Justice League (Unlimited) Animated Series

[Spider-Aziz]

We have a thread for almost each one of the big 4 cartoons in their respective worlds threads, in the DCAU, except this one, so I will finally start.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary for the show that launched this greatness, I saw myself watching Superman:TAS as a valued companion to The New Batman Adventures, so I opted to marathon the rest of the DCAU (with exception to Static Shock and the Zeta Project, those two shows feel superfluous in the grand scheme of things), now I'm into season 1 of Justice League.


Secret Origins

A fine opening arc, but I have my issues with it:

• Batman is surprised to see Hawkgirl joining their fight against the white invaders to Mars, even after J'onn said he summoned for help.
• John Stewart is very hasty in calling Diana a rookie he can't trust.
• Flash in this arc feels like a character other than the one introduced in Superman: TAS episode; 'Speed Demons'.
• Ignoring Kyle Rayner in favor of John Stewart kinda stomps.

In Blackest Night

This arc is great, I have no problem with it. But it's kind of weird to give us more about the world of Green Lantern by making the second story a trial of his for the murder of an entire planet.


The Enemy Below

• Batman gave the team basic ideas they should have thought of on their own.
• Deadshot shocking Superman out of commission for a few moments by electric device on the sewer entrance lid was way too fast, and the shock was far weaker than all the power jolts Superman endured in his own series. Man, they weakened Superman a lot for this season starting with the third story.
• Deadshot escapes everyone? Really?
• I always wanted to know how Batman terrifies people into submissive replying mode, but I guess the writers couldn't really think of anything.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I love UNLIMITED to death, both seasons but man... JL I watched out of a sense of duty more than enjoyment. Yes, a big problem was the punking of Superman, really everyone, to build up Batman for some goddamned reason. There are some far better arcs later on, TWILIGHT, JUSTICE LORDS and of course STAR CROSSED.

I think Timm and crew simply did not have a handle in those early seasons and episodes on how to present powerful characters like GL and Superman. The episode where Hakgirl takes on a group of Lanterns is just so much utter ********.

I will say I will always prefer Newbern to Daly as Supes and the voice cast grows into their roles. All eventually inhabit their characters to the max, and of course it's always great to hear Conroy as Batman.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Unlimited is actually three seasons. And I agree, George Newbern os better than Tim Daly in the role.
I may take Hawkgirl against those Lanterns ok since none of them used their rings, she has super powers, right?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Injustice for All

• How is kryptonite lighting the whole floor?
• GL was supposed to catch the missiles before they blew up, he's fast enough to will it, and his light is fast enough to catch them.
• How did ape with extra large brain build his electrified floor?
• Explosion to the ground floor blows up higher floors like a snap of a finger.
• Superman is still embarrassing in this episode, he faints from getting bumped into a wall. Sure it's by the super ape in his rogues gallery, but still, that was embarrassing.
• GL did not light the place soon enough before the criminals escape?
• Why does Joker want Lex to kill Batman? What happened to "I should be the one killing him"?
• For a genius, Ultra Humanite wasn't smart enough to shut Batman up from making Solomon Grundy fight his allies.
• Luthor found a remote control in Batman's utility belt, and that gives him information regarding the existence of the watchtower, and more.
• Ultra Humanite wanted money from Luthor, and Batman made him an offer to return to how he was before the escape, Humanite accepts to betray his gang. Sounds legit.
• Joker, a monster who always gives Batman a hard time, can lose to a single back punch to his face from Batman.

Mediocre arc.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Paradise Lost
I have but one question: How come the second story in the series wasn't one focusing on Wonder Woman? She is the bigger DC comic character when compared to most of the team, one of the top 3 DC characters, and the second arc chose to highlight the second stringer Green Lantern before her.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Part 1 of that arc is competent, part 2 could have ended sooner if not for the constant plot induced stupidity that made all five members of the league avoid stopping Felix when a few slaps from Batman were enough to knock him unconscious.

Speaking of Batman, he's pretty dumb in this episode.
Flash: "What does he intend to do with the key?"
Batman *after combining the parts himself*: "Use it"

You don't say.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

War World

A nice arc, It is an improvement on their treatment of Superman over the three arcs prior.
Forcing a fight between John Stewart and Shayera was unnecessary, but it did come with some interesting bits.



The Brave and the Bold

• Barry Allen is not much of a flirter, and while Wally West has his share of flirting moments in the comics, he's definitely not as bad and desperate as this cartoon's version of the character is.
• The treatment of Flash for this show is inconsistent, sometimes he can be unstoppable, other times he has a hard time catching a truck, and this arc threw it our way in one scene.
• Nothing explains Grodd's range of mind control, it just happens and stops.
• Solovar and companion stop chasing Grodd after they were spotted by two humans, but he callously rides a car in the middle of Manhat... Central City.
• Ok, this is probably a nitpick from someone who never drove every version of a manual/stick drive car, but Solovar shifted from gear 5 to gear 4 to speed the vehicle he hijacked. Up right to down center? Definitely a gear shift in the wrong direction, as far as I'm aware of.
• Homage to some of the weirder Silver Age stories is fun, but how did that lady doctor catch up to him that fast?
• How did detectives Bill Duke (whoa, the actor voiced the character) and Barry Allen homage catch him? Why was Solovar not caught? And how come Green Lantern have a harder time believing the talking gorilla with all his experience with aliens than the speedster who possibly haven't faced time travelers and techno magicians yet?
• Fast man was supposed to be able to spot the giant fist in a blink and dodge it.
• Your fist should be fractured John Stewart, it really should.
• Power ring and aura was supposed to protect GL's head from the missile shards. And that guy took his sweet time slicing parts to deactivate missiles when he was able to just hit them with a ray and contain them.
• How did she choose to love an ape? And accept to take his word in ruling the world?
• That spark of romance between Diana and Bruce is poorly conceived, one of them was concerned over the loss of a friend. And how come J'onn didn't sense her mind? That doesn't make sense.

It's a nice story, that suffers from issues that plague Flash comics, making them pretty low on quality.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Fury

Oh boy, I really think this is one of the dumbest stories they could ever conceive for this show. The premise itself is ridiculous, between Superman being nerfed down, aliens and walking corpses are affected by the virus, nothing about the virus explains how it specifically hits men without touching women, and how nobody mentioned that Thymiscera was rescued by Diana and her male friends.

Was Hawkgirl stopped by a simple net? What?

I have nothing positive to say about it.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Legends

A nice arc, not without its flaws.


A Knight of Shadows

How come Mordred doesn't need to recharge his youth when his ma has a desperate need for that?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Metamorphosis

A good story, but how did Rex Mason know the exact composition of Kryptonite to turn his hand into one?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

The Savage Times

Nice arc introducing characters like Sgt. Rock, the Black Hawks, and Steve Trevor.
The logic of anyone inside GL's forcefield not being affected by the time change raises a few questions about the logic behind this plot point, but it doesn't break the story.



So the tally for season 1 is 26 episodes, 12 arcs, 4 of them are poor-mediocre, the rest are quite nice.

I'll give the overall season a score of 7.6/10

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Entering season 02


Twilight

Arc starts with a war between New Genesis and Apocalypse, then a massive

appears in Apocalypse, and Darkseid immediately calls it 'DEATH'. Dark way to start a pretty darn dark arc, to start a season.

It's a great arc, but I have a question about it: Why did Hawkgirl say she was a cop when the end of the season shows she had a different role? That's awkward.



Tabula Rasa

This is an interesting take on A.M.A.Z.O., and the title is pretty fitting for both the robot and the Martian Manhunter. I think it's pretty well executed.
J'onn saving his friends without physical confrontation is pretty neat.


Only a Dream

I hate how the Flash is treated like a mere weakling, with his speed he is one of the most powerful people on Earth, we see that in Unlimited, or even in a later arc this season, but nope, let his abilities go to waste when he's facing Luminos.

Doctor D going to his ex-girlfriend to scare her makes one thinks "Maybe he needs to be in close proximity for his powers to work", then you see he can extend his powers to a station 33,562 miles (that's how I'm used to it in comics, at least the 33k is intact) above Earth.

Flash's nightmare is a familiar story, same goes for Superman's nightmare.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Maid of Honor

This arc shows the flag of Kaznia, I forgot which country has the flag they used as base for this one.
It's fun that she knows who Batman is now.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Hearts and Minds

This has a dark start, you see what apparently is three green lanterns die.
They're not very creative with how they use their rings. And the effects of ring and dirt on the enemy and their energy is hectic and inconsistent.

Flash and Kilowog have a fun friendship.

Even alien technology works with the bump.

How did Katma Tui slip in as a priestess when it looked like she died, after she was attacked by Despero's forces knowing she is a green lantern?

The flames can reach out to people, but it chose to remain dormant and keep Despero in position of power for as long as it did.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

A Better World

Another arc that starts in a dark way, they loved to make dark openings for some of their arcs with this season. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman enter the White House, assault the military forces, and Superman kills Lex Luthor. You gotta love the way LL says BURN and hams it up a bit.

Two years later, the Justice League have new uniforms just to distinguish them from their star counterparts, I see no other reason for change of wardrobe. What's up with two bands on each limb?

How did the Guardians of the Universe approve of John Stewart's actions enough to keep him a ring bearer? A change of wardrobe?

Why did the Justice Lords chose to go very far in making their laws, far enough as to stop a customer from expressing his right to say when the food and service in a restaurant suck?

I like this adaption of Death of Superman storyline, giving D-Day a big fat bird.

91939 is the password, I'm assuming that's the date of release of Detective Comics volume 1 #27.

I don't know what really convinced Justice Lords Batman to side with the main one, he seems fast at switching sides.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Eclipsed

Nice reference to Denny O'Neil's run on Green Lantern & Green Arrow.

Glorious Gordon Godfrey is not a servant of Apocalypse in this version, so that's neat. We don't need everything related to him, saved the show from suffering the way the 90s Spider-Man cartoon did with the Kingpin.

Sweet thing is that the Flash is not underestimated here.

Eclipso is the souls of serpents placed in a black jewel under the solar eclipse, but that makes me wonder why the serpents were not nocturnal beings.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

The Terror Beyond

The Hulk is chased by military forces led by general Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, the angry under sea monarch that is the Submariner saves the Hulk from the army.
The Defenders are interrupted by members of the Justice League, hot air between the two arises, and the JL trio start fighting the other three, when the JL three are trying to get a grip of the situation and talk instead of using fists, the Defenders have hot heads and refuse to talk.
Superman knocks down two Defenders, and tells Strange to finally talk, and Cthulhu shows up.

Thousands of years before the fabled city of Atlantis drowns was the day it drowned.

Strange sends the Sub-Mariner home.

Religion talk, pretty profound in short few lines. I like it.

Strange tells Diana and Superman to stick to the yellow brick road.

Shayera Hol. The name would suggest she is the wife of Katar Hol, especially since we get to see him in season 5. Ah, who cares? He doesn't matter, that season was extra.

Grundy lost, arc average.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

The Secret Society

After arcs of competent team work, suddenly they are organized no more. Other things I wonder about are:

• Last time we saw Clayface he was courted by cops, when and how did Morgan Edge get him into his collection?
• They seem to have forgotten that Parasite sucks the powers out of his targets for a large chunk of the arc, and doesn't just hurt them.
• Hawkgirl was below Killer Frost's ice bridge, but she didn't think to break it.
• A batarang throws Sinistero on his back, with his bulletproof shield active.

There is a nice homage to this cover

, with a tank instead of a car.

It's a nice story, but is a misplaced one, and has flaws that make you wonder why they didn't proofread this stuff.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Hereafter

Two complaints:

• How come Kalibak was able to take down Wonder Woman when he is unable to touch Batman?
• How did Deadshot go on to higher ground after WW knocked him unconscious?

Maybe I should add the question of how Lobo knew Superman was gone?

I think this is one of the most fun stories the show had to offer, especially if you look at the first and second seasons.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Wildcard

This arc is fun, but the Joker is still an overrated villain.
I wonder why Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter were not available to help.



Comfort and Joy

J'onn J'onzz is the first member of the league after the team was formed to learn that Superman is Clark Kent, and he had his oreo.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Starcrossed

An army from Thanagar came to invade and destroy Earth to defeat an army in one planet; the Gordanians. To do that they started building a giant planet destroyer to destroy the planet it was built on, and the Justice League were assisting in building it without knowing the schematics.

It's great that secret identities were revealed between team members, and that Wonder Woman was successful in letting all six members get away from captivity.

Superman used mjolnir.

How did Hawkgirl know where to enter to get into the batcave? Perhaps she used one of the scanners like the one Thanagarians used to find the league in the boutique?

Thanagarians had no way of knowing the cave is behind the grandfather clock, they shouldn't know.

I love how Superman used his ice breath against that Thanagarian soldier holding Freeze's gun in a style that clearly says "Eat poop".

Mind scratch affecting real body is like a thing from Nightmare on Elm Street.

Green Lantern soldiers in this show aren't very creative in using their rings. A shield and an ax are the best John can do?

I'm guessing the future in Hereafter with Vandal Savage did not account for how the watchtower is used in this arc's finale. Maybe they needed a large energy cannon for something like this.

Oh yeah, the prison ship is designed like a hammer.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Those last three minutes to the second season of Justice League brought tears to my eyes, it didn't do that last time I saw it, and I thought my heart was dead to emotions moved by a piece of fiction.


26 episodes, 12 arcs, one single episode.
I'll give this season a 7.8/10. It could have been a bigger improvement overall when compared to the season before it, some parts do feel like a significant improvement, but then there is some parts where the diagram drops below par in a manner that ruin it for where significant improvements are available.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Now we're into Unlimited, three more seasons of this show, half the number of episodes per season, minimized the number of arcs significantly.


Initiation

I'm with Ollie on a number of things he said, like not liking his molecules messed up with like that, and someone should take care of the little people.

They are more organized this season, more planning and better coordination.

Why would a giant robot turn against its people? And why is it this evil?

Hey, HEY, Captain radiation, hold your horses there. It's not Arrow's fault John was injured, he didn't do something reckless that needs to be saved from, he was with you fellas.

"You're brash, blah blah blah", the only time Kara acted brashly was not dodging when she was supposed to avoid the giant robot's blow to deliver the carbonite bar, she was an obedient soldier most of the time. Come to think of it, half of the team highlighted in this episode are military.

It's a decent start, feels like an episode from an 80s cartoon more than it belongs to some of the more modern shows that have more depth and stronger sense of continuity.



For the Man Who Has Everything

Mongul seeks vengeance against Kal-El for humiliating him in 'War World', and mails him the Black Mercy to his Fortress of Solitude.
How did he know where Superman resides? And a time to find him there?

Those aside, this episode focusing on DC's top three is one of the best episodes this show has to offer.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Kid Stuff

Morgaine Le Fey and her bastard (you know he is, the son of his uncle Arthur. Not in Welsh texts) Mordred find the amulet of unlimited power, Mordred takes it an banishes his mother and all adults to another dimension.
One of the adults banished is a school teacher, in what looked like she got decimated in front of her class while she was giving them homework. I wouldn't normally expect children to cheer at a sight like that, instead they'd be terrified, but later in the episode you see a bunch of kids picking up a suit of armor moving it to a guillotine, this is where you pick up some of these kids are brutal and merciless.

I don't get why Mordred and his mother love to have Medieval setting since they lived through the ages and got the spoil of things like air conditioners.

Hilarity ensues with the justice younglings, this is what this episode is, a barrel of laughs.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Hawk & Dove

Ares goes to his brother Hephaestus, the Greek blacksmith of Olympus, to build a walking living tank to destroy South Kaznians as part as a deal for North Kaznian forces, something akin to the Ultimo Armor in Asgard. North Kaznia army leader wants to frighten his enemies from the south without being lethal, that doesn't go well with Ares who find pleasure in seeing mortals fight to the death.

What happened to the princess? Last I checked there were no south and north borders, and the king was still alive, have they no say in this matter?

Diana this furious is not something you see much of.

The brothers Hawk & Dove don't have a care to having a secret identity, at least not in this show, and they are empowered by their suits. Hawk is the one who loves to fight, and Dove prefers to be level headed, except when he runs his mouth in a sports bar where there are fanatics.

One line cracks me up in an exchange between the two brothers:-
Dove: "They need more education to stop fighting" (I'm paraphrasing, but it's to that effect)
Hawk: "Oh yeah? Then how come the most educated people are in congress?"



This Little Piggy

All you need is to listen to Batman singing Ray Charles's 'I am Blue' to save Wonder Woman from the pig status, and this gif.

Or watch the episode yourself.