Break Downs Part 4:
Note the issue title "The Widening Gyre." No, this is not the Batman series!Again, I have already discussed Part 3 of Break Downs, as a part of JLA. And, I have to admit, that the story makes much more sense if you read all the parts. This issue does a credible job of recapping in the first few pages, much more so than JLA does.
While the news is reporting the apparent deaths of Captain Atom and Inspector Camus, the reader knows better. And, in fact, Crimson Fox (in her real life identity as head of an international conglomerate) has brought Captain Atom, Ice, Beetle and Ralph (all in disguise) with her to Bialya for a "vacation."
The group discovers secret tunnels, which are probably what the Queen Bee uses to nab people and brainwash them. Our heroes use the tunnels to get to the Dome. Beetle, at least, has figured out that the bullets used to try to kill Max were a plant, designed to make it look like Queen Bee shot Max. But Beetle figures it must have been a meta-human, since otherwise they would have left a trail. Beetle is proving his smarts, now. He thinks it must have been one of the Global Guardians.
The group breaks into the Dome, and finds the Guardians all "frozen," not literally frozen, Ice, just figuratively. While Beetle is looking at the computers, trying to figure out what is wrong, Captain Atom notices that Jack O'Lantern is not among those present. Right then, Jack O'Lantern shows up with Mermaid, and proceeds to engage the JLI in a fight. During the course of the fight, Jack kills Mermaid, but then "wakes up" the rest of the Global Guardians, proclaiming that the Justice League killed Mermaid.
Queen Bee calls Kurt Waldheim (whom we know now to be a drone of the Queen) to mobilize the JLI to take out the ex-JLI. Which leads us into part 5, see previous entry!
Oh, and Manga Khan made an obsure appearance, selling something off to a group who wants a planet killer. Could this be how Despero got loose?