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Justice
League Unlimited
I Am Legion
Original Airdate - 09/17/05
We join
season 3 of Justice League Unlimited already in progress
with the escape attempt by Lex Luthor�
Luthor
races through city streets with a couple of police cruisers
hot on his trail. Just like every episode of Cops,
Luthor crashes his vehicle into a ditch and makes a run
from the police on foot. He ends up in a dead end alley
with a dozen cops with guns right behind him.
Fortunately
for Luthor, The Key makes his first appearance in the Cartoon
Network universe by pulling Luthor through a brick wall
and into some sort of pocket universe. Key takes Luthor
on his Keycycle to meet his boss and the beast responsible
for pulling Luthor's bacon out of the fire, Gorilla Grodd.
Back
at the alley, Hawkgirl, Superman, and Aztek are looking
for any traces of Luthor. There they meet King Faraday,
the new government liaison to the League. He seems like
a nice enough guy, but with a name like King Faraday, he's
got to be evil (King debuted in Double
Date last season).
Back at Grodd's
swamp fortress, Grodd explains to Luthor that he's started
up an organization that coordinates the illegal activities
of the world's super criminals and he's decided to call
it Gorilla Grodd and the Lextones. Lex thanks for the rescue,
suggests Grodd think of a more sinister name but ultimately
passes on joining.
It isn't until
Grodd tempts Luthor with the last piece of Brainiac technology
on Earth that we learn that Luthor hasn't fully recovered
from his merge with Brainiac. A Brainiac hallucination tells
Luthor to go along with Grodd's plan if it means getting
the technology that will make Luthorainiac whole again.
Later and elsewhere,
the last living member of the Blackhawks, Chuck, gets a
warning that someone has triggered alarms on Blackhawk Island.
He notifies the JLU of the alarm but also fires up the jet
he keeps in the barn for just such occasions.
Hawkgirl,
Fire and a lust struck Flash respond to the call but are
attacked by Blackhawk Island defenses as soon as they enter
its airspace. Once on the ground (having lost yet another
Javelin), the JLU trio hook up with Blackhawk Chuck to uncover
who else is on Blackhawk Island and what they're after.
Having
resolved the long running government conspiracy plot at
the end of last season, the Justice League needed a new
threat to tackle starting this season. The writers responded
with a phrase that sends DC fanboys' heads swooning, the
Legion of Doom.
The
villainous organization appeared in the horrible yet adored
Super Friends which Bruce Timm's team has already
paid homage to with The Ultimen. This time we get the flip
side of that coin complete with Gorilla Grodd's Legion
living in a swamp fortress that resembles Darth Vader's
head.
Needless
to say that a modern take on the Legion of Doom is very
welcomed into the homes of fanboys but also fits thematically
into current DC continuity where they are working the same
idea with Villains United, and with much the same
motivation.
Both The Key
and Dr. Polaris make their debut here in what is sure to
be a season full of debuts for team evil. Both are well
done, but neither is very interesting which is probably
why we haven't seen more of them. It's a phenomenon I like
to call Hawk and Dove syndrome.
An
interesting brother/sister relationship is seen developing
here with Flash and Hawkgirl. It's nice to not only see
Flash given some character moments in a regular episode
of the show but also a possible love interest in Fire. With
that crazy accent, flaming boobs and a high probability
of a Brazilian wax job, what's not to love?
Derek's
Continuity Corner
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