9th April
16:51 GMT +1
"I had a brief discussion with Batman about this last year, but I don't think that the current method of recruiting League members is a good one, and I think that it may break down entirely before too long.
"
Yes, I know that the purpose of the organisation should be to fulfil the aims of the organisation and not merely to perpetuate the organisation, but this sort of thing does need to get thought about every so often.
"At present, any member may propose a new member and every member has a veto.
" And I'm not thinking too much about what it means that no one at all voted against Nabu.
"The problem with this is that as the League grows, more people have a veto and the chance of someone being approved is reduced. This isn't exactly helped by the fact that there's no clear recruitment criteria. The practice so far appears to be for members to nominate people they've met and checked out, with little or no consideration given to what skills would be most useful to the League. For example-
" The holograms move around me.
"-Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Major Atom, Captain Marvel, Red Tornado and Icon all have both super strength and the ability to fly. Only Accomplished Perfect Physician can heal injuries. However good they were at their job, however good and trustworthy a person they were, how much would having another strong flier add to the League's capacities? Similarly, the League has
one magic user. My team has
five, not counting Troia's evocations. The League has
one telepath. And as a consequence of recruiting known quantities, the League is somewhat American-heavy. No offence intended to my colonial brethren.
"
There's an
extremely polite laugh from a few places.
"No one's going to refuse access to the Justice League on the grounds of nationality, but that
does mean that you're ignoring a huge pool of talent because the people who have it don't live in the right place. For example-
" A new hologram.
"-this is
He Who Follows. He works in Iran. Aside from myself and Batman, had anyone heard of him?
"
Blank.
"Super speed, regeneration, some sort of air current manipulation. He also follows League guidelines on use of force and cooperation with the local authorities.
" To be fair though, he's been active for less time than everyone here except Icon. Another hologram.
"This is
Janissary. She's a medical doctor and magic user and she's been active since nineteen ninety nine.
" That is to say, as long as Batman and longer than most of the others.
"Wonder Woman, you were actively looking for more female superheroes. Have you heard of her?
"
She shakes her head. "I think I may have to arrange to meet her."
"Roughly a quarter of Atlantean battlemages are female. More, if you expand your selection criteria to magic users who can both cast combat spells and do other things. There are an awful lot of people around who
could be on the Justice League who aren't getting a look in.
"
"But let's move back onto the organisational issue. The more people taking part in decision making, the more people who need to be consulted, the slower decision making becomes. That's fine for a small group, but the League isn't a small group any longer. And I'm assuming that you aren't planning to stop expanding, because if you are… Several of my team mates are going to be rather upset with you. I haven't seen anything written down about how big you're planning on getting, just as I haven't seen anything written down about what you're recruiting
for. But, I came up with a few possibilities for future organisational structures, each of which
could work. Then, you need to decide which way you want to take it.
"
"Firstly, you could certificate existing superheroes. Propagate a set of standards, offer equipment, training and League facilities. Though they wouldn't become League members, that would give you a wider pool of people to draw on in a crisis and a wider skill base. And let those of you who maintain secret identities have some time off every so often.
" A few rueful nods.
"Current League members would in effect serve as officers and keep those functions involved in the running of the organisation divided amongst themselves. People would only be promoted to the League proper when there were openings due to death or retirement, and those openings would be filled by affiliates.
"
"Secondly -and I'll warn you that in the style of
Sir Humphrey Appleby this is very similar to the first option- you continue to recruit anyone with the right skill set, but appoint an executive to approve new members.. and make most other operational decisions. This executive would probably be elected by the membership as a whole. This has the advantage of not causing those nominated for membership to feel excluded, but would most likely result in some of the people who are currently members losing some of their authority.
"
The Earth 12 option. Sort of. I never got the feeling that the authority of the original seven was in any way up for debate, even when a good proportion of the membership flat out hated Hawkgirl.
Now for Sir Humphrey's option three. The unacceptable one.
"Alternatively, it may be easier not to recruit from existing superheroes at all, and instead train your own from scratch. By that, I don't mean taking on a lot more sidekicks. I mean find people -ex-military, police, or just people who have the right attitude- put them through a training program and if they pass give them super powers.
" I hold my hands forward and take two vials out of subspace.
"Both the Danner and Garrick Formulae are easily mass produced.
" I send them back into subspace and take out the most recent iteration of my power armour.
"Power armour, perfectly mass producible as both the Russian government and LexCorp are proving. Cold guns, mass producible. Orichalcum, not
currently mass producible but we're working on it. Kinetic belts-
" I tap mine.
"-mass producible… With a little difficulty. If you're willing to move away from the traditional style of superheroism, you can get a lot of-.
"
"How about cloning Kryptonians?" The set of Superman's jaw indicates his displeasure at the idea.
"Of course not, sir. Creating people purely to use them as weapons is grotesquely immoral, the only pure Kryptonian produced by Human science is insane and hybrids like Kon don't really have much advantage over Danner Formula augmented Humans.
" Though I
do need to talk to him about this after the meeting.
"Bringing arcane education to the surface world would also produce a pool of people with useful and currently very hard to get abilities. I know-
" I look at King Orin.
"-several governments have expressed an interest in doing their part to ensure that we don't ever have another Roanoke Island.
"
"It cannot."
Thank you, Nabu. "The Witch Boy cannot both channel such great magics
and evade my detection."
What's the politest way to put this..?
That will still set him off?
"Nabu… You're not exactly a Klarion hard counter. Of the last three occasions you met him-
" I dismiss the holograms and replace them with a recording from my perspective of the top of the Tower of Fate.
"-on the first, you spent the whole fight on the defensive until I arrived-
" The image shows Nabu being protected by a shield as Klarion throws red lightning at him.
"-and
I was the one who went after his familiar. Successfully.
" A scene shift.
"At sixteen percent power. And Klarion still got away.
"
"My host was not properly able to-."
"The second time you met -on Roanoke- Klarion was able to retreat unimpeded again.
" The holoprojector shows Klarion waving goodbye as his shield fails.
"And to be honest, having read up on that jewel I'm not entirely sure that your contribution was entirely-.
"
"The Witch Boy fled before I could bring my full might to bear."
"Though at that point, his allies had already recovered the Starro fragment from STAR Labs. He didn't have any reason to stay and try to fight you.
" The hologram switches to showing me fighting in this very room while another shows Nabu being taken down by my team mates.
"Then the third time, you were mind controlled by him, having been in the vicinity of other people being mind controlled by him for some time without realising it. And having not felt his magic in the Starro tech itself. My binding chains held Klarion perfectly well, Lord of Chaos or not.
" Honest enquiry face.
"Do you think it might benefit you to become more closely involved-
"
Nabu stands. "I will not be spoken to in this manner!"
"-in my arcane research projects? Or would you-
"
A golden ankh forms around Nabu and a moment later he's gone.
I
don't smile.
"-rather storm off like a petulant child?
"
(staring)
"The ladies love a man with a good sense of humor."
