Justice League Unlimited S01E13 Review: Batman Beyond

Justice League Unlimited, Season 1, Episodes 13: The Once and Future Thing, Part 2 - Time, Warped

So the first part of this two-parter finale ended with our heroes finding themselves in pursuit of time-thief Chronos and landing in the future, specifically, in the time era of Batman Beyond, besieged by the Jokerz gang, helped out by their future successors, the Justice League... and while it might be planned or just happy coincidence, one of the members in the future JLU's lineup is Warhawk -- who addresses Green Lantern as 'dad'. And he's definitely more likely to be Hawkgirl's child than Vixen's... so what does that hold for Green Lantern's future?

Of course, Lantern isn't the only one to get a glimpse of the future, because Batman gets to see his successor in a swanky-new all-black suit with wings... as well as Future!Bruce Wayne, who is easily the best part of Batman Beyond, this old curmudgeonly dick. Who, despite all the years of vigilantism and superheroing, is still the same man that was once Batman, and one of the most hilarious scenes in the DC Animated Universe is the present and future Batman taking turns to interrogate a random mook to get him to spill. "I can't believe I was ever that green. THIS is how you interrogate someone!"

How the episode plays out is pretty basic, and for all the important character questions that the episode asks, very little that actually gets answered. Other than the coolness of seeing three Batmen on scene, or Green Lantern seeing his old protege Static grow into one of the leaders of the future Justice League, there's very little that the group takes to heart. Even Green Lantern is just going with the "eh, that's a trippy trip, let me continue living my life" when it comes to the Vixen-vs-Hawkgirl. Sure, the seeds of doubt have been planted, but beyond that the whole two-parter remains a pretty fun, isolated episode from the rest of the Unlimited series.

And I loved it, because this second episode doesn't just introduce a slew of characters we've never met before (well, Jonah Hex aside) and bum-rush through just what they're all about. Sure, they did an admirable job with what little screentime they had, but this part is far stronger simply because you can feel the weight behind the characters of Static and Batman II, both of whom had headlined their respective shows. I've only watched half of Batman Beyond's first season and maybe the first three or four episodes of Static Shock, but the appearance of these characters are filled with respect and a huge moment for me to squee even if these aren't characters as iconic to me as, say, the three Justice Leaguers from the present.

Of course, it's a slightly-altered future, because in this timeline altered by Chronos, the Justice League is reduced to three people -- Batman, Static and Warhawk, plus old Bruce Wayne running as the boss. It's not quite the same lineup as the Justice League Unlimited that we met during the Batman Beyond series -- we get mentions that Superman and Green Lantern's successor died during Chronos and the Jokerz' battle with them.

And yeah, the future stuff in general is darker, and it's not just because Future Gotham has such darkened lighting compared to the harsh suns of the wild west either. In addition to the crapsack references of their old friends all dying, we also get one of the most brutal (and at the same time most hilarious) deaths in DC history, where Chronos sends one of the Jokerz that failed him to death... by throwing him back through time so he is present when the meteor that killed the dinosaurs struck the Earth.

Still, the action scenes are as lively as ever, in no small part due to the characters involved being so much more colourful in their powers. I mean, one of the Jokerz is a rocket-powered hyena-man! And as the story goes, Chronos falls more and more into insanity. He gets the respect he wants from his wife, but it's a respect he obtained out of his wife being afraid of him more than anything (she wants Chronos to assert himself, not destroy the universe!). He's stolen so many historical pieces and has a gang of cyborg clown enforcers to do what he wants to do, but at the same time he's still angry and lashing out, equal parts tripping on his newfound powers as well as still feeling empty and unsatisfied.

As his time manipulations go on, Wonder Woman straight up disappears from existence, and in one of my favourite Easter Eggs ever, we get a little swapping in and out of Green Lanterns as Hal Jordan replaces John Stewart for a whole scene, which is hilarious. They fight Chronos, and we get the pretty epic scene of Batman, Green Lantern and Chronos tumbling through time straight into the beginning of time, where older DC fans get to freaking squee at the unexpected cameo of the Hand of Creation from Crisis on Infinite Earths. (You either get this reference or you don't. It's okay.)

The ending is a bit of a slightly anticlimactic cut to Batman and Green Lantern hanging out at the cafeteria table again, with the cut on John's head that he got protecting Warhawk in the future the only indication that they had time-traveled. Even Wonder Woman doesn't seem to remember anything... and while it probably won't amount to anything, one would think that Batman's knowledge of what his future would be -- a protege and he himself an aged grumpy old man still fighting the fight -- as well as John and his whole Warhawk business... will haunt them.

Of course, they fare a lot better than freaking Chronos, who's stuck in a time loop of being bitch-slapped by his wife forever and ever and ever and ever. That is the kind of fate that I would prefer a bullet to the head to, thank you very much. Batman can be a huge dick about things when he want to.

As far as season finales go, this was more on the whimsical side, with a huge smattering of fanservice for DC fans, and definitely doesn't rank that high if I ever do a ranking of the episodes of Justice League. But still, you can't deny the sheer entertainment factor of this bizarre two-parter, and if nothing else, Chronos is a very memorable villain for how much of a fucking loser he is even when he manages to wreck time itself.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Batman (Terry McGinnis), Warhawk, Static, Batman (Bruce Wayne), Green Lantern (John Stewart), Wonder Woman, Bruce Wayne of the Future, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
• Non-Speaking Roles: Vibe, Dr. Light, Mr. Terrific, Booster Gold, Stargirl, Gypsy, Supergirl, Hawkgirl
• Major Villains: Chronos, Ghoul, Chucko, Dee Dee, Woof, Bonk

DC Easter Egg Corner:

• Hooo boy. Basically everyone in the future timeline are old friends, all of them other than Static debuting in Batman Beyond.
• Terry McGinnis, the second Batman, naturally, is the main character. 
• Static, a.k.a. Virgil Hawkins, is the star of the Static Shock show, and was one of the youths who was exposed to a meta-bomb that gave powers to many people in the area. Virgil himself got the power to create and control electricity. While his stories were mostly contained to his own show, Static had some episodes where characters from the then-concurrently-airing Justice League show up. Usually only Green Lantern (both of them share the same voice actor) but sometimes the entire league. Apparently, in several episodes, Static was sent to the future and worked together with Batman II and an episode established an older Static to be a member of the Justice League of that period.
• Warhawk and the rest of the Justice League Unlimited (who are only mentioned but not seen here, having died in this alternate timeline) appeared in the Batman Beyond episode 'the Call'.
• There are multiple incarnations of the Jokerz gang over the years, but the five that we see here are the incarnation that appeared in the movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, albeit modified into cyborgs by Chronos. 
• Green Lantern references a former team-up with Static, noting that the last time they met, Static wasn't old enough to drive. 
• Hal Jordan, of course, is the most well-known Green Lantern in the franchise's long history, being the definite Green Lantern with people like John Stewart and Guy Gardner playing second fiddle to him. The DCAU, of course, chose to adapt John Stewart as their Green Lantern partially to add racial diversity, but also partially because at the point that the show aired, Hal Jordan had gone evil and died. Also because, to be honest, before he became Parallax and later Spectre... Hal Jordan was never that interesting. 
• The Hand of Creation is seen as this giant spectral thing clutching the universe at the beginning of time. John states that the Green Lantern Corps prohibit anyone from seeing the beginning of time, which is a reference to a critical part of the Crisis of Infinite Earths, where a rogue Guardian, Krona, looking into the beginning of time caused the multiverse to be created.