It was nice to see Captain Boomerang in action, along with Plastique, Colonel Flagg, and Deadshot.
Deadshot seemed to be voiced by Michael Rosenbaum, who’s then well on his way to having better than 50% of his JLU appearances not be the main character he voiced in Justice League.
The Clock King was handled beautifully, and seemed to have retained his original voice actor.
Atom Smasher, Vigilante, and Shining Knight get some quality time. And a few lines, amongst them.
I didn’t really enjoy this one too much. What I have enjoyed about JLU so far is that the show didn’t let the ongoing backstory take over too much from each episode being self-contained.
This one was ALL backstory. The Justice League were supporting actors in their own show.
Plus, the plot on this one was pretty minimal.
It reminded me of a thrown together role playing session where you just wanted to kill time.
“Ok…um…ok, I got it! You have to break into the JLU HQ!”
I saw this one a couple weeks back. I have a friend who has been hooking me up with significant JLU and JL episodes on video CDs to watch on the computer, and somehow he got hold of the YTV broadcast. I thought it was one of the best episodes yet, even though the heroes played a very small role in it. (Then again, I find the “Big Seven” heroes terribly dull, and prefer the supporting characters and second bananas anyway.) I liked all the action, intrigue, and advancing of backstory, and thought the line-up of Rick Flagg, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Clock King, and Plastique, all out of their usual costumes, was an interesting choice. Deadshot was shown as a slick sociopath, a too-cool-for-school amoral badass. I’m a Deadshot mark, and I loved how Michael Rosenbaum was doing his best sardonic Kevin Spacey impression for him. Since I’ve been digging villain-centric stories of late, I loved this episode. Great work from Darwyn Cooke, who wrote the teleplay based on Dwayne McDuffie’s story. (I’m also a huge Cooke mark.)
Oh, the end is really shocking for anyone keeping up with current events in the DCU. While McDuffie himself denied it on comic writer Micah Wright’s Delphi forum, I think the JLU cartoon is really running parallel with the DCU of the comics, especially with the major storylines going on now. It doesn’t get any better than this show, especially with the ongoing conspiracy arc that will take up most of the season.
Hmf. I’m soooOOoOoooo sick of you all guys, you more-copyright-observant-than-thou types, with your refusal to fileshare using ICQ or use KaZaA or bittorrent. I wanted to talk about this show weeks ago! And yes, I spoiled the upcoming episodes with the you-know-who-battling-the-unmentionable!! YES. Me, me, it was all me!
It was all backstory, and I loved that. Every series deserves a change of pace story. This one had a great plot – a super-villain heist exploiting the weaknesses of the orbiting Watchtower in order to steal a powerful weapon from an earlier storyline. It fleshed out a little about how the Watchtower is run and gave us a glimpse of how the upcoming battle between the US government and the JLU will pan out. In two more episodes you’ll see even more to that (Me, me… I spoil everything!), but like Peter David, I digress.
Kudos on the super-villain team-up of Plastique and Deadshot. Kudos on The Clock masterminding the timetables. Kudos on J’onn J’onnz flexing his muscle.
That said, I didn’t care for Boomerang’s voice much… but eh. It was good to see Rick Flagg, and Deadshot was just awesome. No loyalties.
Kudos to Darwyn Cooke’s script, who knows his DC super-team dynamics. The betrayal of Plastique was an homage to a similar betrayal the character in the first couple of issues of THE SUICIDE SQUAD, where Task Force X comes from. I wouldn’t mind a spin-off animated SUICIDE SQUAD series.
I must say – we need more DC writers to do episodes. They’ve all been fun. We’ve had Dwayne McDuffie all along – Warren Ellis, Gail Simone, J.M. DeMatties, Cooke and an adaptation of Alan Moore – who else should do an episode? Grant Morrison, definitely. Mark Waid. Dare I suggest John Byrne?
No Byrne, please! But I wouldn’t mind an honest-to-goodness Giffen/DeMatteis episode (those guys wrote for The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, after all!), perhaps with Batman, J’onn J’onzz, Black Canary, Dr. Fate, Booster Gold, Mister Miracle, Barda, Elongated Man, Captain Atom, Flash, Maxwell Lord, and… dare I say it?.. Guy Gardner (perhaps with his yellow ring, to avoid GL confusion).
Did anyone catch that it was Captain Atom who took the injured Plastique to the sick bay? In the comics, he helps her reform, and they end up falling in love and getting married.
It was a cute episode, but I was kind of left wanting more. I was expecting the armor to be a distraction as they sneak out with the real prizes like the Phantom Zone projector. I wouldn’t mind seeing Task Force X turn up again.
And I could have sworn that Clock King’s first name was Tempus, not Temple, to make his name part of the joke…
I definately squealled at that promo and watching Billy transform in the ending sequence.
Despite my recent postings in threads like these, I’m not that big of a Captain Marvel fan, I swear, but there is something very cool about him. That and the writers promised that the CM/Supes episode is awesome (sorry. I’m blanking on the website.)[/spoiler]
The show: it was nice to get a new JLU, but they have and will do better. Other than Deadshot picking on GL and J’onn getting ripped in half (Ouch!), nothing about this episode really sticks out.
A fun “caper” episode. Interesting to see a group of non-powered (?) non-costumed humans pulling one over on the JLU. (Though the show does seem to be turning into “The X-Files,” a little :smack:)
And Nathan Fillion (aka “Mal” Reynolds) as Vigilante.
(By the way…does Vigilante use rubber bullets, or something? A gunslinger hero carrying around a pair of unmodified .45 Peacemakers seems kind of an odd member for the killing-averse JL to have around. Or do they just have him on “kill robots, zombies, and door locks” duty, like all cartoon versions of Wolverine?)
By the way…was it just me, or was the arsenal of captured superweaponry really lightly guarded? You’d think it’d have a couple of booby traps, at least. (Personally, I would have kept it filled with nerve gas. But that’s just me.)
Time honored power stunt for those with density control. They phase their hand, insert it into the target’s heart, and partially resolidify it. The Vision and Kitty Pryde have both done it, over at Marvel.
