Justice League Unlimited, Season 2, Episode 2: The Ties That Bind
One of the most common complaints against Justice League Unlimited is the lack of focus given to the original seven characters, while still juggling a huge cast of brand-new superheroes, introducing them and making them all have their own distinctive characterization and all that. The previous episode even didn't feature any of the original seven founding members bar a brief cameo by J'onn at the end. While the various members of the original seven characters have all had their roles reduced to some degree, with only Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern really having an almost-constant presence due to the former being mission control and the latter just appearing pretty often compared to the others, none really had the brunt of reduced screentime as badly as the Flash.
You see, throughout the first season, Flash didn't even get a proper speaking role, only appearing as part of the group shot in the first episode, as well as briefly as part of the ground team that got one-shotted by Amazo in 'the Return'. Every other member of the original seven had major roles in an episode or other, but Flash didn't even get a single line of dialogue. It's a bit of an oddity that he's not given any role in the first season of Unlimited. Whether it's a problem with the voice actor, or simply the showmakers forgetting about one of their old main characters (Michael Rosebaum did voice Ghoul from the season finale, though, so it's unlikely to be that), Flash is back now.
There's a hilarious bit of meta-commentary where Flash complains that he's seeing a lot less action since the expansion of the team, and the little scene with Elongated Man (who's portrayed in this universe as a bit of a whiner) where Flash complains about the other members not seeing him as mature enough... while they play on a beat-em-sock-em-robots toy, is one of the most hilarious scenes ever. The show's great scripting, scene choreography and Michael Rosenbaum's great voice acting really sells Flash's own insecurity and his own immaturity very well.
The guest stars of this week are Mister Miracle and Big Barda as we tackle the Apokolips characters again. We quickly establish the quirkiness of these two characters, Mister Miracle being this very-colourfully-costumed new god that spends his time being an escape artist for a show. Their buddy Oberon gets kidnapped by Granny Goodness's agents, however, as the two of them get trapped in Apokoliptan politics. After Darkseid's death in Justice League's second season, Apokolips have fallen apart as the various mini-factions led by Darkseid's generals fight for their former master's place on the throne. Kalibak, son of Darkseid, has been kidnapped by one of the generals, the hilariously-voiced Virman Vundabar, who wants to use his possession of Kalibak to boost his claim to the throne. Meanwhile, recurring enemy Granny Goodness wants to force her former 'pet' Mister Miracle to break into Vundabar's prison and free Kalibak.
Vundabar is just such a weird design. He's this slightly baby-faced man who's dressed like one of those British soldiers, yet speaks in an accent that's... very mangled German, I think? And he's one of the generals of a planet that generally has a hell theme to it.
Granny Goodness is one of DC's more sinister characters, and one that has always made me uncomfortable. Yes, on the surface she's just weird. One of the most powerful generals of Darkseid is an old, muscular grandmother who calls herself Granny Goodness? But Granny is the embodiment of parental abuse, and while we never see anything truly graphic, a combination of her unsettling man-voice, her continually trying to pretend to be a mockery of a nice grandparent (you wouldn't want to make granny sad, would you?) and the sheer callous sadism she shows in Mister Miracle's very effective flashbacks show the sheer depths of depravity that Granny Goodness sinks into. She is the personal demon that Mister Miracle is trying to escape from, as Miracle has been raised and tortured by Granny Goodness as a child and his only preoccupation is escape -- thus showing his skills in being the universe's best escape artist. Miracle is a grown man now, but he still carries the emotional scars within himself. Even his 'real' name, Scott Free, is an adaptation of how Granny Goodness keeps telling him that he'll never get away scot-free from Apokolips.
Mister Miracle tries to recruit Superman's help in all this, but the League is unwilling to choose a side in the political struggle for Apokolips, because whether Granny or Vundabar wins, Earth stands to lose anyway, and their best bet is to let Apokolips be embroiled in a self-destructive civil war and hopefully exhaust its own resources. It's a bit callous, of course, and arguably hypocritical considering how many times the League has interfered in other countries' political situations, before, but you can see the side in J'onn's argument. It plays into the theme of "should the League get involve in political situations" argument, as well as a slight display in J'onn being more detached and more... analytical and strategist-y with everything.
Flash sees this as the perfect opportunity to get some high-stakes superheroing going on, and add that to the whole 'rebel against the rules' thing that the younger Flash finds so appealing, Flash volunteers to help Mister Miracle and Big Barda out, and the initial rejection that he gets from the two new gods -- that Flash simply isn't as good as Superman, their first choice, only increases Flash's desire to help out and prove himself.
The episode is very much a fantastic journey as Flash, Mister Miracle and Big Barda go through the crazy alien fortress in Apokolips trying to rescue Kalibak and Oberon, fighting through Parademons, hell-hounds and using Mister Miracle's crazy methods to escape from Virman Vundabar's death traps, but the episode makes it a far more compelling episode by continually juxtaposing to scenes of young Scott Free, being tortured and refusing to be broken, escaping on his own from Granny Goodness, escaping from the hell that's not just physical torment but mental as well. There's a great sense of cinematography where the flashbacks are bleak and desolate, using a depressing, monochromic blue tone in its scenes, while in the present day we get the absolutely colourful costumes of Mister Miracle and Big Barda going insane in a similarly fun and colourful environment.
There's a nice bit where J'onn finally ends up helping out as Flash has the idea to use the martian's shape-shifting powers to pre-emptively doublecross Granny Goodness, having J'onn use his mind-reading powers to find out where Oberon is being kept in Granny's palace before she can kill Oberon. J'onn's fears that helping out the struggle for the throne would unify Apokolips is ultimately averted as Kalibak is imprisoned on Earth, thus meaning that neither Virman nor Granny have a solid claim to the throne and are forced to continue their little war. It's a bit cold that they're basically sentencing Apokolips to perpetual war and possibly the deaths of many, many Parademons and other soldiers... but then, eh, Parademons aren't people. So.
There's a very nice scene at the end after everything is said and done, where Flash basically expects J'onn to punish him for disobeying orders. But J'onn breaks from his earlier stiffness and all-business demeanor and just asks Flash to play some Brawling Bots with him. J'onn's disconnect with the world and his humanity (martianity?) is shown earlier this episode, and it's Flash's youthful energy and 'help people first, think of political backlashes later' stance that gets J'onn to, well, basically take a break. J'onn's character arc is building very slowly and subtly in the background as he becomes more and more detached with his humanity, but this is it's characters like Flash that prevents this from happening sooner.
"I wanted the green one..." man, that is the most hilarious scene ever. I never thought I would ever see J'onn J'onzz pout.
Justice League Roll Call:
- Speaking Roles: Mr Miracle, Big Barda, Flash, Elongated Man, Martian Manhunter
- Non-Speaking Roles: Fire
- Major Villains: Granny Goodness, Virman Vundabar, Kalibak
- Darkseid's death happened in the Justice League episode 'Twilight'. Kalibak was last seen in the Justice League episode 'Hereafter', where he was part of the villains that attempted to kill Superman, and was beaten down by Lobo. Presumably he travelled back to Apokolips between that episode and this one? Regardless, this marks Kalibak's final appearance in the DCAU. Granny Goodness last appeared in Superman: The Animated Series' series finale, and has been a frequent enemy of Superman throughout the series.
- Big Barda, a.k.a. Barda Free, has appeared in the DCAU before as a member of the future Justice League Unlimited in Batman Beyond. She was one of Granny Goodness's brainwashed Female Furies until she was freed by Mr. Miracle, and later married him. Big Barda's more... revealing outfit from Batman Beyond appears briefly when she's helping Scott out on his performance, but for the majority of the episode she wears a full-body armour based on her costume in the comics. Barda is immensely powerful, and in battle wields the Mega-rod, a verstatile weapon that augments her strength.
- Mister Miracle, a.k.a. Scott Free, has had brief cameos as background characters in Superman: TAS and Justice League episodes among the New Genesis gods. While not really mentioned here, Scott Free was actually the biological son of New Genesis's Highfather, traded for Orion during the weird child-trading pact between New Genesis and Apokolips. As told here, Scott could not be broken by the tortures of Apokolips, and eventually escaped alongside his lover Barda and rejoined the side of good.
- Oberon is a human born with dwarvism who was abused in a circus, before eventually meeting Mister Miracle and, well, basically being his manager-slash-mentor as shown here.
- Virman Vundabar (sometimes spelled Vundabarr) in the comics serves mostly the same role as he does here, as a treacherous member of Darkseid's minions with a penchant for designing traps. He clashed multiple times with Superman and Mr. Miracle, and is involved in various Apokoliptan stories. He was eventually killed by Darkseid for his treachery, though.
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