Justice League of America #224

THE SUPREMACY FACTOR!

Clark Kent, Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen are enjoying an afternoon lunch at a Star City bistro. Oliver's partner Black Canary however, is on the job, ready to take down an apparent mugging in process. The potential victim though is far from helpless. He is a costumed adventurer called the Paragon and he easily dispatches the would-be muggers. Canary is almost ready to help Paragon, until she realizes that he intends on killing his attackers. At this point, the two face off against one another, but Paragon appears to be able to execute Black Canary's judo maneuvers even better than she can.  Across town, Clark Kent hears Black Canary's "canary cry" and quickly changes into Superman. He flies to the scene as Ollie and Hal don their Green Arrow and Green Lantern costumes. Paragon however, is able to duplicate Superman's super-strength and punches him into the stratosphere. Before GA and GL can help out, Paragon disappears.  The League members return to the Justice League Satellite and bring their teammates up to date on this new potential threat. Green Lantern researches him on the computer and learns that Paragon is actually Joel Cochin, a scientist living in Star City. Black Canary is eager to track him down and execute a little payback.  Black Canary, Green Arrow and Firestorm teleport to Cochin's hideout - the Puchalski building in downtown Star City. Paragon appears and duplicates Firestorm's molecular reconstruction abilities and uses them to keep the three Leaguers at bay. He succeeds in taking them prisoner and brings them inside his laboratory. Paragon shows them his latest invention - a machine that will selectively eliminate that part of Earth's population that he feels is "inferior" (which, by his account, equates to roughly 90% of the people on the entire planet).  The rest of the Justice League catch up with their captured teammates and begin fighting Paragon. Paragon uses Firestorm's powers to create chains of Green Kryptonite, which he uses to knock Superman out of the picture. The other heroes continue fighting him and deduce that Paragon cannot duplicate artificially generated abilities. Changing tactics, the JLA manage to defeat him using resources that Paragon cannot duplicate; namely: Green Arrow's trick arrows, Green Lantern's power ring and the Red Tornado's android body. They free the captured Leaguers, and Black Canary finishes Paragon off with a swift kick to the jaw, knocking him out.