Justice League Unlimited S03E04 Review: Introverts

Justice League Unlimited, Season 3, Episode 4: To Another Shore

This is a slightly strange episode, to be honest. That's not to say that it's bad, it's perhaps... poorly handled. I am a big fan of how King Faraday's role as the Justice League's ambassador (who sometimes moonlights as the leader of a submarine squad of justice) is shown here, and I'm a very big fan of the big beat-up between the team of Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow facing off against Giganta, Killer Frost, Black Manta Devil Ray and Heatwave. It's always a treat to see older recurring characters like Giganta and Killer Frost show up alongside newer ones like Ray and Heatwave, and it's nice to see the variety of colourful super-powers being thrown around in he fight.

The villains' motivations are relatively cool, with the villains attacking an international peace summit, and it does still play as another in a series of attacks that the Legion of Doom is unleashing. J'onn's attempt to read Giganta mind is met with a psychic backlash, showing the lengths of organization and general power that Grodd is throwing around against the League... though at the same time, the 'main' mission, which is to recover the immortal body of the Viking Prince, Jon, felt rather... out there. I dunno. Perhaps the buildup could have been better, because this is a show that has dealt with Egyptian reincarnation, the mystical world of Shamballa, and we've journeyed into the Grecian realm of Hades multiple times, but for some reason this random immortal Viking felt strangely shoehorned in. The fact that he's nothing more than a plot device, unlike, say, the Shamballans or Hippolyta or Circe, who get adequate screentime, Prince Jon is just a plot device. And as a DC character I know nothing about, I'm sad that the episode doesn't actually make me want to care about him.

The main focus of the episode is supposedly J'onn, and it shows just how well-done J'onn's character arc has been throughout the three seasons of Justice League Unlimited. He's grown more and more distant, and despite playing a rock-em-sock-em game with Flash in season two, he has grown from being the heart of the team into someone who suggests to Green Lantern that they mind-wipe the inside man that helped the Suicide Squad gain access to the Watchtower. J'onn has always been an introvert dealing with both the loss of his family, an unfamiliar culture and a dysfunctional new family, and thus having him take up the role of being hen mother, giving stern orders to people he's not overtly attached to, suits him fine. However, he starts losing pieces of himself as he grows into the chessmaster role, and we've seen hints of his growing coldness and apathy towards mankind over the past episodes.

The sad thing is, while it could've been a master stroke for J'onn's character development, this episode... goes too fast with it, abruptly jumping from one scene to another and not really giving the J'onn J'onzz drama time to shine. Not that I mind seeing Wonder Woman and Green Arrow beat up villains, but the fact that the focus of this episode should be J'onn -- he disappears until the literal final episode of the series -- and he doesn't get as much screentime as he should is downright criminal. And the fact that the previous few episodes also had very central character arcs (Luthor, Hawkgirl and Stargirl in order) while still delivering introductions of secondary characters and settings as well as showing the Legion of Doom do their evil plans, means that J'onn's relatively weak showing in this episode is rather inexcusable.

Honestly, if anything else it's actually Wonder Woman that felt like the central character of the episode, because she gets so many good character moments. At the same time, she is a warrior that tangles with gigantic cavewomen and fights with manta-ray-themed scuba divers. But she's also a caring individual who cares for J'onn's mental health enough to drag him out of the Watchtower. She's also a delegate, a rare occasion where this 'day job' is actually shown, and while she's all for peace, she's a warrior at heart and a combination of her warlike culture and her own exasperation at people who talk and don't do (which is a reason why she gets along so well with literally the rest of the original JLA cast) means that she doesn't really want to deal with the bullshittery of idiots who don't want to accept that global warming is a real thing despite the facts.

Which, a good decade after this episode is broadcasted, morons are still shutting off their ears and going 'la la la I don't believe you'.

King Faraday and Green Arrow don't really do much beyond action stuff, although Faraday's pretty cool especially when he shows up with a submarine squad, and Green Arrow humming his own musical tune (that actually plays in a more orchestrated version in the background) is amazing.

But sadly, J'onn's transformation from being a detached workaholic into deciding that he has to leave the team to learn how to integrate into human society felt inorganic. Also, of course it's Flash that gives J'onn a hug. I totally buy that J'onn is the introspective type that would realize how far gone he has become, but the events of this episode doesn't really do enough to justify his big character change. All he did was force Killer Frost to stop the avalanche, which... which isn't that detached or whatever. It is still a sad scene as all hell to see J'onn say goodbye to the original team, before transforming into his human guise and blending into society, mostly because J'onn is easily my favourite member of the cast... but the episode sadly jumps around too much and doesn't give us enough to go on for J'onn's character.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Superheroes: Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Mr. Terrific, King Faraday
• Non-Speaking Superheroes: Wildcat, Dr. Fate, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Superman, Shining Knight, Vigilante, Steel, Stargirl, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Flash, Atom
• Major Supervillains: Gorilla Grodd, Lex Luthor, Black Manta Devil Ray, Killer Frost, Heat Wave, Giganta
• Non-Speaking Supervillains: Volcana, Star Sapphire, Bizarro, Key, Atomic Skull

DC Easter Egg Corner:

• Devil Ray, who is a character nearly-identical to Black Manta, is, well, for all intents and purposes Black Manta, only slightly redesigned and renamed. During the time of Justice League Unlimited's airing, in addition to Batman villains and Teen Titans characters, DC put an embargo on Justice League Unlimited using Aquaman characters, explaining Aquaman's absence in the third season of JLU beyond background cameos. In the comics, Black Manta is one of Aquaman's most recurring enemies, made particularly popular by his inclusion as the main enemies in Challenge of the Super-Friends. His origin wasn't really elaborated on, but he is a constant enemy of Aquaman, a human with a super-advanced diving suit and a submarine. His motivations alternate from trying to rule Atlantis, to gain wealth by exploiting oceanic treasures, and he was actually responsible for one of the biggest blows against Aquaman by killing his son. 
• Heat Wave, a.k.a. Mick Rory, is a villain of the Flash, primarily the second and third Flashes, and grew up as a child with pyromania that was so fascinated with fire that when his childhood home burned down, he simply watched instead of getting help. Heat Wave would later menace Central City and after fighting against Captain Cold, befriended the other villain, and became one of the central members of the Rogues. Heat Wave actually quit villainy for a while (Legends of Tomorrow didn't make it up!) and became a firefighting consultant, before reverting back to his old ways. 
• Mr. Terrific, a.k.a. Michael Holt, is based on the second and more prominent version of the character. He's shown up many times in the background, but this is the first episode that gives him proper screentime, and for the rest of the series he takes over J'onn's role as Watchtower's controller. Michael Holt is one of the smartest men in the world, able to quickly learn skills that others would take years to master. By the time he became a superhero, Michael Holt has fourteen Ph.D's, a gold medal Olympic athlete and runs a multi-million company. However, his wife and unborn child were killed by an accident when she went to church, and Holt blames himself for arguing with his wife about the values of religion and thus making her late to church. When he was about to kill himself, he was visited by Spectre, who shows Holt images of the first Mister Terrific, Terry Sloane. Thus inspired, Michael Holt takes on the mantle of Mister Terrific, arms himself with his intelligence and his floating T-Spheres (robotic drones that can literally do anything) and joined the new incarnation of the Justice Society, quickly ascending through its ranks to become the chairman. 
• The Viking Prince, Prince Jon was a Viking warrior who fell in love with a valkyrie, but is banished from Valhalla by Odin, only allowing him to return if he died a heroic death. But he was also cursed with invulnerability from all known weaponry. He eventually died when he was defrosted by Sergeant Rock and fought in WWII, whereupon he was killed by plastique explosive, a substance unknown at the time of the ancient Norse. The artwork seen in the flashback are reproductions of the Viking Prince's stories in The Brave and the Bold and Our Army At War, all near-identical reproductions of the panels there. In addition, Odin's appearance in the flashbacks resemble Thorvald, the Viking Prince's principal enemy.
• Wonder Woman's transformation from Diana into Wonder Woman harkens to the Lynda Carter TV show, spinning around before transforming.
• King Faraday calls his men "gold-bricking yahoos", which is a line that's associated with another leader of a secret military organization, Nick Fury from the Marvel universe.