I just watched the final episode of Justice League Unlimited. Thing's only been broadcast in the UK so far, I believe, so I had to grab it off of a BitTorrent site. It should hit the States in a month or so; Canada probably a week or so before then.
It's a decent episode, but not great. It features Darkseid. And cameos by... well... pretty much everyone. No Titans, of course, and I didn't spot the Huntress or Captain Marvel anywhere, but other than that every member of the Justice League or Society shows up for at least a second. Zatanna's few moments, though unvoiced, are brilliant. Flash has a typical fun moment, too. And Superman... damn, but if Superman doesn't get to cut loose for a moment there. You know that when Superman finally starts talking like a badass, there's a titanic struggle on the way.
Unfortunately it only lasts for a minute before the writers remember that the series bible calls for the total wussification of Superman and the blue boy gets dropped again pretty quickly.
Darkseid's defeat (if you can call it that) comes in an unlikely way and the ramifications are... interesting: Luthor hands Darkseid the Anti-Life Equation. You know, the thing that Darkseid wants to get so that he can have absolute dominion over all life in the universe. Sure, when Darkseid gets it he teleports out and stops trying to open up firepits in the earth and kill off all of humanity right then and there, but isn't that only delaying what you've just made inevitable? It's sort of like... I dunno, summoning Great Chthulhu in the hopes that he just wants to play a hand of bridge. Seems to me that you put yourself in a pretty bad position that way. I figure you're better off just having Superman pound the crap out of him. Erm... Darkseid, that is, not Cthulhu.
Finally, my one continuing complaint about JLU still stands: not enough Stargirl. It's hard for me not to like Courtney. She's got a cute, athletic costume, a youthful attitude, a neat set of powers and she's a legacy hero to boot. Jack Knight's legacy hero. And they even make sure to give her the right, art deco-style cosmic rod in her appearances. I can't blame the show, of course; I couldn't expect them to give Stargirl a lot of play at the expense of the more well-known characters. But it'd be cool if she had more than just the one episode to feature in. Ah, well; I guess I need to start collecting the Justice Society trades.
Anyway, I'll look forward to picking up this season of JLU on DVD, but unlike Teen Titans, which I thought had a really solid extra season, I think this show sneaked by with mostly the visual references to Super Friends to keep it neat. It was nice to see for the nostalgia, but the show's real end was last season.
Comments (5)
Interesting Starfire has also been one of my favorite characters.
Still I don't see a starfire only comic able to survive for long.
Posted by gus | February 21, 2006 7:05 AM
Posted on February 21, 2006 07:05
My only complaint about Stargirl on JLU was this:
Since when does the cosmic staff shoot BLUE energy bolts? Cosmic rod/staff blasts are YELLOW!
End complaint.
Posted by Bard | February 22, 2006 11:09 PM
Posted on February 22, 2006 23:09
Probably right about that, Gus. She's one of those characters who's too much about her community.
The Bard - Check out "Chaos at the Earth's Core," which is the only episode that actually features Courtney. The staff's energy's all white, there. Not yellow, but it looks a helluva lot better than blue.
Posted by Jason | February 23, 2006 12:58 AM
Posted on February 23, 2006 00:58
"Dark Heart". The energy blasts are clearly blue and white while Courtney is blasting at the spider-bots.
Posted by Bard | February 23, 2006 11:14 AM
Posted on February 23, 2006 11:14
Yeah, I know. I'm not saying that it wasn't blue in "Dark Heart" - you and I chatted about it at the time. All I'm saying is that in "...Earth's Core," where Courtney is one of the feature players with, you know, actual dialogue, they changed it to all white. It's not the yellow that it should be, but it looks pretty cool, esp. in combination with all of the white on her costume.
Posted by Jason | February 23, 2006 1:01 PM
Posted on February 23, 2006 13:01