The Justice Buster armor is a gigantic metal suit designed by Bruce Wayne to take on the Justice League, hence the name. Batman’s Justice Buster’s first and so far only appearance was in the Endgame arc of Batman New 52. Specifically, Justice Buster armor appeared in Batman #35 and #36. You can pick up the book with the Justice Buster appearance here:
- Diamond Comics
- Snyder, Scott (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Background
The Justice Buster suit was designed to be used by Bruce Wayne/Batman for when members of the Justice League have been compromised. To be precise, the Justice Buster was built to tackle all of the Justice League members one by one seamlessly as opposed to Justice League members individually. This is an important point when assessing the performance of the suit and whether it served its purpose when used. By compromised, we mean taken over by force by way of mind control or other forms of coercion. In the case of the actual use of the Justice Buster suit the Justice League members had been infected by the new form of Joker toxin.
Construction
The Justice Buster only appears in Endgame and as such it hasn’t got a long and rich history like other inventions such as the Batmobile or Batcomputer. However, Snyder made sure to write enough stuff to flesh it out a bit – firstly, Bruce claims that the cost of the Justie Buster is that of “60% of the World’s military spends” which would bean eye watering amount. Bruce goes on to hint that the biggest cost was the server to be fast enough to keep up with The Flash’s movements. Interesting!
Objective
Bruce Wayne’s motives for designing the Justice Buster aren’t explored in great detail as it’s all about the action when it is unleashed, however what becomes clear quickly is that the Justice Buster was not constructed for lethal force but rather to take some hits and stall them while Batman worked on getting the Justice League ‘uncompromised’.
We do not what material or metal it is made of how it is powered exactly. We also know that the suit was probably not capable of destroying the Justice League anyway, Scott Snyder has said about the big battle: “I think one of the saving graces is that they’re not completely at full strength, because they’re Joker-ized. There was always that slightly muted quality to them so that way it wasn’t simply “Batman could take them all down so easily.”
Equipment
The DC Justice Buster has a couple of handy pieces of equipment which is designed for each of the powerhouses of the JLA.
Bind of Veils – Wonder Woman
The Bind of Veils is relic made out of a wool allegedly made by Hephaestus at the same time he made Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth. It is an inverted version of the same weave of wool with the complete opposite power to the Lasso. With the use of the Bind of Veils, Batman convinced Wonder Woman she had won which allowed to Batman Justice Buster to get away ‘victorious’.
Servers / Frictionless Coating – The Flash
The Justice Buster suit has onboard servers that can map The Flash’s movements (if he isn’t moving at 100% speed). There are no details on how fast the servers were or any software to do the mapping and to be honest all that information would not age well and be pretty boring to read as well. the JL buster shoots ‘frictionless coating’ which takes Flash down by making him slip.
Powdered Magnesium Carbonate Foam – Aquaman
Powdered magnesium carbonate foam sucks moisture from Aquaman as he struggles more and more. And that is that for Aquaman. Not much of a fight really, but Aquaman was not at his best and they were on dry land!
Electromagnetic Nerve Tree – Cyborg
This is never shown and only mentioned – Justice Buster has apparently got an ‘electromagnetic nerve tree’ installed to deal with Cyborg whatever the hell that is.
Citrine Neurolizer – Green Lantern
Similar to the electromagnetic never tree, the citrine neurolizer is a weapon mentioned but never shown. All we can speculate is that it’s something to do with Hal Jordan’s brain.
Red Giants / Plasma Shield / Thrust and Thermal – Superman
We’ve saved the best till last with the buster suit’s Red Giants, and yes you guessed it, they are found in the suit’s fists! Ray Palmer provided microscopic red suns from a dead solar system and placed them in the suit’s fists to give some extra wallop to a punch. The J-Buster has on board plasma shields to deflect Superman’s heat vision and thrust and thermal to deal with the freeze breath. All in all, the Justice Buster is more equipped to deal with Superman than all the rest.
Of course, the shell of the Justice Buster itself is also an anti-Superman piece of equipment as it is capable of withstanding a Superman punch.
Performance
We’ve discussed what the buster has on board and the theory behind it but how did Batman perform using it when called upon during Joker’s endgame? Well, I think Bruce would probably say that it did what it set out to do and that was to survive while he works on getting the JL back on their feet.
The shell of the Buster was able to go toe to toe with Wonder Woman and keep Batman inside safe, while the fists were able to send her flying across the street, in the end the Bind of Veils prevailed. Winner – Wonder Woman. Superman under the effects of Joker toxin, however, pushed the Justice Buster to its limits and threw poor Batman all over the place, the Red Giants, thermal prevention, thrust and thermal slowed him down but ultimately a weakened Superman was still able to overpower the Justice Buster.
Justice Buster figurine
If you want a Justice Buster figurine you’re going to have to do some work. It is made from 6 different parts that each come from a different figurine pack (see above). You can, however get them from Amazon if you wish!
Here is Batman’s version:
- Captivating, authentic 6” Batman Zero Year action figure.
- 20 points of articulation, highly detailed paint and iconic elements.
- Connect and collect them all to build a Justice Buster! Each sold separately, subject to availability. Colors and decorations may vary.
Last update on 2022-09-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
