[Justice League]New episodes tonight

[nHammer]

Naw, the best Batman quote in the show(IMO) was(to Wonder Woman)..."The next time I let Superman be in charge, hit me really hard"

 

[Nightfall]

Naw, the best Batman quote in the show(IMO) was(to Wonder Woman)..."The next time I let Superman be in charge, hit me really hard"

Yeah that was the best Bats quote. Of course the best supes line to me was either: "This time I won't stop until your a greasy smear on my fist" or "You know Bruce...you're not always right"

Course I loved the whole Braniac trying to make himself into a living being and Darkseid getting advantage of him after all this. Makes me sad we have to wait so darn long. (Some one in the Toonzone.net said Sept or Oct) for new eps.

 

[William Ronald]

I thought that Batman's summary of what Darkseid did to Superman and his comment, "Cry me a river" were very much in character. I like to think that being the only hero on the show without powers gives writers a chance to emphasize his personality and his role as a tactician.

I agree that the characters can be developed more. The Martian Manhunter is a shape shifter, but this ability has been seldom used. Plus, in the comics, his strength is supposed to be comparable to Superman.

Overall, good episodes.

 

[fba827]

Batman is also the most cynical and jaded of the JL team... so that would account for why those lines are so appropriate for him. I guess we are just seeing more of those lines this episode than we did previously

 

[Chun-tzu]

The Martian Manhunter is a shape shifter, but this ability has been seldom used. Plus, in the comics, his strength is supposed to be comparable to Superman.

Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter are two of the most toned down characters. I think it works on the Manhunter, actually. The comic version has ALL of Superman's powers, PLUS telepathy, shapeshifting, invisibility, phasing... that's just nuts.

This version emphasizes his non-Superman powers, and it seems he's not as strong and invulnerable as Superman. They also seem to have dropped his weakness to fire (and Lantern's weakness to the color yellow). He's not invulnerable to fire, but it doesn't cripple him like it does in the comics.

 

[Nightfall]

I love the cry me a river part. Course the High Father being considerate and say to the effect "You know I guess I'm not as all powerful as I thought" was pretty cool too.

Darkseid working with Brainiac is pretty brilliant and also well done. I mean you KNEW Darkseid was going screw Brainiac. The trouble I had seeing was exactly HOW.

 

[blackshirt5]

What exactly is the "Anti-Life Equation"? I've never heard of that before.

 

[Chun-tzu]

What exactly is the "Anti-Life Equation"?

It's Darkseid's Holy Grail. I found some defintions here

anti-life equation - an secret weapon of those of the Old Gods who were evil, which upon their destruction was scattered throughout the galaxy. No one truly understands what it can do, but Darkseid desires to possess it, and believes it will grant him total control over the cosmos. Several Earthlings possessed the equation, but Beautiful Dreamer absorbed them all; when she was lost on Adon, the equation was scattered again among more Earthlings, but in the end dissipated. The source of anti-life was discovered in an alternate dimension, and when it tried to escape and destroy our dimension it was stopped and trapped there forever.

and here

What is the Anti-Life Equation?

The Anti-Life Equation, pursued relentlessly by Darkseid throughout the Fourth World series, was never fully defined by Jack [Kirby]. That is, he never quite made up his mind. My then-partner Steve Sherman and I heard several scenarios from Jack as to how he would "pay off" that MacGuffin. Some were philosophical concepts with deep religious overtones; others were more comic-bookish notions, including the possibility that the Anti-Life Equation never really existed; that it was Darkseid's misinterpretation of the power of Faith. The thing to remember is that Kirby was forever changing his mind about how his stories would go. It was not uncommon for him to tell Steve and me what the next issue of, say, New Gods would be, explaining the whole story in glorious, fully-developed detail...then he'd sit down at the drawing board and a completely-different story would emerge. What's more, he'd have no idea how he got from one plot to the other. So I don't know what he would have done with the Anti-Life Equation...and he didn't, either. I don't think he would have known for sure until he drew that story...and maybe not even then.

edit - By the way, Michael Ironside does the voice of Darkseid (and a great job, too).

 

[LuYangShih]

Great episodes. I agree about the conflict between Batman and Superman being one of the best parts of the show.

As for development of powers and variance in abilities, I tend to agree. And I do not think the fact it is only a half hour show should be an excuse. Look at the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, for example. Everyone on that show uses their powers in a creative and interesting way, most of the time, and they have far more characters than Justice League does.


Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter may be underused, but the one that truly irks me is the Flash. He is basically a sidekick and seems to be the weakest member of the Justige League, as portrayed in the cartoon. Not at all like his comic incarnation. In his feature episodes, for example (the two parter with Grodd) Green Lantern throws a haymaker and knocks Flash out while he is going at super speed. He can dodge bullets, but he cannot dodge a punch? The worst part of that episode, though, was when he was chasing that truck, which was going at 150 MPH at most. He can run at the speed of light, but he could not catch that truck.

Another example of this was in Green Lanterns spotlight episode, (with the Manhunters), when Flash lands the ship, and steps outside. A few mooks are there, and he flips out and runs back inside. Then the other members of the Justice League show up and casually beat them down. I just really dislike how undervalued and weakened his character is.

 

[Chun-tzu]

when Flash lands the ship, and steps outside. A few mooks are there, and he flips out and runs back inside. Then the other members of the Justice League show up and casually beat them down.

Yeah, that one really bugged me, too. If they don't want Flash running at light speed, fine, but he was far smarter than that even as a pre-teen Kid Flash. The comic Flash would have grabbed their guns before they could even blink.

Justice League is a good cartoon, and it's a good super-team cartoon. That's not easy to do. But as a JLA cartoon, it's only mediocre. The Justice League we see here is _just_ a super-team. They haven't captured what makes the JLA the team that they are.

The JLA are the best of the best. They are the most powerful, the most experienced, the most skilled, the most amazing. Each and every one is an icon. They're the definition of epic level heroes.

Oh well. It's still a fine cartoon. Maybe the JLA's next animated incarnation, 5 or 10 years down the line, will capture that better.