A Look at ‘Justice League Unlimited’ – Part Four







In 2007, Conor took a look at Superman: The Animated Series. If you missed it, you can check out parts one, two and three. (Be forewarned, as the articles were imported from the old version of iFanboy.com, many of the graphics are missing and some of the formatting is wonky.)

In 2008, Conor examined the follow-up series, Justice League. If you missed that too, you can check out parts one and two. And now, as promised — the event two years in the making! — Conor takes a look at the final Bruce Timm DC Animated Universe series: Justice League Unlimited!

Part one can be found here, part two here, and part three here.

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Episodes

The Great Brain Robbery – At Legion of Doom headquarters, new boss Lex Luthor is obsessing over the piece of Brainiac. He can’t seem to access the Brainiac code locked within. Gorilla Grodd is no help but that’s probably because Lex has him locked up in Legion of Doom jail. Tala (who just goes from Alpha Male to Alpha Male on this team) suggests that they just extract the information Lex needs from Grodd’s brain. Lex can’t worry about that now, though, he’s got a mutiny to deal with. The rest of the Legion of Doom think that he’s too unstable (ha!) to lead them. Up on the Watchtower, Green Lantern and Mr. Terrific decide that it’s time to be proactive and take the fight to Grodd’s secret super villain army. They want to access The Flash’s brain (symmetry!) because he once had his mind controlled by Grodd and there could be psychic residue left over that Dr. Fate can use to find Grodd. The Flash isn’t too thrilled about this idea. While Dr. Fate goes mucking about in The Flash’s head, Lex Luthor is invading Gorilla Grodd’s via his own mind control technology. Dr. Fate, The Flash, Gorilla Grodd and Lex Luthor are now all psychically linked and there’s a big explosion. Brain switcheroo! Lex Luthor’s mind no inhabits The Flash’s body and The Flash’s mind is now inside Lex. While Lex runs around the Watchtower wrecking havoc and beating up all of the Justice Leaguers at super speed, The Flash stumbles around the Legion of Doom headquarters and the rest of the Legion just think it’s Lex being unstable again. So Lex is trapped on the Watchtower because the Justice League have locked down the teleporters and the transport ships, and The Flash has to plan the biggest Legion of Doom heist ever while having apparently better than normal sex with Tala (he’s more attentive than usual). Meanwhile, Dr. Fate has devised a spell to switch the minds back but he need to maintain physical contact in order to make the spell work and that’s really hard when Lex can move at super speed. While that’s going on, The Flash has to lead a train robbery in Kasnia and that’s going fine until Lex finds a way to contact the Legion of Doom from the Watchtower and he blows the whole mind switcheroo thing. On the Watchtower, Mr. Terrific finally gets the upper hand on Lex by switching off the artificial gravity (took him long enough to figure that one out) and Dr. Fate is able to reverse the mind switch. The Justice League is happy to have The Flash back (even if he doesn’t have any useful intelligence about the Legion of Doom) while the Legion of Doom either doesn’t believe that the mind switch has really happened, or Dr. Polaris and Sinestro are just taking advantage of the uncertainty. Either way, they’re going to torture Lex Luthor for a while and then take control of the Legion of Doom. Whoops, not so fast! Lex Luthor presses a few buttons on his belt and turns the tables on Dr. Polaris. When he augmented everyone’s powers he left in fail safes that would allow him to control them. Don’t mess with Lex Luthor!

This episode features great voice work from Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor) and Michael Rosenbaum (The Flash) who mimic each other’s speech patterns and inflections while their characters inhabit each other’s bodies.

Best Moment: With his brain inhabiting The Flash’s body, Lex finds a mirror and decides that he might was well learn The Flash’s secret identity. He pulls the mask off and looks in the mirror. There’s a beat and he says “I have no idea who this is.”

Grudge Match – Written by J.M. DeMatteis! Roulette is trying to rebuild the underground meta brawl empire that was destroyed in “The Cat and The Canary” and so far it’s not going well. They’re not even clearing the rent on the crappy warehouse they’re in! Back at Legion of Doom headquarters, Lex Luthor still can’t crack the code on the final piece of Brainiac. Invisible Brainiac tells Lex that he need to construct a special machine to get at the code but where will Lex get the money? Roulette shows up complaining that Lex is taking too big of a cut from her box office and that he won’t let any of the big time villains fight in her meta brawls. Tala steps in to defend her man and she and Roulette nearly go at it, much to the horndog delight of Sonar. Light bulb! Lex and Roulette come to the same idea at the same time: they can both solve their money woes if they rebrand her meta brawls with all female combatants! Because honestly, who doesn’t like a good cat fight? Roulette says they’ll need the A-list female super villains but Lex has a better idea. The Huntress runs into Black Canary, who shows a bizarre lack of fighting ability while trying to take down a lowly pickpocket. Suspicious, The Huntress follows Back Canary (who meets up with Fire) to Roulette’s new swanky and hi tech meta brawl arena. She goes in undercover and is horrified to see that Black Canary (referred to as the Undisputed Queen of the Summer Slam) and Fire are the main event. They fight. Black Canary wins again. After the fight, The Huntress confronts Black Canary in the parking lot and instead of talking, Black Canary goes right in for the punching and the kicking. In the midst of the fight, Black Canary’s Justice League communicator ear piece comes loose and falls to the ground and gets stepped on and destroyed. As soon as it does Black Canary’s personality immediately changes but The Huntress doesn’t notice and knocks her out. They are both immediately taken prisoner by Sonar and a bunch of thugs. Inside the holding cell beneath the meta brawl arena, Huntress and Black Canary suss out that Grodd’s mind control technology was used to take control of Black Canary and Fire (and presumably other female Leaguers) to make them fight every night. Black Canary and The Huntress are thrust into the meta brawl arena to fight Vixen and Shayera, who for the first time since Justice League, is referred to as Hawkgirl. They fight! In the midst of the brawl, Vixen and Shayera’s comlinks are destroyed and they both wake up. They tell Roulette that they refuse to fight each other which is fine with her because she introduces a mind controlled Wonder Woman into the arena to take them all on. A massive fight ensues that ends up destroying the entire area. The Huntress, Vixen, Shayera and Black Canary do their best to survive against Wonder Woman while also taking out Roulette’s thugs, Sonar, and Roulette herself. Just as Wonder Woman is about to slam Vixen and Shayera’s skulls together in what would surely lead to a True Blood level of blood spatter, Black Canary and The Huntress disable the mind control signal. When the arena is cleared out and it’s just the two of them, Black Canary offers to talk to the Justice League about letting The Huntress back in. She declines. The Huntress will, however, agree to a private two falls out of three match between the two of them to decide once and for all who the best fighter is.

Unlike last season my favorite episodes this season aren’t usually the mythology episodes but these one-offs. Also: Nightwing cameo!

Best Moment: The Huntress trying to engage The Question in some risque phone chat. She asks him what he’s wearing and he responds, “Blue overcoat… fedora… orange socks.”

Far From Home – Written by Paul Dini! In the future, the ranks of the Legion of Super-Heroes has been decimated. All but Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy (who is kind of a whiner) have been captured by the Fatal Five. They are left with no other choice but to use science and time sphere to bring three members of the Justice League to the future to help them. They do this knowing that history books show that of the three heroes who came to the future, only two made it home. DUN DUN DUN! Back in the present, on her 21st birthday, Supergirl is undergoing training in the Watchtower’s Danger Room simulation room under the watchful eyes of Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Superman. Just as Supergirl’s training ends the time sphere appears and envelopes Supergirl, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow and zaps them into the 31st Century. They are greeted by Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy who explain that they need help in rescuing the rest of the Legion from the clutches of the Fatal Five. What they don’t explain is that history shows that Supergirl never returns from her trip to the future. But there’s no time to waste because the Fatal Five are attacking! In the course of the fight, the Emerald Empress and her cohort manage to attach mind control discs to Green Lantern and Bouncing Boy who they abduct to parts unknown. While they examine the discarded mind control discs, Brainiac 5 admits to Green Arrow that he is in love with Supergirl which is odd considering they have known each other for about an hour. Green Arrow leaves the two lovebirds alone under the pretense of upgrading his arrows with future tech and because apparently rescuing Green Lantern and Bouncing Boy (not to mention the rest of the Legion of Super-Heroes) is not as much of a priority as making love connections. Later, after locating Green Lantern’s Justice League transponder, Brainiac 5, Supergirl and Green Arrow come upon the Fatal Five’s ship, just as the mind controlled Legion of Super-Heroes and Green Lantern are launched in an attack on the capital planet. Supergirl heads out to try to stop the Legionnaires but Brainiac 5 stops her. He can’t let her go into battle because history says she dies in it (I’m not sure how history would know since it’s happening now but whataya gonna do?). She leaves Brainiac 5 with a kiss and goes anyway. Brainiac 5 and Green Arrow invade the Fatal Five’s ship while Supergirl fights off the Legion of Super-Heroes. While fighting the Fatal Five, Brainiac 5 and Green Arrow manage to knock out the mind control transmitter but not in time to save Supergirl who had been fighting heroically but was no match for Green Lantern. Battered and bruised from her fight, Supergirl still manages to conjure up the strength to help Brianiac 5 and Green Arrow subdue the Fatal Five. Later, the Legion of Super-Heroes make Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Supergirl honorary members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. They have to give their rings back, though. Can’t be bringing future tech back into the past and all. Supergirl considers her Legion ring, looks longingly at Brainiac 5 and announces that she’s not going back to the past. She’s staying. Green Arrow and Green Lantern appear back in the Watchtower and a worried Superman wants to know where his cousin is. Green Lantern hands him a box with a holographic message from Supergirl and in it she says goodbye to Superman.

This one was kind of ridiculous. Supergirl and Brainiac 5 fall madly in love after about an hour? Okay…

Best Moment: Superman and Green Arrow talk about how far along Supergirl has come.  Superman admits that he hasn’t told her how proud he is of her, something he comes to regret in the final scene.

Ancient History – Written by Geoff Johns! Green Lantern is having trouble subduing The Gentleman Ghost (really?) until Hawkman makes his triumphant return! It would appear that since we last saw him, Hawkman has been doing a bit of the superheroing himself. He tries to make small talk with Green Lantern but it’s awkward because they’re both in love with the same woman. Watching all this go down is The Shadow Thief. (Him? Again?) Meanwhile, over in the Justice League’s earthbound base Metro Tower (is this the first time we’ve actually seen it?) Sheyara and Vixen work out in the gym because we need all four pieces of this love rectangle. Vixen and Shayera bicker playfully about Shayera making a play for Green Lantern while Vixen is away on a week long photoshoot just as he walks in. Green Lantern needs to talk to Shayera alone because her crazy stalker fanboy Hawkman is back. She’s not too concerned. The next day as Vixen leaves for her photoshoot, The Shadow Thief attacks. After a big fight that totally trashed Vixen’s sweet apartment, The Shadow Thief manages to get the drop on Green Lantern and knocks him out and makes his escape. Vixen calls in Shayera for help because The Shadow Thief said she was next. Vixen and Shayera head to Midway City to consult with Hawkman but they find the museum closed and the front door wide open. In the main hall of the library they find Green Lantern trussed up and The Shadow Thief waiting for them. They fight and The Shadow Thief appears to have the upper hand until Hawkman appears… and then promptly gets beaten into submission by The Shadow Thief as well (who IS this guy?) When Sheyara wakes up she finds herself, Green Lantern and Hakwman all trussed up around the Absorbacron, the ancient Thanagarian device that first revealed the memories of Hawkman in Carter Hall. The Shadow Thief forces them all to touch the Absorbacron at the same time and the device activates. It reveals the story of Katar and Chay-Ara Hol, the Thanagarians who came to Earth and ruled over Egypt as gods and who also argued about having children. There’s also a general named Bashari that looks and sounds like Green Lantern as well as references to Kahndaq and Teth-Adam. Bashari has an inappropriate relationship with Chy-Ara and it’s witnessed by the duplicitous adviser Hath-Set who blabs to Katar who then sees Bashari and Chay-Ara kissing. Katar wishes them both dead and Hath-Set overhears so he poisons them. Katar is crushed so he drinks the poison and dies holding the hand of Chay-Ara. Back in the present, The Shadow Thief reveals himself to be Hawkman’s dark side, released the first time the Absorbacron was activated. He frees Hawkman from his bonds and tries to goad him into killing Green Lantern, the only man standing in the way of his love for Shayera. Instead of killing him, Hawkman frees Green Lantern, who in turn frees Shayera. While Green Lantern goes in search of Vixen, Hawkman and Shayera fight The Shadow Thief. Hawkman reabsorbs The Shadow Thief and he admits that he and Sheyara are not meant to be together. He tells her to go to Green Lantern. Later, back at the Metro Tower, while Vixen is laid up in the infirmary, Green Lantern tells Shayera about meeting their son War Hawk in the future. He tells her that despite what he saw in the future he won’t be destiny’s puppet and they have to make their own choices and he chooses Vixen. Shayera finds Batman and asks him to tell her about her son.

This episode brought back a lot of bad memories of the muddled Hawkman continuity. There are some things that are too powerful even for Geoff Johns.

Best Moment: When The Shadow Thief envelopes Green Lantern he says “Blackest Night beats Brightest Day.”

Alive! – Lex Luthor is in full-on Mad Scientist mode trying to resurrect Brainiac from that one small remaining piece of his old body. When all his science fails him he turns to Tala to try to bring Brainiac back with her magic. She manages to conjure up an image of remnants of Brainiac existing somewhere deep in space and Crazy Lex Luthor is on the hunt! He has the entire Legion of Doom working together to convert their secret headquarters into a giant space ship which Lex flies off into space in search of Brainiac. He took the entire Legion of Doom with him, so the Justice League can probably take it easy for a while. Meanwhile, Tala’s not too fond of her boyfriend Lex so she’s going back to Gorilla Grodd and she breaks him out of Legion of Doom jail. It’s Lex vs. Grodd and sides are drawn amongst the other Legion of Doomers. It’s all out super villain civil war in space! The battle is brutal and spans the entire ship. It ends, as it must, with Lex Luthor (wielding power gloves) and Gorilla Grodd facing off in the bowels of the ship. Grodd appears to have the upper hand but Lex uses his amazing belt to bounce Grodd’s mind control powers back on to him. Lex orders the suddenly docile Grodd into an airlock and shoots him out into space. Lex then orders those who took Grodd’s side rounded up. He orders them “gotten rid of” and we don’t know what that means but it’s probably not good. Lex then hooks his ex Tala to a giant machine. He plans to use her as a mystic conduit to gather the pieces of Brainiac that are floating in space. She won’t survive the procedure. Just as the machine is to be activated, time freezes and Metron appears! The scientist and chronicler from New Genesis warns Lex not to continue down this path. Lex doth not know what he unleashes on the universe! But Lex doesn’t care! The machine is activated and the pieces of Brainiac are retrieved… only it’s not Brainiac. When the smoke in the machine clears Darkseid, the Lord of Apokalypse stands before Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom! Darkseid thanks them for his resurrection (he was killed in Justice League) right before using his power to destroy the ship. On Apokalypse, all-out civil war is about to be waged. Darkseid’s lieutenants all want to rule in his stead and they have gathered their own personal armies. But before they can meet on the field of battle, there is a giant explosion and Darkseid appears to reclaim his position of power. He vows to get revenge on Superman for killing him. He will invade Earth! Back on Earth, Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom appear at Metro Tower (they apparently survived the exploding ship?) to inform the Justice League that “we have a little problem.”

Gutsy to have the second to last episode of the series barely feature any of the members of the Justice League.

Best Moment: The appearance of Metron, which always signals badassery ahead.

Destroyer – At the Metro Tower, Lex Luthor explains that Sinestro’s power ring saved him and the Legion of Doom (his loyalists, anyway, those who fought for Grodd apparently died in the ship) from the exploding ship and that Lightray came to their aid and sent them back to Earth via Motherbox. In actuality, Lightray came to their aid and they knocked him out and stole his Motherbox. Details! Before the Justice League can figure out if they’re going to lock up the Legion of Doom or let them fight for their planet, Darkseid decides for them and attacks! Massive waves of Apokalyptian troops appear via Boom Tubes all over the world and the Justice League gathers EVERYONE to repel the invaders. Superman and Lex Luthor call a temporary truce and the Legion of Doom joins forces with the Justice League to fight Darkseid. The war rages all across the planet: Washington D.C. Paris, Rome, Tokyo, London, Venice, Cairo, on the Great Wall of China, and in Metropolis on the roof of The Daily Planet where Superman, Batman, and Lex Luthor attack the main warship. Darkseid appears and tells Superman that this is all his fault (Darkseid is a sore loser). Lex Luthor tries to attack Darkseid but he’s swatted off the side of the roof. Batman jumps over the edge and saves him, leaving Superman all alone on the roof with Darkseid. As the Justice League and the Legion of Doom continue to fight Darkseid’s minions all over the world, Mr. Terrific and Steel figure out that giant drills have been deployed to create firepits on Earth like those on Apokalypse. If they are successful, it’s all over. Everyone is ordered to leave the Parademons and destroy the drills. In Washington, Shayera manages to destroy the drill but not before suffering serious injury when a Parademon stabs her in the back. In London, Green Lantern and The Flash team up to toss their drill into the nearest warship. Back in Metropolis, Darkseid has reduced the Daily Planet building to rubble. Metron watches while Batman and Lex Luthor fight Parademons and Superman and Darkseid trade powerful blows. Over in China, J’onn J’onzz makes his triumphant return in time to help Wonder Woman, Star Sapphire, and Shining Knight with their Parademon problem. All across the world Justice Leaguers and Legion of Doomers work together to beat back the Parademons. Back in Metropolis, Batman becomes the first person ever to avoid Darkseid’s Omega Beams and Lex Luthor argues with Metron. He knew this was going to happen! And if Metron knows so much about Darkseid then he must also know how to beat him. Metron agrees to reveal his secrets to Lex and they transport away from the increasingly brutal battle between Darkseid and Superman and Batman. Metron takes Lex Luthor to The Source Wall. Luthor penetrates the Wall and breaks through to the other side. As Superman writhes in pain from having the Agony Matrix unleashed on him, Lex Luthor suddenly appears. Lex reveals to Darkseid that he is in possession of the Anti-Life Equation, the only thing in the universe that Darkseid truly covets. Darkseid reaches out for the Anti-Life Equation and grabs it. He and Lex Luthor are caught up in a giant vortex of light and then explode. With Darkseid gone, his army flees Earth. The battle is over. Later, in consideration for their help in beating back Darkseid’s army, the Justice League agrees to give the Legion of Doom a five minute head start and we watch as the entire Justice League heads out to chase them down.

Best Moment: THREE WAY TIE: The montage of the Justice League suiting up for, and then teleporting into, battle. Goosebumpy. AND Superman’s speech to Darkseid about how he can finally cut loose and show Darkseid how powerful he really is. And then Superman clocks Darkseid who goes flying like a rocket. AND “Sorry it took me so long, I had to go get my power suit.”

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Overall Thoughts – Series

When I think about Justice League Unlimited I’m a bit unsettled. After all the talk about how great the show was, and how much of a leap in quality there was after Justice League, I was expecting a lot. What I got, I think, was very much a mixed bag, almost in the exact same way that Justice League was a mixed bag.

I think that the biggest thing that hurt the show, for me, was the format and the size of the cast. With only seven characters to focus on, Justice League allowed for select characters to receive much deeper character development when compared to Justice League Unlimited whose vast array of characters meant there was never enough time to spend with any of them. No one on Justice League Unlimited had the kind of really interesting series-long character arc that Green Lantern had in Justice League. There were simply too many characters vying for the spotlight.

In the end, Justice League Unlimited was more of a Brave and the Bold show than a Justice League show. And while it was really fun to see all of these DC characters get the Bruce Timm treatment, I found myself missing the team dynamic of the Big 7 (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkgirl and J’onn J’onzz).

I also found myself missing the format of Justice League. Justice League Unlimited’s all one-and-done episodes meant quicker plot resolutions when compared to Justice League’s two-part episode format. Yes, there were stories that ran across each season, but on the whole, things tended to happen quicker on Justice League Unlimited. There are of course real, practical business reasons for this change and I understand why they had to do it, but I still missed the room two breathe afforded by the two and three part episodes.

At this point I’m probably starting to sound overly negative so I want to say that when Justice League Unlimited worked, it really worked. Season one in particular had some masterful episodes, and the Project Cadmus storyline that ran through most of the season was really phenomenal. It’s really ballsy to pit the Justice League, which is full of some of the most iconic super heroes and corporate properties, against the United States government. I was impressed. The exploration of the grey area between being a hero and a villain that was explored was really fantastic. Justice League Unlimited was, at times, a really dark show and that was something I really appreciated.

Looking back on the whole show it’s clear that season one was the highlight of Justice League Unlimited. Season two was a lot rougher. The Legion of Doom storyline, while interesting at times, was no where near as compelling as the Project Cadmus storyline. Thankfully, Darkseid and his minions showed up to provide an action packed finale that pretty much rescued the second half of the season. Bruce Timm has a really great handle on Darkseid and what makes him so powerful, so scary, and so formidable. I was happy to see him make an appearance.

Something else that season two lacked was the simmering romance between Batman and Wonder Woman. A staple of Justice League and season one of Justice League Unlimited, the Batman and Wonder Woman romance completely vanishes off the face of the Earth in season two. It’s never referred to or hinted at or anything. If they had a break up it was a bad one.

On Tom vs. The JLA, Tom Katers would often joke about the Justice League’s bureaucracy and it’s here in Justice League Unlimited in full force. And it’s kind of awesome mostly because it made me think of Tom and I’d laugh. The Justice League has tons of support staffers working on the satellite! They had a commissary! J’onn J’onzz was always enforcing corporate rules and making them fill out paperwork! It was fantastic.

Something else interesting that I noticed, especially in the second season with the Legion of Doom, was that there were really no Batman villains on the show other than an unspeaking Bane, and the ones from Batman Beyond. That was a little strange. The Batman rogue’s gallery was such a staple of all the Timmverse shows to have them complete non-factor was weird. I understand that, just like having the spotlight on some lesser known heroes, the desire was probably to spotlight lesser known villains, but it was still disappointing that The Joker didn’t even make an appearance.

I’m trying to put my finger on why I didn’t fall absolutely in love with Justice League Unlimited. I think it’s because, as much as I enjoyed getting episodes devoted to the likes of Booster Gold and The Question and Vigilante and Shining Knight, focusing on a wide variety of characters lead to a very disjointed experience. The one real strength that Justice League had was that it created a strong through line by keeping the focus mostly on the Big 7. With Justice League Unlimited, it was hard to get emotionally invested in any one character’s story when you didn’t know when or if you’d ever see them again.

Despite that complaint, and despite the fact that having so many characters ended up hurting the show for me more than it enhanced, it was really great to see all these B and C level characters get the full on Timm treatment. It was great to see Stargirl kicking ass alongside Elongated Man, Mr. Terrific, The Atom, and Vixen.

In the end, I really enjoyed watching Justice League Unlimited, though many of the things that it lacked (especially in season two) were the things I really liked about its predecessor, Justice League. If I had to (inevitably) rank the seasons I’d put Justice League season two first, followed by Justice League Unlimited season one, then Justice League season one, and finally Justice League Unlimited season two. They were all fine seasons, each with great episodes, good episodes, and not so good episodes.

Both shows are must watches for any fans of the DC Universe or super hero animation.