Justice League Unlimited S02E07 Review: Flaws of the Superman

Justice League Unlimited, Season 2, Episode 7: Clash

This was an episode I missed when I watched Justice League Unlimited as a kid, and was surprised to discover the existence of. Which is a shame, because 'Clash', with its deceptively simple title, is one of the most hard-hitting episodes of Justice League Unlimited. Which seems to be something I'm saying a lot lately, but hey, season two of JLU is a very, very strong season. So basically the general premise of this episode is to have two heroes fight. Very Civil War. Very Batman v. Superman. This review is written around a year after both those movies graced the big screen, but I'd argue that 'Clash' is a far more effective hero-vs-hero showing than... well, than BvS, anyway, with a far more satisfying, if depressing, conclusion.

I'm not quite sure just why fans of the superhero genre really love to pit superheroes together to fight each other. Even before Civil War or Batman versus Superman came out, any geek discussion will inevitably end up with "well, sure, Green Arrow's awesome, but the Flash can steal his arrows, kick his ass, shave his head and stick a fake mustache on his face in less than a second." or "well, Hawkeye's cool and all, but Hulk flicks a finger and he's so much paste on the street." But one of the more interesting questions that the general audience asks when trailers of Civil War or Batman versus Superman showed up is "why are our heroes fighting?"

For Civil War, it's something relatively easy to understand. Captain America wants to rescue his friend, Bucky, who's being mind-controlled. Iron Man wants to do damage control due to his own personal sense of guilt. For Batman versus Superman it's a bit harder to pin, but basically Luthor manipulates Batman into thinking that Superman is a menace to society and mankind, while Superman sees Batman as a dangerous vigilante that takes the law into his own hands. In both cases, there's no real villain when our heroes actually do fight, with the real villains of both stories, Zemo and Luthor, not even having to throw a single punch.

Here, we are presented with Captain Marvel, a very major DC comics superhero that has had some difficulties getting through real-life legal loopholes to get into the small screen. Captain Marvel is basically a younger Superman (though how much younger surprises even the Man of Steel himself), far more idealistic and far happier to believe in the goodness inherent in everyone. He's perfectly happy to assume that Lex Luthor has truly reformed for the better and why wouldn't he? Luthor's building a city, Luthor's pouring all sorts of praise on him... Luthor's on the up-and-up, as far as Captain Marvel is concerned. And Captain Marvel? He's just likable. Not likable in a nauseating marketable way that the Ultimen are a couple episodes ago... the show actually makes Captain Marvel this aw-shucks old-style superhero that even Batman doesn't mind.

Either because Captain Marvel reminds Superman too much of himself when he was a lot more naive and less world-weary, or because of Cap's closeness to Luthor, Superman inherently distrusts him, and that's a common thread of Superman's story across the Justice League stories. He's grown... more war-like, so to speak. More paranoid. Maybe it's the Batman rubbing off on him, but it's a character point that we see dangerously growing ever since he tore apart Darkseid and Brainiac in season two of Justice League, and recently revisited when he deigned to just Phantom Zone Doomsday out. No, he's not quite evil yet, and we're not in Injustice territory at all, but Superman's paranoia is absolutely well-displayed here. Yes, Superman seemed petty and jealous, but at the same time, he's only human (well, Kryptonian, whatever). He's not always perfect, he tries as hard to be the truth-justice-freedom superhero as any one of us does, but even the Superman has flaws.

Lex Luthor's campaign for president is one of the biggest factors in all this, a huge, huge chunk of stress on Superman's back as he sees his archnemesis angling to basically take over the country, but nothing shows anything untoward. There's nothing to punch, no secret conspiracy to uncover, no mind-control device to destroy, yet Superman knows there's something. There's a catch, because it's Luthor, right? The others just don't see it because they don't personally know Luthor like Superman does. And Captain Marvel publicly endorsing Lex Luthor leads to Superman lashing out and verbally berating the poor kid for making public endorsements.

Of course, a huge part of this stems from Superman's own feelings of inadequacy as Captain Marvel shows himself to be as good as Superman during a fight against the Parasite... and the JLU has tackled the inadequacy-in-the-face-of-so-many-superheroes theme before with Wildcat and Flash, but here we see someone that's more Clark Kent than Superman. A combination of jealousy at Captain Marvel, frustration at Luthor, and seeing a lot of his younger self in the Big Red Cheese causes the titular clash.

One of my favourite scenes has to be the therapy session between Superman and Batman. Where normal people would meet up with their bros for coffee or a game of basketball or whatever, Superman and Batman are not normal people. No, they talk about Superman's problems with Luthor and Captain Marvel while beating up a supervillain team. That, I find, is absolutely perfect.

Despite what Superman wants to think, Captain Marvel isn't even the same age as he was when he started flying around in a cape. Captain Marvel is a little kid, Billy Batson, and that's his real identity. Which is why poor Billy looks so utterly hurt when the hero he idolizes lashes out against him for, well, what he thinks is the right thing -- standing up for someone who's trying to do good by the people. And Captain Marvel's very honest idolizing of Superman, or indeed every single superhero abroad the Watchtower, is very apparent in the first half of the episode.

(Side-note: Vigilante and Shining Knight are literally joined at the hip at this point in the series, aren't they? Ever since the Dark Heart episode, the two of them are always seen together in backgrounds.)

Billy's a kid, though, and while Superman has some very valid points about a supposedly-neutral superhero force endorsing a particular politician -- a nice continuity touch with Flash looking away in shame, by the way -- he's a lot more idealistic in his views, probably has a lot less experience with subtle villains like Lex Luthor, and this clash of views puts friction between the two titans. Of course, Luthor does make a very good job at pretending to be good, showing off the opening of Lexor City, a fully-refurbished settlement complete with hospitals and playgrounds and shit for the poor and impoverished. For Captain Marvel, it's a sign that Luthor has changed for the better. For Superman, it's a sure trap. And the beauty is, neither Captain Marvel's naivety nor Superman's paranoia are actually fully in the wrong. Sure, Superman's paranoia caused him to destroy Lexor City and make a gigantic fool out of himself in the public eye, because there's not really a bomb. But while Captain Marvel is right that Luthor isn't planning anything now, Luthor's super-honest Lexor City is actually a trap for Superman... just not the right kind of trap that Superman was expecting.

The action sequences in this episode is also very excellent to behold, with very distinct stylistic choices used -- bright, colourful beams and costumes abound during the initial battle with the Parasite, showing the optimism and simplicity of how all the heroes need to do is to beat up the very clear-cut villain, the purple energy draining monster. The battle between Superman and Captain Marvel, with the former convinced that there's a bomb, and the latter thinking the former crazy, is set in darker hues and involves almost exclusively punching each other, far more brutal and darker, far more in line with the darker stories in the superhero genre. You can truly feel the devastation of each punch that Superman and Captain Marvel -- two of the most powerful beings in the entire DC universe. The massive destruction done on the uninhabited Lexor City is a great shorthand way to show the audience that, yeah, these are really powerful dudes. It's not until Superman forces Captain Marvel to eat his own lightning which turns him back into Billy Batson that Superman truly realizes what a gigantic idiot he's been throughout this episode.

Superman can only sheepishly apologize to Luthor, who, of course, does the humble thing and goes "eh, can't be helped, I used to be bad, after all" in front of the media, making him out to be the better man. Superman also loses the respect and membership of Captain Marvel, who walks out of the Justice League (and the show, thanks to copyright reasons) due to Superman's actions, noting that Superman "doesn't act like a hero" anymore. And even when saying about how he'll make amends and pay for the destruction he's caused, he's reduced to sneaking a look to billionaire playboy Batman.

The only winner here is Luthor and Cadmus, who, of course, he's secretly financing. Superman and Captain Marvel's battle only does nothing but weaken the superhero forces, and to give Cadmus even more ammunition to fuel their anti-superhero agenda. Luthor only intended for Superman to freak out over the kryptonite fusion reactor thing, but the huge, huge superhero battle? That's just a bonus. And it turns out that, yes, Superman does know his arch-enemy best, and that Luthor is just that petty to continue his schemes even if he has to pretend to be a good guy.

Clancy Brown's Lex Luthor voice is amazing voice work, but let me re-state it here again -- he jumps from nice, reformed president candidate Luthor to magnificent bastard"mwah-ha-ha Superman fell into my trap" Luthor very smoothly, and honestly there was a point in the episode where I truly believed that Luthor is actually good, at least for these few episodes.

Overall, it's amazing stuff. Great, great performances from Superman, Captain Marvel and Luthor, and a great round of applause to the scriptwriters for making neither Captain Marvel nor Superman actually feel to be fully in the wrong since depending on how you argue, you could easily note how Captain Marvel's idealism is how superheroes should behave, whereas knowing just who Lex Luthor is, and the general setting of the world where betrayal is something you do have to watch out for, Superman's caution is definitely warranted. The scripting is also awesome, with Superman's frustration coming out in angry quips "you don't have X-ray vision. I do!" and Captain Marvel's enthusiastic optimism being very well-displayed. Even Batman gets in on the snarking battle, which is always welcome.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Captain Marvel, Elongated Man, Metamorpho, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Superman, the Atom
• Non-Speaking Roles: Sand, Wildcat, Stargirl, Captain Atom, Vigilante, Shining Knight, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Fire, Ice, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkgirl 
• Major Villains: Parasite, Lex Luthor, Emil Hamilton
• Non-Speaking Villains: Black Mass, Crowbar, Fastball, Shatterfist

DC Easter Egg Corner:

• Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Billy Batson, is now widely-marketed as Shazam after a decades-long wrestling of the 'Captain Marvel' name is finally won over by Marvel comics. He's a young boy who's innocent and idealistic, and was chosen to be the champion of Earth by the ancient wizard Shazam, granting him the wisdom of Solomon, strength of Hercules, et cetera, when he speaks the word 'Shazam', transforming him with a bolt of lightning. 
• This is Captain Marvel's sole appearance in the DC Animated Universe, after a long battle with copyright and trademark problems. The showmakers of the DCAU has been wanting to use him as early as Superman: TAS, but for one reason or another he's always unavailable.
• The fight between Superman and Captain Marvel has many allusions to a similar battle in the DC mini-series Kingdom Come, which features Superman fighting a (mind-controlled) Captain Marvel -- in particular the sequence where Cap uses his lightning to attack Superman, but Superman forces him to transform back to Billy by shoving him in front of the lightning.
• The dudes that Batman and Superman beat up is the Cadre, consisting of Black Mass, Crowbar, Fastball and Shatterfist. While there have been many lineups of the Cadre before, this is based on the very first incarnation, a group of supervillains recruited by the alien Overmaster to test Earth's heroes. 
• One of the buildings in Lexor City is the Lena Luthor Hospital. Lena Luthor is Lex's sister or daughter depending on the continuity, though she never appears in the DCAU.
• Lexor City itself is named after the planet Lexor and its capital city in a particular comic arc in the 70's, where Lex Luthor accidentally became a superhero in a different planet, before retiring from crime to guide the world of Lexor... and of course it ends up getting destroyed.
• Luthor's bid for presidency has been mentioned multiple times throughout this season of Justice League Unlimited, but this is the first episode where it's a major plot point. Lex is supposed to have reformed at the end of 'A Better World', and while his appearances between that episode and now, he's never been as actively antagonistic as he was before.
• Flash's previous attempts at endorsing products on television, in the episode 'Eclipsed', is alluded to by Superman and he has this perfect embarrassed reaction.
• Batman's theme song from Batman: The Animated Series briefly plays when he first joins the fight against the Parasite. Likewise, the theme song of Superman: The Animated Series is played briefly when he saves the falling airplane. 
• Billy Batson's school, C.C. Binder Elementary School, is named after his creators, C.C. Beck and Otto Binder.