The Beacon
To achieve this goal they began to seek out new allies. Among the people they
sought out were several metahuman gangs in Metropolis who had been sympathetic
to their goals in the past.
But at that time Metropolis was more chaotic than ever. Gang violence escalated
after the eradication of the Edge gang, which caused a power vacuum in
Metropolis. There was also much fear of Lex Luthor's special operatives, a
group more commonly referred to as the "Legion of Doom". The Legion
had single handedly managed to wipe out the Edge gang overnight, and were
largely considered to be invincible.
There were also suspicions about the Justice League. Jordan Cross, Bart Allen
and Kyle Tippet had previously been members of a gang known as the Agents of
Justice led by Green Arrow. While the "agents" had originally sought
to contain gang violence in Metropolis, darker elements of Green Arrow's gang
eventually began a strategy of pitting one gang against another, seeking to
wipe them out entirely.
And at that time most of the remaining members of the Agents of Justice gang
continued that goal. The most zealous member of the gang was Helena Bertinelli,
who had become known in Metropolis as the Huntress. Black Canary continued
mostly out of loyalty to her friends, although she had eventually come to
regret the path she had chosen. Green Arrow was torn between the two of them.
He was either unwilling or unable to acknowledge the guilt he felt for his part
in violence that led to numerous deaths, deaths of people who were both guilty
and innocent. He was a shell of the man he had once been. He hid his face
beneath his dark goggles and hood. His clothes were tattered and he neglected
to shave.