Justice League S01E18-19 Review: Justice Society of America

Justice League, Season 1, Episodes 18-19: Legends

It's one of the weirder episodes of Justice League. The premise is that Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkgirl and J'onn get transported by a convenient plot device explosion into an alternate universe that's populated with heroes from Green Lantern's childhood comics that are caricatures of the Golden Age heroes. And they lampshade-slash-make-fun-of the more cheesy, Golden/Silver Age era tropes like having a useless child sidekick that exist only to go 'holy gadzooks, Catman', having a hotline to the police station, having the women hero be utterly incompetent, racial diversity extends to cringe-worthy lines like 'you're a credit to your race' (though the Golden Age heroes at least actually is complementing John and was nothing but civil throughout the episode), and having utterly ludicrous gimmick villains.

Of course, the execution is... more than suspect. The problem is, back when I was watching this as a kid, it's just a bunch of weird alternate-universe superheroes that's a bit more hammy and drawn a bit differently, so I didn't really see anything special. As an adult... the JLA themselves aren't very grim and dark, and that ends up only having the cheesiness factor and the innocently-racist/sexist moments as the only actual difference.

Add that to the weird justification of these Golden Age folks with Green Lantern going 'wait, they are identical to comic books from my childhood!' to 'we're in an alternate universe!' to 'wait, they are dead all along!' to 'this is a reconstruction of the Golden Age created by a horrifying reality warping mutant kid!' and it just jumps around so much that it just feels odd and seemed badly presented. I get what's going on at the end -- the alternate world is now post-apocalyptic, and the Golden Age heroes are all dead and only reanimated by the creepy sidekick demon, but in the past their presence caused a bunch of people in our world to write comics about them.

Which is just honestly a bit weird, because the whole appeal of having a JLA/JSA crossover is definitely to have the modern Flash and the Jay Garrick Flash hanging around, or to have the modern Green Lantern and Alan Scott's Green Lantern shooting green rays together. This just feels kind of muddy, even to someone who now understands the whole Golden Age homage thing.

I dunno. It works sort of well as a 'weird alternate dimension travel' episode, I suppose, but as a homage to the Golden Age? I think it's honestly a tad disrespectful at points (shut up, Flash, your jokes aren't any better than some of the ones that the Justice Guild makes), especially when the Golden Age heroes turn out to be dead all along and only the fabrications of a psychotic reality warping fetus-child thing... I think I would rather have a Earth-1/Earth-2 style crossover with Golden Age versions of the characters and call it a day. And, yeah, I can see why DC denied the show's producers from using their Golden Age characters -- who, by the way, was actually enjoying great success in a relaunched JSA title at the time that this cartoon series is airing. I dunno. Maybe if the story meant to be told was a bit different... but then you wouldn't have the 'old-timey fan who refuses to move on from his comfort zone' allegory with Ray Thompson... which... honestly kind of didn't work for me.

Oh well, if nothing else, the Easter Eggs column will swell like an obese whale.

Small moments I like from the episodes... I liked the fun fact that John Stewart reads comics. Hawkgirl being exasperated at being basically told to prepare cookies while the men talks is absolutely funny. Luthor's apparently resigned himself to be mwa ha ha evil and is going all out, using giant robots to wreak havoc in the middle of the city. The Green Lantern/Hawkgirl shipping is progressing quite organically and I like it. Having Superman and Batman only show up on the beginning and the end with very minimal dialogue is actually a clever way of having almost the entire team (Diana's completely absent) while still only featuring several members. Oh, another absolutely hilarious moment was not-Fiddler's clarinet car. That made me laugh so hard.

But still, the episode itself felt kind of a missed opportunity. Especially near the end where it's just one plot contrivance after the other that Ray's constructs of the Justice Guild ends up being sentient enough to beat him up, the Justice Guild actually having a interdimensional teleporter ready, and all that stuff. Yeah, not one of the better episodes, but definitely a great effort.

DC Comics Easter Eggs:

• The Justice Guild of America is, of course, a reference to the Justice Society of America, which was the big team-up group during the Golden Age. In more modern times, it's comprised of older Golden Age heroes mentoring several new ones.
• Cat Man is weird, being a combination of the cat-themed Golden Age superhero Wildcat, but also having shades of Golden Age Batman in the general look of his suit with the bright yellow belt, and also being the closest to the kid character Ray Thompson. Cat Man's real name is T. Blake, which is a reference to the actual Catman character in the DC comics (Thomas Blake), who nominally is a Batman villain. 
• Green Guardsman is a homage to the Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott. In addition to a similar looking cape, Green Guardsman's ring is unable to work on aluminium, just like Alan Scott's ring being unable to work on wood. Green Guardsman's name owes to an alternate-universe Amalgam version of Green Lantern, where DC comics' Green Lantern and Marvel comics' Guardsman combined into the Green Guardsman. The Green Guardsman's real name, Scott Mason, is definitely a reference to Alan Scott. 
• The Streak is obviously based on the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, substituting Jay's metal-bowl hat for a footballer's helmet.
• Black Siren is based on the Black Canary, and honestly other than the bit of fishnet on her chest and arms she's actually a pretty close dead ringer for the traditional depiction of Black Canary. Black Siren is the only one out of the Justice Guild to make an appearance out of the Justice League cartoon, as an alternate-universe evil Black Canary over in Arrow. Black Siren's real name, Donna Nance, is a corruption of Black Canary's real name, Dinah Lance. 
• Tom Turbine is similar to the Golden Age Atom, with a predominantly yellow costume, being kind of smart and having the blue and black parts of the costume slightly switched around.
• Ray Thompson, in addition to being a homage to all the kid mascots of superheroes at that time, owes his name to Roy Thomas, a DC comics writer. Ray's mannerisms in the episode while play-acting is almost always "Holy [insert noun]" which is a homage to Robin's catchphrase in the 60's Adam West Batman series.
• The Injustice Guild lampoons several of the classic Golden Age villains, though unlike the JGA their appearances vary far more wildly compared to the characters they are homaging.
• The Music Master is obviously based on the Fiddler, an enemy of the Flash that has the powers to hypnotize people with his magical violin. 
• The Sportsman is based on the Sportsmaster, a Justice Society enemy that, um, commits crime with sports themed equipment. Yeah. Sportsmaster is a character concept that kind of... just sucks, even in a world where the Riddler can be taken seriously. 
• Doctor Blizzard is based on the Icicle, a Green Lantern enemy that can control ice.
• Sir Swami (not actually named in the episode proper) is based on the Wizard, a magically-based enemy of the Justice Society
• Luthor's robot is based on the Evangelion Units from the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Justice Guild's red phone police hotline is a reference to the 60's Batman TV show.