MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*
The story goes that the producers of JLU thought that Season 2 was going to be the show's final hurrah, and that's why the last episode was meant to be a circular callback to the beginnings of the DCAU, with 1992's BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES. Then someone gave the order for 13 new episodes, which would end up being the last ones made under the DCAU banner (though a new more DTV movies were made afterward). I don't have a hard time believing this, for Season 3 has a much looser feel than Seasons 1 and 2. While those seasons were preoccupied with the geopolitical results of having an army of superheroes operating under League auspices, Season 3 is nothing more than a salute to the 1978 cartoon series CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS. As in CHALLENGE, the heroes of JLU Season 3 are still the stars, technically. Yet in both shows, the heroes' opposite numbers, the villains, are the ones who initiate most of the action in the episodes-- though for some reason, the villain-group doesn't use the classic name "Legion of Doom."
Luthor is the MVV (most valuable villain) in this quasi-Legion. In the next-to-last Season 2 story, he's separated from his merger with the computer-intelligence Brainiac, and the components of the criminal computer are dispersed across the universe. For some reason that the writers never fully explain, Luthor's torqued off at the separation, and the closest one gets to an explanation is a line from one episode in which Luthor says he felt like "a god" when merged with Brainiac. This could have been worked into a general concept of the "deity envy" Luthor experienced whenever Superman outclassed him, but none of the scripts here delve deeply into the Luthor-Superman psychology. I'll also note that all of the episodes are either fair or poor, with no outstanding mythicity here.
I AM LEGION (F)-- Gorilla Grodd recruits Luthor for his reworked Secret Society, which now includes dozens of members, not unlike the expanded Justice League. Grodd tantalizes the scientist with a fragment of Brainiac, with which Luthor hopes to re-integrate with the computer (who also speaks to Luthor invisibly, though this was probably meant to be in Luthor's imagination). The sinister simian forces the aggrieved villain to sing for his supper, by joining two other villains to make a raid on Blackhawk Island for a mothballed super-weapon. But the villains are opposed by three Leaguers, as well as by the last surviving Blackhawk. Of the seven WWII pilot-heroes, who more or less met the League in the JL episode "Savage Time," only the one named "Chuck" makes it to old age-- and that character was probably chosen because the character was named for the BLACKHAWK co-creator Chuck Cuidera.
SHADOW OF THE HAWK (F)-- This is one of the few Season 3 developments to build on the soap-operatic lives of the heroes. In the comics, Hawkman was the first hawk-hero at DC, debuting in 1940 with "Shiera" as his main squeeze, who only became "Hawkgirl" a couple of years later. Subsequent iterations of the Hawkman franchise always paired Hawkman and Hawkgirl as a team, but JUSTICE LEAGUE was the first iteration to spotlight Hawkgirl as a solo crusader. In "Shadow," HG is approached by archeologist Carter Hall, who has evidence of Thanagarian rulership in ancient Egypt. Intrigued, HG accompanies Hall to an ancient Egyptian pyramid, but both Batman and Green Lantern think Hall's some sort of stalker. It turns out that Hall believes that he and Shayera are reincarnations of the two ancient lovers who ruled Egypt, and the archeologist has even designed his own Hawkman outfit, complete with wings (presumably based on extrapolated Thanagarian tech). The drama of the possible "reunion of lovers" trope is interrupted by a tomb-raider named Shadow-Thief, and by Batman as well. "Shadow" is at least an interesting fusion of two divergent origins for separate DC hawk-heroes.
CHAOS AT THE EARTH'S CORE (P)-- Supergirl, Stargirl, STRIPE, and Green Lantern get stranded in the subterranean domain of Skartaris, the location of DC Comics' one successful sword-and-sorcery series, Mike Grell's THE WARLORD. This gives the writers the chance to salute not only titular hero Travis Morgan but three-four of his support-cast. All the heroes unite to prevent the theft of a kryptonite cynosure by two Society villains: Metallo and Silver Banshee. Metallo is captured but Grodd remotely shorts him out before he can talk, and this incident provides the League with the first inkling of the Society's activities. Stargirl is made to resent Supergirl just to create phony drama.
TO ANOTHER SHORE (P)-- Like "Chaos," "Shore" is largely aimed at celebrating another DC icon of yesteryear: the "Viking Prince" feature co-created by Joe Kubert. However, the scenes emulating Kubert's elegant artwork are the only good ones. Grodd reels off to the other villains a windy story about how the god Odin bestowed immortality upon the Prince, making it impossible for him to die. This led the warrior to set sail for the Arctic, where he apparently gets around the spell of Odin by getting deep-frozen-- presumably without being conscious of his "living death." But the ship of the Viking is about to be unearthed from its ice-tomb, and Grodd sends some villains to rip off the secret. The inanity of Grodd's plan-- to obtain immortality based in legends he can't even verify-- spoils a decent battle between the villains and the League, and the conclusion in which Wonder Woman figures out a way to give the Prince a "Viking funeral." On the soap-opera front, J'onn J'onzz steps down as leader, feeling that he's become alienated from his adoptive culture, and seeking to learn more about humans. This might have spawned a decent episode had there been time to do one.
FLASH AND SUBSTANCE (F)-- Flash is about to have his heroic career celebrated in Central City, and he begs Batman to attend. The crusader does so, dragging the "New God" Orion along with him, so that three heroes are on call when three Flash-villains attempt to gang up on their frequent opponent. (Technically, there's a fourth Flash-villain involved, The Trickster, but in a clever twist, Flash reveals that he's not really dangerous when he takes his meds. Trickster is voiced by Mark Hamill, who played the character in the live-action FLASH series.) This is one of the better "homage" episodes, seeking to boil down what made the 1960s FLASH comic so successful -- even though technically the hero involved is Wally West, who took over the mantle of The Flash from his Silver Age mentor.
DEAD RECKONING (F)-- This is partly a homage to the Deadman franchise, given that much of the story hinges on the undead spirit seeking to avenge the (apparent) slaughter of his allies, the warrior-monks of Nanda Parbat, by the Society. Grodd's acquisition of some mystic power from this city plays into his plot to take over his former home Gorilla City and to turn everyone on Earth into an ape. This goofy plan helps Luthor take over the Society, placing Grodd in prison. However, obtaining the Brainiac fragment from the super-ape doesn't solve Luthor's little problem.
PATRIOT ACT (F)-- The title is an odd choice for what is essentially a homage to another of DC's 1940s super-teams, the Seven Soldiers of Victory. That group was comprised of Green Arrow, his sidekick Speedy, the Star Spangled Kid and his sidekick Stripesy, the Vigilante, the Shining Knight, and the Crimson Avenger. Only Green Arrow had a major standing in the League up to that point. The characters of the Vigilante and the Shining Knight had made many minor appearances in the cartoon, as had Stargirl and STRIPE, who were modern analogues of Star Spangled Kid and his partner. Speedy had no association with the JLU, while the Crimson Avenger only made non-speaking cameos. So "six soldiers of victory"-- excluding the Avenger-- are available to face the new threat, and as it happens, only a couple of them, Stargirl and STRIPE, have super-powers. The villainous General Eiling from Season 2 takes a superman-serum, which just happens to make him look like the "Shaggy Man" character from the Grant Morrison LEAGUE run in the comics. Eiling attacks the heroes during a parade and largely overwhelms them, though the semi-ordinary heroes are saved by even more ordinary forces. Eiling departs without killing anyone and is not seen again.
THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY (F)-- In an episode showing the heroes being pro-active, the heroes attempt to use Flash's brain, due to previous contact with Grodd, to locate the super-gorilla. Unfortunately just as they begin their procedure, Luthor's trying to probe Grodd's brain, and the two processes cause Luthor and Flash to switch bodies. While the League spends the episode trying to catch a super-fast Luthor, Flash has to play the part of the leader of the Secret Society, amid villains who would cheerfully kill him if they knew his identity. "Brain" has a clever moment in which "Luthor" has sex off-camera with "his" girlfriend, the sorceress Tala, in so discrete a manner that most young kids won't know what's going on.
GRUDGE MATCH (F)-- Huntress, despite not being on good terms with Black Canary, notices that she's off her game. Her investigation uncovers the Society's revival of Roulette's "Metabrawl," which now involves using devices to mind-control superheroines into being the fighters. Again, the writers only loosely suggest that the paying audience is brought in by the attractions of seeing hot women fight one another, with Black Canary being one of the hottest attractions. Huntress frees Black Canary, and the two of them must seek to liberate Roulette's other captives-- one being a certain super-powered Amazon. The episode sports a lot of good battles, but they have a special nuance since they concern the "fair sex" in combat.
FAR FROM HOME (P)-- Supergirl, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow get shifted to the era of the Legion of Super-Heroes by the only two heroes not controlled by evildoers: Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy. Most of the episode is fighting between the heroes and the villains of the day-- the Legion's most celebrated badguy-group, the Fatal Five-- but there's also a historical prophecy that makes the Leaguers wonder if one of them may never return to the 21st century. However, all goes well in that the Girl of Steel takes a shine to the Boy of Intellect, mirroring a similar romantic fling in the comics.
ALIVE! (F)-- Luthor's inability to figure out how to reunite with Brainiac makes him a bigger jerk than usual, and so girlfriend Tala decides to release his enemy Grodd from bondage. (Talk about covert naughtiness: it's strongly suggested that Tala was banging the ape before hooking up with Luthor and intends to do so again once the mad scientist is out of the way.) Before Grodd's release, Luthor is visited by Metron of the New Gods, who foresees that the human's quest for supremacy will bode ill. There's a big battle between the villains loyal to Luthor and those partisan to the gorilla, but the conclusion ends with Grodd's defeat. Luthor uses Tala's magic in an attempt to reconstitute Brainiac, but for some reason, the spell revives Darkseid, out of circulation in the DCAU since the end of the SUPERMAN series. Darkseid returns to Apokolips and rallies his minions for a direct assault on Earth.
DESTROYER (F)-- This is, I suppose, a callback to the ending of the SUPERMAN series, where Superman became majorly torqued after Darkseid brainwashed him to act the villain. As for the rest of the League, they're obliged to work alongside their long-time foes to repel the warriors of Apokolips, while it falls to the Man of Steel to trounce Darkseid. However, Luthor doesn't fight in the trenches. With Metron's help, the scientist gets ahold of the thing Darkseid wants most-- the Anti-Life equation-- and uses it as bait to lure the overlord into his apparent destruction, and that of Luthor as well. Superman does not believe that either evildoer is truly gone, and the series ends on a clever note: the villains' reward for fighting for Earth (admittedly after creating the danger) is a five-minute head start, after which the heroes come after them. The writers, who meant to end the show with a story focused on Batman, still manages a similar moment for the final shot.
I think this conclusion glosses over the fact that Superman remains the real genesis of the costumed superhero idiom in comics-- despite a few outliers like the Clock (1936) -- though I would qualify that statement by saying that the BATMAN comic was arguably the first GOOD costumed hero comic. But to return to the LEAGUE subject, I think both JLU and its predecessor series offer top-of-the-line formula superhero stories. I don't think the writing staff ever managed to consistently tap into the deeper mythic discourse offered by the best superhero comic books. But television superheroes just don't have the comparative associative freedoms, so "really good formula" is still better than one can usually expect.
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