Thinking Positive (JLA: KOR Episode)

Thinking Positive is the 16th episode of Justice League: Knights of Rao.

Featured Characters

 * Lois Lane
 * Terra / Tara Markov
 * Justice League
 * Batman / Bruce Wayne
 * Geo-Force / Brion Markov
 * Flash / Barry Allen
 * Firestorm / Jason Rusch
 * Martin Stein
 * Supergirl / Kara Zor-El
 * Swamp Thing / Alec Holland

Supporting Characters

 * Knights of Rao
 * Alpha Wolf / Milo Chaves
 * Blue Lantern / Collin Hill
 * Catgirl / Carrie Kelley
 * Emerald / Dionne Stewart
 * Galaxor / Mitchell Davis
 * Gear / Richie Osgood Foley
 * Indigo Lantern / Amber Lang
 * Long Shadow
 * New Gaia / Delilah Raymond Snow
 * Omega Knight / Jason Burke
 * Royal Guard Patrol
 * Bishop / Lucas Blake
 * King / Cade Fergunson
 * Knight / Adam Hill
 * Queen / Sarah Falsworth
 * Rook / Karen Blake
 * Static / Virgil Hawkins
 * Sun-Rose / Esperanza Del Rey
 * Toymaster / Hiro Okamura
 * Batgirl / Barbara Gordon
 * Caitlin Fairchild
 * Iris West
 * Frieda Goren
 * Daisy Watkins

Villains

 * Project Cadmus
 * Brother Eye (single appearance) (destroyed in this issue)
 * Amazo Mark II
 * Manhunters
 * Reach Bugs
 * Amanda Waller
 * Harley Quinn / Harleen Quinzel
 * Joker (comatose)
 * Brainiac (mentioned only)
 * Ivana Baiul (mentioned only)

Other Characters

 * Amelia Markov
 * Bryony
 * Superman / Clark Kent / Kal-El (picture only)
 * Viktor Markov (mentioned only)
 * Ronnie Raymond (mentioned only)
 * Barbara Eileen Gordon (single appearance) (picture only) (deceased)

Summary
Determined to temper the Knights of Rao's deep hatred for Tyranny, Lois Lane visits them into their headquarters and interviews them one by one over their proper conditions. Meanwhile, Batman, Geo-Force, Supergirl and the new Firestorm (Jason Rusch) deal with berserk robots unleashed by Project Cadmus' twisted A.I. Brother Eye.

Plot
Followed by her bodyguard Caitlin Fairchild, Lois Lane is watching and reporting about the current events on Arkham Asylum, where the inmates are playfully vandalizing and taunting the Joker, who is still immobile and traumatized since the Knights of Rao "broke his smile", in front of Harley Quinn, who is being bullied by the female inmates, until they are demanded to go back to their cells. As she tearfully treats the Joker in her cell, Harley angrily demands Lois to tell her why the Knights did this to her "Puddin'", but Lois leaves in silence with no answer (or regard) of the Joker's condition. Outside the Asylum, Lois and Fairchild encounter Barbara Gordon and the three go for a ride. Barbara tells Lois that Batman knows where the Knights of Rao are residing as their headquarters and convinced them that they need someone who can temper their hatred for Tyranny. Knowing that the young heroes listen to anyone who is loyal to her husband Clark (since they know Superman if they worship and honor him), Lois volunteers to have a long but private interview with them.

Next day, Lois is guided by Supergirl and Geo-Force into the Knights of Rao's headquarters. There, Terra and her team are convinced by Batman to stay with Lois while he and the League, followed by Fairchild, will go on (what would have been) their next mission: to stop and destroy Brother Eye, an A.I. living computer created by Project Cadmus to help bring order to the world which has turned against their creators when one of the scientists unwillingly programmed it to share the same mind of Brainiac, leading the A.I. to formulate his plans for Mankind's extinction and the World's end. As the Leaguers leave, Lois greets the Knights and begins the interview by consulting them one by one (although the Royal Guard Patrol members are all interviewed together). Batman, Fairchild and the Justice League head into the Project Cadmus facility, which is greatly compromised by Brother-Eye, who declares himself as Brainiac's "vision to the future".

Back in the K.O.R. Headquarters, as she resumes her interview with Terra's teammates, Lois also grants each of them very kind and supportive mother advises and also sympathizes with them over their sad issues. As Lois speaks with each of them, Tara feels unsure if what she herself will tell Lois about is either true or not, on which Barbara comforts her and advises her to just "let her heart speak". In the Project Cadmus facility, Batman and his group battle their way through the area and manage to free every human hostage they find while defending themselves against Manhunters, Reach Bugs and other alien robots the League fought against and Cadmus attempted to recreate. Among them all, Batman and Supergirl confront Amanda Waller, who was indirectly responsible for the issuing chaos by unleashing Brother-Eye. Waller arrogantly claims that Project Cadmus is trying to put order to the world, to which Supergirl and Fairchild angrily dismiss as an excuse to avoid accusations as Flash shows Waller footage of numerous corrupt officials and Cadmus agents who had been previously exposed for their corrupt actions by the Knights of Rao, making Waller wonder if she is ready to share their fate as well and atone for her mistakes. Just then, the group confronts Brother-Eye, who had fully uploaded his mind into Amazo Mark II and is prepared to battle the League.

After finishing interviewing all members of the team, Lois gets to speak with Terra, who (as leader of the Knights) was meant to be the last member to be interviewed. As she speaks, Terra tells Lois that she spent most of her time with her teammates training them and teaching them everything Clark taught her about, including the responsibility of being a leader. She also confesses in tears how much she misses her deceased father and how much she thought his demise and Superman's self-imposed exile to be too unfair to be "accepted" as an inevitable loss. Tara's words bring some tears for Lois herself as she understands how much Tyranny has really ruined too many lives previously and the two share a mother-and-daughter embrace to comfort each other. Barbara, reminded of her own mother's death, is also tearfully touched by Tara's grief and embraces the two as well. Back in the facility, as Flash, Geo-Force, Supergirl and Swamp Thing keep Brother-Eye occupied, Batman, Fairchild and Firestorm make it into the core of the facility and, using Professor Stein's knowledge and the codifications Fairchild remembered from Project Genesis, they manage to create an Negasonic Nuclear Virus and implant it in the Core and in Brother-Eye's brain, which deletes every possible version of the A.I. in the robots, leaving the original one stuck in the malfunctioning Amazo body, which Supergirl carries away from Earth and tosses into the Sun. As Waller evacuates the facility to avoid accusations and the public cheers on the heroes for saving the world, Batman, Fairchild, Supergirl and Geo-Force return to the Knights of Rao's HQ, where Lois shares some more loving mother-like banters with Tara, reminding her of the good girl she must be, before she leaves with the Leaguers. Plus, she also decides that the young heroes should be allowed to finish what they started. Supergirl comments that more should be done for Tara and her teammates, to which Lois agrees although she also concludes that they will find a way by themselves... as long as they are together as a family.

Voice Cast

 * Dana Delany as Lois Lane
 * Ashley Johnson as Terra / Tara Markov
 * Kevin Conroy as Batman / Bruce Wayne
 * Jason Marsden as Geo-Force / Brion Markov
 * Tara Strong as Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, Frieda Goren
 * Kath Soucie as Batgirl / Barbara Gordon
 * Ali Hillis as Caitlin Fairchild
 * Peter Cullen as Swamp Thing / Alec Holland
 * Ogie Banks as Firestorm / Jason Rusch
 * Jim Meskimen as Professor Martin Stein
 * Wally Wingert as Flash / Barry Allen
 * Phil LaMarr as Static / Virgil Hawkins
 * Mae Whitman as New Gaia / Delilah Raymond Snow
 * Eric Bauza as Toymaster / Hiro Okamura, Knight of the Royal Guard / Adam Hill
 * Colleen Villard as Blue Lantern / Collin Hill, Indigo Lantern / Amber Lang, Daisy Watkins
 * Yuri Lowenthal as Alpha-Wolf / Milo Chaves
 * Dante Basco as Omega Knight / Jason Burke
 * Jessica DiCicco as Sun Rose / Esperanza Del Rey
 * James Arnold Taylor as Galaxor / Mitchell Davis
 * Josh Keaton as the King of the Royal Guard Patrol / Cade Fergunson
 * Jennifer Hale as the Queen of the Royal Guard Patrol / Sarah Falsworth
 * Bumper Robinson as the Bishop of the Royal Guard Patrol / Lucas Blake
 * Danielle Nicolet as the Rook of the Royal Guard Patrol / Karen Blake
 * Kimberly Brooks as the Emerald / Dionne Stewart
 * Natalie Lander as Catgirl / Carrie Kelley
 * Kari Wahlgren as Iris West, Amelia Markov
 * Troy Baker as Long Shadow, Manhunters
 * Sam Riegel as Gear / Richie Osgood Foley
 * Jeffrey Combs as Brother-Eye
 * C. C. H. Pounder as Amanda Waller
 * Kat Cressida as Harley Quinn / Dr. Harleen Quinzel

Trivia

 * In his turn to be interviewed by Lois, Static mentions that Bullying has been a great cause of Tyranny and complains about how it even pushed a bully victim he knew to almost cross the line. This is a reference to the Static Shock episode "Jimmy", on which the titular character was suffering from bullying so hard he almost attempted to shoot and kill one of the bullies with his father's gun, on which he accidentally injured Richie in progress.
 * While voicing her disbelief in Waller's claims that Project Cadmus is trying to bring Order to their "imperfect world", Fairchild mentions Ivana Baiul having promised (and pretended) to do the same in Project Genesis, which (as Caitlin complains about) only attempted to create monsters. This is a reference to the 2000 film Gen¹³, on which Caitlin and her friends Percival Chang (Grunge) and Roxanne Spaulding (Freefall) were offered a scholarship by the National Security Committee to attend a secret military school set in a U.S. desert, but only to become subjects of Project Genesis, on which the school's headmasters Baiul and Matthew Callahan were conducting genetic experiments on their pupils in a plot to turn them into super-powered beings ("go Gen Active") and launch an insurrection against the government.