Item Biography
"Belonging"
Batman watches the Justice League battle a giant dinosaur called Fire-Eye which has come through a gateway from another dimension to prepare Earth for the return of his kind. They work well as a team, but he still has to step in and give them the benefit of his observations to give them a better chance of defeating the monster, largely through the use of sonics. They are able to reverse the gateway, but only the timely arrival of Superman is able to push the beast back through. Reporter on the scene Tully Reed assumes that this means Superman has joined the League, and pushes him to make it official.
When the Leaguers clear up afterwards, they discuss the intervention of Batman - it annoys them somewhat, but they are glad he helped them get the job done. Green Arrow is also faced with the human cost of the battle, when he is confronted by a woman who has lost her home. Later, when Bruce Wayne wakes up in the evening, his butler asks him why he doesn't join the League as Batman. Wayne thinks he has something to offer the League, but Alfred points out that they may have something to offer him, too - friendship.
Batman investigates an attack on Gotham Zoo, where all the apes have been stolen, and discovers evidence pointing to Gorilla Grodd. In Coast City, Hal Jordan receives a visit from Barry Allen, who tells him of a race he and Superman recently ran for charity - it was a draw, but he feels that Superman was somehow holding back, which annoys him. And Clark Kent attends the funeral of a schoolfriend who had become a police officer; he wishes that, as Superman, he could prevent any such deaths in future.
Several days later, Grodd takes over Washington with an army of cybernetically enhanced apes, herding the people's leaders into the cages the apes have been liberated from. The Justice League move in to attack Grodd's position, with the Atom arriving in the Pentagon, where he discovers several apes already down - taken out by Batman, who suggests to the Atom that he scramble the modem in one of the apes' brains, as it should mess up the whole system. He is then patched into J'onn's telepathic communication with the rest of the team, suggesting various ways to distract Grodd and scramble the reception in the cybersimians brains. However, Superman unexpectedly appears on the scene, in a direct attack on Grodd; but with Grodd's mental power augmented by the brains of all the cyber-apes, the villain is able to overpower Superman with the hero's own mind: making him believe that he is being exposed to a large chunk of Kryptonite. Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter move in to counteract Grodd's telepathic assault, but Grodd is able to get them both to think of their greatest weakness. The Martian Manhunter continues to fight while the Atom completes his task, severing the mental connection and reducing Grodd's power, leaving him open to defeat.
Afterward, Batman confronts Superman for being so rash - Grodd had control of America's nuclear arsenal, and although Batman had reprogrammed the launch codes, Superman didn't know this and waded in without a plan. He says that this shows no respect for the Leaguers, whereas his method does - when he creates a plan it's because he knows that they can complete it, when they follow it, it's because they trust him. Superman decides that he should not become a full League member yet, but persuades Batman that he should, despite Batman's protests that he doesn't work well with a team. The rest of the League give Batman a ringing endorsement, and he decides to accept a place, which delights and surprises Alfred. Batman doesn't know if he can change enough to make working with the League work, but he's going to give it a good shot.