So, for whatever reason, the Justice League are fighting Phantom, thinking he's evil or suspicious and trying to bring him to the watchtower or whatever, but of course Phantom isn't cooperating, either not trusting the JL/being bitter they didnt show up to help Amity Park/whatever
UNTIL... One of Clockworks' notes show up, and Phantom pauses to read it, before surrendering to the JL, saying he'll follow them.
Now obviously, the JL are confused and suspicious, but eventually come to the (wrong) conclusion that Phantom is just a lackey or something, and that the person who wrote the note is the real mastermind manipulating this poor innocent super-powered teenager.
Danny finds this all either hilarious, or stupid. Probably both.
Phantom swiftly avoids yet another attempt from Wonder Woman to get him in her lasso. He doesn't think it would work on ghosts, but he's not willing to try his luck here. He low-key would like to send all of them flying. They hadn't been around for any of the crazy shit that has gone down in the last year, and now that they finally show up they want to take him in?
He knew he should have let Technus destroy all the digital news declaring him a public enemy. It must be why the absent heroes decided to come and take him down. If only the ghost wasnβt also trying to take over the school news site just when Sam was publishing her own article on plant-based meal alternatives, he would have.
βSon, I suggest you surrender yourself before we are obligated to escalate things,β Superman says.
Canβt Martian Manhunter read Dannyβs mind and find out the truth?
That's usually a cop out solution in most scenarios that would typically derail a story, so in true comic book writer spirit, many write around it with some handwavey justification that Ghosts/at least Halfas are immune or resistant to Martian telepathy for X or Y reason, or at least have Manhunter out of commission either because he's busy with his own work elsewhere or in recovery from fighting Danny/some past threat.
Because if J'onn could use his telepathy in any scenario where the Justice League is antagonistic towards Danny or trying to figure out his deal, the Martian would immediately already try reading his mind and have everything major resolved in 15 minutes tops in most cases. Hence why most people tend to write around him and his power, because if he was allowed to be used to his full potential... It's easy to forget, next to Batman especially as the so-called World's Greatest Detective, that J'onn Jonez is also a detective himself (hence the Manhunter in his name) and an extremely competent member of the Justice League when fire or his addiction to knockoff Oreos aren't involved.
It's also why people sometimes have to nerf Batman, albeit less so, than Manhunter because as a detective if you don't block off immediate access to information from Amity Park or the GIW behind a firewall he can't crack for one reason or another he'd immediately figure out everything important that the JL needs to know about Phantom and the ghost situation in an hour, maybe two or three at most depending on how long it takes him to shift through everything and figure out Phantom is just a hero with bad publicity.
