Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 07-08: Maid of Honor
Wonder Woman is a complex character with a rich, varied history, even moreso than the likes of Batman or Superman. Most casual fans only remember the badass, immortal warrior princess that came out from the secluded Grecian myths to defend the Earth. But depending on the period of story that is written, Diana also has moonlighted as an ambassador, the illegitimate daughter of Zeus, World War II freedom fighter, a generic crime-fighting hero, a boutique store owner, a warrior queen, the only member of the League that resorts to murder, and the Justice Society's secretary with the weakness that she loses her powers if her arms are bound by a man. Obviously that last bit has been thankfully exorcised from most post-Golden-Age depictions of her character, but what is important to remember about Wonder Woman that despite all her awesome ass-kicking (and, yeah, Wonder Woman is a certified badass), she is also a woman at heart.
Despite being able to toss around tanks and easily ranking among the League's strongest guns, with really only Superman or maybe J'onn matching her up in terms of raw power, Wonder Woman is still the more feminine of the Justice League's two women, and this episode tries to explore that. Here, while attending a party for important politicians, Diana saves Kasnian princess Audrey (ripping that gorgeous dress into shreds in the process), and earns the playful princess's friendship. Audrey is your typical party girl, and she quite literally drags Diana in an escape from her small army of bodyguards, and takes her clubbing and shopping and all those things girls do.
As they hang out on the Eiffel Tower, Audrey reveals that she's going to be married to a man she doesn't even really know on the next day, hence the extra-wild partying. Especially so for a princess with a responsibility to her country, just saying 'I'm going to live my life freely' isn't going to cut it. She either goes through this marriage, or her people will be more fucked than they already are. There's a bit of a dark moment where she jumps off the tower, all happy that Diana caught her... was it an actual attempted suicide? Or is she just insanely daredevil-y? There's a slight bit of lesbian secret love undertones under it all, but most of it seems to just be one-sided from Audrey. There's a bit of a fun moment when Diana experiences the wilder side of modern life, even if we don't get anything too risque we did get to see the princess admire some arm-eye-muscly-candy.
Of course, the groom-to-be is Vandal Savage, who Diana immediately socks in the face. Savage makes several notes that, nah, he isn't that Nazi Vandal Savage, he's his great-great-great-grandson! By this point in the story, Savage's survival at the end of World War II hasn't been confirmed... we only know that he lives very long, we don't know if he can regenerate from being blown up inside a bomber plane while underwater. And, yeah, Diana grudgingly buys into Savage's bullshit for lack of proof.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is hanging out at that party, skimping out on going all Batman and enjoying the champagne nonchalantly while his Justice League buddy beats up the terrorists. Batman launches his own investigation, in one of the most awesome Batman moments ever, he walks up to one of the Kasnian secret agents who's talking in his own language how no one knows Kasnian and how he'll never spill his secrets, and speaks in their language "Don't worry. You will." while the camera pans slowly to the looming silhouette of the Bat.
The relationship between Batman and Wonder Woman is further developed in this episode, and the two are the only Leaguers that star in the first episode -- Flash, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter don't show up until the second part as backup, and even then only for action scenes. There's a bit of a back-and-forth flirting-while-doing-business between Batman and Wonder Woman, and the moment between Bruce Wayne and Wonder Woman at the party. Of course, Batman plays it coy and denies any knowledge of 'we never finished that dance' when confronted by Diana at the end of the episode, but Diana kind of figured it out. It's another neat callback to the fact that, hey, no one but Superman knows Batman's secret identity among the League. He's distant, but he definitely has an attraction to Wonder Woman.
Meanwhile, on the political side of things, Vandal poisons the king, marries Audrey (and from the looks of their bed and their clothing, they totally consummated their marriage offscreen) before, naturally, taking over Kasnia. Kasnia has this space station that Vandal Savage's forces hijack and turn into basically an asteroid-gathering railgun, with which Savage threatens basically the whole world with. It's a less depressing way to show Audrey being trapped in an abusive, gold-digging relationship, in which Savage abuses the power that comes with being married to the crown princess instead of beating the princess up.
Of course, it devolves to some beat-them-ups afterwards, the League stop Vandal Savage, Batman redirects the railgun towards the castle and blows it up, burying Vandal Savage underneath the ruins of the castle. Audrey takes control of her life, and resolves to rebuild Kasnia, after the big boom figuratively and literally frees her of her old burdens.
But the second part? Wow, the second part really shines by making the procedural scenes really feel awesome. Vandal Savage shooting the laser is demonstrated very well by having the giant laser slam down onto the sea next to an American aircraft carrier, creating a tidal wave that snaps the carrier in half and looks absolutely awesome as sailors desperately swim up while the heavier vehicles and equipment sink down to undoubtedly piss Aquaman off. (Also, yeah, like a dozen sailors survived. How many people crew an aircraft carrier again?)
Audrey's wedding is another stand-out scene as the calm, wedding music with Savage and Audrey being married being juxtaposed with Batman and Wonder Woman beating up Savage's goons. And the best part is, the fight scenes are silent, with the voiceover from the wedding scene playing in the background as Diana silently whacks terrorists around with a tree, as the Batwing gets hit by a tank and blows up... ending with Diana interrupting the wedding by, um, smashing a tank through the church.
There are several other small details that really make it awesome, too. Batman's fight scenes in the control chamber, especially the moment with the chair, is really cool. The scene that shows the teeny-tiny Javelin next to the giant space station is breathtaking. J'onn's got a great moment as he stretches his body out like Plastic Man and just suffocates some poor schmuck to unconsciousness. Flash finally stops goofing around and shows off his true power -- after nearly being killed courtesy of being sucked off into space, the Flash absolutely gets pissed off and zips through the space station, taking down the entire facility in less time than it takes Green Lantern to blink. Him shaking off any attempt at comedy makes Wally seem a bit more mature.
Also great is the surprising maturity of the episode, with the king quite brutally suffocating while being poisoned. He's rendered basically brain-dead, eating through a tube, after the poisoning attempt. And while he doesn't exactly die from the poison, y'know, Batman did launch a giant laser blast that demolished the castle, possibly unknowingly dooming the king. I mean, Batman, Diana and Audrey barely made it out there. Also horrifying yet awesome is Vandal Savage rising up of the rubble, as his broken limbs snap back into place with horrifying sound effects and a disgustingly awesome imagery.
Perhaps the only real weak part of this episode is Vandal Savage's very James-Bond-y villain henchman, Colonel Vox, who is this big Russian-esque dude who speaks from a mechanical apparatus. Oh, and he can use sonic screams. He's just flat and doesn't really feel any more threatening to Wonder Woman than the tanks and the helicopters, and they really took so much time in taking him down.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Audrey notes that Diana has 'feet of clay' while she's dancing, which, of course, is a subtle nod to Diana's origin story -- moulded from Themyscira's clay and animated into life.
- Colonel Vox is based on Vox the Bionic Bandit, a very obscure 70's enemy of the Metal Men that had a grand total appearance of one time. I bet more than half of you people reading this sentence don't even know who the Metal Men are, let alone Vox the Bionic Bandit. Someone must have really liked this weird robo-voiced sonic-screaming obscure villain.
No comments:
Post a Comment