Justice League Unlimited S01E05 Review: In Which Batman Sings A Jazz Song

Justice League Unlimited, Season 1, Episode 5: This Little Piggy

Easily the funnest episode of Justice League Unlimited is this episode right here. It's an episode that utilizes Batman absolutely well, telling a tale of madcap hilarity (Wonder Woman gets turned into a pig) and unabashed silliness. In a world where people are clamoring for more grit and darkness to superhero material, it's always nice to step back and enjoy episodes like this, or shows like Teen Titans and Brave and the Bold, or the older ultra-campy ultra-silly Silver Age comic books where things are just... simple. And silly. "This Little Piggy" is still a Justice League Unlimited episode at heart and it doesn't quite go to the sheer amount of insanity that some Teen Titans episodes do, but it's still a very fun episode that is going to be a nice break before we tackle the next episode, which is very plot-heavy.

It's not that I want superheroes to be silly and stupid 100% of the time. I appreciate Watchmen and the Dark Knight and other serious and well-written superhero stories as the next geek, but sometimes, well, they do go too far, sucking out all the joy and fun of seeing, y'know, superheroes.

The prime driving conflict of this episode if Batman refusing to allow Diana to get close to him. His excuses of not wanting the women in his life to get hurt might work with someone like Vicki Vale or Veronica Vreeland or Catwoman, but not Diana, who nonplussedly crushes a gargoyle without blinking. And when the sorceress Circe turns Diana into a pig, Batman's desperation as he turns to all avenues to gather help to turn Diana back into normal is very palpable. It's not an episode you take seriously, but Batman sure does, and this transition of Batman's role from JLA to JLU starts here. In JLA, Batman is just this paranoid dude with street-level powers that keeps the gods among the League grounded. With Batman himself becoming a bigger-than-life character as part of the League's founding members, and passing the torch of the paranoid street vigilante over to the Question (and to some degree Huntress and Green Arrow inherit other parts of his old role) Batman has became something of a hyper-competent deadpan comic relief, a role that actually fits Batman magnificently.

And despite the silly, off-beat tone, it's actually a pretty fun episode. Poor Diana spends nearly all of it as a pig so she doesn't get much in lieu of character development, but Bruce? Yeah, we do get a fair bit of a look in his head. Bruce also teams up with one of my all-time favourite superheroes, Zatanna, and I wager it's her appearance in DCAU that made me like her so much. Zatanna's already has a connection with Batman over in B:TAS, and while in that episode she doesn't quite have the game-breaking magic powers she demonstratably has now, Zatanna is an old friend of Bruce's, and an old love interest, and Zatanna's dialogue -- about how hard it is to care for Bruce, and how hard it is for Bruce to care -- speaks volumes even when Batman himself doesn't.

Of course, it wouldn't be an episode if all Batman had to do is drop by at Zatanna's and she can reverse it with a single spell, so we have Batman and Zatanna go to a bunch of interesting locales, from a magic-item shop straight out of Harry Potter (including a hilarious scene where Zatanna haggles with the shop-owner), to Batman recruiting a bunch of other colourful superheroes to help out, to them going to hell Styx and interviewing Circe's cellmate Medusa (who doesn't act the way you'd expect Medusa to act), culminating in Batman and Zatanna arriving at a nightclub where Circe is performing, and Batman singing a very wonderful jazz song (Kevin Conroy CAN SING) in order to out-gambit Circe to dismiss her spell. Oh, meanwhile, Wonder-Pig Diana has to escape from evil bacon-making men.

The Medusa scene in particular is a scene I found absolutely hilarious. Medusa is cast as just this cranky lady who you would expect hangs out around cheap coffee shops complaining about life and her noisy neighbours, not, y'know, the monstrous gorgon of legend. "C-gal and me did a little time together back in the pit of eternal torment." "Ya see Circe, tell her I want my curling iron back!" It's a scene that's absolutely hilarious, and the thought of that off-screen scene where Batman and Zatanna calling in a favour with the goddess of justice like Batman would call a favour with a policeman or something is also equally hilarious.

And then there's the final scene, of course. Circe tells Batman that he has to surrender something precious, and that is either his dignity or his vulnerability or his hidden feelings or his talent for singing, but holy shit, whatever the case, the setup leads to Batman singing a jazz song. Am I blue indeed. I don't care what you say, Batman singing Am I Blue is the highlight of any superhero material published. Ever. It really helps that the lyrics fit, and Kevin Conroy himself has a wonderful singing voice that he adapts into Batman's voice.

It's not the character development that purely-Batman fans would expect to see, but it's one that's presented in such an absurd yet heart-touching way that I can't help but love it. Is it dumb? Yeah, it kinda is. But I went 'awww' alongside Circe and Zatanna after Bruce's wonderful performance there.

Yeah, a bit of a silly episode. But other than Batman singing, Zatanna's utterly hilarious one-liners, Medusa and Wonder-Pig, my favourite part of this episode has to be B'wana Beast. B'wana doesn't have the same amount of screentime in JLU as he would have in Brave and the Bold, but the sheer hilarity of his character design -- a muscly man in a speedo and a weird wrestling mask, who openly flirts with Zatanna in a way that would be sexual harassment if it came from anyone other than B'wana Beast -- makes every scene he has a highlight, and I'm sad that JLU never incorporated B'wana in a spotlight episode of his own.

But B'wana Beast makes his best out of the short scenes he's given this episodes. He doesn't get to use his 'combine animals into one' power, but he does talk to animals. "Guys, help me out here. Newcomer, silver bracelets, kind of stuck up." Also we get a short montage of other minor superheroes going around searching for Wonder-Pig. Most hilarious is Red Tornado roaring through the streets shouting "SOOO-EEEE", but Elongated Man stretching up to show a missing pig poster to some random guy and someone as severe-looking as the Crimson Avenger going door-to-door and asking with all seriousness about whether they have seen a pig are both hilarious gags.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Wonder Woman, Batman, Zatanna, B'wana Beast, Crimson Avenger
• Non-Speaking Roles: Red Tornado, Elongated Man
• Major Villains: Circe, Medusa (sort of)

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• While the Batman Embargo is already in effect by this point (the production team note how a deleted scene had Joker about to do some crime before seeing Batman talking to Pig!Diana and just decide to go home) the Iceberg Lounge, which is Penguin's base of operations, make an appearance at the beginning of the episode.
• Zatanna Zatara previously appeared in Batman: The Animated Series episode 'Zatanna'. While in B:TAS she doesn't use actual magic, here she's gained her comic book counterpart's magical powers via speaking words backwards. It's a lot harder to figure out what she's saying when it's not in print form, though. 
• Circe, despite her comedic role in this episode, is actually considered to be Wonder Woman's arch-nemesis the way Joker and Luthor are to Batman and Superman. Based on the Greek mythological figure of similar name, Circe is a powerful sorceress who turns sailors that stranded onto her island into beasts (normally pigs), but in DC lore she's the daughter of two titans, and her conflict against Diana began thanks to a prophecy. Her bids for power and vengeance has caused wars among gods and humans, and she has actually succeeded in killing Diana at least once that I know of, albeit temporarily. 
• B'wana Beast, real name Mike Maxwell, is a relatively obscure DC character who has the power to merge any two (sometimes more) animals into a fusion that has both attributes, as well as generally being able to communicate with them. While a decidedly minor character in the comics (he's a supporting character to Animal Man) he would prove unexpectedly popular. While he doesn't get to do much in JLU -- I'm pretty sure this is his only speaking role -- he gets to be a very major character in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. 
• Red Tornado, a.k.a. "John Smith" or "Ulthoon", has a very complex backstory that is variable depending on retcons and whatnot -- but the gist of his origin is that he's a super-advanced android created by the evil scientist T.O. Morrow. He's merged with the sentient elemental spirit of air (or the Tornado Tyrant Ulthoon from the planet Rann in some stories, or the memories of the original human Red Tornado, Ma Hunkel, in others) and eventually gained sentience. Red Tornado is gifted with the powers to, well, create and control tornadoes. He's actually a very consistent and very long-running member of many incarnations of the Justice League of America, most notably being the mentor to the Young Justice team. 
• Elongated Man, a.k.a. Ralph Dibny, is a pretty major supporting member of the Justice League of America's earlier rosters. Ralph Dibny, as a child, was fascinated with contortionists and discovers that all the famous contortionists drink soda derived from a fictional fruit named Gingold. Ralph experimented with the fruit and created a serum so potent that it granted him, well, stretching powers. With the added powers of his very excellent detective skills, Ralph Dibny fought crime as the Elongated Man, initially emerging as a supporting character of the Flash. Elongated Man is notable as the first DC hero to go public with his secret identity, as well as marrying his love interest Sue Dibny, a thing unheard of during the Silver Age. Elongated Man would diminish in popularity over the years (not helped by DC pushing fellow stretchy-superhero Plastic Man) until Identity Crisis killed off his wife and brought him back to prominence.
• Crimson Avenger, a.k.a. Lee Walter Travis, is a decidedly minor character in modern comic book stories, but has the distinction of being DC Comics' very first masked hero, and he's a non-powered vigilante who utilizes gas guns in combat. Originally a civilian disenchanted with corruption and crime, Lee Travis finds purpose when a robbery at a masquerade ball caused a friend to get shot and killed, and the Crimson Avenger's pursuit, coupled with his friend's dying words ("who will avenge?") caused him to become a vigilante. After Lee Travis's death, at least two others will don the mantle of the Crimson Avenger, while his costume is kept by the JLA, who honours him as 'the first of our kind'.
• There are some Greek mythological characters and locales that are featured here.
• The river of the underworld, River Styx, is featured, as is the hooded ferrymen of the dead, Charon. Batman even pays two pennies to Charon, which is the payment required in actual Greek culture if you want your soul to reach the afterlife safely.
• Medusa is, of course, a gorgon, a hideous woman with snakes for hair that can turn people into stone. Medusa does exist in DC lore, but she's a lot more antagonistic than her very chill DCAU counterpart.
• Medusa's rant refers to a punishment that is similar to that bestowed to the Titan Prometheus in Grecian mythology (having an organ eaten by buzzards and then regrow the next day) and name-drops Sisyphus, a man cursed to forever roll a rock up a hill.
• The goddess of justice, Themis, is never named in the episode, but her appearance (blindfolded, holding scales) makes her identity pretty obvious. Of course, if you want to get technical, Themis is never depicted like that, but her Roman counterpart, Justicia, did. And DC Olympian gods draw equally from the Greek and Roman legends, so.