Recap / With This Ring Episode 32

Episode 32: What Lies Beneath

Takes place 27-29 January 2011.

Short version

The Team rescues the original Speedy from captivity, and investigates a Guardian ship crashed in the ocean that turns out to be holding a Burning Martian in stasis; at Mr J'onzz's request, they send the ship to Maltus.

Longer version

At Green Arrow's suggestion, Paul tries out his new relationship with the Ophidian by successfully scanning the world to find the original Speedy. They mount a rescue along with Artemis, Robin, and Kid Flash, encountering only minor resistance. However, he does learn that Nylor Truggs was involved in holding Speedy.

Batman then assigns the Team two missions, and they divide up to complete them simultaneously. Paul joins most of the water-capable team members in investigating a crashed Maltusian ship at the bottom of the ocean floor, which has recently begun broadcasting energy signals. On board, they find a Burning Martian held in a stasis chamber; it breaks out and attacks, but after a brief fight, they are able to return it to stasis. The ship's records reveal that the Guardians were altering the Martian race to produce its modern form, using an artificial fear of fire to dissuade them from their violent burning nature. Although the outcome was somewhat successful, their conflict with the Burning Martians resulted in the near-total destruction of Mars' eco-sphere, and the conditioning that they imposed onto the survivors resulted in Martians' enduring fears of fire and isolation. Martian Manhunter, upon learning of this, is visibly angry with the Guardians, and instructs Paul to send the ship to Maltus instead of Oa.

The Renegade mission goes similarly, except that with Miss Martian's fear of fire removed, her reaction to the Burning Martian is different; she kills the Burner, but is worried that she made the wrong choice and should have the block reinstated, in case she becomes like that. The Renegade reassures her that with her very different upbringing, there's nothing to worry about.

The title may refer to the Maltusian ship being beneath the sea, and/or the truth behind Martian coloration/pyrophobia and the depopulation of Mars' surface.

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• Alternate History: Mr Zoat briefly discusses the differences between the Earths of the two timelines.
• Artificial Intelligence: The AI of power rings is explained a bit.
• Evil Old Folks: Doctor Cyber is a woman with no way to extend her youth or life and has been fighting Wonder Woman for years. As such, she's already experiencing the ravages of time when Paul sees her face.
  The golden metal mask falls free and the woman behind gasps before scowling at me. "Happy now?" The left side of her face bears heavy burn scars from one of her previous encounters with Diana. Her once jet black hair has long since faded to grey and both of her eyes are cybernetic. Even with the low rates of supervillain execution, Diana's agelessness means that she can expect to see virtually everyone she fights die eventually. And some of them take that rather personally.
• Foreshadowing: Artemis is growing closer to KF.
  • Darkseid is keeping a closer eye on the Renegade than the latter thinks.
• I Have This Friend: The Renegade asks Wonder Woman for advice on the scenarios behind the murder of Rag Doll and Niko Parish/Mina Byrne murdering her father in self-defense.
• Oh, Crap!: Paul has this realization when he discovers the crashed Maltusian spaceship went to ancient Mars and knows what that most likely means.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Like in the Renegade timeline, the normally stoic Martian Manhunter is furious after he discovers that the Guardians literally put shackles in the minds of all Martians long ago which is the reason for both the skin based caste system and inherent lack of desire to ever leave their caves.
• Pet the Dog: The Renegade voluntarily uses telepathy to comfort M'gann after she faced the Burning Martian.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Burning Martian. Although it actually found the stasis chamber quite useful, even going so far as to kill all its comrades in order to extend its own battery life.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Subverted. Doctor Cyber tries to do this, but her teleporter is jammed by OL.
• Word of God: More information is given about why Paul using the quintessence waveform scan was important.
  • Guyon shutting down Hal's ring is explained more.
  • Ghosts are actually unusual.
  • The League can't get the Maltusian ship because they have to stay neutral.
  • Compare and contrast radion and kryptonite.
  • Paul didn't go to the same lengths as the Renegade with the Vertigo situation.
  • The only 'Bobblehead Malware' left in Paul's second ring is anything beyond his ability to purge.
  • Ragman and Nightshade's statuses are made known.
  • Why the Guardians would use surgical robots.
  • Short reason the Guardians don't intervene against every space empire.
  • Paul wants to use the ship to send a message to Maltus.
  • The Burner was killed in the Renegade timeline.
  • M'gann can't tell Paul hates Nabu from normal telepathic contact.

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