Justice League Animated: Season Two Begins / by Mark

Moving onto the second season...

  • "Twilight" brings in the whole New Gods continuity to the series. Brainiac (Corey Burton) attacks Apokopils, and the League is forced to ally themselves with Darkseid (Michael Ironside).
    • I guess the producers decided to toughen up Superman--at first, he wants the League to write off Apokolips
    • Force fields, laser guns, sci-fi battles, a massive head-shaped asteroid--this episode has everything
    • Again--why does Superman need to fly in the Javelin ship?
    • Of course, Darkseid double-crosses the good guys (he allies with Brainiac) and the bad guys (he double-double-crosses Brainiac)
    • Classic line: Batman: "Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me--real hard!"
    • Classic line 2: Superman: "You know something, Bruce--you're not always right!"
    • We get some cameos from the Forever People and Mister Miracle
  • Luthor (Clancy Brown) brings us the classic JLA villain Amazo (an android with all the powers of the League, played by Robert Ricardo) in "Tabula Rasa"
    • We get a great appearance from Lisa Edelstein as Luthor's chauffeur/assistant Mercy Graves
    • There's a great visual when J'onn does a psychic sweep of the city to find Luthor
    • Another great effect is how Amazo's form changes as he duplicates the League's powers
    • As usual, Batman is the most effective hero--it helps when you carry a piece of kryptonite with you (when Amazo duplicates powers, he also duplicates weaknesses)
    • There's a "very special" B-story with Martian Manhunter, who learns how great humanity is
  • "Only a Dream" brings us yet another classic JLA villain--Doctor Destiny (William Atherton), who can control dreams.
    • BTW - Doctor Destiny predates Nightmare on Elm Street, with his first appearance in 1961
    • A minor convict is used in ESP experiments, and gets the powers during a jailbreak
    • The jailbreak also includes mainstays Solomon Grundy and Coperhead, along with villains Volcana (Peri Gilpin) and Luminus (Nicholas Guest) from the Superman animated series and Firefly (Mark Rolston) from the Batman animated series (he's a classic Batman villain as well)
    • Destiny takes over the League's dreams
      • Flash is stuck in a world where everyone is frozen
      • GL is stuck in a world where no one can understand him--language has become gibberish
      • Superman can't control his powers, torches Lois Lane, and crushes Jimmy Olsen (Dana Delany and David Kaufman, reprising their roles from the Superman animated series)
      • Hawkgirl gets her wings clipped and she falls into a casket (she's claustrophobic, we learn)
    • Martian Manhunter goes into their dreams to save them
    • Batman takes down Destiny by concentrating on a children's song

 JL biography: Flash

  • aka Wally West, the Scarlet Speedster 
  • 1st appearance in the comics: Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (1986
  • Nephew of the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen)
  • Got his powers from lightning striking a shelf of chemicals in front of him (just as it had his uncle)
  • A later retcon (retoractive continuity) gave him the power from the mystic Speed Force
  • Powers: Near infinite speed, wackiness
  • Voice Actor: Michael Rosenbaum (who also played Luthor on Smallvilla)
  • Main events in the comics while the series was on the air (2001-04)

If you would like to play along, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.