MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*
There had been a small handful of Justice League stories from Filmation Studios in the 1960s, followed by and the very compromised versions of the "Super Friends" franchise. But this 2001 series, following up on the respective continuities of the Batman and Superman TV shows of the 1990s, still feels like the first animated iteration of DC's Justice League. Unlike those nineties programs, LEAGUE had nearly no participation from writer-producer Paul Dini, so that this DC adaptation is dominantly the product of producer Bruce Timm. The first season is characterized by larger-than-life stories meant to spotlight not only the derring-do of the seven rotating members-- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, J'onn J'onzz, Hawkgirl, and the John Stewart Green Lantern-- but also the complex backdrop of the DC Universe. Though characterization improved in the second LEAGUE season and the subsequent three seasons of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, it might be fairly argued that the "larger than life" approach was later translated to most if not all of the LEAGUE movies made for the DC Animated Franchise, resulting in a certain level of mediocrity there. In my ratings of individual episodes, "G" means "good mythicity," "F" means "fair," and "P" means "poor."
SECRET ORIGINS (F)-- To be sure, "larger than life" is the only way to go when assembling a team of seven unrelated heroes, and in truth the menace of alien invasion was the pretext for the Justice League's formation in the original 1960s comic. This time the ETs are a race of parasitic shapeshifters, given three-legged vehicles that are clear shout-outs to the tripods of H.G. Wells' Martians. But in this universe DC's Martians are the first people to be annihilated by the newcomers. The survival of last Martian J'onn J'onzz gives "Origins" a fair degree of emotional depth, while the backstories of other characters-- notably Hawkgirl, who'll get no real backstory this season-- are more circumscribed. Both seasons of LEAGUE will show a marked tendency to give Batman all the good lines while Superman goes begging for even one decent scene.
IN BLACKEST NIGHT (F)-- This story attempts, with only partial success, to squeeze an expansive JUSTICE LEAGUE story into two 20-minute episodes. In the comic the Hal Jordan Green Lantern is accused of having destroyed a world with his ring-power, while here it's John Stewart. The basic plot remains strong as the League seeks to clear the Lantern's name, but the villains, the android Manhunters, fail to prove as impressive as they were in the comics story.
THE ENEMY BELOW (P)-- Here the writers sought to incorporate a "meaner, leaner" version of Aquaman, more or less in line with what had happened to the Sea King in the comics. What the writers produced was largely a warmed-over version of a variety of Sub-Mariner stories, wherein some Atlantean schemer seeks to force Atlantis into a war with the surface world. In this case the schemer is Aquaman's brother (or half-brother?) Orm, and this may be the first time any story made him into an Atlantean, rather than a human seeking control over the realm of his hated sibling. There's a buildup to the Sea King losing a hand, which was also a big thing in the comics, and this version of his queen Mera has no powers, presumably because it would been extra trouble to explain.
PARADISE LOST (P)-- This Wonder Woman-centric episode has the primary menace evolve on her home of Themiscyra, a home she deserted to serve humankind as a hero. The immediate menace is sorcerer Felix Faust, who has made a pact with the Greek God of Death to secure his release from Tartarus, which has to take place on the Amazon isle. I didn't care for portraying Hades as a garden-variety demon trying to escape his prison, and I think this basic idea may have stemmed from some comics-stories in which some myth-entity dwells beneath the island, but if so the writers botched the idea. Further, they loosely imply that Hades may have been the lover of Diana's mother Hippolyta, which implication needlessly complicates an already overwritten script.
WAR WORLD (P)-- Why does an episode that has all the makings to be "Superman-centric" capture so little of the hero's character? Superman and J'onn get captured by the minions of evil Mongul and are forced to fight in War World's gladiatorial games. Their rescuers Hawkgirl and Green Lantern get better character moments than either the Kryptonian or the Martian.
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD (F)-- In the only first-season episode to which Paul Dini contributed, that grotty Gorilla Grodd, originally a foe of the comic-book Flash, debuts here as a menace to the whole Justice League. In this series the Flash is more an amiable goofus than the straight-arrow crusader of the comics, but at least Flash gets the finishing move to "his" old enemy. Grodd's world-conquest plan is unimpressive, but at least the concept of Gorilla City comes across intact.
LEGENDS (P)-- Does it really make sense for even a reinvented Justice League to make fun of the sort of uncomplicated, simon-pure heroes of the Golden Age, given that the Justice League of the early 1960s wasn't any less goody-good than their 1940s forbears? Anyway, some Leaguers get stuck in an alternate dimension which exists so that a fanatical fanboy can imagine his favorite heroes having wacky adventures. The New League, which got all its gravitas thanks to the influence of Stan Lee's Marvel, provides the cold water to wake the world up from its fannish dreams.
A KNIGHT OF SHADOWS (F)-- Alarums and excursions abound as the medieval menace of Morgaine Le Fay imperils the modern world and its costumed knights. Le Fay is pursued by Jason Blood, who in this iteration started as a mortal who betrayed King Arthur for Morgaine's sake. As punishment, Merlin bound the traitor to the body of a demon, or, as DC billed this Jack Kirby creation, "The Demon." In Kirby, the Demon was a hell-creature who assumed mortality at Merlin's behest, so the script here inverts that scenario. It's a decent episode but the subplot in which Morgaine almost subverts J'onn to her cause seems forced.
METAMORPHOSIS (G)-- The only high-mythicity episode of Season One profits from its model, the origin-story of Metamorpho from the comics. In my review of that origin, I argued that writer Bob Haney reworked the essential elements of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, where the hero contends with a magician and his brutish servant for the hand of the magician's daughter. In the comics, the brute Java channels the father's arguable inappropriate feelings for his grown daughter. Here, Simon Stagg not only wants to get rid of his daughter Sapphire's age-appropriate boyfriend Rex, he also finds a way to exploit Rex in good capitalistic fashion. In the comics Simon Stagg is just a pompous fool, but here he's the epitome of the nasty rich man, determined to have everything in his greedy grasp.
THE SAVAGE TIME (F)-- The League finds its way into an alternate Earth where the Allies have almost lost WWII thanks to the intervention of immortal villain Vandal Savage. Refighting WWII is always a popular superhero trope, and this one is decent though not outstanding. This version of Wonder Woman, who's never existed in any time but the 21st century, gets a meet-cute encounter with doughty Steve Trevor, so that in a sense he's still her "first." The comics-fan authors also find guest-spots for the best-known land soldiers in the DC (Sergeant Rock and Easy Company) and for those daredevil aerialists The Blackhawks, though technically these aviation aces made their bones fighting Nazis for Quality Comics, and were only acquired by DC after that company folded. The Leaguers succeed in defeating Savage's rewriting of history with no big surprises. For whatever reason, Easy Company doesn't fit into the JUSTICE LEAGUE world, but the Blackhawks worked just fine.
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