JLA #94 (Early May, 2004)

Batman investigated the murder of a teenager in a Gotham City alley. He had noted a pattern of missing cases in other cities that disturbed him. Before her death, the girl had drawn a circled "x" in chalk on a wall.

In Keystone City, Wally West pursued the trail of missing children at Batman's request.

At the JLA Watchtower on the moon, the Dark Knight gathered the team to consider accumulated clues involving the disappearance of their teammate Manitou Raven, the "x"s, and missing metahuman youths. The Martian Manhunter spoke with Raven's wife Dawn, and learned of his meditative journey to the Badlands. Traveling with Wonder Woman to investigate, the heroes found only mystical "telling stones" at his abandoned camp. While Diana continued her investigation of the x, J'Onzz returned to the Watchtower with the stones for analysis. This looked like a job for Ray Palmer, except the Mighty Mite himself vanished inside them, while J'Onn was unable to sense him psychically.

On the abandoned prison island Key Mordaz off the coast of Florida was hidden a high tech laboratory. A seated figure worked a computer bank and a headpiece that allowed him to track people with a metagene. His beautiful young assistant accused a third fellow concealed by a leather mask of allowing a particular person of interest to elude them while sneaking off to party in Miami. A fourth individual with a metal fist demanded to see some action. The seated figure announced he had found something...

"Suffer the Little Children," part one of "The Tenth Circle," was by the famous X-Men creative team of John Byrne and Chris Claremont, joined by the heavy inks of Jerry Ordway.

The Tenth Circle

• The Atom @ Power of the Atom
• Wonder Woman @ Diana Prince