[Justice League]New episodes tonight

[Villano]

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.

In fairness, both Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern are obscenely powerful and should really be able to handle the problems in most of the episodes by themselves.

My problem is that they handle both of these characters, Manhunter in particular, by dues ex machinaing them out of the fight. As I said on another thread, how many times have you seen Manhunter just grab his head, scream, and fall to the ground? You can almost set your watch to it. It's just lazy writing.

OTOH, I'm glad they ditched his vulnerabilty to fire. I always thought that was stupid, especially since he has heat vision.

"Let me use my heat vision and...argh! Fire! My powers are fading!"

Did the people who created him even think these things through?

Plus, they don't even know if he's vulnerable to fire in the comics anymore. In some issues he is, in others, he isn't.

And I didn't even notice the "yellow" thing with Lantern in the cartoon. I've heard that the new comics GL doesn't have that weakness any longer, so I guess they just carried it over.

BTW, Cartoon Network has been running JLA during their afternoon Toonami block, so I've gotten a chance to rewatch the shows and 2 things occurred to me.

First, I think the look of the animated Cheetah sucks. Am I alone in this? She just looks so...generic. I would have preferred something closer to the comics.

Secondly, I don't think we've seen the Leaguers unmasked, have we? I mean, GL, Manhunter, Superman, and Wonder Woman don't wear masks, but have we seen the real faces of Flash, Batman, or Hawkgirl?

I think it would be a nice touch to see them in their civilian lives as they get the call for a mission. This especially applies to Hawkgirl, since we know she is lost and can't find her way back to her homeworld. What does she do, hang out with Manhunter all day on the station?

That in itself is concievable, but does she keep the mask on all day, too? Unless Thanagar has a masked, Mexican wrestling culture where eveyone wears thier hoods all the time, that would be a bit silly.

I realize that the wrestling comment would be lost on some people, so I should explain that. Basically, Mexico produced a genre of films which starred actual masked wrestlers playing themselves as they battled spies, monsters, aliens, etc.. Since they wore the masks in the ring and didn't want to show their faces on the screen, they kept their hoods on all the time in the films, giving us such great sights as a guy in a suit and tie, wearing a mask. Seriously, it does look really cool, especially when they throw down with a werewolf or something.

 

[LuYangShih]

Is that a mask? I thought those were feathers covering her face.

 

[Endur]

The cartoon series for JLA, Superman, and Batman are pretty good. Its obvious that the writers actually read the comic books and are trying to base their plots off the comic books to a certain extent. They are also seriously restricted on time, and can't do certain things because of the time restriction (show the characters out of costume, etc.)

I have some minor quibbles, but most of the minor quibbles are characterization things I would do differently. For instance, in the recent Orion-Darkseid warm-up fight to the Superman-Darkseid fight, I would not have had Orion asking Darkseid flippantly, "what? no hug?" That's a sophmoric question, and Orion is not sophmoric. Orion is the type to say, "This ends today with your death or mine."

In fact, I would have switched the final sequence, so that Superman pulls Orion off Darkseid before the blow up. And later on, Orion would have complained that Superman didn't understand. However, the problem with this is that Superman is one of the stars of JLA, Orion is only a guest, so they didn't want to put too much focus on Orion in the story. Unlike a New Gods story, where Orion is the main character.

I had a similar comment for the Demon guest story of JLA, where the Martian Manhunter is shown images by Morgan Le Fey. While Mrorgan Le Fey's characterization was ok, I was not impressed by how they handled the demon. While the Demon Entrigan was seriously impacted by Morgan, and is obsessed with getting her, I would have expected his verbal lines to be "set in rhyme" just like in some of the comic books. Also, I would have expected to have seen Jason Blood a bit more.

 

[Villano]

However, the problem with this is that Superman is one of the stars of JLA, Orion is only a guest, so they didn't want to put too much focus on Orion in the story. Unlike a New Gods story, where Orion is the main character.

Yeah, Orion was a secondary character in the whole thing, so much so that he's forgotten once Supes shows up. Literally. Orion is lying unconsious on the floor. Superman wants to kill Darkseid so bad that he's willing to die with him, but doesn't even think about Orion dying, too. It makes Supes look like a jerk. When Batman showed up, they could have at least had Supes say, "Get Orion out of here!" or something. That would have at least added some dramatic tension: Would Batman try to get Superman out at the risk of an innocent (Orion) dying? Or would he save Orion and leave Superman alone?

 

[fba827]

Yeah, Orion was a secondary character in the whole thing, so much so that he's forgotten once Supes shows up. Literally. Orion is lying unconsious on the floor. Superman wants to kill Darkseid so bad that he's willing to die with him, but doesn't even think about Orion dying, too. It makes Supes look like a jerk. When Batman showed up, they could have at least had Supes say, "Get Orion out of here!" or something. That would have at least added some dramatic tension: Would Batman try to get Superman out at the risk of an innocent (Orion) dying? Or would he save Orion and leave Superman alone?

I noticed it too but thought it was done on purpose to show how blinded by anger and hatred Supes is driven to by Darkseid.

That was my take on why he pretty much ignored Orion at that point. (Of course, as said, it is just my take on it).

 

[Nightfall]

I think it's a valid take, fb.

Course from what I'm reading from tvtome.com about the return of Vandal Savage, I can't wait. (What I REALLY want to know is the who and why for the eps titled "The Terror Beyond" in the up coming series... Supposedly we'll get to see some of the Batman Beyond JLU)

 

[Villano]

I noticed it too but thought it was done on purpose to show how blinded by anger and hatred Supes is driven to by Darkseid.

That was my take on why he pretty much ignored Orion at that point. (Of course, as said, it is just my take on it).

Yes, I agree that was the reasoning (i.e., done on purpose to show Supes' obsession with Darkseid), but, like many things on the show, I thought it was done sloppily.

I really don't think the writing has been on par with Batman, Superman, or even Batman Beyond. There's alot of IITS (It's In The Script).

What do we do with Martian Manhunter in this scene? How about have him collapse to the ground, screaming and grabbing his head?

Superman's borrowing of the Tick's nigh invulnerability. He's invulnerable unless it's for dramatic effect. Within one episode, he'll be hit be the exact same laser numerous times and sometimes it will have no effect, while others, it will hurt him badly.

Hawkgirl's "when the story needs it" superhuman strength. In the comics, she has doesn't have superstrenght, but, on the show, sometimes she's as strong as Wonder Woman (see below for an example).

The Superman Movies syndrome. This is where writers are too lazy to come up with some sort of logical answer to a problem, so they put in a dues ex machina.

In the Superman movies, Supes suddenly developed all sorts of powers like his famous "Rebuild The Great Wall Of China Vision". In Justice League, a planet destorying laser is firing, so Hawkgirl bats it back with her mace, destroying the weapon. So, it can destroy planets, but not Hawkgirl's mace? And, when it bounces back to War World, it only destroys the weapon that launched it and not the whole planet? Some "planet destorying" weapon. I hope Mongul didn't pay full price.

It's kind of like Super Friends where a character could suddenly breathe in space or fly.

Actually, everything I described above could be attributed to the Superman Movies Syndrome now that I think about it. Things happen because IITS.

 

[Nightfall]

While I'll agree the writing in the first season wasn't strong, I think it's improved dramatically in the second season. Is it perfect? Hardly. But for all it's faults, I don't see Justice League being worse than say...Pokemon or some other kid anime out there. Believe me, I like it. And while it hasn't quite gotten to the grittiness of Batman or Batman Beyond, I do think it has some (not all) of the epicness of the Superman show.

 

[LuYangShih]

Actually, I tend to agree. The show has a major problem with consistency. The powers of the characters vary greatly from episode to episode, or even within the same episode. It is very irritating.