Justice League Unlimited S03E01 Review: The Blackhawks' Crazy Weapons Collection

Justice League Unlimited, Season 3, Episode 1: I Am Legion

Ah, here we are as we start off the final stretch of Justice League Unlimited. This came out a far bit later -- it's supposed to actually go up in the April-May era, as I've gotten all the reviews done, but a freak laptop accident kinda caused things to get delayed, and one thing and the other and, well, here we are in August. Whoops! Better late than never. I'm hopefully going to finish proof-reading all my reviews in a timely manner, and the goal is to get all of season three done within the first two weeks of July. Planning to review the first season of Superman: TAS in the next month, and then Young Justice in the month afterwards.

In any case, while JLU's second season was an intense run of serialization -- something that's far, far more ambitious than anything that any superhero cartoon has tried to do before -- its third season was a mix of the second season's serialization and the first season's 'hero/villain of the week' plot. The third season was by no means bad, but coming off the very successful and well-done second season it just felt... weaker.

The whole concept of the Justice League Unlimited was that we have gathered all the heroes in one place so we can be organized and stuff. The first season didn't really have a huge enemy for them to face off against, though the seeds for Cadmus's formation has been seeded there. Sure, there were big battles against Amazo and Mordru, but it's not until the second season that Cadmus (and Luthor/Brainiac) took over as the main villains of the piece, becoming a recurring threat. And the fact that Cadmus was presented as the anti-Justice-League was pretty awesome too. Tala aside, Cadmus was filled with a group of normal people. And, yes, they had Task Force X, the Ultimen army and Galatea working for them... but their threat was in the fact that they are the government, and that they actually do have a point their villainy.

But they're not a group of bad guys, not like how the two incarnations of the Injustice League or the Secret Society were in the original Justice League run. And while they were cool, they also didn't last outside the episode that starred them.

So what if we created a truly recurring group of supervillains? In a glorious callback to the Legion of Doom from one of DC's earliest foray into animation in Challenge of the Super Friends (which I've watched a couple of episodes of as a child before watching JLU), an escaping Lex Luthor finds himself recruited -- okay, kidnapped and gang-pressed -- into the Legion of Doom, led by one of the few surviving recurring villains that are still alive and available for the writing staff -- Gorilla Grodd.


Let me say that I squeed when Grodd stands in front of his giant totally-not-based-on-Darth-Vader's-helmet base with a huge, huge lineup of supevillains. No, this isn't just a group of evil scientists and powerful government people that Cadmus was. It isn't a half-dozen mercenaries like the Injustice League was. It's an army to match the Justice League's own expanded roster. It's a bit of a shame that the Bat-Embargo and Justice League's own penchant of killing their villains stopped more recognizable faces from being in this lineup and making it truly impressive, but a lot of recognizable faces are among them. We know heavy-hitters like Bizarro, Parasite, Giganta, Sinestro and Star Sapphire. The likes of Copperhead, Killer Frost, Toyman and Cheetah are recurring characters, and iconic villains like Black Manta Devil Ray make their debut. And yes, the amount of new characters there -- who the hell knows who Rampage or Doctor Cyber are? -- promises to introduce us to these new, colourful characters the way people like Question went from nobodies to somebodies in the last two seasons.

Grodd runs his organization like a mafia, allowing the assembled villains shelter, the chance for them to recruit teammates for jobs, in exchange for 25% of the cut. And as Grodd takes Luthor and the audience for a tour, we see villains manning stations and doing base stuff in a way that's very much similar to how the League operates. However, Luthor's not very interested in joining. His last mind-meld with Brainiac has left him with a far different goal in mind. Apparently while conjoined with Brainiac, he achieved absolute knowledge, a state that Luthor equals to godhood. Luthor himself isn't very sane, because he sees specters of Brainiac (which, by the way, is ambiguous whether it's really Brainiac connected to Luthor due to their past bond or just hallucination) and is obsessed with it. Grodd values Luthor's skill and wants to recruit him into the fold, using the last remaining piece of Brainiac on Earth as a bargaining chip.

Meanwhile, on the good guys' side, we see that the League now has an embassy on Earth, a nice nod to Superman's propositions from the last season. King Faraday is promoted to liaison for the Leagues, which means that Faraday himself shows up a couple more times this season. Flash and Shayera are the main leaguers in this episode, but in a nice callback to JLU's season 1 formula, we get a mix of the old and the new. Flash and Shayera hang out with Fire -- a recurring and very memorable character that's been in the background episodes a lot of times -- as well as Chuck Sirianni, the last surviving member of World War II's Blackhawk Squadron. We also get a hilarious subplot of Flash totally crushing on Fire, but since he's still relatively young he's very, very intimidated by the hot Brazilian. Shayera plays the part of a wing-woman (no pun intended), though we did get the Brazilian joke out of her which is absolutely hilarious! The group of four are summoned to Blackhawk Island, which is the Blackhawks' decommissioned base and museum, being raided by Luthor, the Key and Dr. Polaris.

Apparently the Blackhawks' Island isn't just an old air force base, but the Blackhawks are insane collectors of trophies and weapons which include giant robot vultures, the Warwheels from the Vandal Savage episode, fucking flying robot machinegun sharks, a crapload of cannons, the Spear of Longinus and a lot of other stuff.

HAWK-AAAAAA

Seriously, what the shit are the Blackhawks doing between World War II and the present day? And why are they stockpiling them all in a base not guarded by anyone? It's amazingly hilarious yet makes for a very awesome setpiece. Even Chuck gets some work done, dusting off his old warplane and assisting the League in navigating the island with a glorious "HAWK-AAA!". There's a great moment where Fire just trust Flash's orders and lets him go to help fight Shayera -- showing that Fire actually trusts and respects Flash a ton because he's a senior member of the team. The sheer anger that Shayera has at Fire for dropping Flash (not knowing Wally can tornado his way to safety) is also neatly done -- Shayera and Flash's sibling relationship is well demonstrated in various parts of the show.

Poor Chuck gets held hostage, but the Leaguers elect to save the island from blowing up, preserving their predecessors' legacy, instead of hunting down Luthor's team.

Luthor, meanwhile, returns to Grodd with the prize. The Spear of Longinus, otherwise known to those watching modern live-action DC series as the Spear of Destiny, the mythical spear able to rewrite history and cause its bearer to be victorious. Grodd's plan with it? Office ornament. That bit was so jarring and hilarious, and apparently it's all just an audition for Luthor. Grodd just wants to see how good Luthor really is, especially after his brief failure, and more importantly, Grodd wants Luthor who's top ape... and he withholds Brainiac's fragment from Luthor until he continues doing his dirty work. It's a great, great way to introduce our new big bad, Grodd, and honestly it's this season that make me able to take a fucking talking gorilla seriously.

And even then, as solid as the character work for Luthor and Grodd are, the heroes and secondary villains themselves are pretty fun too. I'm sad that neither Doctor Polaris nor the Key really get to do anything significant after this episode, though they did get a couple of pretty cool action sequences in this episode. But extra credit has to go to Chuck, who's just an old retired soldier with a plane, yet manages to kick ass alongside Flash, Fire and Shayera.

"War wheels. Robot condors. You've got a pretty goofy security system here." "Yeah... good times." Flash and Chuck's exchange is just something that really shows what they're trying to do.

And honestly, everything about this episode just has a retro feel. The presence of the Blackhawks. The lineup of supervillains with absolutely colourful costumes. The skull-shaped swamp base. The weird-ass threats like the flying robot vultures. If the message isn't clear, where season two pays more homage to more modern and mature comics, season three is JLU's take on the old-style Golden Age comics, something that a lot of people making adaptations of comic books (see: Arrow's first season, the first X-Men movie, BvS, etc) are ashamed of. "Let's make these superheroes as gritty as ever so they'll appeal to adults!" While it's not the worst thing to do to take a more mature tone (Logan, Watchmen, Legion, Netflix's Daredevil and Jessica Jones are very great examples of a more mature superhero show that's still good) the shame that a lot of adaptations seem to get at realizing that they're making a superhero show or movie is tangible.

And Team Flash choosing not to let Blackhawk Island erupt and instead save it is perhaps far more symbolic than sentimental, that these forgotten relics of the Golden Age, these parts of the comic-book history that is, well, history, can still bring a smile and a kickass action scene or two when adapted properly. And Chuck and the Blackhawks may have been retired, but that doesn't mean they can't still be part of a very solid and well-done story. I don't know jack shit about the Blackhawks, but I cheered inside when Chuck showed up with his jet and his corny-yet-awesome HAWK-AAAA battlecry. Hell, even Polaris and Key use their old-style Golden Age costumes instead of their inarguably cooler-looking post-Crisis costumes. This episode really shows that past is something to be respected, and, yes, maybe altered slightly to fit a modern audience, not disposed off like your old shame -- it's something, sadly, that DC absolutely failed to do when they did the New 52 reboot, choosing to let their history self-destruct and be thrown aside.

Justice League/Legion of Doom Roll Call:

• Major Superheroes: Superman, Hawkgirl, Aztek, King Faraday, Chuck Sirianni, Fire, Flash
• Non-Speaking Superheroes: Ice
• Major Supervillains: Lex Luthor, The Key, Gorilla Grodd, Brainiac, Doctor Polaris
• Non-Speaking Supervillains: Dr. Destiny, Evil Star, Cheetah, Atomic Skull, Bizarro, Black Manta Devil Ray, Parasite, Giganta, Silver Banshee, Dr. Cyber, Shark, Blockbuster, Puzzler, Killer Frost, Queen Bee, KGBeast, Sinestro, Gentleman Ghost, Black Mass, Copperhead, Toyman, Star Sapphire, Metallo, Rampage, Volcana, Thinker, Sonar, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, Major Disaster

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Blackhawks last appeared in "The Savage Time", the first season finale for Justice League, which involved the Justice League returning back in time to fight in World War II alongside the Blackhawks. Shayera and Chuck both mention this by name. The War Wheels from that episode, as well as a portrait of Vandal Savage, can be seen in the Blackhawks' trophy room.
• Grodd's Legion of Doom, of course, is a reference to the group of a similar name from Challenge of the Super Friends, the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon. It even has the swamp base shaped like Darth Vader's helmet. The showmakers tried their best to get as many members of the original Legion of Doom's roster on board, but not all of them are available -- Batman villains Scarecrow and Riddler are off the books because of the Bat-Embargo; while Brainiac and Solomon Grundy were dead... but a good chunk of the original Legion of Doom do show up in this episode (Luthor, Grodd, Bizarro, Sinestro, Black Manta, Cheetah, Giganta and a Toyman -- even if this is a different Toyman) leaving only Captain Cold as the only absent one.
• The costumes on display on the Blackhawk base are all references to Blackhawk villains in the comics. After a bit of research, these are costumes corresponding to Killer Shark, Queen Killer Shark, King Condor and the Hoopster. There are also costumes showing various uniforms that the Blackhawk squadron has worn, among others the old blue original costume, Chop Chop's coolie uniform, the post-WWII red-and-green costume, the red-and-blue New Blackhawk costume and Lady Blackhawk's Birds of Prey-era costume.