When I heard that the Justice League cartoon (on the Cartoon Network, in the United States) was morphing into Justice League Unlimited, I was afraid. From what I hard heard and read, it seemed to be a way to make more action figures and dumb down the plots to fit a neat 30 minute time table. The two and three parters of the previous seasons would make way for Super Friends style plots: simple, banal, idiotic.
I should have had more faith. If anything, this season of the Justice League is probably the best yet. Instead of dumbing down the show, they’ve made it more complex, with continuing storylines that have been building for several episodes. New characters have been introduced, and many of them are playing central roles in that storyline. It really seems to be capturing the true essence of the Justice League.
So, I’m going to start giving my impressions on each episode, starting with the Wonder Woman/Hawkgirl story, “The Balance.”
The episode starts with Felix Faust, presumed dead by the JL but actually trapped in between life and death in a magic mirror, helping Tala remove the vulnerability of the Annihilator robot (it only works when attacked, basically). Faust tricks Tala into switching places with him, and he takes the robot to Hell, to teach Hades a lesson.
Meanwhile, on the Watchtower, Flash fails to get Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl talking to one another, and the magical members of the league are incapacitated by some disturbance in the force, basically. Hermes delivers new orders to Wonder Woman, and off she goes to Tartarus, with Hawkgirl and her magic-nullifying mace along for the ride. They, of course, complete the task, but as with a lot of episodes, the plot itself is less important than the characters.
For a more detailed synopsis, visit TV Tome.
The real treat is the interaction between Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl. As Flash notes early on, they are quite similar: both warrior women, stubborn, and unwilling to even acknowledge their similarities. Both come from places where battle prowess is ingrained from birth, and their dedication to their homelands strong (and, in Hawkgirl’s case, dangerously so).
By the end of the episode, they’ve at least agreed to work together, despite their differences, of course. I like that this Justice League does have personality conflicts: you’ve got the usually Batman/Superman one, the Wonder Woman/Hawkgirl one, along with the requisite romances amongst characters.
The only problem I have with the episode (and with a lot of Justice League episodes) is that the villain is defeated by pounding on him until he’s defeated. There’s no real strategy beyond “hit him really hard.” Even when that strategy initially fails, they simply try it again, until it works.
Still, the interactions between the two characters redeems any failings the action might have.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 at 10:01 pm and is filed under DC Comics, Entertainment, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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