Fanfic / The Phoenix Corps

The Phoenix Corps is a Justice League Unlimited Fanfic by AgentMalkere, the author of the Naruto fanfic What You Knead (Naruto). It explores the dimension of the Justice Lords after their downfall, following the lives of the heroes that were forced into hiding with the Lords' rise, and are now coming out of the woodwork now that Lords are no more.

The series is also available on FanFiction.Net. In In-Universe chronological order:

1. Dying Embers (AO3 Link): Follows Zatanna right after the death of President Luthor.
2. Only Ashes Remain (AO3 Link): Follows the Question during the reign of the Lords, and depicts his first meeting with Huntress from his perspective.
3. A Single Spark (AO3 Link): Follows Green Arrow and Black Canary and their romance while surviving under the reign of the Lords.
4. From the Ashes (AO3 Link): The main story. Depicts the rise of the Phoenix Corps, the loose coalition of heroes that form in the wake of the downfall of the Lords. Primarily written from the perspective of Huntress, though other characters frequently get their own POV scenes.
5. Rekindling the Flame (AO3 Link): Follows Beast Boy/Changeling in the wake of the downfall of the Lords as he tries to survive the subsequent riots.

Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: In order to force Nightwing into retirement, Lord Batman threw a batarang at his face and permanently scarred him. League Batman is understandably furious when he sees the scar firsthand and realizes where it came from.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Lord Superman to everyone, but especially Metropolis. The feeling of betrayal they have over his Face–Heel Turn is so great that they're still hostile to heroes and vigilantes of all kinds even after the Fall. The Phoenix Corps refuses to allow anyone patrol that particular city alone because of this.
  • While all of the Justice Lords were this to their fellow heroes, special mention must go to Lord Batman. With his notorious paranoia and Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, everyone expected that he had some plan in place to take down Lord Superman and the rest of the Lords now that they had gone rogue, and were waiting for him to implement it. His decision to side with his fellow Lords instead came out of the left field to even the likes of the Question. Even years later, after Lord Batman had a Heel Realization and finally turned on his teammates, many of his former associates absolutely refuse to forgive him.
• Brought Down to Badass: Several the heroes who were crippled/had their power sources destroyed such as Black Canary and Vixen are still extremely capable martial artists who make very competent vigilantes.
• Cruel Mercy: This is why the heroes do not turn in Lord Batman. It's a far greater punishment for him to be stuck alone in his old empty house, drowning in his guilt, rather than have to face a proper trial for his crimes and be legally punished by the law.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Zigzagged when the Justice League are forcibly transported to the Justice Lords/Phoenix Corps' dimension again and meet the Phoenix Corps. While the Phoenix Corps openly acknowledge that the League are not the Lords (especially since the League were the ones responsible for taking down the Lords in the first place), they are all understandably tense being near the doppelgangers of their oppressors and keep their distance as a result. The League opting to use their civilian identities and wear civilian clothing around them helps with the issue, but there is nonetheless relief on both sides when the means to take the League home is finally fixed.
• Fantastic Racism: Metahuman hostility is at an all-time high after the Fall of the Justice Lords, since most of their members were comprised of powerful metahumans. This is notably averted with the Corps, who don't hold anything against metahumans since they are all well aware that the main reason the Lords were able to conquer the world was because of Batman's Machiavellian genius, and he was decidedly not a metahuman. The fact that the first six members of the group were among Batman's closest associates/collaborators just drives the point in.
• Foil:
  • The Phoenix Corps is this to the Justice League. The Justice League is a professional organization of the most powerful superheroes on Earth who are beloved and feared throughout their universe and have effectively ended (or at least severely reduced) crime on their world. The Phoenix Corps is more akin to a club or a loose network of mostly non-powered vigilantes (the term "heroes" having been tainted by the Justice Lords) that sprung up as a response to all the chaos that engulfed their world after the Fall of the tyrannical Justice Lords. The members of the Justice League are (mostly) friendly with each other but are more like coworkers, while the members of the Phoenix Corps are genuinely close friends who are a lot more casual in their interactions with each other.
  • As if to emphasize this, the different statuses of Huntress and Question in each world are like night and day. In the Justice League's world, both are anti-social loners who are just barely tolerated by the League (with Huntress having been kicked out not long after she first joined). In the Phoenix Corps' world, Huntress is the Phoenix Corps' Team Mom and both Question and her are two of the group's founders and most beloved members. More than that, they're the leaders, with Question being the official leader and Huntress his (unofficial) second-in-command.
• Handicapped Badass: After Black Canary spoke out against the Justice Lords during their takeover, Lord Superman crippled her by mutilating her vocal chords with his heat vision to ensure she could no longer use her Canary Cry. This rendered her mute. Despite this disability, Dinah is still a master martial artist and by the time the Phoenix Corps forms is quite likely the best hand-to-hand fighter on the planet, especially with Lord Batman's retirement and Lord Wonder Woman's imprisonment.
• I Have Your Wife: One of the methods the Lords kept the rest of the heroes of the world in line.
  • Lord Batman had one of Speedy/Roy Harper's arms painfully and forcefully amputated and then threatened to have the other one removed if Green Arrow tried to start some kind of rebellion.
  • Later on, it's revealed that Lord Batman also created a device that would release tons of crude oil into the ocean and decimate the population of Atlantis if Aquaman tried in any way to protest the Justice Lords' rule. That's the real reason why Atlantis became an isolationist state again, which bred resentment from everyone else since they might have been the only power strong enough that could've properly opposed the Justice Lords and prevented their takeover.
• Language Barrier: Because she is now mute, Black Canary is completely incapable of speaking and can only communicate through sign language and written word. This gives a heartbreaking bent to her reunion with her mentor Wildcat, as Ted can't understand a single thing she's saying and has to have Green Arrow translate for them. It only reinforces how much Dinah had to struggle during their separation.
• Misplaced Retribution: The rest of the world resents Atlantis for seemingly abandoning them to the Lords after they hammered out some sort of truce/agreement with Aquaman. It turns out this "truce" was being threatened into compliance lest the people of Atlantis be poisoned death via crude oil from one of Lord Batman's machines. Any resentment anyone has against Atlantis evaporates after that as the Phoenix Corps works on dismantling the machines so the underwater city is no longer held hostage.
• Open Secret: It's an open secret among the Phoenix Corps that Batman is Bruce Wayne, in part because the original six members were already aware of his real identity before the Lords ruled the world, and thus had no reason to tiptoe around the subject when the group was first starting out. Therefore, they aren't very careful with concealing his identity around others after the Phoenix Corps begins to expand their membership.
• Parents as People: Ma and Pa Kent. While they still love Kara and care for her deeply, they can't help but fear her now after how Clark turned out. Kara understands this and doesn't hold it against them, but is still hurt by their fearful reaction to her.
• Reluctant Ruler: The Question is elected leader of the Phoenix Corps, for the simple fact that he doesn't want to be the leader. After two years of living under a dictatorship, everyone found that particular trait to be appealing and decided it qualified him for leadership. As it turns out, Vic is a lot more capable than he gives himself credit for.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: An interesting example. Despite the fact that they (as a group) are desperately poor and in perpetual need of funds, the Phoenix Corps absolutely refuses to accept any money from Bruce, deeming it blood money. Part of this reasoning is because it might give Bruce some feeling of redemption, which is counteractive to what his punishment is supposed to be.
• Security Blanket: A tragic variation. Kara wears a small piece of Kryptonite around her neck and refuses to take it off in anything less of the direst of circumstances, because she fears turning out like her cousin if she starts using her powers again.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Living under the reign of the Justice Lords did this to Helena, and by the time she suits up as Huntress again, she's no longer driven by vengeance but rather an earnest desire to help people and make the world a better place. As a result she gets along with her fellow vigilantes much better, and becomes the Phoenix Corps' Team Mom of sorts. When speaking about it to League Wonder Woman and learning about what her League counterpart went through, she notes that trying to kill Mandragora is something the old her would've tried to do, and finds herself glad that she isn't that person anymore.
• Translator Buddy: Green Arrow frequently acts like this for Black Canary, as she can only communicate through sign language and written word, and the former is more convenient for her than the latter. That's actually how Oliver was able to win over Dinah in the first place. He first noticed her when she became a regular at a coffee shop he also frequented, and his interest was piqued when he realized she was mute. Wanting to speak with her on even terms, he went out of his way to spend months learning sign language before going to speak to her for the first time, immediately endearing him to her. The rest is history.

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