Justice League

[CrusaderX]

I liked this one as well.

While the Grundy as Hulk jokes were pretty blatant ("Hawkgirl smash.") I think there may have been a subtle Defenders homage going on, with Grundy (the Hulk), Dr. Fate (Dr. Strange) and Namor (Aquaman) all teaming up to fight extradimensional evil. Some of the minions of Ikthultu (sp) were pretty darned Ditkoesque.

Yes, and furthermore, did you notice that the strong brute, the sorceror, and the man from Atlantis teamed up with a super-powered alien, a warrior woman from mythology, and a hawk-winged hero referred to as "bird-nose"?

The Defenders homage was definitely there.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Ah, I thought I'd heard Ardeth Bey's voice coming from Dr. Hate's Helment....

 

[Skade]

Any episode that features Hawkgirl grabs my attention. I was impressed with the episode before I read this thread, now even more so. The Defenders references were unknown to me (and who was called bird-nose in the Defenders?), though the Hulk one was pretty obvious.

I guess my only small complaint would be not just using the name Chtullu. Though I some how think entering his physical brain would have been as easy as this fish-named knock off.

 

[CrusaderX]

Defenders parallels:

Doctor Fate = Doctor Strange
Grundy = Hulk
Aquaman = Namor
Superman = Silver Surfer (powerful alien, though the Martian Manhunter would have worked as well)
Wonder Woman = Valkyrie
Hawkgirl = Nighthawk (who the Hulk often called "bird nose" in the Defenders comic)

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I liked this one but I didn't love it. I like the incorporation of characters rarely, if never, seen but for some reason it didn’t do all that much for me and I can't figure out why...

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

I really liked this episode. I hadn't been watching JL much lately, mainly due to not being sure when new episodes were on. I'm glad I caught this episode. I also liked the Defender paralells.

I mean how can you go wrong with Doctor Fate?

 

[paulewaug]

mmmm

this was a good episode-

I Really liked Dr. Fate, he was very cool and Oded rocked his voice! I was sad to see he couldn’t really hold his own against Hawkgirl though...
I mean she is no slouch and apparently her mace must be magical(?) or somehow technologically 'anti-magical.' So I guess she had an edge against him. But I really expected him to do better, to me he has always seemed to be on a power level equal to Green Lantern. Although I guess if GL had the vulnerability to yellow thing going on and her mace was yellow it could have turned out the same way with him..

Besides Doctor Fate, other things to like:
Superman was a punk! imo...he was a real instigator! The whole group of them..(Wonder Woman, Superman, and Hawkgirl) were all just itching for trouble. It was actually funny that it was Hawkgirl (seemingly the most aggressive of the group) that said "We aren't going to have to fight Again are we..?"
But Supes was really full of himself tonight, that was actually fun to see

The line of W.W. saying "Hera, give me strength" and Hawkgirl's saying "Do you have to say that All The Time?!" (Although we have seen that scene many, many times because that is the "go to commercial" segue scene...) And then the tie in later to it with her asking WW if she actually feels stronger when she does that.

Aquaman was a pompous jerk, very much a king of the seas, (ala Namor!) and very far removed from the looser he was in the Superfriends...
Much stronger and a lot better fighter! Esp. to take WW down. Nice 'dirty fighting' on his part too

The "I was playing bad cop" and "your Always 'bad cop' " exchange.

Things I was a little less excited about...
Grundy was a little hulky, but not too much so I guess. The Grundy of the 'toon is much more 'hulk-like' than the usual portrayal in the comics, so it did go with their own portrayal.
(Oh I really did like the part with Grundy and the cookies! haha!)

I don't think 'Ichthultu' looked very much like a 'squid' despite one of the characters calling him 'squid face' (or something like that) I think one of the characters called him worm face or something like that though and that was funny.

Ichthultu didn't seem like that bad of a 'guy' although I don't think they really ever did say What the Thangarans were sacrificing to him...I guess the given was a "human (thangaran) sacrifice."

SO was 'Poseidon' in Atlantis the god 'Poseidon'...they have established the Greek pantheon as active in the DCU and kept that going well, it actually made me appreciate continuity that Both WW and Aqua are Greek pantheon followers...

Ohh..other things I liked...Inza, she was great! I liked her a lot-

Ichtultu's conversation with Hawkgirl, and I believe he said he had faith in her?
although I didn't feel he was very Cthulhu like by this point, but he did remind me of a villain that appeared a bunch(?) of times in Green Lantern a while back. I can't think of his name but he was the titanic dead=god-thing that GL fought a few times, I know somebody out there must know who I am talking about!?


Other observations...the tentacle monster that attacked the cruise ship reminded me a lot of the critter from Deep Rising, not really a bad thing

Another note about the continuing Marvelization used in the Cartoon vs. the Comics. The military force at the begging reminded me of SHEILD more than anything and I thought the Captain or whatever he was reminded me of Dugan (who just appeared in the Ultimate X-men this month)

I did like this episode though, going with the magic stuff is a lot safer for the writers than the tech stuff!!

and once again..Doctor Fate (and Inza) rocked!!

Ahh that Superman, what a trouble maker! haha!
I hope they do another Defenders-JL again soon!

 

[takyris]

Liked this one. Was impressed by how they handled Grundy -- while I don't know enough about the Defenders to get that, I got the Hulk stuff. I did read some of the Starman stuff, though, where Grundy became a fairly sympathetic figure, and I read some of that into it as well.

Liked the mace. Liked Superman -- who I saw as just getting a bit defensive about magic, his non-kryptonite weakness. Doctor Fate rocked.

But mostly, was impressed by the fact that they had a sad instrumental bit at the end, and that it kind of worked for me.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Other observations...the tentacle monster that attacked the cruise ship reminded me a lot of the critter from Deep Rising, not really a bad thing

I'm so glad my wife and I weren't the only people to have thought that.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Regarding HawkGirl's Mace -- I'm guessing that (in the JL cartoon) the Thanagarians discovered the Nth Metal, which was naturally anti-magical; this was the main way they were able to kick Ykthultu off their planet. HawkGirl's said she was a cop, and the Thanagarian Cops likely have weapons & armor made of the Nth Metal both for practical reasons & as a symbol of their race's escape from the Old Ones. Thus, HawkGirl's Mace is likely made of the anti-magical Nth Metal.