Justice League Unlimited S02E12 Review: Barry Allen Would Be Proud

Justice League Unlimited, Season 2, Episode 12: Divided We Fall

The Justice League.

Okay, this honestly was meant to be the end of Justice League Unlimited, with the plans and greenlight for the third season coming very late after the second season was underway. And honestly? I can see where so many points in this episode (and the last three) all aimed to end. All the Cadmus storylines that were seeded throughout the first two seasons are dealt with, Green Arrow and Supergirl, the two characters we're introduced at the beginning of Unlimited, come full circle with Green Arrow going from a cynic to recognizing the importance of the League to be the first person to speak up against dissolving it. Superman's storyline that carried so much of season two also comes to a close, as does Lex Luthor himself as the arc villain. Sure, there's a final episode in season two, but that acts as an epilogue to the universe more than it does to just Justice League Unlimited.

And it's fitting that this supposed 'final episode' only stars the main seven heroes that founded the Justice League as they come face to face with this monstrous combination of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, about to take over the world, and having to actually fight copies based on Justice Lord versions of themselves. Yes, it's a bit on-the-nose after so much subtlety throughout much of season two, but this kinda does show that the heroes' sense of justice is far stronger than the potential of them turning out evil like their alternate-universe doppelgangers.

This season of Justice League Unlimited has a long-running theme of how the Justice League became their own worst enemy, how due to the paranoia and escalating arms race between Cadmus and the League, they very nearly ended up destroying each other and allowing the world's real monsters -- like Luthor and Brainiac -- to take over. In trying to deliver this message, part of it is kind of lost (unless you count Green Arrow's speech here) because our heroes have to stop Luthor and Brainiac from destroying the world, but the main themes still stand. With great power comes great responsibility, and if the Justice League wants to be the watchers of the world, they cannot just take the laws into their own hands, lest they become no better than Cadmus or Luthor.

The majority of this episode is just a huge, huge, glorious action scene as the seven founding members of the Justice League is reunited as they do battle with the combined Luthor-Brainiac creature (Lexniac? Brainithor?), from his gigantic tentacle spaceship, to the hulking montrosity that they two are combined into in the first few scenes, to Justice Lord clones, to the final golden form... it's pretty awesome action all around, with a lot of great moments. Hell, even Amanda Waller gets some action in by shooting Luthor-Brainiac when he's monologuing! Lady's got some awesome guts.

All the heroes get their due. J'onn's awesomeness in breaking free, Flash using his vibration-arm technique to blow up Reverse-Flash, Green Lantern and Shayera get to unleash their personal tensions on each other's doppelganger, and Superman gets to have a short guilt trip that he was shaken out of by Diana. Brainiac and Luthor's conversation in the sewer, with Brainiac explaining his real plans, and Luthor getting Brainiac to cooperate with him in a similar way to him manipulating Amazo, is pretty awesome and Luthor-Brainiac getting a power-up by assimilating the Dark Heart is pretty cool, making him far more believable as a threat to all seven League members.

And the Justice Lords episode has been a huge, huge lynchpin in getting this whole Cadmus affair forwards, first by being the thing that caused both Question and Project Cadmus to even consider the League going back in the first place. And Luthor mentions this bit multiple times, noting how 'Flash will die'. And true to that, Flash ends up being an integral part of the episode.

Flash, especially the younger, more inexperienced Wally West version, is someone who's very easy to underestimate. He's just a kid that runs fast -- Superman can do that. He's less powerful than J'onn, Shayera or Wonder Woman, he's not as smart as Batman or Green Lantern. And then he lets loose in this episode, and it's amazing. From how he's vibrating so fast that the rubble around him rises into the air, to him slamming into Luthor-Brainiac so fast that he runs around the world multiple times... that's easily one of the most iconic and most badass scenes that Flash has ever done, and reminds me once again why, despite DC comics and its live-action adaptations thinking otherwise, Wally West will always be the Flash in my mind. Sorry, Barry.

It's just a fucking badass moment, all right? And after essentially being ignored for a good chunk of Unlimited's first season, seeing Flash basically save the day is amazing.

Flash runs around the world so damned fast that each successive force hits harder and harder that Brainiac's Dark Heart technology can't regenerate, and strips away every bit of Brainiac from Luthor's body. Going this fast causes Flash to peacefully fade away into the Speed Force, however, and the horror in everyone's faces -- especially Flash's "big sister", Shayera, is agonizing. And you honestly believe that Wally's going to just be gone, considering how much the mainstream comics likes killing off Flashes as the 'big death' in climaxes. And since this is the final episode of Justice League Unlimited, or is meant to, you almost believe that it's the case. But J'onn manages to telepathically get Wally back, and all the six League members begin a hand-to-hand pull of Flash out of the Speed Force. Even Batman, whose strength is negligible compared to the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman, but damned if the Dark Knight is going to not give his all in getting Flash back. It's cheesy and corny, yes, but fuck, it's heartwarming and awesome.

Luthor-Brainiac is defeated, and Superman calls a press conference to talk about how they're all guilty of the sin of hubris, how they've failed humanity. In Superman's words: "We had the best of intentions to be Earth's guardians, to keep you safe... but we failed you. We looked down at the world from our tower in the sky, and let our power and responsibility separate us from the very people we were supposed to protect. No one should ever be afraid of us."

And, of course, it's Green Arrow -- the biggest voice of criticism against forming an army of superheroes on day one, who spends a good chunk two episodes ago criticizing the League's own methods -- that speaks up against Superman's attempt to dissolve the League. Yes, Superman's, well, Superman, and he takes on other people's burdens because he's the strongest of them all, but he's not the only hero in the Justice League. In Green Arrow's words, no, Superman has not failed the city the world. "If you're quitting because you think you've already done your fair share, we'll throw you a parade. But if you're quitting because it's easier than continuing the fight, then you're not the heroes we all thought you were." Green Arrow's line is one that resonated through me when I watched this episode as a kid, because being a hero isn't about just beating the Luthors and Brainiacs of the world. It's not even just about admitting your mistakes like what Superman just did. It's about not giving up, it's about learning from your mistakes and continuing to help people however you can, because you can. And that's what the League is all about -- it's greater than any one man, it's greater than the original seven.

And yes, the League does continue. Even after the cancellation of Justice League Unlimited, it still continues, be it in comic book form, or in new incarnations of the cartoon (like 2016's Justice League Action that I'm reviewing concurrently, created nearly a decade after this), or in live-action, the League will endure, and the League will continue to exist, with or without Superman. And while it's noble for him to bear the burdens of everyone, every single person in the League are heroes, and what was once just a group of seven people trying to help the world have grown into something larger and more noble than Clark and Bruce hanging out to beat up a couple of terrorists.

Is it the perfect ending that I thought it was when I first caught this episode on Cartoon Network as a kid? Nah, it's not. There are a fair amount of holes when I sat down to review this episode, and I think the last four episodes took the longest for me to review. There's the abandoning of the very interesting proactiveness argument last episode and replacing it with a relatively more generic superhero angst. There's a lack of resolution on the Cadmus part of the storyline, with only Waller really participating in the end. There's the fact that Brainiac still comes out of nowhere and the episode could've functioned as well against him and if Luthor had done everything himself (maybe he succeeds in transferring his body into the Amazo body?). And yes, maybe the rest of the League could come help out and fight the big Brainiac battleship, but keeping it to the main seven works just as fine, I suppose. Whatever the case, it's still a pretty great final episode... well, until the epilogue. And the final season comes around.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Amanda Waller, Steel, Green Arrow
• Non-Speaking Roles: Dr. Light, Creeper, Ice, Fire, Vixen, Supergirl, Nemesis, Aztek, Zatanna, Huntress, Vigilante, Atom Smasher, Vibe, Rocket Red, Waverider, Red Tornado, Dr. Mid-Nite, STRIPE, Stargirl, Hourman, Captain Atom, Wildcat, Gypsy, Commander Steel, Atom, Crimson Avenger, Ray, B'wana Beast, Starman, Shining Knight, Dr. Fate, Sand, Question, Elongated Man, Fire, Mr. Terrific, Black Canary, Metamorpho, Crimson Fox
• Main Villains: Lex Luthor, Brainiac

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Various episodes of Superman: The Animated Series are referenced by Brainiac. I'm not super well-versed in the later seasons of Superman: TAS, but apparently part of Brainiac has been in Luthor's possession, and it's separate from the Brainiac destroyed in the Justice League episode "Twilight", though Brainiac seems to be aware of his betrayal by Darkseid in that episode, referencing it here. Luthor attributes Brainiac for curing his Kryptonite poisoning and giving him super-strength. 
• The Dark Heart reappear after it being confiscated by Eiling and the government in "The Dark Heart".
• The clones created by Luthor/Brainiac of the Justice Leaguers all resemble their Justice Lords counterparts, with Lord Hawkgirl apparently having a Thanagarian general outfit, something we don't know during the Justice Lords episode... and since there isn't a Justice Lord Flash, Luthor/Brainiac creates one based on the comics' Reverse-Flash. Rather ironically, Flash uses the Reverse-Flash's trademark "vibrating hand" murder technique to dispatch his robotic doppelganger.
• Brainiac's gigantic metallic skull ship is based on his appearance in the comics' Silver Age all the way to the 1980's, where he's a skeletal robot riding around in a gigantic skull-ship with metallic tentacles. Meanwhile, Brainiac and Luthor sharing a body, with Brainiac being more dominant, is a possible homage to the comic "Whatever Happaned to the Man of Tomorrow?" where Brainiac does take over Luthor's body.
• Batman's quote, "quis custodiet ipsos custodes", a.k.a. "who watches the watchers" is more likely than not a homage to the iconic Alan Moore comic Watchmen.
• Flash's jibe about how he's going to paint his logo at the Justice League conference table is a nod to how in the comics the League members have their respective logos on the back of their chairs.
• Flash being lost into the Speed Force, finding it peaceful, while trying to stop a powerful villain from destroying the world, is a homage to the death of Barry Allen's Flash during the Crisis to Infinite Earths.