Supergirl S02E04 Review: Roulette!

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 4: Survivors

A pretty great episode, this one, and a good chunk is because of how focused it is. Or maybe the DC fanboy in me is just geeking out at Roulette and Miss Martian.

The main plotline of this episode had the two ever-flirting team of Alex and Maggie Sawyer track down an alien homicide to discovering a fight club ran by... Roulette! Which was out of the left field but very welcome, and actually makes sense considering the new alien culture plotline that's been going on. And, hey, Roulette is actually played by a Chinese woman which is a neat little bonus. I mean, she's the same actress that played Jiaying in Agents of SHIELD so there's not much in lieu of facial variance but hey, it's something. 

Granted, Roulette was less of a character than main villain Jiaying... but she played her part really well as a hammy, 'can't touch this' upper-culture fight club organizer. And I loved it. I do hope she'll end up mattering in the grand scheme of things and not just a one-off villain, and that her 'benefactor' that allowed her to elude arrest at the end of the episode is actually someone relevant instead of just her being, well, 'can't touch this'. She did get a good argument in against Supergirl, how she's giving the aliens stranded on Earth some purpose, but the fact that she makes them fight to the death and kidnaps people who owe her money kind of puts her squarely in the evil territory. 

The Alex-Maggie stuff is honestly a bit boring, but the alien gladiatorial combat thing really is fun, especially when we discover that M'gann M'orzz, a.k.a. Miss Martian, is fighting in said combat. We'll talk about M'gann's character later on, but it is cool to see M'gann unleash martian rage on that one random spike-alien, the Martian death-fight was well done, and DC fans will get a kick out of seeing Draaga randomly show up and beat Supergirl around. What, how did Roulette convince an alien as powerful Draaga to sit in a box and just chill? 

The Roulette plotline is serviceable backdrop to the large amounts of characterization done for J'onn, M'gann, Mon-El and Supergirl, though. Thankfully they dialed back down the CatCo plotline into two very short and sweet scenes with Snapper Carr, but they had to shoehorn a Lena Luthor scene into the episode. I just wish they just... stop with the whole CatCo nonsense. It's repetitive, boring and adds nothing to the story.

Also, Alex and Maggie flirt a lot in this episode, and apparently just as Alex wants to get Maggie to come over for a drink... Maggie already has a girlfriend! Poor Alex. I don't care that much for this part of the episode, but it's not one that's poorly written and the fact that the romance takes place alongside the Roulette plot means that this doesn't feel as tumour-ish as some romantic threads in other shows.

Mon-El, meanwhile, has a lighter plotline despite the opening flashback -- we see that he was a palace guard that the Prince of Daxam sacrificed his life to rescue, and we see just how discoloured and racist Supergirl unintentionally is, mocking the Prince of Daxam without knowing much about her. It's less Supergirl's fault and more of the general society of Daxam and Krypton -- we also briefly hear a slur against Kryptonians from Mon-El during the flashback. But Mon-El is perfectly willing to play nice, biting back all the unintentional insults from Supergirl, and being buddy-buddy with Winn to be let out. Mon-El doesn't kill or hurt anyone (other than that dude he arm-wrestled with) but Supergirl and Winn are definitely trying to steer him in a heroic direction. It's also fun that they're giving Winn something to do beyond just being Friend-Zone Man. Ultimately, though, the Mon-El subplot is an entertaining distraction to lighten up the episode from the moody green martian talk.

J'onn confronts M'gann and basically asks M'gann to bond with him. Getting all our collective minds out of the gutter, it's not sex but rather a kind of martian telepathic bond that's unique to them. M'gann is super evasive, only managing to tell J'onn about the horrors of concentration camp, and how she's been smuggled off-world by a White Martian that was nice. Of course more veteran DC fans will know she's fibbing on a crucial part of her backstory, but the reveal they did and the little fake-out that M'gann's reluctance to bond with J'onn is about either the fight club or her survivor's guilt is well-done.

Because, of course, M'gann wasn't the young green martian shipped off-world by a white martian that grew a conscience. She was the white martian.

And while J'onn is convinced that M'gann is fighting and probably death-seeking in Roulette's arena out of a sense of survivor's guilt, J'onn tells M'gann to forgive herself for surviving. It's a whole different guilt, though -- M'gann feels guilty because she was complicit in the torture and genocide of the green martians, and she's running away from that. It will be interesting to see how J'onn will react when this inevitably gets out, and the J'onn/M'gann part is consistently the emotional highlight of the episode. If nothing, seeing J'onn finally show more emotion than just stoicness is very welcome.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Roulette, a.k.a. Veronica Sinclair, looks absolutely exactly like this in the comics, right down to fancy Chinese dress and dragon tattoo. In the comics she's primarily a Justice Society of America enemy (specifically, her nemesis is Mr. Terrific) and she's featured in one of the most memorable episodes of Justice League Unlimited. In the source material, she pits superhumans against each other instead of aliens, though. 
• Draaga is a Superman enemy, an alien gladiator from Mongul's planet Warworld, who fought Superman several times. While his role here is barely a cameo, JLA S01E12-13 has a longer, more detailed adaptation of the comic-book version of Draaga.
• M'gann M'orzz is indeed a White Martian masquerading as a Green Martian in the comics, though this time around it's Martian Manhunter that she's hiding this fact on instead of other superheroes.
• Roulette addresses Supergirl as the 'Maid of Might' and the 'Girl of Steel', two of Supergirl's common epithets in the Golden Age.
• Winn briefly notes how Mon-El could've 'leapt tall buildings in a single bound', which is a phrase very often used to describe Superman's powers. Mon-El is also noted to be unable to use heat vision or super breath, something that comic-book Daxamites cannot do. A change from the comics is that the Daxamites are weaker than Kryptonians physically, whereas comic-book Mon-El is physically stronger than Superman.
• Warworld is briefly mentioned by Mon-El as a place he had seen Draaga fought before, and Draaga's origin story is traditionally tied to Warworld.

Justice League S02E19-20 Review: Superman Revenge Squad

Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 19-20: Hereafter

This episode is one of my favourite episodes of Justice League, one that was better than I thought after rewatching it as an adult, and it was a bit hard to really write down this review, hence the gap between this review and the previous one.

Superman is one of the trickiest characters to write with the authors having to juggle his godlike powers, his uncorruptible morals, his idealism, his internal struggle and having to make him interesting to read. And if multiple live action attempts have shown, very few have managed to 'nail' that perfect portrayal of Superman. Even the TAS-verse itself wasn't immune to inconsistent writing, with Superman's portrayal as slightly weaker and being somewhat war-weary in season one of Justice League being controversial. As one of the two characters with a long internal history both within and without the show, it stands that having a group of villains go out of their way to gain revenge against Superman is very believable.

And it's very cool to see several old faces from Superman: TAS -- Metallo, Toyman, Livewire, Kalibak and Weather Wizard (even if Wizard is a Flash villain, he did face off against Superman in the DCAU) -- hang out together like a bunch of cultists, reciting oaths before heading off to commit the biggest crime of all time. Murder Superman. It's a very well-done story that eclipses the comics' own attempt to kill off Superman with Doomsday that's just, well, dumb. RANDOM SPACE MONSTER KILLS SUPERMAN NOOOO! Having a group of vengeance-seeking villains apparently do the deed, and explore the ramifications of a world without Superman, is definitely the way to go.

The show does a great way showing the world without a Superman, showing how everyone believes that Superman is dead, without insulting the audience's intelligence and establishing that Superman is alive, just sent years and years into the future. But we'll talk about the adventures of Superman and his beard later on, because what's the most interesting is the scenes of the League and Superman's supporting cast regarding his death.

You see, Superman is a relic of a bygone era, yet has continued to be iconic and the number one hero and the face of DC, a position that only Batman can hope to contest. As J'onn himself says in the episode, and as Flash stops Wonder Woman from bashing Toyman's face in, even the idea of Superman, this beacon of optimistic, simple and idealistic justice, is always around and necessary. And there's even a nice and in-your-face bit of meta-commentary when Lobo shows up and forcibly inserts himself into the League. The portrayal of Lobo here might be done for laughs as the brutish ultra-violent metal-soundtracked Main Man inserts himself into the League, but it is a nice little parallel to the comic book industry where grim and gritty characters like Lobo (DCAU's Lobo is kind of more bully than psychotic, though) rise to prominence.

Superman's death causes Wonder Woman to almost immediately go enraged and go for the kill ("I'm going to punch a hole... in your head"), and honestly can you blame her? Toyman sounds absolutely terrified even with that unmoving emotionless mask, and only Flash bringing up "I'm trying to speak for Superman" stops her from going through with the deed. We go through a very sad funeral moment with various characters from Superman: TAS making cameos, and one of the best moments ever in superhero history was Dana Delany's voice of Lois Lane when she flies into a grief-induced angry rant at Lex Luthor when the bald businessman shows up at Superman's funeral. "Are you happy now, Lex?" Lois shows up very sparingly in Justice League, but holy shit, this scene just clinches both grief and anger very well, and she just sobs uncontrollably as Luthor comforts her with a hug.

Luthor is an interesting character to show up in the funeral, but it kind of makes sense. He notes how he'll miss Superman in his own way, and his delivery makes me believe it. Luthor wants Superman gone, but he wants him gone by his own hands. Having lesser villains kill Superman means that Luthor's victory over Superman has been robbed from him forever, so he's grieving in his own way.

The brief scene of the remaining members of the League laughing while reminiscing over Superman, even J'onn (who delivers one of the best eulogies during his funeral, by the way), is very bittersweet, and they even consider breaking the League up. Flash noting how he goofs around because Superman's always around to watch his back is a nice line. Batman's denial is both genre-savvy and sweet, but even the Dark Knight respects the Man of Steel enough to show up in the shadows of the building, seen by none but Diana. Even when he believes that Superman isn't really dead, he respects the man enough to show up at his funeral. And his short speech in front of Superman's grave? That was amazing. Poor Batman is confused. Is he chasing after ghosts? Is he in denial? Is Superman really dead? He regrets not telling Superman that he respects the dude, despite their differences, and yeah, Superman was the very first hero that Batman truly sees as an equal, and the only one that Batman trusts in the League.

They discuss some possible replacements for Superman (Batman is still not a full member, hilariously) and while Supergirl, Metamorpho and others get brought up, Lobo crashes the party and forces himself in, a nice way to insert levity to the episode because, y'know, Superman really isn't dead and is fighting in an alternate timeline and the audience knows this. Lobo is absolutely played for laughs, and the League plus Lobo has to return back to Metropolis because not all villains are as gracious as Luthor, and they're celebrating by shooting up the streets.

Meanwhile, Superman himself has been transported to the far-flung future, in a post-apocalyptic world where Superman is stuck as a vulnerable warrior in a dangerous desert, where he has to rely on his wits (and a very conveniently transported car) to survive in this strange world. He forges weapons out of random materials, he never gives up hope, he grows a beard, he fights and befriends the strange mutated creatures before discovering that, hey, he's on Future Earth! He finds the Watchtower crashed to the ground, before finding the ruins of Metropolis and the sole human inhabiting Earth. The immortal Vandal Savage, his old enemy.

And having lived for thousands of years after humanity went extinct, Savage mentions how without Superman he was able to conquer humanity, and his casual indifference at brushing off being a global dictator as one would brush a decision to get a tattoo you regretted when you were thirteen is just hilarious. "Oh yeah, I killed Green Lantern here. No, wait, maybe here." straight into "Are you coming to my house for dinner?" is just golden. This world-weary version of Vandal Savage, who is stuck alone in a deserted world for thirty thousand years, having realized that his lust of power is meaningless, is a pretty deep take on the character.

So while in the present day the JLA is fighting against scores of villain while battling depression, Superman and Vandal Savage, two badass normal people, ride flying dragonflies to venture into the nest of giant mutated cockroach monsters, where they manage to get a power core that rejuvenates Superman's powers. Vandal's presence is a nice showing how Superman inspires people, and, yes, Vandal wallowing in guilt is something he went through alone, but without Superman to inspire him, would he have gone with the idea of the suicide mission into roachland and get the power source? Vandal Savage succeeds in turning himself from a psychopath into a redeemed ally, and it's a surprising take on the character that just works so well. The final scene as post-apocalyptic Vandal Savage looks around and sees history being rewritten and his past mistakes redeemed by Superman and saying softly "Thank you, my friend" is just so heartwarming.

Superman appears in the present day at just the perfect moment, saving Batman from being headshotted by Deadshot, preventing a death that probably occurred in the splinter timeline. Lobo gets kicked out of the team quite hilariously, and while Vandal Savage possibly remains a villain in the new revised timeline, this is his last episode in the DCAU so Superman probably hunted him down and spent a long time talking to him or something.

Overall it's a very excellent episode, and we haven't even gotten to Lobo's excellent one-liners yet. Kalibak: "I'm not dead yet." Lobo: "You're right, my watch is ten seconds fast."


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Ray Palmer, the superhero who would become the Atom, is mentioned multiple times as being the scientist that Vandal Savage stole the white dwarf isotope that he used in his bid for power. Atom himself won't show up until next season, though.
• Metallo, Toyman, Weather Wizard, Kalibak and Livewire are all villains that fought Superman in Superman: TAS, and their little cult is a reference to the 'Superman Revenge Squad' in the comics, which feature less well-known Superman villains.
• Lobo himself has fought and teamed up with Superman before in Superman: TAS, and references saving Superman which actually happens, despite J'onn's skepticism. Superman and Lobo's deal during the events of his episode in Superman: TAS also involves him not harming anyone on Earth, and, well, technically speaking, he has kept his word, only fighting the League when he thinks it's an audition, and focusing most of his fighting scenes on Kalibak, who's a superpowereed alien that can definitely take it. Apparently during development Captain Marvel was supposed to take Superman's place for a slightly longer 'Superman disappears' arc, but legal reasons meant that this couldn't happen. 
• Superman has a box of Flash-sponsored Lightspeed energy bars, yet another reference to 'Eclipsed'.
• Superman's monument and gravestone, is, of course a reference to his gravestone after his death at the hands of Doomsday in the comics. 
• Wonder Woman dons a very fancy gilded Amazonian armour for Superman's funeral, which something that her comic-book counterpart sometimes dons in 'serious' battles. 
• Cameos at Superman's funeral include Queen Hippolyta, Aquaman, Queen Mera, Doctor Fate, Inza, Orion, Lightray, the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, Kilowog, Katma Tui, Tomar Re, Larvox, Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake (Robin), Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Lana Lang, Kara Kent (Supergirl), Bibbo Bibbowski, Maggie Sawyer, Snapper Carr, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. This marks a rare Alfred appearance in Justice League, and considering the Bat-embargo, Robin's appearance is surprising as well.
• Copperhead, Volcana, Deadshot and Star Sapphire join several members of the Superman Revenge Squad during the big rampage in Metropolis.

Legends of Tomorrow S02E04 Review: The Walking Dead

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 4: Abominations

Like the previous episode, 'Shoguns', this episode was more of a standalone filler story that demonstrates Legends of Tomorrow's new formula that doesn't let every single episode get hung up on the main season arc plot. In some ways it's an improvement because we don't see Vandal Savage escape (or the Time Masters' nameless agents fail) every single episode, but in some ways it kind of makes me even forget that there's even a Legion of Doom plotline running. And like 'Shoguns', this episode is ultimately forgettable, especially since nothing really huge came along character development wise. 

We have a pretty generic plotline. Time traveler gets stranded in an interesting locale and time, and the Legends have to deal with them to prevent timestream nonsense. After so flagrantly blowing up the Shogun last episode and having a track record of convincing people to act because it's the right thing to do, it's a bit weird that Jax and Amaya spent the first half of the episode passively watching the slaves get abused... but hey, that's how Legends always rolls. Blowing up nuclear bunkers? Setting off a nuke when it's not supposed to be set off? Blowing up a shogun ten years before he's supposed to die? Accidentally convincing Per Degaton to kill his father? But eh.

The team is split very cleanly into three groups in the period of the American Civil War, dealing with the zombie plague TX-90 (a sure reference to Walking Dead's TS-19) that gets accidentally unleashed upon the... Confederates or Republicans or whatever, I don't know the sides and I wasn't particularly fully alert watching this episode. The zombies were fun -- the makeup obviously isn't as well-done as Walking Dead, but the gwaghrhglaaa zombie marching is believable enough. 

The first group has Sara and Nate warn... some historical figure or other about the zombies, which has a couple of really cool scenes like Sara nonchalantly showing up with a bloody, air-chomping zombie head to demonstrate what a zombie is, and Nate's pretty awesome 'run towards a crate of explosives and blow it up while turning into Steel' moment... but ultimately is easily the most boring of the three plotlines. They try to spice it up by having Sara have some dialogue about leadership or whatever, but it honestly didn't stick since Sara has been an absolutely confident leader throughout her short tenure and suddenly having doubts felt shoehorned in.

The second group has Stein and an un-powered Ray deal with Mick being infected with the zombie plague on board the Waverider, with Martin's insane phobia of zombies being absolutely hilarious. "It's not irrational, HE'S A ZOMBIE!". There's a bit of Ray being left with nothing to do without his Atom suit, left to squawk trivia on board the Waverider during the initial mission, but ended up being the cool-headed scientist that was eventually able to develop the means to take down Mick. It's not particularly groundbreaking, but Mick's desperation before his change into a zombie, and him later bonding with Ray and giving him Snart's old Captain Cold gun is out of the left field but a pretty cool change in direction.

(Granted, I groaned a little when, instead of using his fucking fire gun Mick goes ahead and punches the zombies)

The Stein/Ray bits were shot like a traditional horror movie, but never really too tense because of the sheer comedy and hilarity of the situation and Stein's continually hilarious dialogue and the fact that, yeah, this is not how Mick Rory is going to die, so you kind of know that the team will succeed.

Jax and Amaya bear the brunt of the more dramatic moments of the episode, which finally tackles racism in a more realistic way than season one did, which had Jax wander around that one American town in a racist period, but didn't get anything bad happen to him other than a few teenage punks saying some mean words. Here, Jax takes the place of... a slave double agent or something that got killed by the zombies, and tries to infiltrate some party ran by a slave-driver, trying his best to be a professional but ended up getting caught anyway because, hey, as much as Jax has dealt with racism all his life, he's still treated as a human being, which isn't exactly what these slave owners do with their slaves. It never gets particularly graphic other than the sight of the black slaves in chains, and the mostly-offscreen whipping of one lady, but we did get descriptions of setting bloodhounds on runaway slaves, chopping off manhoods and whatnot. And despite that, the other slaves persevered and whatnot. And while Jax got himself captured, Amaya was able to use her Vixen powers to beat up the slave master, free Jax, accidentally get caught up in a zombie apocalypse, and Jax burns down the house with zombies and evil slavemaster dude. 

It's not the best portrayal of periodical racism in television, and the pacing's a bit off at times, but it's the meat of the story that's far more... interesting than all the fun zombie stuff. Which is still fun on their own (and with Ray's suit down, Nate unable to control his powers and Firestorm split up, the Legends are actually unprepared for the zombie apocalypse) but ultimately fillery. 

Poor Amaya is still not really well-defined as a character, though. She has her 'channel gorilla powers' moments, and the bit where the slaves recognize her totem is a cool touch, but as with the pervious episode she exists mostly just to bounce dialogue off of and to give the team another heavy-hitter. One that doesn't require as much special effects as Firestorm or Citizen Steel to portray.

Overall, though, it's not a bad episode, but it's definitely a filler-y one. No Easter Egg Corner this week because, well, there is none. 

Supergirl S02E03 Review: Wonder Woman

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 3: Welcome to Earth

We're slowly trying to catch up with superhero TV shows! Bear with my slow speed here.

"I sure picked the wrong night to get rid of all my Kryptonite." No truer words have been spoken by J'onn J'onzz, because, yeah, as much as the DEO might be buddy-buddy with Superman and Supergirl... they're not the only Kryptonians out there. But the point didn't get explored any further as we go hard and fast in introducing a lot of new characters and players.

It's actually a pretty solid episode as far as these things go, even if the plotline is a bit predictable -- obviously the escaped 'Kryptonian' isn't the one that attacked the president since the fire effects are different. But the introduction of Mon-El, Maggie Sawyer and Madame President (played by Lynda Carter, a.k.a. Wonder Woman herself), plus the whole existence of the Men in Black style alien sub-culture, the Alien Amnesty Act, Supergirl's short character arc about unjustful bias, and the short cameo by M'gann at the end... oh, plus the villainous Scorcher, are all handled well.

It's such a shame that there is a huge, glaring annoyance in this episode that is the CatCo plotline which I just don't give a shit about. There's nothing remotely interesting in it other than the ham-handed talk about Kara writing the Lena Luthor article with a decidedly pro-alien bias and she should be objective as a reporter regardless of her real views... which felt like retreading ground from season one, to be honest. The backstory we get from Lena Luthor about how she's adopted, how some people like Lex Luthor are intrinsically evil, and how she's making alien-detecting machines (which Kara quickly sabotaged) because humans also have a right to know if aliens are living among them... but did it have to take up so much screentime? James and Snapper's little cock-fight is also stupidly long and predictable, and I honestly just don't care. Snapper is likable enough as the resident jerk, and I'm totally on his side moreso than James -- and I wonder why Cat didn't leave the company to Snapper. He clearly knows how to run the show better than James did. But oh well. 

Speaking of Lena, this just seems to be an excuse to sneak in a potential plot point in the future, but I still think her scenes and interview is still unnecessary. It's not outright badly-written and filled with ultra-liberal-feminist preaching like Supergirl's first season, though, and gets its point across while still sounding like dialogue that two people would have in the real world.

Kara's struggles with her pro-alien bias translates to Supergirl's own problems. See, the sleeping Kryptonian from last episode breaks free and rampages around, and apparently tries to fry the president into a crisp. Except when Winn triangulates the signal or whatever, Supergirl finds out that the mystery arrival is from Daxam instead of Krypton, and she immediately goes ballistic. Daxam and Krypton have had a history, where the Daxamites are a monarchy that Kara has been taught to hate and think as a race of thugs since she was small... but when talking to our mystery Daxamite, the Daxamite is harmless. A bit of a smartass, maybe, be the Daxamite tells a different story -- that the Kryptonians were the ones that started the war, and they are always so high-and-mighty-and-enlightened, and all the Daxamite wanted to do was to go home.

The Daxamite's defense ended up being true as the actual alien attacker, Scorcher, appears to attack the President a second time. Supergirl and friends eventually track Scorcher down and take her down. The special effects in this episode kind of is... variable in quality. Some scenes like Supergirl creating a typhoon around Scorcher look great as always, but some of the fire effects, especially when they're burning on Supergirl's costume, look rushed and unfinished. Scorcher is a pretty basic villain, with one line of dialogue to tell us her motivation: that she thinks that the Alien Amnesty Act is something that's going to be used to goad gullible aliens into the open, something similar to the Inhuman/Superhero Registration Act over in the Marvel Universe.

The President is a cool lady, and in light of the recent American elections (of which, as a non-American, I am absolutely sick of hearing about, so I'll not make the obvious comments and parallels) slightly hilarious, and she has a couple of introdump-y talks with J'onn and Supergirl. She makes a brief joke about her 'other jet', which you might be forgiven to be a reference to Lynda Carter's old acting role as Wonder Woman, but apparently the President is a shape-shifting alien herself! That's an awesome twist at the end that I didn't call out, and it's a great surprise.

Also, the B-plot running through this episode is the grand introduction of Detective Maggie Sawyer, a supporting character from the Superman lore, and a major character in Superman: The Animated Series. She's shown to quickly be genre savvy and enter into a quick friendship with Alex as action girls hunting policemen. Maggie's lesbianism is also established almost immediately, which is refreshing. In Superman: TAS they had to really be super-subtle about it. Ultimately, though, Maggie didn't really do much, falling into the same role as Patty Spivot did in Flash's second season -- hypercompetent lady cop that somehow can reach places before the DEO armed with Winn's hacking and alien tech can. Maggie does get a fair bit of backstory thanks to her race and sexuality and manages to introdump a lot about the alien culture hiding in National City, but ultimately the episode could've moved along fine without her. The alien bar's pretty cool, though.

The Daxamite and Kara have a talk, and apparently Daxam's as fucked up as Krypton is. The Daxamite reveals himself to be Mon-El, who is a character that I'm only vaguely aware of, so it's going to be an interesting experience for me since I know almost nothing about Mon-El other than the fact that he's a Legion-of-Superheroes character and that's one corner of the DC universe I don't really know much about.

(I do know that 'Mon-El' is a Kryptonian name, and it's a bit strange. I'll talk more about this in the Easter Eggs Corner, though)

But more exciting than Daxam is J'onn walking around the alien bar, relishing the chance to move around in his natural form (he notably spends the time around the President in his human form, despite the president's requests) and a barlady seems surprised by him and dashes out. J'onn confronts her... and she reveals herself to be a Martian. Specifically, one M'Gann M'orzz. I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING OKAY. I mean, it was obvious since Supergirl loves using female characters, but with the announcement that Young Justice's third season is in production, the inclusion of M'gann in Supergirl is a huge, huge treat for me.

Overall, it's a pretty introdump-heavy episode. It dropped the ball on the CatCo scenes and arguably Maggie Sawyer, but I think it did a decent job for Madame President and Mon-El. Interested to see where the Alien Amnesty Act and the alien bar subculture thing will lead, but most of all the J'onn/M'gann subplot. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mon-El: Mon-El is... a complex character. But then all the Legion of Super-Heroes characters are, considering the sheer amount of retcons they're subject to. Basically, Mon-El was born Lar Gand of Daxam, but fell to Earth and had amnesia. He was found by Superman (when he's young and called himself Superboy), who immediately assumed he was another Kryptonian survivor. Superboy dubbed the mysterious arrival 'Mon-El', with 'Mon' from Monday, and 'El' from his own family name. But he proved to be immune to Kryptonite, and they later discovered his true heritage. Mon-El nearly died of poisoning and was shunted away to the Phantom Zone until a cure could be found, and the cure would come when Mon-El is freed by the Legion of Super-Heroes of the 30th Century, and Mon-El joined said team as Valor. The various retcons have really blurred Mon-El's role, though, as he has been portrayed as the inspiration of the Legion in place of Superboy, as a half-Daxamite that adopts a secret identity as Clark Kent's cousin, and all that. The show seems to be adapting the first origin story, though, so we'll stick with that. 
• Daxam in the comics isn't a sister planet of Krypton, but an offshoot colony that was home to a group of very, very xenophobic Kryptonian descendants. The backstory given here for Daxam (sister planet that was turned into a wasteland after Krypton's destruction) matches the fate of Argo from Superman: the Animated Series.
• Maggie Sawyer: Captain Maggie Sawyer was the head of police in Metropolis ever since the 80's, and was a major supporting Superman character in both comics and cartoon. She's one of the few characters that came out as gay in that period, and Luthor actually tried to blackmail her by threatening to reveal information about her sexuality to the public.
• M'gann M'orzz: We'll talk about her more when she becomes more relevant, but in the comics M'gann M'orzz is better known as Miss Martian, one of the few survivors of Mars and (sometimes adopted) niece to J'onn J'onzz. She was one of the main characters of the cartoon series Young Justice and is hands-down the breakout character in that show.
• Scorcher: There have been... a lot of villains named Scorcher, none of them major villains, and some are just random arsonists. None of them are Inferniums either, or any kind of alien. Hell, I don't think she's even named in the show itself. There have been five villains named Scorcher, the first two being male arsonists, while the third through fifth are all women with fire-controlling powers and minor villains of the Teen Titans, and this Scorcher seems to be based on those Scorchers. Again, none of them are aliens like the Scorcher here. 
• The unnamed female President is played by Lynda Carter, known best as the actress that played Wonder Woman in the old TV series. Several allusion are made to her old role, among them:
• Supergirl spinning around while extinguishing her burnt suit, like how Wonder Woman would transform in that TV show.
• Supergirl talking about Air Force One has the president reply "you ought to see my other jet", a reference to Wonder Woman's invisible jet, but also to the fact that she's an alien, probably.
• Maggie briefly notes how a species of alien learns languages through physical contact, which is most likely a reference to the Tamaranean race from the DC comics, better known to more casual fans as the race that Teen Titan Starfire hails from.

Pokemon of the Week #3: Audino

Pokemon of the Week: #510, Audino, the Hearing Pokemon

Alternate name: "XP Bucket"

Aaaah, Audino. I really wished this week's random number generator fell on an Alolan Pokemon, but it landed on 510, Audino. Which means we'll going to talk about Mega Audino as well. Whenever we land on a Pokemon with a Mega or Alolan form or whatever the hell Gamfreak and Nintendo decides to add in the future, we'll talk about both of them so this week you guys are getting a slightly longer episode of Pokemon of the Week.

Audino is a Pokemon that... I honestly just flat out don't care about. I don't hate her the way I do some Pokemon, but she's just... so... there. She's a pink rabbit-esque Pokemon that takes up the slot for Chansey as the super-bulky heal-oriented Normal-type Pokemon in Generation V (along with multiple other suspiciously-similar substitutes introduced in Unova) and while I don't necessarily prefer Chansey to Audino... I just don't really care about Audino. She's just a very plain design, which is probably what she's meant to be. She doesn't look strong, and she's meant to gear towards the cuter side of the spectrum... but in my opinion doesn't quite manage that.

She's meant to embody the Pokemon Center nurse Pokemon even moreso than Chansey does, with the pink portions of its fur design to resemble a doctor or a nurse's coat, and those weird tentacle feeler things on her ears being apparently extendable and used as stethoscopes. Okay, Audino's flesh-ear things are... the slightest bit disturbing. But okay.

Other than that, though, Audino is absolutely boring. Her Pokedex all talk about her good sense of hearing with her stethoscope ears, and her portrayal in both the anime and games are basically, well, Chansey v. 2.0. In the games, Audino isn't even as rare as Chansey, which was Chansey's gimmick in her original generation. Audino's found in every single route. Generation V had this 'shaking grass' gimmick where every patch of grass has a chance to have a single patch suddenly shake in indication of a rare Pokemon, but two times out of three it's just going to be a boring ol' Audino instead of that Leavanny or Cinccino you're hoping to capture.

What Audino lacks in being a special snowflake, though, she makes up for it in her XP yield. Wild Audinos are notoriously weak, since half of her natural moveset are healing moves, and the XP she gives? Whoo, Audinos are easily the ticket to make your Pokemon level up quickly. And it's something I abused to no end in XY, where some of the daily repeat trainers are guaranteed to have Audinos.

She's got a huge amount of TM learnset, though, enough to give Raticate envy. A brief look through her TM learnlist: Psyshock. Blizzard. Solar Beam. Thunderbolt. Dig. Shadow Ball. Fire Blast. Dazzling Gleam. Surf. Theoretically she can have a wide range of types in her moves, but Audino's stat is so geared towards HP and defenses that she's just not that useful in battle, and besides the presence of other bulky normal-types like Snorlax, Lickilicky and Blissey who have more of an offensive presence makes Audino just forgotten.

Then game Generation VI with its new type: Fairy-type. And Audino shot up in the short-list of Pokemon that everyone thought was going to be given the new Fairy-typing, or at least become Normal/Fairy like Jigglypuff and Azurill. I mean, Audino is pinkier and more fairy-esque than Chansey, right? At least it'll give Audino something that sets it apart, plus adding another Fairy-type Pokemon into the mix. But no. Granbull became Fairy, Whimsicott became Fairy, motherfucking Mr Mime became Fairy, but Audino remains that boring Normal type she's always been.

Doctor's in the house.

Then came Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the second half of Generation VI, which gave a lot of Hoenn Pokemon Mega-evolutions... and Audino! Finally making her Normal/Fairy, and turning her pink parts almost entirely white to resemble a doctor's labcoat. She becomes fluffier and puffier, and gains another set of flesh-stethoscope-tentacles under her neck. It's... a design that doesn't really make her stand out that much, to be honest, and the stat increases isn't exactly impressive either. Her ability is locked into Healer, which has a mere 30% chance of curing an ally's status condition.

Mega Audino's stats are given a fair boost, with her two defenses reaching the 125's, and her special attack given a slight boost from 60 to 80 which means her unexpected Flamethrowers hit ever so slightly harder... though she's still ultimately geared towards walling up and healing allies. Which isn't terribly exciting and definitely not what you want to do with a Mega Evolution. I mean, even if you don't go for the obviously game-breaking ones like Kangaskhan, Rayquaza, Lucario and Gengar, there are a lot cooler-looking mega evolutions out there. So yeah, poor Mega Audino just gets left in the dust and she's one of the few Mega Evolutions that I wonder why they didn't just make this a straight-up evolution so you can have Mega Audino (which isn't overpowered at all) as a regular Pokemon, and have someone else mega evolve in your party. Not that every Pokemon has to be equal, but come on. Mega Audino's barely five points more than Milotic and Snorlax if we're going by stat totals, and those two are relatively offensive tanks.

Design wise I just don't care? It's not that I don't like the cute Pokemon, but Mega Audino tries so hard with the frilliness yet not hard enough, so she doesn't look absolutely fun and crazy the way Mega Altaria does. I think it's the combination of the white and the fleshy colour that makes her just look so boring. I dunno. I just don't care about Audino that much.

So yeah. It's a bit of a boring Pokemon. I'm not a big fan. But I did manage to talk a fair bit about it here. Hopefully next week we'll roll a more interesting one.

One Piece 847 Review: Big Mom Be Crazy

One Piece, Chapter 847: Luffy and Big Mom

It's a bit weird now that on the Wednesday-Thursday schedule I only have two mangas left to review -- One Piece and My Hero Academia. Usually there's a lot more, but with Toriko finally ending, the middle-week manga releases have became a lot less in quantity compared to Sundays. Maybe I'll pick Magi back up. I dunno. Any suggestions for any new mangas for me to review?

Back to One Piece. It's a very... eventful chapter, despite not much actually happening. If that makes sense.

We get a brief check-in with Chopper and Carrot. Brulee is a weird psychotic witch, so she ties Carrot up and is about to cook her in a soup, while having Heavy Point Chopper chained up and ready to be given to Big Mom's exotic animals collection -- which has been mentioned before but I didn't think it would be... well, what we will see later on. Chopper notes to himself that Brulee has no idea of Chopper's ability to transform to his normal, small form to get free of the chains and later turn back into Monster Form... but that's all we get to see of this particular bit.

In the same vein, we also see at the end of the chapter a couple of brief panels of Pedro attacking Big Mom's forces guarding the poneglyph, and Brook getting his cane-sword ready to unleash the powers of a live concert. Anything where Brook gets to do something is definitely a plus -- Brook's just been so underused.

But the focus on this chapter is honestly Big Mom. After several chapters of building her up to be quasi-sympathetic, just with different values and priorities, we return to a far more disturbing take on her character. We get confirmation of Mont D'or's powers and that it traps things in book, keeping them alive indefinitely, but fully conscious, as part of Big Mom's animal collection... which is a very morbid thing. We get a brief shot of a Manticore (which we saw in Impel Down), a unicorn, a panda (not Pandaman) and a 'Donkobito', as well as a couple of callbacks to previous arcs like a centaur from Punk Hazard and the longleg/longarm tribes. Big Mom is showing off this collection to the Germa 66 royal family, and Judge asks Big Mom something: Tottland is so full of diversity -- which Big Mom is super proud of -- but why are there no giants?

And Big Mom goes from her jovial self into a brief panel of pure, unadultered anger, before brushing it off as Judge just having missed some. It's interesting, because Judge notes that Big Mom seems to be just an oversized human. So is Big Mom jealous of the giants? Or is she descended from them or something? I dunno. Big Mom bids them goodbye because she has to see to some other important stuff, but she tells one of her aides to stop swooning over Germa 66 because 'fiction isn't always real'.

Yeah, the Germa 66 is like a comic book or something in-universe, right?

Meanwhile, the army of superpowered Big Mom children have captured Luffy and Nami in a cell in a book, and we get a brief shot of Perospero, the first son of Big Mom. Big Mom shows up not exactly face-to-face, but rather face-to-dendenmushi. Big Mom mocks Luffy for a bit, who's all like "I WILL BEAT YOUR FACE UP!" and shows absolutely no fear against Big Mom whatsoever. Big Mom does the speech about how Luffy is just a grain in the desert of the New World, while Luffy is just adamant that he will get Sanji back god damn it. Big Mom rattles off a list of Luffy's crimes before noting that she's willing to let it all slide because she got the magical box from Fishman Island. Which is a natural treasure, containing the fishmen steroids, but we all know there's a bomb in there.

Luffy then straight-up picks a fight with Big Mom again, and then Lola is brought up. And apparently Big Mom hates Lola! And Lola was supposed to be married off to some super-awesome man (who? One of the marines? The Gorosei?) that would've made Big Mom pirate king since she would have enough power to crush Kaidou, Shanks and Whitebeard, but Lola reneging on the deal (and then proceeding to propose to every other man she meets) causes Big Mom to lose everything. Luffy notes how Big Mom is blaming her daughter for her own mistakes, and seems to strike a nerve. That's all we've got, though.

So yeah, overall, a very fun chapter. If nothing else, the shouting match between Luffy and Big Mom is absolutely fun. Sorry not very analytical this review is. Very sleepy

Pokemon Top Tens: Pokemon Typing Misconceptions

Still haven't had time to play Sun and Moon, but hey, let's have a short little Pokemon Top Ten.

You know, sometimes you see a Pokemon for the first time. In the game, in the anime, in the manga, just a picture in the internet or something like that. And then you go, 'huh, obviously it's X-type', and then you look it up and you're absolutely bamboozled that it's not what you thought. I mean, there's the obvious, Mr. "I'm a tree but I'm actually a rock" Sudowoodo, who I don't think anyone ever thought was a pure-Rock when you first saw him... but he's meant to screw you over. But there are a couple of others that I wanna share. Ever had that happen to you? Here are ten that I find somewhat hard to keep track even now, two decades into the franchise's life.

10. Lugia: Let's start with the obvious one. No, not Gyarados or Charizard -- Gyarados doesn't make it into the list simply because of how long he's been around, while Charizard not being Dragon is practically a meme. Lugia, though? I still have trouble remembering that Lugia is Psychic/Flying, mostly because I own official trading cards of Lugia that depict him as Water-type. Lugia's big debut in Pokemon 2000 shows him living underwater, basically being this mysterious submerged dragon-beast that rises up in giant whirlpool-tornadoes. The loading screen for Pokemon Silver, the game Lugia is a mascot of, has Lugia swimming through water. He's even got blue highlights that kind of imply that he's a water-type. And in every single depiction Lugia has been in -- comic, cartoon, games, spin-off games -- Lugia has been shown in watery habitats, encountered in the very, very water-based Whirl Islands in his debut generation, and then in areas such as the bottom of Navel Rock (to contrast with Ho-Oh being encountered on the top), within Sea Mauville in ORAS, and in the Ranger and Mystery Dungeon spinoff games Lugia is even found in ocean-based areas. I wouldn't complain so much if Lugia was Dragon/Flying or Ice/Flying, because those two would make some kind of sense... but Psychic? Is it simply to not give Lugia an inherent advantage against Ho-Oh? Is it to keep Psychic as one of the most powerful types to follow in Mewtwo's footsteps (which was the only reason why I thought Lugia was Psychic as a kid -- every 'movie' Pokemon had to be Psychic, the most powerful type)? No. Despite Lugia's habitat and every single Pokedex entry focusing on how he's the guardian of the seas, associated with seas and storms and whatever... he's Psychic and not Water type.

9. Basculin: Aha, an angry-looking piranha! We've seen this before, with Carvanha. He's obviously Water/Dark, right? He's an evil-looking angry fish (how is this thing a bass) so he either is Water/Dark, or a pure Water that will evolve into a Water/Dark type... except he's just pure Water. And he doesn't have an evolution. And he's like everywhere in Unova's waters, a true representation of an infestation. And he's utterly shit and worthless. I'm... not a big fan of Basculin. 

8. Gligar and Gliscor: Gligar is a scorpion with wings! Scorpions are, like, bugs, right? So Bug/Flying? No, wait, scorpions are known for their poisonous stingers, and Bug/Flying is kind of a boring type. So maybe Poison/Flying? Um... Ground/Flying? Where on hell in Gligar's design does it scream 'ground'? He's a cross between a scorpion and a bat, and even if you're bringing up the 'obviously he's inspired by a gargoyle' argument (no, he's obviously a scorpion with wings) that would make him Rock, not Ground. Honestly for being such an old Pokemon, hailing all the way from the second generation, you'd think I would memorize Gligar's typing by now. And I do. Mostly because it doesn't make a god damned lick of sense.

7. Psyduck and Golduck: No, this list isn't going to be fully about the newer Pokemon whose typings I haven't memorized. See, it's about misconceptions, and Psyduck and Golduck are ones that I still forget aren't Water/Psychic sometimes even now. It's a huge part of the anime, how Psyduck has this reservoir of psychic powers that he accesses if his headaches get really bad. And his name is literally PSYduck. Golduck is depicted in TCG artwork as shooting beams from that gem on his forehead, and look at Golduck! He just looks like a badass duck, and both Starmie and Slowbro are Water/Psychic, so why can't Golduck be Water/Psychic? But no. They are just pure Water types who happen to learn confusion. Boo.

6. Petilil and Whimsicott: Grass/Flying, right? I mean, they're flying cotton balls, and Jumpluff has conditioned me to see anything grass-y that floats in the air to be Grass/Flying. It only makes sense. Hell, Whimsicott even learns Hurricane and a bunch of Flying-moves! I genuinely believed that it was Grass/Flying all the way up until Generation VI and the Fairy-type showed up, and Whimsicott was one of those who received the new Fairy typing. And I was like, "man, Whimsicott's already dual-type, why not give Fairy to his other-game counterpart Liligant?" But it turns out that Whimsicott was pure-Grass throughout Generation V. They might just be anticipating Fairy coming out in Generation VI, but man, that was a big moment of realization for me. Especially since I actually had a run through Black 2 with a Whimsicott in my party and I've always treated it as a Grass/Flying.

5. Drapion: Drapion is cool. He's an angry, evil scorpion, and my logic for Gligar still stands. He's a giant evil scorpion, so he's definitely Bug/Poison, right? Oh, he's evil. Bug/Dark, surely? But I never went Poison/Dark, mainly because of how much more arachnid Drapion looks compared to the more bat-like Gligar. Drapion is Poison/Dark, which is a lot more sensible than Gligar's Ground/Flying, but Drapion has an extra layer of confusion because his pre-evolution, Skorupi, is actually Bug/Poison.

4. Huntail and Gorebyss: Okay, this one didn't last for that long, but it was a bit surprising when I discovered that Huntail and Gorebyss are both pure-Water instead of Water/Dark and Water/Psychic. See, Eevee has conditioned me to believe that alternate evolutions generally have different typings, and Huntail and Gorebyss look so wildly different from each other that I thought, well, of course they have different typings, right? Huntail sort of looks somewhat evil, and he learns all sorts of Dark-type moves like Crunch and Bite. Gorebyss actually learns Psychic in addition to a bunch of other Psychic-type moves, which is a lot less commonly found on non-Psychic Pokemon. And to make things even more confusing, Pokemon Ranger games had Huntail and Gorebyss use Dark and Psychic type Poke-Assists instead of Water-type. But nope, both of them are pure Water-types. It's honestly a bit of a shame, because it would actually make Huntail and Gorebyss somewhat interesting because as of now they're definitely among the Pokemon that's been kind of forgotten.

3. Flabebe, Floette, Florges: Grass/Fairy. Come on, how the fuck are these guys not Grass/Fairy? Flabebe and Floette are just holding the flower, I know, but Florges is literally a flower princess more fabulous than Liligant and Bellossom. Florges should be Fairy/Grass if not the other two, and it would've been grand, how Flabebe eventually fuses with the flower she loves so much. Hell, Florges even learns a fair amount of Grass-type moves! But no. She's just a pure Fairy. I get that they needed some pure Fairy-type lines to help represent the typing, but Florges is just so blatantly part-Grass that it's weird thinking that he's pure-Fairy.

2. Girafarig, Pyroar, Sawsbuck, Heliolisk, Meloetta, plus a bunch of Gen VII dudes...: Originally, this list was just Girafarig, but then I realized that, hey, there's a lot of Pokemon that I forget have 'Normal' attached to their typings for no reason. I mean, Normal-type is basically animal-type. Anything that's an animal and doesn't have an element associated with them? Raticate's a rat, Stantler's a deer, Persian's a cat, Furret's a ferret, Chansey's an egg, Furfrou's a dog... Normal types for everyone! And for the most time, Pokemon's consistent on making animals with elements... well, that very element. Ponyta's a fire horse, so she's Fire-type. Zebstrika's a lightning zebra, he's Electric-type. Pancham is a kung fu panda, he's a Fighting-type. Mightyena is an evil hyena, he's a Dark-type.

And then there are these assholes. What makes Sawsbuck Normal/Grass, and not just pure-Grass like, say, Gogoat? (Who I actually had to check if Gogoat was Normal/Grass, just because of this kind of nonsense) What makes Pyroar Normal/Fire? Is a Fire lion somehow more... 'normal' than Rapidash, Arcanine, Ninetales, Flareon, Magmar and Slugma? And is Girafarig somehow more 'normal' than the likes of Wobbufett, Alakazam or Gothitelle? Dude, you've got a head growing out of your ass, and you're a psychic giraffe. Nothing about you is normal. Heliolisk, too. He's a lizard, big whoop, why is he a normal-type? Raichu's an electric mouse and he's just pure Electric. Manectric's an electric dog and he's pure Electric. The thing is, slapping Normal on these Pokemon for no reason just makes it hard to remember because, guess what, it doesn't make sense. It's not like Diggersby or Bibarel, who start off in their base stages as pure-Normals that gain an element when they evolve. No. These four lines are just weird shits who have Normal slapped onto them for no real reason. And Generation VII adds a couple more of these stupid type combinations, like Drampa, Bewear and Oranguru. It's annoying. All it gives the Pokemon is additional weakness to Fighting and possible immunity to Ghost... which just, again, adds nothing to either the lore or the gameplay.

You notice I don't talk about Meloetta. She's just listed there. I just don't wanna. Don't like her.


Honorable Mentions:

• Gyarados: Water/Dragon. Ironically, I never had any trouble with Charizard, who I knew was Fire/Flying from the get-go. But I always thought Gyarados was Water/Dragon, or at least pure Water. Definitely not Water/Flying... mostly because Water/Flying is a typing that still doesn't make a lick of sense on Gyarados. Have you ever seen a Gyarados fly? I mean, yeah, he's based on Asian dragons (see that? Dragons) and whatnot, but in all his fictional depictions Gyarados has always been depicted as aquatic, never floating above the ground. Turning him into Water/Dark would be perfect (plus gets rid of his allergy to Electricity), but Nintendo only managed to do it via Mega Evolution. It's one that I caught on pretty quickly around Generation II, and that's literally the only reason Gyarados is not on the list, but it's still a typing I still find weird.
• Rhyhorn/Rhydon/Rhyperior: Either pure Rock or pure Ground. Rock and Ground are sometimes hard to tell apart, especially in the first Generation. I mostly got it correct, though, as time went along. Dugtrio, Sandslash and Marowak are all pure-Ground. Nidoking and Nidoqueen are Ground/Poison. Onix and Golem are Rock/Ground. The fossils are all part-Rock (used to think Omastar was pure-Water, though). But Rhyhorn, Rhydon and by extension Rhyperior? I always either think of them as pure-Rock, or pure-Ground, depending on the day, but never Rock/Ground. Rhyperior sometimes I think of as Ground/Steel, because that typing's pretty popular and Rhyperior does have a steel drill. But no, they're all Rock/Ground. Huh.
• Jynx: Pure Psychic. Where does the ice bit even come from? If it wasn't for the Pokemon Adventures comic very memorably starring a villainous Jynx as one of Lolerei's main Pokemon, I would still have trouble remembering Jynx's typing until now. 
• Groudon: Yeah, I thought Groudon was Fire-type for... quite some time. Ruby was the last of the three Hoenn games I played, so I spent a long time mucking around with Kyogre and Rayquaza before finally catching a Groudon and was like "WAIT HE IS A GROUND TYPE WHAT THE FUCK?" I mean, I'm a kid and I'm like, yeah, fire fights water, and Kyogre is a huge whale-beast that summons the rain. And he's water-type. Groudon is a big dinosaur that summons the sun, so he's naturally fire-type, right? I mean, Sunny Day powers up Fire moves, not Ground moves. And I've always associated lava with fire more than ground. In restrospect I really should've realized that Groudon has, y'know, five-sixths of the word 'Ground' in his name. And that raising landmasses is controlling Ground, not Fire. Groudon is the only Pokemon on this list whose type was corrected permanently in my head, but, man, when the Generation III remakes showed up and Primal Groudon is announced... to change his type into Ground/Fire, I laughed my ass off for a solid minute.
• Stunfisk: Oh, it's obvious! This little derp is Water/Ground! He's a flounder, and he's brown, and if Quagsire and Marshtomp are any indication, Nintendo loves making derpy-looking Water/Ground Pokemon. Let's check his typing... Ground/Electric? Whaaaat? Okay, I get it, so they're mixing the flounder thing with an electric eel or ray or something, and changed his habitat from the deep ocean into hiding in the mud. So I guess it kinda makes sense? I mean, shit, he's a fish. But I guess it's appropriate, considering just how goofy Stunfisk looks that he has a typing that doesn't make sense.
• Dedenne: Pure Electric. No real reason. Dedenne's just a hamster. There's nothing really fairy-esque about him any more than Pachirisu or Pikachu.
• Goomy: Dragon/Water. Come on, dude's a slug. How is he a dragon? I love Goomy, and I love the meme that Goomy is a dragon while Charizard isn't, but seriously. He's a little cute blob. He shouldn't be a dragon until he becomes Goodra (whose dragon-typing I won't argue). And despite learning a crapton of water-type moves and other slug/snail Pokemon being either Water or Bug, Goomy and Sliggoo are just... pure dragon.
• Inkay: Like Goomy, I'm not debating the typing of Malamar, who actually does look evil enough to be Dark-type, and both Inkay and Malamar's whole topsy-turvy thing does fit their psychic typing. But Inkay is a squid. And a very cute one at that. Why can't Inkay be Water/Psychic or pure Psychic that gains the Dark typing upon evolution? I just felt it didn't make sense. 
• Tangela: Grass/Poison instead of pure-Grass, but only because literally every single other Grass type in Generation I was Grass/Poison.
• Jirachi: Up until I had a Jirachi card while collecting them during the height of 3rd Gen, I always thought Jirachi was a pure-Psychic like Mew. Nothing about him really screams 'Steel'.

1. Palkia (and a little bit of Dialga): Dragon... something. Jeez. These two I really have some trouble remembering the typings of, because, well, the Dragon part is obvious, but the secondary typing? Fuck if I can remember. Giratina's the evil undead dracolich, so his Ghost/Dragon typing is obvious (besides, I love love love Giratina so). Other draconic mascots aren't that hard either. Kyurem's already part-ice as part of his design, so yeah. Zekrom has a turbine up his ass, and Reshiram's tail glow red, so those two are somewhat easy to remember as well. But Dialga and Palkia? Dialga is Steel/Dragon because... time is... steel-y? Some people make the argument that clocks are made up of steel, to which I present the counter-argument that hourglasses contain sand, so that leads to time being associated with the Ground-type. Palkia is Water/Dragon because... um... shit, Dialga at least looks like he has got steel plates on him. Palkia is Water/Dragon... because... the ocean is vast? That the ocean is ever-changing like space? Well, so is fire, arguably. And so is the air, so why not part-Flying?

There's an alternate theory that the typings match the games that these two are the mascots of. If the reason that Dialga is part-Steel is because Steel is hard like Diamond, and Palkia is part-Water because Pearls are made in water, then it's the dumbest fucking reason I've ever heard of, mainly because... Dialga isn't a diamond Pokemon. Diancie is a diamond Pokemon. Dialga is a dragon of time. Palkia isn't a pearl Pokemon either, that's Clamperl. Palkia is a dragon of space. You don't see Ho-Oh and Lugia being part-Steel just because they're the mascots of Pokemon Gold and Silver, right? Even if they wanted to make Palkia part-Water for whatever weird reason, why is his design has nothing at all that points to this? Dialga has steel pieces randomly scattered on his body, and Giratina has big shadowy wings, but Palkia looks, well, like a pure Dragon. Or Psychic/Dragon, if you're going by colour scheme. I dunno. There have been other Legendary Pokemon with questionable typings, but their depictions in the anime or comics kind of make you go 'eeeh I see where they're going with this'. Like Lugia, Mr. #10, at least you could argue that the psychic powers allow it to create those giant whirlpool hurricanes and storms, and it just likes hanging out near the water. Heatran is Fire/Steel instead of Fire/Rock because he's supposed to represent molten slag. The Musketeers are part-Fighting because they're a warrior clan. Zygarde is a dragon because he's a shapeshifting mass of cells, which honestly would let you get away with claiming any type.

And the designs, unlike Zekrom and Reshiram (who don't really scream 'Electric dragon' and 'Fire dragon' either, but still have enough elements to clue you in, like the giant motor turbine and the fire-shaped feathers) Palkia isn't in any hurry to make their typings evident. Again, Dialga is a bit better due to his darker colour scheme and the armour plates, but Palkia is a gigantic pink godzilla with weirdly-splayed hands. But as much as I love Palkia, his typing makes no sense.

The Flash S03E05 Review: Mommy Issues

The Flash, Season 3, Episode 5: Monster

Bit of a weaker episode in terms of the main plotline. The titular monster, while relatively impressive for the couple of scenes we saw it rampage through the city, ends up being nothing but a hologram ran by a little angry kid acting out... who also has access to super-realistic holographic technology. Eh, it's the DC-verse, I suppose. The big Barry/Cisco plot as they try to figure out what to do with H.R. Wells also ends up being a bit anticlimactic. While it is loads of fun to see Tom Cavanaugh ham it up as a non-surly Harrison Wells, the payoff, that H.R. is just an author-slash-conman whose only talent is to basically inspire people... though there's definitely an element of seriousness that makes me like the character as we learn that he really just wants to find a purpose, to be useful to the world for a change.

I guess the fun that H.R. brings to the episode somewhat makes up for it, I guess?

It's such a shame because the two B-plots running through the episode is a lot more interesting than trying to figure out if H.R. Wells is actually yet another evil Harrison Wells. Barry trying to figure out if Draco Malfoy Julian is honestly very bland, and while Tom Felton is a very talented actor and it is just fun for me, who grew up with Harry Potter movies, to see Tom Felton on-screen, the show started off just, well, trying to make him as cartoonishly dickish and pompous as before. Not that it's not entertaining because Tom Felton does 'British dick' so well... but I want a reason to care about the character and not just the actor. Thankfully we did get a bit of a depth to him near the end, where he genuinely thanks Flash for stopping him from making a tragic mistake of shooting a confused kid in the head, and when he tells Barry that he's wrong about the Flash.

We also get his backstory. He's... well, basically Draco Malfoy, sans magic. Born to a wealthy English family that's super posh and whatnot, and as the firstborn son he's supposed to inherit it all. Except unlike Draco, Julian wants to, well, be a scientist. And metahumans rendered him irrelevant (though seeing the huge posh labs that Ray Palmer or Caitlin's mom have, I find it hard to believe) which is something that frustrates him and fuels his hate. He's grown a nice friendship with Barry at the end, and, well, I do like Julian.

But really, the monster plot was whatever, the HR plot was procedural, and the Julian plot was only decent near the end, and it falls on the shoulders of one Caitlin Snow to really deliver the biggest meat of the episode, and boy, after being ignored and under-utilized for one and a half seasons, it's great to see her in tiptop shape as she seeks out her mother, Tannhauser, and we learn a bit more about Caitlin Snow. Her mother is clinical, professional and curt, and, well, quite cold. Tannhauser isn't quite an evil abusive mother the way Patsy's mother from Jessica Jones is. She acts and tries her best (well, maybe not her best) to be friendly to her daughter, but she's also far more practical and cold than motherly, and as much as she tries to be welcoming, to get away from her own pain, Tannhauser far prefers to try and figure out what's wrong with Caitlin and get her to work at their company instead of trying to reassure Caitlin that everything's going to be all right. And Tannhauser's coldness has clearly left a mark on Caitlin. Tannhauser might blame it on her husband's death, but Caitlin suffered the loss of both parents, and coupled on top of the recent death of Ronnie and all she's been through with Fake!Jay... she's not in a very good spot right now.

We have one of Tannhauser's scientists assaulting Caitlin and trying to take over her mother's company with the scientific breakthroughs he would've gotten by analyzing Caitlin, causing her to snap and go all Killer Frost. Tannhauser acts motherly for the first time in her life, rushing in and telling Caitlin that "I didn't raise a killer", and that word breaks through Caitlin's rage. A shitty mother Tannhauser can be, but as children we instinctively cling and yearn for parental love, and this little gesture from Tannhauser -- no doubt brought up after several scenes of Caitlin confronting her about being a shitty mother -- manages to make Caitlin wrestle back control.

It's a shame that we don't see much of it, but at the same time I'm glad they didn't drag this out longer than it should. The scene at the end, where Caitlin suddenly transforms into Killer Frost and freeze-explodes the message from her mother, is worrisome, though. Tannhauser tells Caitlin that using her powers accelerates the change in her body, but it seems that Caitlin is wrestling with multiple personalities as well as her gaining powers, which is interesting.

What else happened here? We have a sub-plot of Iris trying to convince Joe to date the D.A. which is boring as all hell and I don't think we even got a conclusion to that. Wally appears in like two scenes getting coffee from HR.

Overall it's a slightly low-key episode, in that the villain of the week ends up not even getting a name, but it certainly does well in building up Caitlin Snow as well as introducing us, finally, to the man that is Julian and H.R. Wells. Which actually makes this episode, in retrospect, a lot better than I initially give it credit for.

Justice League S02E17-18 Review: Legion of Doom

Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 17-18: Secret Society

The series has done the big super-villain team twice before with two incarnations of the Injustice League, and we see the point of view of the luckless Shade as he mentions how both Injustice Leagues got completely fucked over. The first incarnation of the Injustice League fell apart due to Batman manipulating each member's vices and selfishness, while the second incarnation also fell apart due to Arisia's own agendas. So it's a bit of a challenge to write an episode that's basically going on the same premise as two previous ones that isn't a retread.

And the story starts off pretty strong, with Shade, our point-of-view character for a good chunk of the first episode, gets recruited by this cute (if large) lady, Giganta, and brought to meet Gorilla Grodd, who is just so smooth that you buy that this talking gorilla is a big criminal mastermind. Shade airs his disappointment that someone tried to do the 'Injustice League' thing again after being part of a losing group twice, but Grodd assures him that his new 'Secret Society' is different. Every member of the group has a bone to pick with a member of the Justice League. Grodd hates Flash for frying his brain, Parasite and Sinestro are known quantities from Superman: TAS that hates the Man of Steel, while newcomers Giganta is devoted to Grodd while Killer Frost just wants to kill. And Shade wants money, and their later seventh member, Clayface, is motivated by wanting to return to normal, something that Grodd promises. And not having so many big names like Luthor and Ultra-Humanite means that there's no real fighting for power, leaving only Grodd in charge. The trust-fall exercises is a bit dumb, I admit, but the concept as different from the ego-bound Injustice Leagues is pretty decent.

Meanwhile, the Justice League themselves are being put through a traditional conflict, the team breakup. Unlike Teen Titans, which puts the team through a breakup as the first (or third, depending on episode order) episode, the Justice League does it nearly on the end of the second season. And the catalyst is Green Lantern and J'onn J'onzz coming into an argument for being so un-sync with each other that they can't even catch Shade despite outnumbering the C-list villain.

This is a rare episode that the entire team shows up, which is definitely a treat, and it shows the differing personality problems that makes them not work that efficiently as a team. Which is a bit of a strange thing to explore so late in the series, honestly, but hey, let's roll with it. Apparently the team's teamwork is so shit that Green Lantern's attempts to have the League fight against robots and cardboard-pop-ups ended disastrously. Part of it is because Green Lantern is trying to enforce his own military attitude towards a group of volatile personalities, part of it is because Grodd's subtly increasing their negative, aggressive attitudes, but a different part is what this episode acknowledges -- all of them have some sort of deep-seated problem with each other in some way. And it's not something that's brushed off at the end of the episode as something that Grodd did, either. The negative feelings are all something that they must acknowledge they have, and something they just have to accept and move on.

But the teamwork is kind of something that comes differently to each of the members. Superman is so used to tanking hits because he's, y'know, invulnerable. Yes, Hawkgirl and Flash could've helped him take less hits, but Superman's point is valid -- any hit he takes is a hit that the not-invulnerable Hawkgirl and Flash doesn't have to. Which ticks the space viking lady Hawkgirl off. Flash is busy being kind of immature, Wonder Woman is high and mighty, Batman just plain sees the exercise as a joke, while J'onn ends up noting that he's survived the loss of a family, and he'll survive the loss of another. The 'take charge' attitude that half the team (Superman, Batman, Lantern) has irks the other half, and things just fall apart.

And I think J'onn's comparison of the seven of them being a family ends up being an appropriate argument as to why this episode works so late in the series. The team has grown close to each other that they've became less of a team and more of a family, and families do tend to let resentments build up within themselves until they explode in an ugly fashion, taking some time off each other before realizing that they do need each other. Granted, a telepathic gorilla is helping to catalyze those emotions that they boil over far more severely than they would've, but Grodd and the League themselves establish that Grodd's only escalating feelings that are already there.

The League ends up breaking up, allowing them to take some time off to assess their own egos. Hawkgirl and Green Lantern have a short moment where Hawkgirl tells Lantern that he thinks of them more as soldiers than people, while some serious sexual and romantic tensions build up. Between Lantern telling Hawkgirl that he'll give his life for her, and Hawkgirl herself going to protect Lantern when he's wounded in battle, it's some nicely well-written tension especially considering what happens to Hawkgirl later on. Flash, the 'heart' of the team and the youngest of them all, actually is the one that's still going around trying to take down the Secret Society, and quickly calls up Batman. Batman is also more job-oriented, I guess, and goes off to help Flash after a couple of snide remarks.

And the rest of the League is lured to a trap by the Society, and it's a bit telling that they all end up showing up when a different member summons them, mature enough to swallow their pride despite still seething over their previous fight. They all get trapped and bound in stasis pods or something like that, and of course there are all cool battles between the League and the Society that showcases all their powers -- something that I haven't brought up quite yet. Between the various flashy powers that the Society shows off, it's just amazing to see and it's just the icing of the cake on a pretty fun episode.

There's a bit of an annoying point where J'onn and Clayface transforms to each other, one of them gets frozen, and "Clayface" ends up being put in the position to execute the League publicly before revealing himself to be J'onn pretending to be Clayface. It's a kind of a predictable plot twist, one that's a bit annoying, really, but it's a nice way to set up the huge Justice League vs Secret Society grand battle royale at the end of the episode. I mean, yeah, it comes a bit out of nowhere that Grodd would want to execute the League publicly, but hey, why not?

Add the rather bittersweet ending to cap off the awesome fight involving 14 people with unique powers, and it's just amazing. Superman just finger-flicking Grodd halfway through the stadium, Flash creating a vortex to suck out Killer Frost's air, Shade revealing that he knows kung fu (shame he's up against, y'know, Batman), Wonder Woman using her lassoo to whip Parasite around, Wonder Woman 'would punch a lady', Sinestro creating giant yellow beam monsters (why can't John be more creative with his ring?)...

It's a great episode, and I haven't even talked about the villains yet! Grodd, Shade and Clayface get the bulk of the screentime, but the rest are pretty well-developed. Grodd being this chatty overlord villain is pretty entertaining, and his voice is just fun to listen to. Shade as this cynical fellow that's just tired of losing and tired of everything is very fun, too, and it's a shame that he doesn't get much more focus in the series. Him trying to kung fu Batman is hilarious, up until he breaks his knuckle on Superman's chest and runs away screaming 'I know this wouldn't work!' Clayface is easily the most tragic of the group. As one of the few returning villains from Batman: TAS, Clayface is still tragic. All he wants is to be returned to his normal human self, and his "what kind of man would do something like that?" when he's referring to the treatment that Morgan Edge did to him -- split him up over several barrels and keep him in the basement -- is heartrending. The fact that he most likely was killed off for real when Flash stabbed him with so many fireworks and sends him blowing up over the skies of the stadium... yeah. Poor Matt. Why couldn't someone pay for his treatment? Jeez.

Giganta gets a quick origin story as a female gorilla that Grodd changed into a shapeshifting human, which makes Shade kind of all hot under the collar and it's hilarious. Giganta is also portrayed as super-girly despite being a bit of a brute powers-wise, which is hilarious. Killer Frost is also amazing, with her design looking awesome, and her sleek voice just makes her ice puns actually, y'know, cool. It's amazing that both Giganta and Frost are voiced by the same person (the masterful Jennifer Hale), really. Frost's more sadistic and tomboyish than Giganta, and it shows. Parasite and Sinestro are the one that get the least development out of the Society, being the two heavies of the team. Parasite can be forgiven since he's gotten a fair amount of screentime in Superman: TAS, and he's just doing mostly the same thing here, whereas Sinestro, despite being so interesting in the comics, barely gets any lines.

Oh well, at least Sinestro knows to create cool monsters, tigers and constructs with his ring! John Stewart rarely makes anything more interesting than bubbles, platforms, walls and generic shapes.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Secret Society is the name of a supervillain group in the comics was created first by Darkseid and later by the Ultra-Humanite, but the most iconic incarnation is the huge army created by Alexander Luthor Junior during the buildup to Infinite Crisis, which basically included... every villain active in DC at that moment, so much that it's easier to list the ones that aren't part of the Society. This version of the Secret Society had several newcomers to the DCAU:
• There has been several villains named Killer Frost, all of whom are villains associated with Firestorm, but this one seemed based on the second Killer Frost, Louise Lincoln, based on her design. (Crystal Frost wore a dress, and Caitlin Snow wasn't invented at the time of the series aired) Louise Lincoln recreated the experiment that turned her mentor Crystal Frost into the first Killer Frost, in order to avenge her accidental death at the hands of the superhero Firestorm.
• Giganta is an enemy of Wonder Woman, and used to be a brutish cavewoman that was able to increase her body mass into a giant. Comics!Giganta was a scientist who transferred her mind into an ape and then into a human body with superpowers, whereas this version of Giganta started off as Grodd's ape lover that was turned into a superpowered human.
• This marks three more old faces, with Parasite and Sinestro returning from Superman: TAS, and Clayface returning from Batman: TAS. This would mark Clayface's final appearance in the DCAU where he apparently got blown all to hell. 
• Morgan Edge, the businessman that the Society assaulted to obtain Clayface, is a Superman villain and one of the leaders of Intergang. 
• Batman notes that he was able to tell that Clayface was impersonating Flash because Clayface gave himself away by having the "yo" vocal tic, ("You overplayed your part, yo.") which is a reference to the episode 'Eclipsed' where Flash's commercials had him use "yo" all the time. Considering how long Clayface's been absent, and he probably had to crash-course study Flash's mannerisms to impersonate him, it's a clever storytelling bit, actually.
• The shot of the Society arranged in a straight line with a backlight while they arrived at the stadium is a nice little reference to the opening credits.
• The shot of the League and the Society running towards each other is a reference to the opening sequence of Challenge of the Superfriends, and considering the roster of the Secret Society, it does share several members with CotS's Legion of Doom (Grodd, Sinestro, Giganta).

Justice League S02E15-16 Review: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh cthulhu r'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 15-16: The Terror Beyond

After Flash in the previous episode, we finally get a big Hawkgirl episode that doesn't focus on her romance with Green Lantern or angsting about her planet. But it's not just a Hawkgirl episode -- we get a lot of backstory about Atlantis, we get an unexpected spotlight on a relatively minor villain, we get the very awesome return of Dr. Fate, we get a brief moment of hero-vs-hero fighting (including Aquaman vs Wonder Woman, easily the highlight of the episode action-wise), we get one of the saddest moments in the entirety of the DCAU, we get a Cthulhu homage... yeah. This two-parter was one that felt a bit filler-y to me as a kid, but watching it now kind of raised this episode to one of my favourites.

We don't get much in lieu of the Justice League themselves in this episode, with only Hawkgirl, Superman and Wonder Woman showing up from the main cast, making this the only episode of Justice League to only feature as little as three members from the main seven. And honestly, Diana and Superman are only around to be punchy. The main focus is on the unlikely team of Aquaman, Doctor Fate and Solomon Grundy, which is one of the best things ever.

The usage of Doctor Fate and Solomon Grundy, exploring the latter's backstory, as well as bringing in Aquaman and the DCAU version of Atlantis's backstory, takes the show in a different direction. The episode begins in a pretty basic superhero/supervillain material as a bunch of military troops are tracking down Solomon Grundy, with a pretty cool sequence of him going around and crushing and throwing military tanks around. We've seen Solomon Grundy several times before throughout Justice League as, well, just this big powerful brute. We didn't know much about him, honestly, just that he's a simpleminded evil brute.

And then Aquaman shows up out of nowhere on a big-ass sea serpent, hydro pumps the military people, and goes all Arnold on Solomon Grundy, rescuing the dude and bringing him to Dr. Fate's tower. We learn over the course of the episodes why they are doing this. Aquaman, king of Atlantis, and Doctor Fate, a guardian of order, wants to protect the Earth from the coming of Cthulhu. Er, Icthultu, I mean. Aquaman's protectiveness of Atlantis and him being all 'I'M A REGAL KING' and being a bit more anti-hero-y compared to other superheroes makes him a pretty good choice to star in this slightly more ambiguous venture. Doctor Fate, who has appeared before in Superman: TAS but not within this show, is quickly re-established as this master of the mystic arts, and very very knowledgeable and mysterious.

Have I told you guys that I love Dr. Fate? Because I do. I'm not sure what I really like about him, and I'm pretty sure a good chunk of it is due to his pretty swanky helmet and design, but I really like Doctor Fate.

Meanwhile, all the talk of Doctor Fate and Aquaman going all 'this is the only way' and all the heavy talks about sacrifice and the coming of dread Cthulhu is juxtaposed with Solomon Grundy on a good day. He's just this simple creature, loving the gold reward that Aquaman gave him, eating cookies offered by Inza and being unsure about how polite he should be, and making a child-like "girl gave Grundy cookies!" in a very defensive tone when Dr. Fate shows up.

Dr. Fate then shares to us Solomon Grundy's backstory. DC fans know this, but it's nice to see it rendered in a suitably old-timey manner, showing how the old gangster Cyrus Gold grew too powerful and was killed by his rivals. And apparently you can show someone riddled with bullets graphically if it's in shadow. That bit was a surprising moment of brutality that I didn't expect was allowed in the 90's cartoons considering how many cartoons aren't even allowed to show guns. Cyrus Gold is dumped in a mystical swamp after a spell was cast on his corpse, and thus was born Solomon Grundy, soulless zombie.

And Grundy? Grundy realizes that, yeah, he wants his soul. Fate and Aquaman needs a soulless vessel as a sacrifice to stop Icthultu's coming, and since Fate probably knows Grundy will be revived later on, promises Grundy that he'll help Grundy find his soul. Or maybe it's a John Constantine-style lie to sacrifice a single person to seal a greater evil?

Whatever the case, as this is all going on the Old Gods' minions start to bleed out into the world, and the League finds out about Aquaman kidnapping Solomon Grundy from the military soldiers, about these magic aquatic beasts (which isn't as horrifying as I would expect from a Cthulhu homage, but this is a Saturday Morning cartoon), and put two and two together. The three end up in the Tower of Fate, seeing Doctor Fate making a ritual going SO FATE DEMANDS! SO FATE DEMANDS! with Grundy screaming, and assuming the worst, the three immediately attack without knowing the full story. Which, actually, is a bit realistic especially with Aquaman being a prissy high-and-mighty kingly douche.

We get a pretty cool one-on-one fights as Fate transports everyone to different planes. Superman fighting Grundy is a bit boring, honestly, just a bit of a punchy punch that ends up with Superman piledrivering down Solomon Grundy from the sky. Aquaman and Wonder Woman is the highlight, definitely, showing Aquaman's being dismissive of Diana ending up to being something that's a bit of a mutual respect thing, with some really cool moments with the harpoon and throwing around Easter Island statues. That was a very cool fight scenes. Hawkgirl faces the problem of magic with the same approach as anything: beat it with her mace! Of course, her mace is made up of Nth Metal, which klongs Doctor Fate in the head.

That last fight is interrupted when Icthultu himself appears and going all cthulhu fhtagn and shit, to which Aquaman tells us the story of Icthultu, how his attempt to invade Earth in ages past causes ancient Atlantean kings and mages to seal them off and later cause Atlantis to sink. Hawkgirl also identifies familiarity with Icthultu, noting that the big tentacly dude is, in fact, an ancient god that the Thanagarians used to worship. Hawkgirl throughout this episode has been the ultimate atheist and skeptic, calling out Wonder Woman's constant usage of "Hera give me strength" (which she actually only does like five times throughout the entire series) and basically pissing all over the idea of souls and gods and whatever. It's not as heavy-handed as some shows that tackle religion and atheism does, because, y'know, at the end of the day it's Cthulhu and Cthulhu is trying to rise from R'lyeh and invade the world and stuff.

There's a bit of a nice growth throughout Hawkgirl as she goes from being a skeptic to realizing that, yeah, religion does have a place in our lives, even if it's just something to comfort dying comrades and friends. And there's nothing wrong with being a staunch believer in your own beliefs as well, as Wonder Woman and Aquaman shows.

But anyway, back to the Cthulhu-demon-beast-punching plotline, the team bar Aquaman heads off to take the fight to Icthultu's own dimension, while Aquaman buggers off to protect Atlantis and hold the line with his army of Atlantean warships on the portal's gateway in our dimension.

Meanwhile, the focus of the episode shifts to Hawkgirl and Grundy developing a bit of a friendship as they help each other while tearing their way through armies of demonic minions. Ichtultu, the big octopus man himself, immediately recognizes the stench of Thanagar on Hawkgirl, but Hawkgirl gives no fucks, telling Ichtlutu that "I have a gesture for you, but my hands are tied." Ichtultu is displeased that the Thanagarians have not worshipped him anymore, when his version of worship apparently involved sacrifices and enslavement.

Meanwhile, Solomon Grundy, enraged by the 'you took our souls' comment during the Hawkgirl/Ichtlutu confrontation, as well as the fact that he's befriended Hawkgirl, flies into a rage, jumping straight into Icthultu's head and start ripping apart the dude's nervous system. Apparently old gods have nervous systems, who knew? And Grundy himself being powered by magic kind of puts him in a position that probably gave him a bit more advantage against Icthlutu. The fact that the other big guns -- Superman, Wonder Woman and Doctor Fate -- are preoccupied with Ichtultu's horde of horrors probably helps, too.

But Grundy didn't last that long as one of Ichtultu's antibodies delivers a fatal wound. As he lies dying, Hawkgirl tries to comfort him. Grundy gives this childish line "Grundy can't move. Bird-nose get Grundy's soul for him?" Hawkgirl charges in with a vengeance of an angry space viking, charging Ichtlutu with the only way she deals with problems... hit it really hard with her mace. Icthultu's brain dies, killing the dread old god, while the other heroes use the conveniently floating asteroids to block the portal to prevent any more of the horde from coming into Atlantis.

But while taking down Ichtultu and the faceless horde might be more procedural than anything, the short moment of Hawkgirl comforting the dying Grundy is amazingly tearjerking, especially as you're liable to not really care that much for Solomon Grundy prior to this episode. "Is Grundy's soul waiting for him?" Grundy asks as he lies dying, sounding like a child. Hawkgirl is very prepared to instinctively reply with the atheist answer: "Grundy, I don't believe-" before cutting herself off and going "Yes, it's waiting for you." Did she believe it? Did she say it to comfort a dying friend? Whatever the case, Grundy smiles and goes "then Grundy gets his reward." before dying. Death is very effective when handled like this, and I think this was easily the most on-screen a heroic character has died so far throughout this series. The heroes hold a short funeral for Solomon Grundy, and Hawkgirl still doesn't understand why the zombie was happy... but Aquaman closes out the episode with the amazing line "It's called faith, Hawkgirl. You are not supposed to understand it. You just have it." as we zoom into Solomon Grundy's tombstone.

Pretty awesome episode all around. Shame Ichtultu is kind of a shit villain, but he is a Cthulhu stand-in, so he more than makes up for it.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Dr. Fate and his wife Inza have appeared before in the DCAU during Superman: The Animated Series, and Superman makes a short reference to his prior meeting with Dr. Fate. I'm a bit tired today so I won't really talk that much about Dr. Fate's origin story. Maybe if I'm bothered I'll come back to this review and edit it in, or maybe I'll talk about it when Fate shows up in another episode. I dunno.
• Solomon Grundy's origin story is basically lifted wholesale from the comics, minus the 'constantly regenerating whenever he's killed' bit, which, considering that Solomon Grundy apparently has never been killed before in this continuity, kind of makes sense. Grundy has spent some time as a somewhat-controlled confused ally of superheroes in several of his incarnations.
• Icthultu is obviously a bastardization of Cthulhu and the Old Ones from the Cthulhu Mythos, as a race of incomprehensible superpowerful godlike aliens that live outside of our reality and want to return to conquer it. Atlantis's sinking in the DCAU continuity is stated to be an attempt to protect themselves from Icthultu.
• Hawkgirl's real name is revealed to be Shayera Hol in this episode, the real name of the original Silver Age Hawkwoman, the version that this Hawkgirl is most based on.
• Hawkgirl's mace is made up of Nth Metal, like that of the original Hawkman and Hawkwoman, which allows her to bypass magic. While Hawkgirl's mace has been consistently shown to be able to whack anyone and anything short of a forcefield, this is the first time that it's been explained. Take note of this, Hawkgirl's Nth Metal mace is going to be quite important down the line.
• The team of Aquaman, Dr. Fate and Solomon Grundy are selected to mimic Marvel Comics' Defenders team, comprised of Namor, Dr. Strange and Hulk respectively. Other Marvel Comics references include Hawkgirl's line "Hawkgirl smash", a nod to Hulk's "Hulk smash" catchphrase. Solomon Grundy's nicknames "Birdnose", "Stupid Magician" and "Fishman", directed to Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate and Aquaman respectively, are the insults that Hulk uses to Nighthawk, Dr. Strange and Namor respectively.
• Aquaman quotes the Terminator's famous line "if you want to live, come with me!" when recruiting Solomon Grundy.

Pokemon of the Week #2: Bisharp

Pokemon of the Week: #625 Bisharp, the Sword Blade Pokemon

Cue the inevitable Checkmate joke.

Pawniard and Bisharp are Dark/Steel Pokemon based on chess. Pawniard is obviously modeled on a pawn, and Bisharp on the bishop piece. It's a very cool concept -- chess is cool -- but they decided to go full-on edgy with these two and have them be made up of 90% blades. So Bisharp has spiky legs, spiky hands, spikes out of his elbows, a spike on his helmet, and from his chest and his abdomen are a pair of nasty ribcage-sickle things. You do not want a hug from this dude.

Also, I have never, ever pronounced Bisharp's name correctly. You're supposed to read it like bee-shahrp, to have the pun with bishop... but I've always read his name as BUY-sharp. I know it's wrong, I know the pun lies on the 'bishop' and not the 'sharp', but man. Old habits. They don't change easily.

Bisharp is a very cool design nonetheless, though. He's got a great paint scheme of black, silver and maroon, with gold highlights on his face and head-blade, and he does look like a pretty cool-looking knight. Well, bishop. I'm not quite sure why he's part-Dark. The Steel type is obvious, he's made up of blades, but the Dark-type? Don't get me wrong, an evil blade sentient chess monster is cool, but the evil bit apparently comes from Bisharps leading gangs of Pawniard and beating up 'prey'. All eight games over two generations have all emphasized on how Bisharp lets his Pawniard minions soften up the prey before the Bisharp finishes it off. A brief bit of research leads me to discover that apparently Bisharp's visual design, in addition to resembling a chess piece, also resembles rogue samurai that go around robbing people like bandits. So yeah, he's kind of evil. Which is actually a bit surprising to me because I've always found Bisharp's knightly design pretty heroic-looking. 

Bisharp is cool, though, and decently strong. Dark and Steel are very good typings in the metagame, and Bisharp's base stat total of 490 isn't anything to sneeze at. Bisharp is a very physical attacker and defender, with half-decent speed and a pretty awesome movepool with multiple Dark and Steel stab moves like Night Slash, Iron Head and access to Swords Dance to become utterly destructive. With TMs Bisharp gains access to many other types, including Poison (Poison Jab), Flying (Aerial Ace), Grass (Grass Knot), Rock (Stone Edge), Ghost (Shadow Claw), Fighting (Brick Break) and Psychic (Psycho Cut). Those are all very respectable physical moves. Plus, with Bisharp's own access to Swords Dance and Sucker Punch. Bisharp can be a pretty awesome sweeper and Smogon tells me that he's one of the best sweepers in the OU.

I don't really know that much about the smogon metagame, but I have used a Bisharp or two in some of my runs -- a Bisharp named Checkmate hung out in my team for a couple of gyms before I ended up swapping him out for something more useful. I did muck around with Bisharp for a bit in VI, but I just... never got to supertraining him. Bisharp's still one of my favourite Generation V Pokemon and honestly if I didn't have other dudes I just like more than him, he would've stayed a member of my party for a longer time. I dunno why I replaced him. I guess I just wanted to have a dragon in the party and Haxorus is just a bit more stabbier than Bisharp. 

In the lore itself, I don't think Bisharp really figures into it a lot. Elite Four Grimsley uses a Bisharp and thanks to his part-Steel type he's a bit harder to take down than the rest of the team, but not by much because, well, poor Bisharp is 4x weak to Fighting. Pawniard debuted in Unova, and appears in Route 9 (which is filled with Psychic and Poison types) and Route 11 (which is a bit of a random river). In Kalos Pawniard hang out in the Lost Hotel, which always baffled me until I wrote this article and realized that the Pawniard are gangsters that hang out with the punks there.

Bisharp's just cool, man. He's a evil-samurai-chess-blade monster. And he manages to not look too busy or ugly, he's actually a monster in battle, and I'm still waiting for the inevitable King/Queen/Rook/Knight expansion we get into the thing. Come on, at least give us a Stage Two evolution!