Nuclear Family Values

"**Nuclear Family Values**" is the sixth episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

With the rest of the Justice League unavailable, it is up to Firestorm to stop a family of androids from destroying a nuclear power plant.

## Story

A nuclear power plant is attacked by a strange, seemingly human family. As they shoot green ray blasts from their hands, they start a nuclear meltdown that threatens to devastate half the surrounding state and causes the workforce to flee. In the Watchtower, Batman calls on other members of the Justice League for help but they are all too far away to assist. However, the untried, teenage superhero Firestorm is already on his way and it so happens that he originated in a nuclear event at this very same plant.

As he flies there, the Professor informs him of the situation, and on arriving inside the plant the workers direct him to the reactor room where he finds the intruders in the process of furnishing the place in a style suggesting that they are an all-American family from the 1950s. They introduce themselves as the Nuclear Family but as they step from the shadows they are seen to be androids (two adults, three children and a dog). When Firestorm carelessly mentions that they are robots, they take offence and one of them shoots rays at him that knock him into the air and out into the toxic waste dump. Determined to deal with them and not heeding the Professor's advice, Firestorm powers up and causes an explosion in the dump's chemicals that knocks him out.

While unconscious, the Professor is still able to communicate with him and relates how these robots were used to test the effects of nuclear weapons until they absorbed the blast energy, developed a will of their own and escaped. Firestorm wakens to find he has been captured and suspended over the fuel rod pool. He listens while the Family, now dressed in their swimming costumes, tell him that they intend to cause a nuclear meltdown by overloading the core after which they will settle down in the resulting wasteland. Alarmed at this, Firestorm attempts to break his restraints but the power surge only causes the nuclear core (further down in the water and connected to him) to continue towards overload. At the suggestion of the Professor, Firestorm entices the dog to jump into the water, and an electrical discharge from it causes the core to pump energy into the superhero so that he is able to break free.

The Family now attack him with ray blasts while the mother goes to finish overloading the reactor. Firestorm is able to absorb the rays from the children and direct them back while at the same time causing the mother to be gripped in restraints. The father then knocks him into the pool and, taking him down to the bottom, presses him into the glowing core to cause the final meltdown. Firestorm just absorbs its energy and blasts the android out of the pool while forming giant hands from water to grip the whole family. He then hugs them together to bring about some unseen change.

When Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman eventually arrive, Firestorm explains that he has miniaturised the androids into a small glass vessel containing a house where they will finally be free to live out their radioactive lives. The three superheroes are impressed and welcome Firestorm to the Justice League.

## Notes

* The title is a play on the terms 'nuclear family' and 'family values' which name things considered to affect the structure of society, and our behaviour in it.
* When Firestorm defeats the Nuclear Family, Rodan's iconic screech can be heard during the explosion.