https://justicetrek.podbean.com/e/jt002-menacing-machines/
The Brave and the Bold #29 was released on March 1, 1960 and had a May cover date and a ten cent cover price. The cover art was by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson. The 26-page story was titled “Challenge of the Weapons Master!” and was written by Gardner Fox, edited by Julius Schwartz, pencilled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Bernard Sachs (Chapters 1, 3, and 5) and Joe Giella (Chapters 2 and 4).
On the splash page we see seven Justice League members sitting paralyzed at a table, with the robot standing behind and towering over them, with Xotar in the belly control chamber. As Xotar broadcasts his challenge, the JLA members - in order from left to right, Wonder Woman, Batman, Snapper Carr, Flash, J’onn J’onzz, Aquaman, and Green Lantern - talk about how “some strange force” is preventing them from getting up out of their chairs. Meanwhile Snapper thinks to himself - remember this is old school comics, when they still used thought balloons - “Man, this fight looks fixed! My Justice League pals better come up with a big stunt -- quick -- if they’re gonna beat this creep from Futuresville!” The Roll Call lists all seven main members - so no Snapper, but including Superman - and uses the Martian spelling of J’onn J’onzz’s name. The text box - and almost all DC splash pages had large text boxes back in those days - read:
“THE NAME AND FAME OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA HAVE SPREAD NOT ONLY TO EVERY CORNER OF THE EARTH… BUT THROUGHOUT THE AGES!
“YES, EVEN IN THE FAR DISTANT FUTURE, THE 20TH CENTURY HEROES ARE REGARDED AS THE MIGHTIEST CRIME-FIGHTING TEAM THAT EVER EXISTED!
“NOW -- FROM OUT OF THOSE UNCHARTED, UNKNOWN YEARS… APPEARS A FUTURE-MAN TO ENGAGE THE SUPER-SEVEN MEMBERS IN COMBAT -- A BATTLE THAT HISTORY WILL RECORD AS A DEFEAT FOR THE JUSTICE LEAGUE!”
“CHALLENGE OF THE WEAPONS MASTER!”
The story opens on page two in the year 11,960 - or exactly 10000 years in the story’s future - as we see our villain Xotar in the cavern he uses as a weapons cache, standing next to the aforementioned giant robot. Just outside the sealed, thick, metal door to the cavern is the Intersolar Police who are using a heating device to melt through the door. Xotar climbs onto a lifting device which raises him the necessary height to the entrance to his robot’s control chamber as he thinks to himself that he has four weapons to use to fight the police and they have counter-weapons to three of them. This leaves one weapon which will defeat the police, but he doesn’t know which one. Just as the police enter the chamber, he mentions that the robot is also a time machine, so he will travel 10,000 years into the past to test the four weapons against the Justice League. Whichever of the four weapons cannot be defeated by the Justice League, he deduces, must be the weapon that also cannot be countered by the Intersolar Police.
Xotar is certain of his plan as he has located an ancient book written by Wonder Woman. Although large portions of the text are smudged to the point of illegibility, he is able to read “something something one of the four weapons used by Xotar something something to defeat the Justice League of America”.
Xotar then recounts how he discovered the weapons. He mentions the microscopitor - without saying how he acquired it - but then says he stole his de-evolutionizer from the Interstellar Science Laboratory. He found his third weapon in the ancient ruins of a dead Andromeda world and then found the fourth weapon - which was made for the mad dictator of Aldebaran - floating deep in space. He then explains that the robot’s name is Ilaric and that he was the master-robot of the robot planet Illirium; Xotar was able to seize control of the robot by cutting the control wires from its neutronic brain.
Arriving in 1960, Xotar encounters Snapper Carr who is ice skating; he then commands Ilaric to grab Snapper and takes him back to the Justice League’s cavern headquarters. En route, Snapper is able to activate the JLA “alarm belt” which the Justice League gave him in the previous issue when they made him an honorary member. Responding to the summons, Flash, Wonder Woman, the Manhunter from Mars, Aquaman, Batman, and Green Lantern race to their hidden sanctuary as the reader is asked the question “OF ALL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE MEMBERS ONLY SUPERMAN FAILS TO RESPOND TO THE ALARM! WHY!” Once the heroes arrive they see Snapper seated at the meeting table as he speaks in a voice not his own that says “I -- XOTAR OF THE YEAR 11,960 -- HAVE BORROWED YOUR YOUNG FRIEND IN ORDER TO SUMMON YOU HERE AND CHALLENGE YOU TO COMBAT! YOU SHALL FIGHT ME ONE AT A TIME TO HELP ME DETERMINE WHICH WEAPON WILL OVERCOME THE INTERSOLAR POLICE! FIRST, I SELECT FLASH!” As the Martian Manhunter suggests that they all should go after Xotar at the same time, Ilaric shines a yellow light beam that he calls a gravitic ray on the assembled members which renders the heroes immobile. Xotar will eventually comment to himself that the gravitic ray is not itself a weapon because it not only immobilizes it also protects its subjects from other harm. Knowing that the Flash can free himself, Xotar issues the following challenge: “WHEN THE GHOST WALKS AT HESPERUS ON THE SECOND DAY OF THE MOONLESS MONTH, I AM WAITING TO DO BATTLE!”
As Chapter 2 opens up Flash races through the town of Middledale as he muses to himself that the phrase “when the ghost walks” is theatrical slang for payday, but he needs to find a library to find a clue to the word “Hesperus”. At super-speed Flash uses the books in the library to learn that “Hesperus” is the name given by the ancient poet Homer in his Iliad to the planet Venus. Deducing that the reference to Venus means that Xotar will strike at a Florida missile base that is preparing to launch a rocket to Venus, the Scarlet Speedster races to the Sunshine State realizing that the moonless month means February, which at 28 days is too short for a full lunar cycle. Arriving at the missile base and briefing the local officials, Flash then races to challenge Xotar and Ilaric who have arrived and started destroying the Venus rocket. As Flash is struck with a ray from the microscopitor, the Scarlet Speedster shrinks to six inches tall. He does still have his powers, so he tunnels underground at super-speed and then vibrates his way through Ilaric itself up to the control chamber, where he then generates enough friction-heat to melt the microscopitor. Ejecting both tiny Flash and the now-useless weapon, Xotar then immediately flees through the time stream back to JLA HQ to return to the same moment he left.
In Chapter 3, Xotar frees Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter with the challenge “I WILL STRIKE WHERE THE SUN RISES IN THE WEST AND SETS IN THE EAST!” Deducing that the future-man is referring to the part of the Isthmus of Panama where the land mass twists in such a way that the Atlantic (or eastern) coast is actually on the western shore while the Pacific (or western) coast is actually on the eastern shore, our heroes race to the canal where Xotar immediately uses his de-evolutionizer on J’onn J’onzz, which blasts him into nothingness. Aquaman on the other hand has commanded a mass of giant octopi to drag Ilaric into the ocean, musing that he is actually a diversion, as the Manhunter has used his Martian powers to turn invisible to make Xotar think he was defeated. J’onn then uses his powers to fashion a mirror out of the sand on the beach, then flies towards Ilaric just as Xotar then shoots the de-evolutionizer again. However the beam reflects off J’onn’s mirror, returning back to Ilaric and destroying the weapon, so Xotar again flees back to JLA HQ.
In Chapter 4 Xotar then frees Wonder Woman, Batman, and Green Lantern and challenges them to fight him “ABOVE THE LIVING STONE OF THE RING-NECKED PHEASANT!” As Batman races off to locate Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern deduce that the riddle refers to South Dakota, which has the ring-necked pheasant as its state bird, and specifically to the presidential faces carved in Mount Rushmore. As they arrive Xotar fires his magneto-bubble weapon at Wonder Woman, which surrounds the Amazing Amazon in her robot plane as it sends them through space to a distant sun which will destroy both woman and plane. However Green Lantern uses his power ring to create a meteor which collides with the bubble in such a way to destroy it, freeing Wonder Woman and her jet. Green Lantern then flies toward Ilaric as Wonder Woman lassos the barrel of the magneto-bubble, jamming the barrel with the clay found nearby. Defeated again, Xotar takes off as he muses that the fourth device must be the undefeatable weapon.
In Chapter 5 the heroes - minus Batman - reunite at their sanctuary as Xotar again speaks through Snapper to challenge the heroes to battle him in “THE VALLEY OF THE TEN THOUSAND SMOKES!” Racing to the Alaskan Valley in question, named such because of the natural volcanic fumaroles, the heroes are then transported by the fourth weapon to a distant planet where they are attacked by a horde of alien monsters. The League members are unable to defeat the alien creatures, although Xotar ruminates that the fourth weapon is actually an illusion-maker which will trick the heroes into destroying each other. His plan appears to be working until Batman shows up with Superman - revealing that Superman didn’t answer Snapper’s summons because he had been traveling through time although Batman was somehow able to track him down - and then the Man of Steel promptly thrashes Ilaric and destroys the illusion-maker. Superman then locks the time-controls to Ilaric and sends Xotar back to his cavern in the year 11,960 where he is promptly captured by the Intersolar Police. Xotar can’t believe that his book mislead him, although back in 1960 as Wonder Woman writes down the adventure it is revealed that what she actually wrote says “the Illusion-Maker was one of the four weapons used by Xotar in his unsuccessful attempt to defeat the Justice League of America”. Thus concludes the second-ever Justice League story.
