I’m pretty sure this was the first airing of this episode…
Possible SPOILERS to follow, of course.
Anyway, Combs did a great job on “The Question.” (Did anyone else notice the speech pattern his first few lines of dialogue? hurm) Loved the design of his quarters—complete with the “beautiful mind” bulletin board with the paranoid “conspiracy” diagram. Nice to have a hero on hand who makes Batman look peaceful and well adjusted. (And without many gadgets, to boot.)
S.T.A.R. Labs looks like it’s turning into DC’s “Weapon X,” though. :smack: But, at least it’s given us our Power Girl analog. (“Galatea,” eh?..well, it’s more creative than “Eve,” or a serial number.)
For me, The Question was the best thing about this episode. Good lines, great delivery, and not your typical superhero.
However, I just don’t give a crap about Supergirl or Green Arrow, so it was hard for me to get into the story.
Besides, they were in the season opener, so shouldn’t it have been someone else’s turn? All these new heros we’re supposed to be seeing, and so far it’s pretty much been the Big Three, plus Lantern, Arrow, and Supergirl. I’m about to get bored.
I liked Question, too, but I spent the whole episode knowing it was Rorscharch in disguise. That’s what they need to liven things up: add the Watchmen to the team and watch Batman and Superman struggle with their moral lapses.
Other way around. Rorshach was the Question in disguise. The original treatment of Watchmen involved the Charleton heroes (which DC had recently acquired). DC liked it, but made Moore create original heroes, since his vision would render them all unusable (Rorshach=Question, Nite Owl=Blue Beatle, Dr. Manhattan= Captain Atom, and I think teh connections get fuzzier after that point).
It’s hard to tell, since the later O’Neil version of the Question was pretty far from Ditko’s original, but this episode’s version was pretty faithful to the original conception of the Question.
I liked this episode quite a bit. They’re building on some of the newer heroes, which is great. While I like seeing other DC folk, I was concerned that it was going to turn into a gimmick parade. Nice to see at least some of them will get development past their initial appearances.
The Comedian was based on the Charlton hero, The Peacemaker. Silk Spectre has no basis in pre-existing Charlton heroes, her character is pretty much wholly Moore’s.
You can read more in this execellent online interview.
cmkeller. You’re right about Ozymandias and Peter Cannon, but Silk Spectre ** and Nightshade ** share little similarities beyond being the females of the group, according to Moore, and he saw more of the Phantom Lady and Black Canary in her character. See the Alan Moore interview link I posted, specifically the text arouind the Comics Calvacade illustration.
Sure, they coulve’ used other characters besides Supergirl and Green Arrow. However - STAR was doing this based on events from the Superman cartoon in which Supergirl played a part. They had a nice tie in to past continuity there, and they used it. So Supergirl was a sensible choice. As for GA - Supergirl worked with him before, had a chance to bond a little - his inclusion certainly makes sense.
Plus, we get to see Ollie being a dirty old lech, which never fails to amuse me.
The Question was awesome. Excellent choice of voice talent for him in the person of Jeffrey Combs (AKA the Andorian Shran on Enterprise).
I think the criticism about them only using Lantern, the Big Three, Supergirl, and GA is unfair. J’onn has had cameos in many of the episodes so far. Supergirl and GA were used for the reasons above… I think it’s far too soon to complain about them not using enough characters.
They’ve given use Hawk, Dove, the Question, Zatanna, Bwana Beast, and Captain Atom - a pretty good representation of second and third-tier characters, considering we’re only 6 episodes in.
Ah. Cartoon Network rebroadcast it this afternoon.
Yes, I do believe we’re channeling Rorschach here.
Even worse, we’re including cameos from old TV series. In the scene where the young reporter is leaving the Steak House, another reporter stops him to ask about how he got that amazing inside source.
Did anyone recognize the older reporter?
With white linen suit (but no tie), and beat-up old hat, and those VERY distinctive facial features – the guy’s name in the episode was “Jerry,” but he looked for all the world to me like Carl “Night Stalker” Kolchak, as played by Darren McGavin…
I think all these in-jokes and allusions are cool. Sadly I probably have to wait a day or two to actually see this episode because not too many people are filesharing it yet.
The episode title, “Fearful Symmetry” is not only an allusion to the Blake poem (“Tyger, tyger, burning bright!”) but the chapter in WATCHMEN where Kovacs is finally captured.
I agree that the criticism that they’re not using many heroes is unfair… we’ve gotten a startling array of cameos and bit parts in just six episodes.
Not here to watch moral lapses of men serving the JLU.
No, wait a second…actually, I am. It’d be fun. Maybe we could get Frank Miller to guest-write an episode. (Hey, D.C. Fontana wrote an episode of Beast Wars. It could happen.)
And so…I guess so far we have at least two characters in the JLU who provided the basis for Watchmen characters. (Question, and Captain Atom) Oddly enough, Green Arrow was there for both of their appearances. (It’s the conspiracy)
A couple of other things I noticed…
•The offhand reference to Galatea/Power Girl sleeping in the same bed as a guy she’d been seeing for a week (and, one guesses, doing more than that). Normally pretty tame stuff for most TV drama…but this is animation. American animation. That’s got to count for something.
Add to that, the horrors of a “Woman of Steel, Man of Kleenex” scenario seem to have been proved false. (Though more data would be needed to know for sure. Perhaps somethign on pay-per-view. )
•And…this isn’t really a Justice League thing, but did anyone catch the reference to Jason Todd on a recent episode of Teen Titans?
I finally saw it. Pretty good episode-- although now that they’ve teased us with two Black Canary/Green Arrow ‘come hither’ looks, I sure wiull be glad when these two finally team up.
I saw this episode when it aired on Saturday. I really liked The Question. His concept and some of his lines were pretty funny, I thought.
I’m not too familar with the DC universe, so I had never heard of him before. A couple questions, if somone doesn’t mind answering. Is his blank face a mask? It seemed too flat for him to have a nose under there. And does he have any “powers”, or is he a less gadget oriented Batman?
Maybe we could get Frank Miller to guest-write an episode. (Hey, D.C. Fontana wrote an episode of Beast Wars. It could happen.)