Battle for the Bottled City

"**Battle for the Bottled City**" is the twenty-fourth episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

As Superman is shrunken down as part of a plan to restore Kandor, the evil Brainiac turns up to reclaim the bottled city and the Justice League have to protect it - and Superman who is inside.

## Story

Near the North Pole, a tank-like vehicle approaches under the ice with only a periscope showing above. Inside, Brainiac views the Fortress of Solitude as his objective and says that it contains something that he covets. He then sees the door of the Fortress open and what appears to be Superman fly out and into the sky. The alien villain releases a rapidly whirling object that emerges from the ice (it is called B-3 and looks like a woodlouse with tentacles) and intercepts the flying figure, cutting it in half with a tentacle. As the tank flies up out of the ice to view the corpse, the Superman figure is revealed to be an android guard.

Inside the Fortress, Superman, Atom and Cyborg approach the bottle containing the shrunken Kryptonian city of Kandor and its people. Atom asserts that it should be possible to restore it to full size by using his White Dwarf tech. As a preliminary, however, he needs to shrink Superman so that he can go inside to collect samples of material for tests. Because Superman will not have any powers in Kandor he is fitted with a jet pack just before Atom presses a button on a machine, causing Superman to reduce down to tiny size. The latter flies down into the open bottle before Atom reseals it. Inside Kandor, Superman lands and meets the Kandorians with their leader, Chancellor Al-On.

Brainiac, accompanied by the tentacled machine, carries the top half of the android and uses it to gain retinal scan access to the Fortress door. More Superman androids bar the way but are destroyed in a battle with Brainiac's machine. The villain shoots his way into the room that contains the bottled city and demands that it be handed over. Cyborg attempts to bluff by claiming it is a different city, but Brainiac just disables him with an electric shock bomb, shoots Atom (who vanishes), and takes possession of the bottle. Superman, from inside, can see Brainiac and takes off again with his jet-pack to try to return and deal with the villain. Not seeing Superman anywhere, Brainiac returns to his tank. Paralysed Cyborg despairs but Atom then reappears having shrunk to avoid the ray blast. Cyborg is only recovering slowly, but Atom gets an idea to regain the bottle while viewing a disabled android guard.

As Brainiac speeds through snow and ice in his tank and daydreams about completing his tiny city collection, he detects what appears to be Superman approaching behind. When the turret is suddenly ripped off he can see he is opposed by Atom who is controlling the body of an android from where its head had been. Android-Atom wrecks the tank causing Brainiac to make off on foot with the bottle while his tentacled machine becomes involved in a lengthy struggle in the snow with Atom (who wonders where Cyborg is). When Android-Atom throws the machine, it just misses Brainiac who drops the bottle and that gives Atom the chance to remove the stopper thus releasing Superman. Though still small in size, Superman regains his powers, disables the tentacled machine and knocks Brainiac into a stupor.

Before the Kandorians freeze, the stopper is put back back in the bottle. Finally, an eager Cyborg flies down but then realises he has missed the action.