Guest stars galore:
Superfriends, including Jan and Jayce, the Wonder Twins (minus Gleep) [I couldn’t remember their original names of the heroes. I was upset.]
Maxwell Lord
Amanda Waller
Giganta & Bizarro of the Legion of Doom (two-thirds of some weird love triangle with Grodd)
Had some great one-liners:
Batman, to Amanda Waller: “Mine are bigger.”
Aquaman, to Wonder Twin: “King of the Seas, remember?”
Loved this episode, for the cheese factor of bringing back the Super Friends.
I was hoping a thread like this would show up.
It’s Zan and Jayna, by the way. Jan and Jayce are the sidekick-a-likes from SpaceGhost.
Overall, excellent.
Superman called somebody Corny? HAH!
The “Superfriends” bit was well done - it was a very perceptible in-joke for those who were in on it, but still set in a story that would have meaning for those not in on it. But where was Eldorado?
First reference to “the Squad,” which presumably means the Suicide Squad if Waller is involved. Unless the makeup of the Squad changes, though, they’re not a match for the current JL, so I don’t know that a JL v. Suicide Squad story is going to have much in the way of legs.
Downpour - Zan
Shifter - Jayna
Longshadow - Apache Chief
Juice - Black Vulcan
Wind Dragon - Samurai
For reference.
It was nice to see Lord and Waller. Interesting that Waller seems to know Batman’s identity - or at least, implies it. Could just be a headgame.
“…now that he’s gotten old.”
Superman’s eyebrow twitches “Old??” Superman breaks free of the hardened lava
“Old, but spry. Spry.”
An interesting aside, I had no idea who these guys were until I saw Harvey Birdman last night. They had Apache Chief on, and he grew really tall. I thought to myself, hey, that’s just like the one guy on Justice League. Then they had Black Vulcan, and I thought, hey, that’s another guy. Then they had Wonder Woman taking a bath in the water dude.
On the whole, I liked it. I think some of the jokes–like the “old chum” bit–might seem odd or jarring to those who don’t get the reference. Still, for those of us who remember the quick-change-the-channel badness of the Superfriends, it was fun.
It was particularly amusing to see the ever-perky Wonder Twins
a) be greedy pop-culture icons and
b) get their rear ends handed to them by Aquaman. 
Still, you could at least take their powers seriously in this incarnation.
It also set up an interesting situation for future episodes. Longshadow is now in position for an arc. Will someone in the League find a cure for him? If so, what will they do about the others?
My trivia-fu is lacking. I couldn’t even remember the others. I’m lucky I didn’t call them Wendy and Marvin.
Balance, I suspect that like everyone other than Green Arrow and Supergirl (who got 2 whole episodes), the Superfriends made their cameo and will now disappear.
Did anyone else wince at the Batman’s personal copter, carrying him and Aquaman up the skyscraper. Yet another “if he’s prepared”. No wonder he’s unbeatable. “Where does he get all those cool toys?”
Nah, it’s a really easy mistake to make. I have to think about it everytime to make sure I don’t mix up one pair with the other. The names are similar, the relative utility of each pair is similar, and both pairs have a monkey sharing their costume motif.
I think there was some Alex Toth brain cross-pollenating.
Speaking of powers taken seriously, I loved Batman and Aquaman’s exchange on the oil platform. “Can you contact them telepathically?” “Do they look like fish?”
I think I recognized all the names, but being a Marvel Zombie, I am not sure who Amanda Waller is.
While we’re at it, what is Cadmus all about? They created Superboy, didn’t they? Are they “good” or “bad”? And since we’re on the subject, how about S.T.A.R. Labs?
Ahhhh! A Marvel Zombie! Somebody fetch my Infinity Shotgun and Cosmic Chainsaw.
Amanda Waller - high-up in the US Govt’s Department of Extranormal Operations. Longtime chief administrator of the Suicide Squad program. In the comics.
Cadmus - Secret research thinktank, heavily centered on cloning and applications thereof, creators of Superboy. In the comics. Neither good nor bad, but have functioned as both, depending on who the director was at the time.
STAR Labs - International research conglomerate - does all kinds of science. Where superheroes with exotic metabolisms go for in-depth doctoring. In the comics. Again, neither good nor bad, though they’ve been involved with less conspiratorial jerks than Cadmus.
In the show, STAR Labs was linked to the rogue Supergirl, which was a bad thing, although the League trusts them.
Amanda Waller is one of the few people who can stand toe-to-toe with The Batman and not flinch when Bats is trying to make you flinch. She’s good, but definitely an “ends justify the means” type.
Maxwell Lord was in charge of Justice League International, the Giffen/DeMatteis JL that was the most fun I ever had reading the JL. I believe he was introduced here. Very similar to what you saw in the episode, including when he handed the check to the Wonder Twin.
Definitely one of the better episodes. The show is beginning to grow on me. My favourite line was most certainly the rich boy comment. Look on Batman’s face was priceless.
I thought it was a great episode, too. It ranks up there with the Legends of the Dark Knight episode of Batman: TAS as far as in-jokes that very few people will actually get goes.
I was actually pleasantly surprised at how the episode turn out: when I heard “Ultimen,” I was expecing them to be like the Authority or something and have another lame “the JLA proves they’re more virtuous than the badass superhero team”-type story.
Favorite moment was definitely Amanda Waller putting Batman in his place.
I thought it was a fun shout-out to the old gadgetry he used to use. Reminded me of the Whirly-Bat.
Anybody notice the lair was a dead ringer for the old Hall of Justice?
This was a good episode. Can’t wait until they get around to re-airing it. Although hopefully you guys won’t get ahead of us again, and we’ll be getting the last couple episodes at the same time.
Yep.
And the Ultimen’s communicators play a short bit of the Superfriends theme.
I really liked Waller’s appearance. Nice to see someone stare down Batman. (This thread’s fairly refreshing, being the first I’ve been in that someone didn’t express serious disbelief that she’d do it.)
Ack! A new JLU episode? Stupid, not advertising Cartoon Network. Its’ a good thing I recorded it just in case.
I had an appeal due this morning and had to work all weekend. If I’d known the Wonder Twins were going to be on I would have just quit my job.
I could kick myself.
My DVR was acting up, so I got the cable company to replace it.
And I forgot to schedule JLU for recording!!!
What? No analogue for El Dorado?