"The Ocean Book" is the 13th issue and 12th chapter of Justice League/Teen Titans: Secret Legends.
Characters
Featured Characters
- Terra / Tara Markov
- Luna Lindley (first appearance) (flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters
- Justice League
- Aquaman / Arthur Curry
- Black Canary
- Green Lantern / Hal Jordan
- Mera
- Wonder Woman / Diana of Themyscira
- Knights of Rao
- The Emerald / Dionne Stewart
- Indigo Lantern / Amber Lang
- Sun-Rose / Esperanza Del Rey
Villains
- Project Cadmus
- Amanda Waller
- Orca / Dr. Grace Balin (single appearance)
- Vandal Savage (mentioned only)
Other Characters
- Emily Lindley (flashback only) (death)
Premise
Following her happy reunion with her childhood heroine Wonder Woman, Terra befriended a young girl who developed a special connection with the ocean and the orcas. The two also worked together when a criminal scientist from Project Cadmus exacted to create new human/animal hybrids and assimilated the appearance and abilities of the orca whales after an freak accident caused in her destroyed laboratory.
Plot
In a Project Cadmus facility located at the beach of Metropolis, Dr. Grace Balin is having a argument with Amanda Waller, who voices her disapproval about Balin's project, which turns humans into Atlanteans as part of Balin's plan to infiltrate Atlantis and steal the treasures which are hidden in there. As she and Waller continue arguing, a young orphaned girl named Luna Lindley (who was listening to their conversation) sneaks through and sabotages the facility by throwing some chemical containners into the core, overloading the facility and causing it to explode. The three escape unharmed though both Balin (attempting to save some of the formulas) and Luna are partially exposed to the chemical gas which spreads across the area.
Luna is partially mutated into a human/Atlantean hybrid and ends up in a quest to find her new home (following the loss of her former home after Vandal Savage's rampage [1]) in the depts of the Ocean. Over her course, she meets an forms a bond with a family of orcas swimming there including the matriarch, who raises Luna as her own. Meanwhile, Terra is enjoying herself in the Metropolis beach with her friends Amber, Dionne and Esperanza as well as Diana[2] and Mera. Later then, they encounter Luna swimming around alongside her new orca family and befriend her. After hearing of Luna's loss of her mother (who died along with Savage's other victims during the congress), Tara and Diana comfort her while Mera offers her a new home in Atlantis. Right after Luna tells them about how she got her powers, Wonder Woman predicts (and feels certain of) another corrupt scheme by Project Cadmus.
While Terra and Mera stay to look after Luna, Wonder Woman and the female Lanterns set out to investigate the facility. Meanwhile, Dr. Balin is developping a strangly hostile behavior towards other citizens before she succumbs to her exposure to the chemicals in the facility and hiddeously mutates into a hulking orca/human hybrid monster and goes for a rampage, leading Green Lantern, Black Canary and Aquaman to fight her off before she retreats. Wonder Woman and the Lanterns find the ruined facility and discover chemicals containing water animal DNA, to which Amber deduces that Dr. Balin (who had been experimenting on aquatic animals during her service with Cadmus) is behind this before they are informed that Balin (nicknamed by the Daily Planet reporters as the "Orca") is terrorizing the city.
While training with Terra and Mera, Luna is alerted by the orcas that a "monstrous abomination" is attacking the surface dwellers and the three go on to answer the call. Balin reaches Metropolis' Central Cadmus facility and begins forcing the scientists to duplicate her water animal/hybrid formulas as part of her plan to turn humans into monsters like she herself became. The heroes confront her as Green Lantern and Emerald toss the nuclear bomb into the Sun. Balin eventually spreads the chemicals across the facility to turn the scientists and police officers into sea monsters to attack the citizens.
While Sun-Rose and Indigo Lantern create a force-field to prevent the mutated humans from escaping and the other heroes battle the creatures, Terra and Luna take Balin into a fight which ends with Luna, having learned to communicate with the sea creatures, commanding the mutates into turning on Balin enough for Wonder Woman and the Lanterns to gas them with Terra's River Styx granades, restoring Balin and the infected humans to normal.
As the other heroes take the scienitists and officers to hospital and Balin to jail, Tara and Diana make their good complements with Luna before she departs to Atlantis alongside her orca family and Mera. And Tara and Diana feel confident that, despite Balin's madness having frightened humans, it did not fracture the humans' appreciation of orcas. The two watch happily as the citizens cheer as a pod of orcas is swimming freely in the sea.
References
- ↑ Lost Girl
- ↑ the relationship between Terra and Wonder Woman had grown stronger by the end of episode Amazon of My Heart