Justice League Animated: Season Two Continues / by Mark

Moving on...

  • Wonder Woman stars in "Maid of Honor" (although Batman lends a hand)
    • The episode begins with WW at a Paris party (she's trying to get out more), and who shows up? Bruce Wayne, in town for some "business".
    • She runs into another princess--Audrey of real-sounding county Kasnia (Dorie Barton). She's a party girl, and shows Diana a few things (think clean thoughts). 
    • Audrey is sowing her last wild oats before she marries--Vandal Savage? In this continuity, the League doesn't know he's immortal, so he passes himself off as the Nazi war criminal's grandson. We do get his origin story, though (it involves a Cro-Magnon and a meteor).
    • There's a whole plotline about stolen weapons and a takeover of the International Space Station (Kasnia is funding part of it)
    • There's also a new villain General Vox (Larry Drake) who can throw out sound wave blasts
    • There's a wonderful scene with Bats and WW breaking through resistance to stop the wedding, while all we hear is the wedding ceremony going on
    • Yet again, we have heroes who can fly unassisted in space (GL, J'onn), and yet attack the space station (now with a rail gun) in the Javelin ship
  • The GL Corps is back in "Hearts and Minds" fighting alien despot Despero (Keith David)--yet another classic JLA villain. He's got a third eye that controls minds.
    • John Stewart goes off to save his old mentor, Katma Tui (Kim Mai Guest). Since he and Hawkgirl are becoming something of an item (even Flash sees it), that's going to be a problem.
    • Huge alien GL Kilowog (Dennis Haysbert) and Flash make quite the comedy team
    • We get a precedent for the "Crayola Lanterns" in the current comic storylines--different colors based on different emotions. Here, a purple light means hate. 
    • GL ends up leading the resistance, with Katma Tui undercover in Despero's harem
    • There's a reference to "that Rayner kid" sent to be trained by Katma Tui. Kyle Rayner is yet another GL.
    • We end the episode with an inexplicable Earth Day message--the planet's life force was being controlled by the bad guy
  • Superman crosses the line in "A Batter World", creating an alternate reality where the League takes over the planet
    • There's a very creepy opening where President Luthor is vaporized by Superman in the Oval Office (Luthor was briefly President in the comics around that time)
    • They become "The Justice Lords" and start wearing dark clothing--it's not clear why the rest of the team just goes along with it
    • Lois and Lord Superman have become a bickering couple
    • Lord Flash was killed in the alternate reality---so their team lost their conscience
    • Lord Batman manages to find the normal dimension, and proposes they go "help" our normal heroes by replacing them
    • We get an alternate version of the Superman/Doomsday battle (you know, where Superman died)--in this case, Kal lobotomizes the monster
    • Our Flash manages to outwit Lord Batman--who would've though it?
    • We see an Arkham with a lobotomized Rogue's Gallery--Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy--and a group of Superman robots that quote the namby-pamby Superman from Season One
    • The two Batmen fight--and Lord Batman seems to convince Batman by saying "no 8 year old should lose their parents", but it's just a ruse
    • We get a great matched hero/Lord battle--and our Flash turns the tide with Kal vs. Kal
    • In the end, our Superman crosses the line--by making a deal with Luthor to help out in exchange for a pardon. Think this will come back to bite him later?
    • Was the whole episode is a commentary on post-9/11 America, with the loss of civil liberties? Well, they were editing this episode just before the US invaded Iraq...
    • The storyline in the alternate reality will be referenced quite a bit over the next several episodes

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