Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 05-06: Only A Dream
(Sorry about the short hiatus. Things were... crazy here last weekend.)
There is a reason why the Scarecrow was easily one of the most memorable villains for me personally. In addition to his relatively early appearance in the first seasons of Batman: the Animated Series, he's got this whole 'fear' thing going on for him, and exploring a character's greatest fears is one of the best ways to tell a story. Seeing what someone is afraid of is one of the easiest ways to learn more about the character beneath the superficial characteristics that they show, and what's better than showing a character's greatest fear? Showing a lot of them at once and comparing them.
This is one of the episodes from Justice League's second season that I completely missed out of as a kid, so it was an absolute treat to discover it now. Moreover, Doctor Destiny is a supervillain that I am not familiar with even from the comics, so even the villain's superpowers is a neat little surprise. The episode begins with the absolutely ordinary prisoner John Dee having a fantasy of being the villain that took out the Justice League, earning the respect of Luthor, Joker (in a rare speaking appearance!) and other big-shot supervillains. Of course it's all just a dream ,just like how you dreamed you were a superhero when you were a kid wishing for geometry to end, John Dee returns to his boring doldrum of a life being a boring old inmate trying to serve his time... and being a boring old mook in a world where your average prisoner are people like Firefly and Luminus can't be very good for your self-esteem. John Dee gets abandoned by his wife, too, who found someone else who isn't a loser... and that just made the dude snap.
For whatever reason, Stryker's Island staff is experimenting on prisoners with the Materioptikon, a device that can grant people short-term ESP... which isn't exactly the best thing to test on criminals. Dumb scientists! Green Lantern lampshades this fact, but John Dee ends up tricking himself into being plugged onto the plot device machine while the Justice League and the guards handle a villain breakout, featuring welcome returns of Solomon Grundy, Copperhead, Volcana, Firefly and Luminus.
We get some absolutely awesome scenes with these villains. Grundy being a dumb-dumb and dragging the long-suffering Copperhead with him is absolutely hilarious, while Copperhead just tries so hard to be effective, but in-between being dragged away from a proper escape by Grundy, and kind of being utterly outclassed by Hawkgirl... it just isn't Copperhead's day. Hawkgirl's moment with Copperhead, where the snake-dude threatens to poison Hawkgirl if she doesn't get him to safety, only to be met with the retort that if Hawkgirl gets poisoned, they both fall down and die. And the best part? Hawkgirl isn't even bluffing. Lady's hardcore. I don't remember or care who Luminus is until I looked it up, but Volcana and Firefly had a hilarious moment that's definitely a joke about how Firefly's "gun" is tiny and his performance is pathetic.
But we cut away from these traditional, punchy-punching fire blasting costumed supervillains to explore John Dee, one of the creepiest villains and, holy shit, he actually managed to terrify me a little. He's still an ordinary man (Lantern even notes this, to which Batman recalls the Odyssey to him), just with some psychopathic tendencies, but the Materioptikon gave him some godlike powers, which is to basically infiltrate someone's dream and shape it to his command. He visits his ex-wife first, and while the 'dream-manipulation' powers isn't quite obvious yet, we see John Dee show up next to his wife's bed, absolutely horrifying her as his skin peels off in a pretty graphic sequence to reveal a hooded, fanged skeleton face, Doctor Destiny. Unlike the more colourful villains like Firefly or Copperhead, Doctor Destiny never dons his costume, nor does he actually fight the heroes... he just invades their dreams and traps them in a nightmare.
And for John Dee's wife? Batman finds her dead off-screen from a fear-induced cardiac arrest. A pretty chilling death which kind of makes Dr. Destiny so much more horrifying. He did absolutely nothing but stand on a nearby cliff... unlike Scarecrow, who had to physically rig up fear gas dispersion things, of which there's a chemical antidote for, Dr. Destiny's powers are basically godlike. All you have to do is sleep, and he'll find you.
Speaking of which, man, what an awesome design Dr. Destiny got in this show. It's easy just to slap a skull on someone, but making it look extra terrifying with the black mascara and the hood and the general voice acting of him... yeah.
While the first half of the story has the League in full-strength, overpowering the colourful classic supervillains, Doctor Destiny shows up in the second half, where Hawkgirl has nodded off ('hit the sack', as Flash accidentally puts it) alongside Flash on the Watchtower, and so has Superman and Green Lantern -- in a powerful image showing how two of the League's heaviest hitters are also vulnerable people as we see them in their pajamas and boxers at their homes. Only Batman and J'onn are awake to do anything about it, and as mentioned multiple times to set it up, Batman hasn't been sleeping for two days, and even the Dark Knight, nocturnal badass as he is, needs some sleep.
We get to see the personal nightmares of the Leaguers, first with Flash. The juvenile Flash's nightmare initially seems kind of dumb, just dealing with a bunch of kid asking questions that Flash can't answer, and seemingly Flash's greatest fear is just disapproval, but soon we get a pretty nightmarish sequence where everything in the world stops moving and turns gray and monochromic, leaving Flash alone as he lives his greatest fear -- moving so fast that everyone else just can't keep up.
Superman's dreams, meanwhile, are absolutely brutal and foreshadows some of the development he'll receive in further episodes in this season, as well as some plot points that we'll see in Justice League Unlimited. Superman is a very powerful godlike being that lives among mankind, basically a bull in a china shop. He's learned to control his powers, but his greatest fear? Not that Luthor or Darkseid or Brainiac will show up and kill him, no. Superman's greatest fear is losing control of his powers, and we get a very brutal moment of Clark Kent accidentally incinerating Lois Lane to death (off-screen, but Lois's screams are definitely there), hulking up to a ridiculous musculature proportion, destroying the Daily Planet, and when good ol' pal Jimmy Olsen shows up, Superman's hug accidentally snaps Jimmy's spine. Being his own enemy, being the superpowered one-man-army destroyer that so many alternate-universe stories love to portray living in a world of mortals...
Green Lantern gets a bit of a development, too. We've seen how John Stewart interacted with the people of his community back in 'In Darkest Night', and Lantern's greatest fear is that his powers alienate him from his friends. It's a similar but distinct dream from Superman losing control of his powers and crushing everyone to death, for John the greatest nightmare is that everyone is so scared of his power -- which definitely is something that's partially caused some guilt issues about thinking that he blew up a planet. The fact that the imaginary people from John's neighbourhood speaks gibberish language is a nice way to show how John's powers have made him so alien that the people in his community can't even understand him.
Meanwhile Hawkgirl's greatest fear is... being buried alive. She's claustrophobic. Yeaaaah. As the seasons go by maybe you can interpret this as Hawkgirl being suffocated between the various obligations she has? Honestly if they don't want to tackle Hawkgirl without spoiling their end-of-season plan why not sub her out for Diana, who's the only Leaguer to be absent this episode?
While Destiny taunts them, J'onn, the resident telepath, shows how much he's grown to know his friends and teammates if not necessarily humanity itself, and his words to them is some of the best scripting in the season. J'onn travels into the minds of Superman, Flash and Green Lantern, appealing to the various parts that make each of them a hero -- Superman is an inspiration, Flash is innovative and Green Lantern has great willpower. Only Hawkgirl's mind is off-limits to J'onn due to Destiny's machinations (ain't that convenient).
Meanwhile, while J'onn does battle to free his allies in the mental plane, Batman hunts Destiny down in the physical plane... and we get some of the most absurdly fun moments with Batman as the Dark Knight tries his best to stay awake. Sleepy? Punch the Batmobile's windows until it shatters! Switch on the Batmobile's radio as loud as you can! And, most awesomely, stopping at a local coffee shop, much to the hilarity and surprise, to deliver the awesome and immortal line "GIVE ME A TRIPLE. NOW!" The fate of the world depends on Batman staying awake, and, oh god, that was a hilarious and fun moment that helps to break up the depressing and emotionally intense dream sequences.
Destiny makes fun of Batman's lack of superpowers, but Batman is not one to be underestimated, just like how he didn't underestimate 'John Dee' when he learned of his escape. Batman has a far more awesome line, noting that he has a superpower: "I never give up." Batman's humming Frere Jacques as Dr. Destiny tries to warp Batman's perceptions and scare him off is excellent, with Kevin Conroy's grave and determined tone absolutely putting a heroic-yet-sinister spin on the tune. And the Dark Knight shows that, yeah, he can be scary as all hell as he breaks through Destiny's illusions and takes down the villain, leaving him incarcerated in a cell tormented by nightmares of Batman's humming.
Also, J'onn J'onzz sleeping apparently has him standing in place with his eyes open, as if in a trance. "Nothing. I was just taking a nap." indeed. Or he might actually be trolling Flash.
Holy shit, what an awesome episode. I think it's the strongest standalone episodes in season two? Yeah, skimming through the next few titles doesn't seem to bring up any that can beat this in terms of writing, pacing and tension quality.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
This is one of the episodes from Justice League's second season that I completely missed out of as a kid, so it was an absolute treat to discover it now. Moreover, Doctor Destiny is a supervillain that I am not familiar with even from the comics, so even the villain's superpowers is a neat little surprise. The episode begins with the absolutely ordinary prisoner John Dee having a fantasy of being the villain that took out the Justice League, earning the respect of Luthor, Joker (in a rare speaking appearance!) and other big-shot supervillains. Of course it's all just a dream ,just like how you dreamed you were a superhero when you were a kid wishing for geometry to end, John Dee returns to his boring doldrum of a life being a boring old inmate trying to serve his time... and being a boring old mook in a world where your average prisoner are people like Firefly and Luminus can't be very good for your self-esteem. John Dee gets abandoned by his wife, too, who found someone else who isn't a loser... and that just made the dude snap.
For whatever reason, Stryker's Island staff is experimenting on prisoners with the Materioptikon, a device that can grant people short-term ESP... which isn't exactly the best thing to test on criminals. Dumb scientists! Green Lantern lampshades this fact, but John Dee ends up tricking himself into being plugged onto the plot device machine while the Justice League and the guards handle a villain breakout, featuring welcome returns of Solomon Grundy, Copperhead, Volcana, Firefly and Luminus.
 |
| Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now? |
But we cut away from these traditional, punchy-punching fire blasting costumed supervillains to explore John Dee, one of the creepiest villains and, holy shit, he actually managed to terrify me a little. He's still an ordinary man (Lantern even notes this, to which Batman recalls the Odyssey to him), just with some psychopathic tendencies, but the Materioptikon gave him some godlike powers, which is to basically infiltrate someone's dream and shape it to his command. He visits his ex-wife first, and while the 'dream-manipulation' powers isn't quite obvious yet, we see John Dee show up next to his wife's bed, absolutely horrifying her as his skin peels off in a pretty graphic sequence to reveal a hooded, fanged skeleton face, Doctor Destiny. Unlike the more colourful villains like Firefly or Copperhead, Doctor Destiny never dons his costume, nor does he actually fight the heroes... he just invades their dreams and traps them in a nightmare.
And for John Dee's wife? Batman finds her dead off-screen from a fear-induced cardiac arrest. A pretty chilling death which kind of makes Dr. Destiny so much more horrifying. He did absolutely nothing but stand on a nearby cliff... unlike Scarecrow, who had to physically rig up fear gas dispersion things, of which there's a chemical antidote for, Dr. Destiny's powers are basically godlike. All you have to do is sleep, and he'll find you.
Speaking of which, man, what an awesome design Dr. Destiny got in this show. It's easy just to slap a skull on someone, but making it look extra terrifying with the black mascara and the hood and the general voice acting of him... yeah.
While the first half of the story has the League in full-strength, overpowering the colourful classic supervillains, Doctor Destiny shows up in the second half, where Hawkgirl has nodded off ('hit the sack', as Flash accidentally puts it) alongside Flash on the Watchtower, and so has Superman and Green Lantern -- in a powerful image showing how two of the League's heaviest hitters are also vulnerable people as we see them in their pajamas and boxers at their homes. Only Batman and J'onn are awake to do anything about it, and as mentioned multiple times to set it up, Batman hasn't been sleeping for two days, and even the Dark Knight, nocturnal badass as he is, needs some sleep.
We get to see the personal nightmares of the Leaguers, first with Flash. The juvenile Flash's nightmare initially seems kind of dumb, just dealing with a bunch of kid asking questions that Flash can't answer, and seemingly Flash's greatest fear is just disapproval, but soon we get a pretty nightmarish sequence where everything in the world stops moving and turns gray and monochromic, leaving Flash alone as he lives his greatest fear -- moving so fast that everyone else just can't keep up.
Superman's dreams, meanwhile, are absolutely brutal and foreshadows some of the development he'll receive in further episodes in this season, as well as some plot points that we'll see in Justice League Unlimited. Superman is a very powerful godlike being that lives among mankind, basically a bull in a china shop. He's learned to control his powers, but his greatest fear? Not that Luthor or Darkseid or Brainiac will show up and kill him, no. Superman's greatest fear is losing control of his powers, and we get a very brutal moment of Clark Kent accidentally incinerating Lois Lane to death (off-screen, but Lois's screams are definitely there), hulking up to a ridiculous musculature proportion, destroying the Daily Planet, and when good ol' pal Jimmy Olsen shows up, Superman's hug accidentally snaps Jimmy's spine. Being his own enemy, being the superpowered one-man-army destroyer that so many alternate-universe stories love to portray living in a world of mortals...
Green Lantern gets a bit of a development, too. We've seen how John Stewart interacted with the people of his community back in 'In Darkest Night', and Lantern's greatest fear is that his powers alienate him from his friends. It's a similar but distinct dream from Superman losing control of his powers and crushing everyone to death, for John the greatest nightmare is that everyone is so scared of his power -- which definitely is something that's partially caused some guilt issues about thinking that he blew up a planet. The fact that the imaginary people from John's neighbourhood speaks gibberish language is a nice way to show how John's powers have made him so alien that the people in his community can't even understand him.
Meanwhile Hawkgirl's greatest fear is... being buried alive. She's claustrophobic. Yeaaaah. As the seasons go by maybe you can interpret this as Hawkgirl being suffocated between the various obligations she has? Honestly if they don't want to tackle Hawkgirl without spoiling their end-of-season plan why not sub her out for Diana, who's the only Leaguer to be absent this episode?
While Destiny taunts them, J'onn, the resident telepath, shows how much he's grown to know his friends and teammates if not necessarily humanity itself, and his words to them is some of the best scripting in the season. J'onn travels into the minds of Superman, Flash and Green Lantern, appealing to the various parts that make each of them a hero -- Superman is an inspiration, Flash is innovative and Green Lantern has great willpower. Only Hawkgirl's mind is off-limits to J'onn due to Destiny's machinations (ain't that convenient).
Meanwhile, while J'onn does battle to free his allies in the mental plane, Batman hunts Destiny down in the physical plane... and we get some of the most absurdly fun moments with Batman as the Dark Knight tries his best to stay awake. Sleepy? Punch the Batmobile's windows until it shatters! Switch on the Batmobile's radio as loud as you can! And, most awesomely, stopping at a local coffee shop, much to the hilarity and surprise, to deliver the awesome and immortal line "GIVE ME A TRIPLE. NOW!" The fate of the world depends on Batman staying awake, and, oh god, that was a hilarious and fun moment that helps to break up the depressing and emotionally intense dream sequences.
Destiny makes fun of Batman's lack of superpowers, but Batman is not one to be underestimated, just like how he didn't underestimate 'John Dee' when he learned of his escape. Batman has a far more awesome line, noting that he has a superpower: "I never give up." Batman's humming Frere Jacques as Dr. Destiny tries to warp Batman's perceptions and scare him off is excellent, with Kevin Conroy's grave and determined tone absolutely putting a heroic-yet-sinister spin on the tune. And the Dark Knight shows that, yeah, he can be scary as all hell as he breaks through Destiny's illusions and takes down the villain, leaving him incarcerated in a cell tormented by nightmares of Batman's humming.
Also, J'onn J'onzz sleeping apparently has him standing in place with his eyes open, as if in a trance. "Nothing. I was just taking a nap." indeed. Or he might actually be trolling Flash.
Holy shit, what an awesome episode. I think it's the strongest standalone episodes in season two? Yeah, skimming through the next few titles doesn't seem to bring up any that can beat this in terms of writing, pacing and tension quality.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Dr. Destiny initially is just a random villain-of-the-week for the Justice League with an appearance ripping off Skeletor that fought with an anti-gravity beam, but in his second appearance he was retooled into a villain that can make dreams manifest into reality, and the dream theme stuck. He was a recurring villain for the Justice League and for the Sandman (the Dream one, not the JSA one).
- The Stryker Island escapees are all villains that have shown up in TAS-verse before. Copperhead and Grundy showed up last season, Firefly appeared in two episodes of The New Batman Adventures, while Volcana and Luminus showed up in Superman: the Animated Series. Both Luminus and Volcana are villains original to the TAS-verse, and Volcana received a slight redesign for her costume here that features a boob-window.
- Superman greets Jimmy as "my pal!" which is a reference to Jimmy Olsen's standalone comic-book series during the 50's and 60's, "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen".
No comments:
Post a Comment