Justice League Unlimited, Season 1, Episode 8: The Return
This is an episode I truly remember very fondly since I first saw it on the small screen when I was a kid, and, man, I just loved it. Easily the most memorable sequence is Amazo just... tears apart through the gigantic assembled cast of superheroes, which is easily the largest assembly since the first episode -- where every single episode between that point and this one just focuses on a small group of three to five heroes. And who better to serve as a villain than the enemy who has proven to be able to single-handedly take out the entire Justice League, Amazo?
Amazo returns from his exile into space, apparently becoming so powerful during his journey in space that he has basically godlike powers, and the more powerful the foes he faces, the more powerful too does the android's ability to copy gets. The entire Green Lantern Corps, usually just hanging out in the background of stories, get to be the first casualty of Amazo as he appears to have obliterated their home planet base of Oa in a single blow, leaving only like a dozen Green Lanterns led by Kyle Rayner (who absolutely get one-shotted by Amazon) to lick their wounds.
The episode starts with John Stewart requisitioning to be posted to Oa, the Guardians are far more perceptive than we give them credit for, and tells John to deal with his own life problems (i.e. one Shayera Hol) and not bother them with such trivialities... before the whole Amazo thing happens. And, well, Amazo is en route to Earth, hunting down Lex Luthor (who is now apparently regarded as a reformed criminal, despite the superheroes' obvious distaste for him). We get Supergirl and Atom leading the very reluctant Luthor along and trying to protect this former enemy who doesn't want to be protected... all the while Amazo rampages.
And it's honestly not even a fair fight. Amazo breaks through three barricades full of Justice League superheroes. The blockade in space is the most impressive, with Superman and Green Lantern leading the charge, alongside a gigantic armada of Javelin ships and a smattering of powerful heroes like Orion, Captain Atom, Starman, STRIPE and Dr. Light. It's a very awesome scene as every single one of these powerful heroes (and Javelin starships) let loose with their own respective attacks, as Amazo tanks all of them and charges forward. We cut away to Luthor and Atom arguing about the design of a particular cannon... the J'onn informs them that Amazo has broken through, and all we see are the mangled remains of the space team.
Luthor and Atom are absolutely hilarious to see on-screen, with Luthor's ego and Atom trying to be helpful yet not being appreciated at all, make for an absolutely hilarious dynamic. And cutting away from the two of them trying to make a cannon to disable Amazo while the rest of the League buys them time is amazing.
Amazo meets the next group of defenders, led by Supergirl. We've got Rocket Red, Red Tornado and Fire, and it's cool that some of these heroes have cameos in previous episodes, but we never really get to see them actually fight. Supergirl is obviously the big gun here, and while she didn't last very long, it is a very awesome scene to see her fearlessly continue her charge to meet Amazo. Rocket Red and Fire have a very cool mid-air battle against Amazo before being manhandled, and poor Red Tornado doesn't even manage to get a hit in, getting brutally bisected from shoulder to hip and exploding. Man, being a robot in the DC universe is tough.
The final line of defense before Amazo enters Luthor's secret hideout beneath a barber shop ("Got to hand it to you, Luthor. Nobody would think to look for you here." as Steel points out) where Amazo is attacked by Wonder Woman, Flash (in his solo Unlimited season one appearance!), Steel and Ice. Amazo takes them out with one single blast, before tearing through every single one of Luthor's secret base defenses that gave Supergirl and Steel trouble earlier. It's very tense, and even the big weapon that Atom and Luthor have been developing throughout the episode ended up proving worthless. Hell, even Atom shrinking them down into a microscopic level does nothing as Amazo finds them very easily.
Of course, Amazo's intentions are a lot less hostile than what is initially presented, and it's a lot deeper than just a standard superhero-team-up-to-defeat-invincible-villain. No, Lex Luthor gets center stage in the final legs of this episode as the businessman, having been scared and panicking and trying to hide behind his ego throughout the episode, finally realizes that, hey, he can play Amazo. Hell, he can play the world, even. Luthor is one of the most compelling characters in DC lore, and far, far more than just the sophisticated super-smart super-rich businessman that some adaptations reduce him to.
Here, Luthor shows several sides of him. The smooth-talking businessman with a good reputation to the public who claims to regret his past transgressions, is apologetic and humble because the League 'trusted him when no one would' and seems to just want to do good with the time he has left before Kryptonite poisoning claims him. The paranoid bastard who reveals his still-seething distrust of superheroes and Kryptonians and is outright hostile and angry towards them, even running away to his own secret base and locking himself in when it's clear that all Supergirl and Steel wanted to do is help. The prideful, arrogant but talented scientist who refuses to acknowledge help and continue to berate those who are around him. It's hard to figure out just how Lex Luthor works and ticks, and it's something that the story uses well.
Because that is Amazo's question. He wants to know what to do with his life now that he's this godlike being, and he's really confused, so he does what any confused child does -- ask his parent. Even if his parent is someone as loathsome as Luthor. Luthor mocks Amazo for a bit, before telling Amazo that he wants to see where evolution will take mankind, and he wants to see humanity reach its full potential and not rely on aliens and gods to protect them... and eliminating heroes is what he is doing to help humanity reach its full evolutionary potential. Luthor notes that Amazo is not mortal like him, and unlike him, Amazo will be able to witness humanity's eventual glory. Amazo asks if that is his purpose in life... but Luthor actually brushes it away, noting that that is Luthor's prupose, not Amazo's. Despite a brief moment where it seems that Luthor's mocking angers Amazo... Amazo releases Luthor and Atom.
The angry, vengeful Green Lanterns attack and are ready to destroy Amazo (sh'yeah right you guys stand a chance) but it turns out that Amazo hasn't destroyed Oa, just teleported it into another dimension. After all that is dealt with, Doctor Fate, having been called in by J'onn earlier in the episode, shows up. Fate is the guide to lost souls, and takes Amazo in for some soul-searching. The final scene shows that Amazo isn't the only guest at the Tower of Fate, because another lost soul is there -- one Shayera Hol, stripped away of both her Hawkgirl costume and her Thanagarian rank, just someone who's trying to find her place in the universe. It's a very cool little tie-in and promises to give both Fate and Hawkgirl more relevance in future episodes.
Yeah, it's a very cool episode. There is a very great balance between the tense action sequences where we build up Amazo's invincibility, as well as the more philosophical debate between Luthor and Amazo that's surprisingly deep for a children's cartoon. The writing for Luthor in this entire episode is just top-notch, and man, there's a reason I hold Clancy Brown in such high regard. But honestly, it's a very great episode. And while it's more Luthor-centric than JLA-centric, it's still a great ensemble cast, giving characters like Green Lantern, Supergirl and Atom some really great chances to shine, as well as bringing less familiar faces like Fire, Ice, Orion and Rocket Red into play.
Justice League Roll Call:
- Speaking Roles: Green Lantern (John Stewart), Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Superman, Supergirl, Steel, Atom, Dr Fate, Inza, Hawkgirl
- Non-Speaking Roles: Tomar Re, Chaselon, Stel, Arisia, Salakk, Larvox, Kilowog, Katma Tui, Palaqua, Spol, Captain Atom, Fire, Rocket Red, Starman, Wonder Woman, Ice, Red Tornado, STRIPE, Dr. Light, Orion, Flash
- Major Villains: Amazo, Lex Luthor
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Amazo last appeared the Justice League episode "Tabula Rasa". As with that episode, he's mostly referred to as 'the Android' here.
- The Green Lanterns Katma Tui, Kilowog and Kyle Rayner return from past episodes, but their uniforms have been redesigned.
- This is the Atom's first speaking role, though he has made brief cameos in group shots and have been name-dropped in JLA before. Since the rest of the superheroes shown here are mostly fighting-scene cameos, we'll do a quick Atom origin story. Ray Palmer is a scientist in Ivy Town who was experimenting with the properties of a dwarf star which he intended to use to shrink things, and eventually adapted it to power a lens (later a suit) that could shrink himself. Ray Palmer found that his genetic code is unique in that he's one of the few things that can be shrunken by the dwarf star without exploding, and thus he began to fight crime as the Atom, who would prove to be an on-off member of various incarnations of the Justice League.
- Luthor mentions an event where the League 'trusted him when no one else would', which would refer to the events in "A Better World", where the League recruited his help to fight the Justice Lords. Luthor also is seen wearing the harness given to him by Ultra-Humanite in "Injustice for All" to help his Kryptonite poisoning from spreading too quickly.
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