Watchtower Outpost

"Building a little clubhouse for our super friends, are we?"—Lex Luthor to Oliver Queen, Guardian

The Watchtower Outpost is a base on Earth's moon that Queen Industries is building in secret. The base will work in conjunction with the Watchtower in Metropolis but could serve as a new headquarters for the Justice League.

Season Nine

Tess Mercer broke into Watchtower to learn what she could of the alien Kandorians from its computer systems. When discovered by Chloe Sullivan, Tess held her at gunpoint. Watchtower went into lockdown, triggering an elaborate security system Chloe had installed to protect against intrusions, trapping the two women inside. Trying to get free as the air ran out, Chloe discovered a transmitter signal that likely caused the lockdown. Tess denied bringing a transmitter with her, but the two eventually realized that the signal was from a biorhythmic parasite implanted in Tess' body by the clandestine government agency Checkmate.

Not sure what or how much information Checkmate got from the transmitter or how close they were to pinpointing Watchtower's location, Chloe and Tess used the liquid hydrogen and nitrogen cooling fluid for the computer systems to freeze the main sealed blast door. They shattered through the frozen metal door with a desk and escaped.

During the Kandorian offensive on Earth, satellites in orbit were destroyed, crippling communications between Watchtower and its team members and members of the Justice Society of America. As Chloe was frantic to restore communications, Oliver Queen informed her that after Tess' break-in at Watchtower he had a proprietary satellite launched into orbit to allow them to operate and speak with the headquarters during emergencies.

As Green Arrow, Oliver sneaked into the satellite relay station on Earth to avoid detection by the Kandorians. Chloe navigated Green Arrow through ventilation shafts at the station using a hand radio. After he succeeded in establishing the connection with the satellite, Oliver is captured by the Suicide Squad.

Season Ten

As Tess reviewed plans to rebuild Luthor Mansion following its destruction by fire, she was confronted by Granny Goodness with a final offer to join Darkseid's forces in time for the coming apocalypse. Tess refused and asked when the apocalypse would arrive and Granny replied that it had already begun.

Frightened by Granny's news, Tess returned to Watchtower to see if she could track any threats. After the first satellite failed to respond, Tess desperately tried to connect to the others only to find that they had all been disabled. She ordered the Watchtower computer to access security footage that revealed the Darkness-possessed Oliver as the person behind shutting the satellites down.

Recalling that Martian Manhunter had recently brought Watchtower's Orbiter space station online, Tess was able to access its video feed. She watched in horror as a massive fireball planet passed by the station and the moon on a direct path towards the Earth.

Season Eleven

Martian Manhunter SV S11 04 01 dafc9dc6ab3f734c271eed1248188099 — Superman and Martian Manhunter oversee construction of the Outpost.

Oliver confronted Lex Luthor at a LexCorp space center facility outside of Metropolis. He threatened to reveal to the media suspicions that Tess' death was not the suicide Lex claimed but murder at his own hand. Lex rebuffed the claim, threatening that the media would be more interested in why Oliver's Queen Industries is building a facility in secret on the far side of the moon.

Later, at the construction site for the new moon base, Superman and Martian Manhunter oversaw H.E.D. drones from S.T.A.R. Labs assembling the structure. Clark was sharing some Double Stuff Oreo cookies with his friend and mentor when he received an alert about an attack on Metropolis involving former Project Ares subject, Psimon. As Superman sped off to deal with the threat, J'onn decided to return to his apartment in the city.

Appearances

In the Comics

The Watchtower is the name of various bases used by the Justice League of America in DC Comics and various other media. It has been portrayed as a building on the moon in the comics and as a space station in orbit in both the comics and the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, to name a few. In the animated series Batman Beyond, the headquarters of the Justice League of the future is called the Watchtower, and is located in Metropolis (similar to Smallville's Watchtower). It has a training room plus a tank for Aquagirl. It first appeared in the season three episode "The Call: Part One."

When the Justice League of America originally formed, its base of operations was the Secret Sanctuary, inside a cave in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. In Justice League of America (vol.1) #77, honorary member Snapper Carr betrays the location of the Secret Sanctuary to the Joker. The League subsequently moves its base to a new secure headquarters, an orbiting satellite 22,300 miles above the Earth (putting it in a roughly geostationary orbit), in Justice League of America (vol.1) #78 (February 1970). The satellite would be the League's home for the next several years. Members are able to teleport to and from the satellite using teleportation centers located across the planet. League members took turns on watch duty, monitoring Earth from the satellite and dispatching the League as needed. This era of the Justice League (and its roster of heroes), is commonly referred to as the "Satellite League". It is revealed in Identity Crisis that the satellite base was not quite as secure as the Justice League had hoped, as Dr. Light was able to use the satellite's transport system and break into the base. Finding Sue Dibny alone aboard the satellite, he raped her. The satellite is heavily damaged and rendered effectively inoperable just prior to Aquaman's decision to disband the team in Justice League of America Annual #2. The League was in a time of transition, not only in its choice of headquarters, but also in its membership. The deepening detachment of members such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman caused the three charter Justice League members to resign from active duty with the League. At the same time, the Flash left the team to confront his manslaughter trial and investigate the disappearance of his wife. The death of her mother led Black Canary to leave the team and move to Seattle with Green Arrow. Green Lantern had been temporarily expelled from the Green Lantern Corps and resigned from the League as well to sort out his life. The satellite meets its final and complete destruction during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, when it is destroyed by a self-destructing Red Tornado that had been sabotaged and tampered with by the Anti-Monitor. It is never rebuilt, but the League would return to a spaceborne base of operations in the 1990s when it relocated to the Overmaster's orbiting base known as the Refuge.

The Watchtower debuted in JLA # 4 during Grant Morrison's run on the title. It was constructed of promethium (a fictional element within the DC Universe) and used highly advanced Martian, Kryptonian, Thanagarian, and Earth technologies. The arrival of Orion and Big Barda added the technologies of New Genesis and Apokolips to the systems within. Throughout its history, the Watchtower was financed by Bruce Wayne.The Watchtower was destroyed by Superboy-Prime in JLA #120, and superseded by The Hall, based on Earth, and Satellite Watchtower in space.

Following the gathering of the new team as seen in Justice League of America (vol.2) # 7 (April 2007), a new satellite is presented as headquarters. The new satellite is an orbiting Watchtower working together with The Hall, a building located in Washington D.C. paid for by Batman and designed by Wonder Woman and John Stewart. Inside the Hall is an archway-type teleportation system, dubbed 'Slideways' in which a person merely need to walk through the archway to be transported to the League's new orbiting satellite headquarter 22,300 miles above Earth.

Jim Lee was called to design the new headquarters. Writer Brad Meltzer: "On the satellite, he did six different designs; some that resembled the old League satellite, [or] resembled the JLU satellite. We kind of took a little from Column A and B. I saw in one of his other designs, he also had these drones and I loved those, and I said, 'Can we put those on there as well? I really want to take that!'" The satellite has a Danger Room-like training room nicknamed The Kitchen because "if you can't stand the heat...". Meltzer also explains that, for the first time, the satellite has defensive and offensive weaponry. Despite the defense systems, the Watchtower was damaged by the Sinestro Corps. In addition to this, the satellite's teleportation system was hacked into by Hardware after he infiltrated the Hall of Justice disguised as a tourist.

The New 52 Satellite Watchtower orbits 22,300 miles above Earth. How it was built has been left unexplained. Areas shown thus far are a main meeting chamber, spacecraft bay, and Monitor Center. The Watchtower is defended by several small warships.

Justice League Space Headquaters in other media

Notes

In the online multimedia Smallville parallel story during season 6,Justice & Doom, John Jones/The Martian Manhunter uses a Swann Communications orbital satellite as a base. (Dr. Virgil Swann, the founder of Swann Communications, had been played by Christopher Reeve.)
The new dedicated Watchtower satellite that Oliver mentions in Salvation has an association with the actual Satellite Watchtower that appears in the comics, which is also the team's central headquarters.
In Finale, Part 1, the video feed from the Watchtower Orbiter "space station" that Tess uses to see Apokolips approaching the Earth is labeled "Lunarcam 3". This suggests it is the same base that is being built in Effigy. However, the events of Effigy take place more than six months after the events of Finale, possibly creating a continuity error if the bases are the same.

References

Watchtower Outpost

Contents

Season Nine

Season Ten

Season Eleven

Appearances

In the Comics

Justice League Space Headquaters in other media

Notes

See also

Justice League Headquarters External links

References

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