords” in the book, and shows the good guys a picture, asking if it shows these dangerous magicians. What it shows is Hal, Kara, and Adam, standing right where they’re standing now, with three giant, eyeball-headed figures right behind them. Oh yeah, these are the Lords of Luck.
Meanwhile in the 31st Century, in Metropolis, the Science Police are scouring the city for the fugitive Batman, and completely failing to catch him. Triplicate Girl spots him and pursues him around a corner, but by the time her teammates catch up, all three of her are tied together in “a Siamese human knot.” Batman flies away, down Binder Alley, where Colossal Boy can’t fit, and when Shrinking Violet gets too close, he knocks her out of the air with a marble from a blowgun.
By remote control, Brainiac-5 rigs his stolen ring to become trackable by the other Legion rings (which it’s already supposed to be anyway), and this enables Invisible Kid to get close enough to distract Batman, while Karate Kid gets close enough to actually attack him. This version of Karate Kid actually looks Japanese, unlike the white Karate Kid (a level-15 fighter, according to Superman) who fights Batman (a level-12 fighter) in Justice League of America v.2 #8 (June 2007), so the outcome of this fight is a toss-up. In fact, no conclusion is reached; the fight is interrupted by a fire-spewing alien monster, emerging from a third time rift, which provides enough distraction for Batman to escape again. He ducks into Metro Underground, a 31st Century slum, pursued by Star Boy and Phantom Girl, who are now homing in on a signal from his Flight Ring.
He sets up these two by leaving the Haruspex out in plain sight, with the ring under it, and jumps them, knocking out Star Boy. Phantom Girl manages to pick up the Haruspex and fire it, with the probability-defying result of bringing Dream Girl back from the dead! By this time, a huge swarm of Legionnaires are converging on Batman’s position, but Saturn Girl stops them with a telepathic broadcast, cautioning that Batman, far from being mad, is actually saving the 31st Century. The Haruspex will only fire when its target is perceived as a threat, which, with Phantom Girl holding it, it definitely does. She shoots; there’s a blinding flash; then the outcome is revealed. One of the Lords of Luck has arrived, with the Book of Destiny on one hand and, now, the Haruspex in the other. As of this moment, the Luck Lords now rule the cosmos!
To be continued …
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