History ComicBook / JLATowerOfBabel

* ColdBloodedTorture: Batman's counter-measures against the League, which is intended to "non-lethally" incapacitate them, amount to personalized torture chambers:

--> '''Flash''': How well do you really know him? Or, I guess, more to the point...how well does he know you? Well enough to know better than any of us how you'll vote?\\
'''Superman''': Yes.

* ColdBloodedTorture: Batman's counter-measures against the League, which is intended to "non-lethally" incapacitate them amount to personalized torture chambers:
** Superman's is exposed to Red Kryptonite which makes his skin translucent and causes him to experience sensory overload from the Solar Radiation he absorbs.

** Flash is shot in his spine with a "vibration bullet" that causes him to experience light-speed seizures.

** Plastic Man is traumatized by being shattered into pieces after being frozen in liquid oxygen.

** J'onn brings up the plot point of ''Justice League Year One'' where he had researched files on his teammates that enemy forces were able to steal and exploit.

* HeroicWillpower: Brutally [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] with Batman's contingency plan to defeat Wonder Woman. Since Diana lacks the obvious weaknesses of other Leaguers (Superman's Kryptonite factor, Aquaman's need for water, etc.), Bruce instead relies on her psychology: he knows that she absolutely refuses to give up a fight under any circumstance. As such, his plan traps her in a ''perpetual'' fight that will eventually kill her, because her body will give out before her willpower ever does.

* ManipulativeBastard: The Secret Origins prequel issue shows how Batman managed to create weaknesses to take out his team-mates. He mostly partnered and buddied with them (by his standards) to get them to let their guard down. Mostly [[spoiler:learning from Kyle Rayner how important his sense of being an artist was, and how much he would be handicapped by going blind]].

* NavelDeepNeckline: A rare male example, Ra's shirt has a V cut on his chest that exposes his CarpetOfVirility. Talia's SpyCatsuit also has one, but much smaller than his.

--> '''Flash''': What? No wisecracks?
--> '''Plastic Man''': Not today

--> '''Ra's Al Ghul''': God-powerful aliens. A child with a magic ring. So much wasted potential. So much they could do to remake an endangered Earth.\\
'''Superman''': Agreed. Why don't we start by taking you out of the picture?

--> '''Green Lantern''': C'mon, man, he brought you in.\\
'''Plastic Man''': Yeah, yeah, he did. I owe him. I know that.\\
'''Green Lantern''': Then.....?\\
'''Plastic Man''': ''[pause as a panel shows a {{flashback}} to his brutal treatment]'' Get him out of here.
* TooDumbToLive: One of Ra's goons tries to curry his favour by ''shooting his daughter''. She was helping the heroes at the time, but still... Surprising no-one but himself, he doesn't last long afterwards.
* TheUnapologetic: While Batman admits he's responsible for Ra's Al Ghul hacking his countermeasures he never once apologizes or believes it was wrong of him to have done so behind the backs of his fellow League members.
* VillainousUnderdog: Ra's Al Ghul would have no chance against the Justice League normally, hence stealing Batman's contingency plans. Once the Justice League survives the plans, Ra's plans are quickly thwarted, neither he nor his men posing a threat to the League.

** Ra's is shown ordering the execution of one of his subordinates after they messed while caring for a rare tiger and ended up killing him.

''Tower of Babel'' is a four-issue storyline in ''ComicBook/JLA1997'' written by Creator/MarkWaid, and drawn by Howard Porter and Steve Scott. It was published in issues #43-46 between July and October 2000. ''JLA Secret Files and Origins Vol. 1 #3'' published in December 2000 serves as a prequel to the comic showing the manner in which ComicBook/{{Batman}} create those countermeasures and how it was hacked, as well as an epilogue showing how Oracle, Nightwing, and Robin deal with the repercussions of Batman's actions as their own teams become distrustful of them.

The plot begins with a series of incidents that target individual members of the JLA. [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter J'onn Jonnz]] is infected with nanites that set him on perpetual fire, ComicBook/PlasticMan is frozen in liquid nitrogen, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} becomes hydrophobic, Kyle Rayner[=/=]ComicBook/GreenLantern wakes up blind, ComicBook/WonderWoman finds herself battling a doppelganger endlessly, Wally West[=/=]the Flash is sent into an epileptic frenzy, and ComicBook/{{Superman}} is exposed to Red Kryptonite that turns his skin transparent and his body gets overdosed on solar radiation. Batman realizes that the culprit for this attack is ComicBook/RasAlGhul and his organization, but he also discovers that Ra's accomplice is...himself. Ra's, acting via ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul, hacked into Batman's secret files and stole a number of contingency plans designed to immediately take down the Justice League in case they went rogue. He did this without telling them and behind their backs. Ra's uses this confusion to launch his most ambitious scheme for global domination and cleansing, a modern Tower of Babel that globally disrupts the language center of the brain, making people communicate in gibberish, triggering a global catastrophe and civil war that would thin out the human population.

* VillainousUnderdog: Ra's Al Ghul would have no chance against the Justice League normally, hence stealing Batman's contingency plans. Once the Justice League survives the plans, Ra's plans are quickly thwarted, neither he nor his men posing a threat to the League.

* LotusEaterMachine: Diana becomes stuck in one thanks to a VR chip implanted in her head. In her mind she's having an eternal battle with an EvilCounterpart villain while her body is completely unresponsive.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Talia ends up having a crisis of conscience over her father's genocidal goals and defects, and helps the League by tipping them off about his final plans so that they'll stop him.

''Tower of Babel'' has proven to be one of the most influential JLA storylines. The ramifications of the story greatly affected and transformed Batman's status within the DCU. It was subsequently followed up in stories like ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''.

The plot begins with a series of incidents that target individual members of the JLA. [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter J'onn Jonnz]] is infected with nanites that set him on perpetual fire, ComicBook/PlasticMan is frozen in liquid nitrogen, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} becomes hydrophobic, Kyle Rayner[=/=]Franchise/GreenLantern wakes up blind, ComicBook/WonderWoman finds herself battling a doppelganger endlessly, ComicBook/WallyWest[=/=]the Flash is sent into an epileptic frenzy, and ComicBook/{{Superman}} is exposed to Red Kryptonite that turns his skin transparent and his body gets overdosed on solar radiation. Batman realizes that the culprit for this attack is ComicBook/RasAlGhul and his organization, but he also discovers that Ra's accomplice is...himself. Ra's, acting via ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul, hacked into Batman's secret files and stole a number of contingency plans designed to immediately take down the Justice League in case they went rogue. He did this without telling them and behind their backs. Ra's uses this confusion to launch his most ambitious scheme for global domination and cleansing, a modern Tower of Babel that globally disrupts the language center of the brain, making people communicate in gibberish, triggering a global catastrophe and civil war that would thin out the human population.

** The revelation that their co-worker had planned to torture them painfully to incapacitate them surprisingly doesn't go well with the Justice League, as Ra's Al Ghul counted on.

* NeverMyFault: While Batman admits he's responsible for Ra's Al Ghul hacking his countermeasures he never once apologizes or believes it was wrong of him to have done so behind the backs of his fellow League members.

* SenseLossSadness: Batman's contingency for Kyle Rainer was derived from a conversation they had over what sense they'd be most sad to lose. As an artist, Kyle admits that he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he somehow lost his vision. Batman would then use this knowledge to develop a means of hypnotizing Kyle blind, thereby demoralizing and incapacitating him.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: The debate in the League [[spoiler:about Batman's actions in the final issue where some argue (Kyle Rayner, Wally West, J'Onn J'Onzz) that Batman does have a point about making these contingencies in case they go rogue (they even cite Agamemno, who was able to take control of Leaguers before) while others insist that it's a terrible betrayal by someone who is their partner to do behind their backs (Plastic Man, Aquaman, Wonder Woman). The comic believably underscores both the rational justifications for what Batman did, and the emotional consequences his actions unleash on his teammates. Wonder Woman even points out that ''having'' the contingencies and not telling the Leaguers what they are isn't even really the problem, it's that he didn't even ''tell'' them he was doing it before it was too late]].

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Ra's indifference towards his men's safety eventually leads to his downfall. Talia defects, tired of being treated as a pawn and wanting to part on his genocidal plans and Diana manages to convince a {{Mook}} to surrender by convincing him Ra's would not care or remember him sacrificing himself for Ra.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The League members successfully overcome their individual tortures, overpower Ra's, and save the world--and then they have to deal with the extremely lasting psychological damage that Batman caused with not only his contingency plans, but the manipulative and cruel way he went about creating them. The Leaguers are ''people'', and being deeply betrayed by a close friend is something that not even a superhero can easily forgive or accept. Similarly, while they're able to recognize the logic behind Batman's decision, the emotional pain outweighs that logic, which often happens when trust is broken.
** When Ra's realizes that the League is beating down his door, he cuts and runs--immortal though he may be, he's not nearly powerful enough to take on Superman or Wonder Woman by himself, let alone the entire squadron.

* CorruptedContingency:
** Batman created contingency plans to be used against the Justice League in the event they either turn evil or were mind-controlled. Ra's al Ghul discovers these plans and modifies them to be more lethal so he can use them to kill the League.
** During the argument about whether or not Batman should be expelled from the League, Aquaman brings up an incident in the past in which defense plans created by Martian Manhunter (who was new to Earth and didn't know who to trust) fell into the wrong hands and were used against the heroes.

* CorruptedContingency: Batman created contingency plans to be used against the Justice League in the event they either turn evil or were mind-controlled. Ra's al Ghul discovers these plans and modifies them to be more lethal so he can use them to kill the League.

[[caption-width-right:350:Ra's Al Ghul in a good mood…]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Ra's Al Ghul in a good mood]]

''Tower of Babel'' is a four-issue storyline in ''ComicBook/JLA1997'' written by Creator/MarkWaid, and drawn by Howard Porter and Steve Scott. It was published in issues #43-46 between July and October 2000. ''JLA Secret Files and Origins Vol. 1 #3'' published in December 2000 serves as a prequel to the comic showing the manner in which ComicBook/{{Batman}} create those countermeasures and how it was hacked, as well as an epilogue showing how Oracle, Nightwing, and Robin deal with the repurcussions of Batman's actions as their own teams become distrustful of them.

* AbsoluteCleavage: A rare male example, Ra's shirt has a V cut on his chest that exposes his CarpetOfVirility. Talia's SpyCatsuit also has one, but much smaller than his.

-> '''Superman''': "Tell me why."\\
'''Batman''': "I had my reasons. But I'm no happier than you that Ra's decrypted my computer files."\\
'''Superman''': "Our sympathies are marginal."

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: The debate in the League [[spoiler:about Batman's actions in the final issue where some argue (Kyle Rayner, Wally West, J'Onn J'Onzz) that Batman does have a point about making these contingencies in case they go rogue, while others insist that it's a terrible betrayal by someone who is their partner to do behind their backs (Plastic Man, Aquaman, Wonder Woman). The comic believably underscores both the rational justifications for what Batman did, and the emotional consequences his actions unleash on his teammates. Wonder Woman even points out that ''having'' the contingencies and not telling the Leaguers what they are isn't even really the problem, it's that he didn't even ''tell'' them he was doing it before it was too late]].

* DidntThinkThisThrough: In making contingency plans against the League should they turn rogue, Batman never once factored in the possibility that they could be stolen. He kept the files on his computers while ignoring the fact that a few villains know his SecretIdentity and have resources to access it.

* EasilyForgiven: Martian Manhunter, The Flash and Kyle Rayner are willing to forgive Batman for his actions but the other members of the League are not. Downplayed as they are still mad at him.

It has also been adapted with some changes as ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDoom'', while parts of the storyline inspired episodes in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' ([[Recap/BatmanBeyondS2E12Babel Babel]] where the sound-based villain Shriek uses a similar plot) and the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' three-parter ''[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E24To26Starcrossed Starcrossed]]''.

''Tower of Babel'' is a four-issue storyline in ComicBook/JLA1997 written by Creator/MarkWaid, and drawn by Howard Porter and Steve Scott. It was published in issues #43-46 between July and October 2000. ''JLA Secret Files and Origins Vol. 1 #3'' published in December 2000 serves as a prequel to the comic showing the manner in which ComicBook/{{Batman}} create those countermeasures and how it was hacked, as well as an epilogue showing how Oracle, Nightwing, and Robin deal with the repurcussions of Batman's actions as their own teams become distrustful of them.

''Tower of Babel'' is a four-issue storyline in ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica written by Creator/MarkWaid, and drawn by Howard Porter and Steve Scott. It was published in issues #43-46 between July and October 2000. ''JLA Secret Files and Origins Vol. 1 #3'' published in December 2000 serves as a prequel to the comic showing the manner in which ComicBook/{{Batman}} create those countermeasures and how it was hacked, as well as an epilogue showing how Oracle, Nightwing, and Robin deal with the repurcussions of Batman's actions as their own teams become distrustful of them.

* AbsoluteCleavage: A rage male example, Ra's shirt has a V cut on his chest that exposes his CarpetOfVirility. Talia's SpyCatsuit also has one, but much smaller than his.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Since joining the League, Plastic Man has been nothing but the levity bringing comic relief and a character gaurenteed to generate a chuckle or two whenever he's in an issue. Here, after he learns that he almost died because of a plan that Batman made without his knowledge? He becomes ''deadly'' serious and even votes to kick Batman out of the League despite him being the one who brought him in.