The Ringer

"**The Ringer**" is the thirty-seventh episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

The Justice League are struggling to avoid defeat at the hands of Sinestro as his power ring never seems to need recharging, so someone needs to look inside it and the job naturally falls to the Atom.

## Story

In space, amongst asteroids, Green Lantern is involved in a desperate struggle with the sneering Sinestro. Every attempt by Green Lantern to use his green Power Ring in attack or defense is bettered by his opponent's yellow one. However, to his assistance comes Justice One carrying Superman, Wonder Woman, Atom and the green Power Battery. As they announce their arrival to Green Lantern, his ring begins lose its charge leaving him at the mercy of his foe who pins him to an asteroid. He cannot understand how the yellow ring has not lost its charge too. Leaving Atom at the controls, Superman goes outside to distract Sinestro while Wonder Woman transfers to the Justice Two fighter.

While Superman tries to batter through the villain's various yellow constructs and the fighter opens fire, Atom maneuvers Justice One to collect Green Lantern. Inside, the latter, with his ring now recharged from the battery, says that they need to find out how Sinestro's ring is keeping its charge, and so Atom offers to shrink down and go inside the ring to find out. Going outside, Atom, protected by a green Power Ring bubble, is propelled towards Sinestro (who is engaged in combat) and reduces in size to disappear unnoticed into the ring.

Still in contact with the other superheroes, he suffers a series of worrying hallucinations. First, he is the guest at an awards ceremony when he realises that his clothes have fallen off and everyone is laughing at him. Then, back on the farm of his boyhood, he is chased by the neighbor's terrifying dog. Finally, he panics as he shrinks ever smaller until he is tumbling through atoms and molecules. Green Lantern, by radio, tells him that it is all an illusion, and an effect of the yellow Power Ring is to stoke his fears.

Atom relaxes his mind and finds himself in a crystalline structure. Up ahead, he sees a yellow Lantern Battery suspended over a yellow spider-like creature. Green Lantern, from Atom's description, identifies the creature as Despotellis and says he is a member of the Sinestro Corps and also that the battery must be keeping Sinestro's ring charged. Atom increases in size to square up to Despotellis, but the latter uses its own ring to crush Atom in a shrinking yellow cage. The other superheroes listen to his frenzied cries for help and then silence. Sinestro, gloating over the demise of their colleague, grips the three stunned superheroes with multiple yellow arms in order to finish them off. However, inside the ring, Despotellis still hears the voice of Atom but cannot see him. Atom tells it that he is small enough to rearrange its molecules and so Despotellis begins to sag before collapsing completely while the Power Battery falls deactivated. Outside, Sinestro's ring suddenly loses power leaving him defenseless, and Green Lantern, not taking any chances, hits the villain with a speeding green freight train and smashes him onto an asteroid.

To the superheroes' surprise, Atom emerges alive from the ring, wondering what has just hit him, and brings a captive Despotellis. The others dispute Atom's description of the weird creature, each humorously offering their own in turn.