Justice League: Secret Origins Part Two

Screen Shots

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Episode Credits

Synopsis

Previously: The Earth has been invaded. A race of unnamed shapeshifting aliens has infiltrated Earth society in order to weaken it from within. They quickly establish a bridgehead in Metropolis after apparently forcing Superman to retreat. Batman follows Superman to a remote military base. He has been telepathically summoned to free a prisoner, another alien, called J’onn J’onzz who may well hold the secrets they need to defeat the invaders. See Secret Origins Part One for more details.

Life in Themyscira, the Paradise Island of the Amazons, continues serenely as it has done so for centuries. Guardianship of the Olympian gods renders the Amazons oblivious to the war outside, but the omens have not been ignored by all. Diana, the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, finds it impossible to stand aside while the rest of the world is threatened. Under the cover of darkness she sneaks into the Temple of Athena to claim the mystical armour she’ll need in the fight to come.

Back in Man’s World, Superman, Batman, and the newly revived J’onn J’onzz have been surrounded by alien soldiers. Batman evacuates the injured J’onn in the Batplane while Superman delays the aliens. They are pursued by a large formation of airborne alien drones. Superman is overwhelmed by their numbers and even fancy flying by the Batman cannot stop the Batplane loosing a wing. The plummeting plane is saved by the sudden arrival of Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. J’onn had summoned them telepathically after he had been freed by Superman. The newly arrived heroes help turn the tide of the battle and Diana (now called Wonder Woman) arrives just in time to deflect a volley of laser fire with her armoured bracelets and save Hawkgirl. The Flash arrives just as the battle ends.

After the introductions are over, J’onn recites the history of his people’s conflict with the invading aliens. The Martians first encountered them a thousand years ago. The invaders origin is unknown, but their activities are all too apparent. They are psychic parasites that feed off of other races’ psychic energy. The battle for Mars lasted for centuries until a small band of Martian survivors forced the invaders into suspended animation and then sealed them within their underground citadel. They languished there for 500 years until the astronauts from Earth unwittingly unsealed the fortress and woke them. J’onn was the last surviving Martian and the invaders sole custodian. However, he was in a hibernation cycle when they awoke so there was nobody to stop them from escaping. With no Martians left to feed upon the invaders turned their attention to Earth. J’onn followed them warn Earth of the danger, but he was captured by the US military. They imprisoned him while an advanced party of invaders disabled Earth’s deep space monitoring network. Earth’s military was also unable to fight back as Carter and Superman’s disarmament program had destroyed the only weapons that could have had a chance against the invaders.

While the heroes talk the invaders erect massive factory machines that release dense black clouds; J’onn explains that the invaders are nocturnal and that they’re trying to blot out the sun. The heroes split into three teams. Green Lantern and the Flash attack the factory in the Malyasian jungle, but the Flash’s impulsiveness almost gets him killed. Batman, J’onn, and Diana attack the factory near the Egyptian pyramids and Diana impresses Batman with her abilities. During the raid Batman notices that the invaders fear sunlight. Hawkgirl and Superman quickly breech the walls of the Metropolis factory, but they are quickly captured. Back in Eqypt, Batman’s trio reaches the factory’s central core. He and Diana create a diversion while J’onzz goes for the “ion matrix crystal” that controls the factory. In the attack J’onn is wounded and the heroes are forced to retreat. Batman is cut off from the others just as Diana and J’onn hear a barrage of laser fire. A downcast J’onn then announces that the Batman is gone.

Commentary

The first thing the Justice League did after it formed was to split into smaller groups. When the League’s 1940s predecessor, the Justice Society, first appeared it was as a framing sequence for an anthology comic. The heroes would come together for a typical roundtable meeting and swap stories of their adventures. Each of these separate adventures was illustrated by the artists from the hero’s own feature. They pretty rapidly progressed to having group adventures, but the format of chapters focusing on single characters illustrated by their original artists remained. Eventually the solo chapters became mini team-ups, but the format had been established. In the 1960s the Society was transformed into the League. There was now only a single artist, but the format of several linked chapters each focusing on a smaller, more manageable group of heroes was retained and became one of the comic’s signatures.

The characters Green Lantern and Hawkgirl are introduced in this episode, the second part of the origin story, and did not appear in the first part. At one point GL makes a reference to Wonder Woman as a “rookie in a tiara.” We are meant to understand that these heroes aren’t unknown to each other and that GL is anything but a rookie. Superman has previously met the Green Lantern Corps and their masters the Guardians of the Universe, but that GL was Kyle Rayner – a comic book artist and the fifth human GL. Unlike the comicbook Thanagarians the cartoon ones actually have wings – in the comics they’re artificial. The comicbook Thanagarians are a technically advanced people with more than an edge of xenophobia. However, they’re usually portrayed as technologically more advanced than the people they invade, whereas the cartoon Thanagarians are being setup as some sort of Viking or even Klingon militant stereotype.

Wonder Woman’s bullets-and-bracers (or bullets-and-bracelets) trick that she performs in her first scene in costume is one of her signature moves. Linda Carter did it in the first episode of the Wonder Woman TV show and it was part of the masked contest she had to endure to prove her worth to travel to Man’s World.

The credits are listed alphabetically by surname except for Kevin Conroy who is given top billing before the rest.

A secret military base hidden in the snowy north does have shades of the “Weapon X” installation from the X-Men comics/films.

Martians only have three fingers. It may be a coincidence, but the Martian gas masks bear a passing resemblance to Dream’s Helmet.

Green Lantern was late because of an uprising near Rigel IX. The worlds of the Rigel system are a staple of the Star Trek Universe had are often used when a passing reference to something “alien” is needed. Rigel 9 is also the name of a 1985 collaboration between composer David Bedford and Earthsea writer Ursula Le Guin.

Great Moments

Wonder Woman saves Hawkgirl, Green Lantern saves them both, then askes “Who’s the rookie in the tiara?”

Oddities

J’onn deliberately brought the league together to fight the invaders. Superman had a series of seizures due to J’onn contacting him telepathically and the other heroes were explicitly summoned telepathically. All except the Batman who is only there because he followed Superman.

Green Lantern’s Ring – its one of the most powerful weapons in the universe and is only limited by the users imagination. Unfortunately John Stewart isn’t very imaginative. He limits himself to energy/laser blasts and simple geometric shields.

My thoughts

The opening action sequence against the airborne invaders is one of my favourite parts and the setup of the telepathic summons doesn’t come across as too contrived. There is a really epic feel to the early parts of this episode. They use Star Wars style wipes to transition between a couple of scenes and it gives a nice feeling of scope to the story. However, there are also parts of this episode that fall a little flat – specifically the sequence in Egypt that is meant to showcase Wonder Woman’s powers. The animation is loose and the synth music just doesn’t feel right. Then again, I really like the sound design for the quiet moments of Hawkgirl and Superman in the alien base.