Justice League: In Blackest Night Part One

Screen Shots

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Episode Credits

Synopsis

On the alien world of Ajuris 5 an outlandish crowd of sentients is called to order by the leader of the High Tribunal. The Tribunal is a a trio of alien judges who appear as disembodied heads on a view screen inside a vast, stadium-like, court room. They state that never before has such a heinous crime brought together so many beings in grief and revulsion. The lead judge then tells the Prosecutor to bring forth the accused, but he is informed that the accused is still at large. Upon hearing this the lead judge calls forward the Manhunters, a corps of android soldiers whose mantra is “No Man Escapes the Manhunters.” The Manhunters are then informed that their target is the Green Lantern of Earth.

On Earth, Green Lantern has returned to his childhood neighbourhood in his civilian alter ego of John Stewart. He walks the streets to collect this thoughts and is unrecognized by other citizens who are enjoying the crisp winter’s day. He uses his power ring once to stop a grocery store robbery, but slips away before anybody else notices. Quite by chance Stewart encounters Al McGee, his High School history teacher, and his grandson Chris. He hangs out with them for a time, but it’s clear that John is hesitant to explain what’s troubling him.

Meanwhile, a trio of Manhunters attract the attention of J’onn J’onzz, Hawkgirl, and Flash as they hurtle past the  Justice League’s orbiting Watchtower. The Leaguers follow the Manhunters down to the city streets and question them about their reason for visiting Earth. The Leaguers react angrily when the Manhunters tell them that they are here for John Stewart and a physical confrontation ensues. The powerful Manhunters deflect the Leaguers’ attacks with ease until Superman’s arrival evens the odds. The battle is cut short by Green Lantern’s intervention. He stuns his friends by willingly surrendering himself into the Manhunters’ custody. He and the Manhunters teleport away before the Leaguers get an explanation.

The Manhunters’ return to Ajuris 5 is met by a hostile crowd who are waving anti-Green Lantern signs and throw rotting fruit at Stewart as he passes. A group of Green Lanterns including Galius, Arrkis, and Kilowog are there to watch Stewart’s arrival, but’s it clear that they think he is as guilty as the crowd do. A snide comment by one of the Green Lantern’s about the Manhunters is overhead, but the Lead Manhunter prevents his soldiers from causing a scene by telling them “not yet.” Stewart is left alone in his cell to ponder his upcoming trial. His arrest and arrival on Ajuris 5 is watched from afar by the Guardians of the Universe, the gnome like masters of the Green Lantern Corps, but they decide to remain on the sidelines for the time being.

Back at the Watchtower J’onn J’onzz is able to reach out across the gulf of space to John Stewart’s mind. They can’t communicate, but J’onn is able to pin point Stewart’s location on a star chart. Upon arrival at Ajuris 5 the League’s Javelin craft is attacked by the local defence patrol. After taking due care to avoid lethal force the League barge into the courtroom just as the Prosecutor is demanding that an example be made of Stewart. Superman apologises for the manner of their arrival, but asserts that they are friends of the accused. The lead judge then allows the Leaguers to take seats in the public gallery, but he warns them that he will tolerate no further interruptions.

The Prosecutor calls his first and only witness. Kanjar-Ro is, by his own admission, a pirate and thief, but he is willing to allow the court to probe his memories so they can be displayed as evidence against Stewart. Ro relates his story as his memories are projected on a giant screen for the court. Stewart had discovered that Ro was running blasters to a rebel faction on Ajuris 4 and had forced Ro to crash land on Ajuris 4′s moon. Before Stewart could question Ro he was attacked by a fleet of ships belonging to Ro’s unnamed backers. Stewart fired back, but his powerful energy blast bounced off of the attacker’s deflector shields. The shot ricocheted into a volcanic fault line on Ajuris 4 causing a seismic chain reaction that destroyed the entire planet and its 3 billion inhabitants. The court recesses to consider Ro’s testimony.

The Leaguers crowd around Stewart and protest that Ro is obviously lying, but he stuns them by admitting that Ro was actually telling the truth. The large rubble cloud in the sky above Ajuris 5 is the remains of Ajuris 4. John Stewart admits that he is guilty of its destruction!

Commentary

Green Lantern Corps

See the post on Superman TAS: In Brightest Day for information about the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe.

Green Lantern’s recite an oath when they charge their rings:

In brightest day, In blackest night

No evil shall escaped my sight.

Let all those who worship evil’s might,

Beware by power, Green Lantern’s light!

The first clause was used as the title of the Superman: The Animated Series episode “In Brightest Day” which first introduced the Green Lantern Corps and their masters the Guardians of the Universe to the Animated DC Universe. This two-part story is named after the second clause in the Oath. Neither the Superman episode or Kyle Rayner (its rookie Green Lantern) are referenced in this episode, but a comment in the second season “Hearts and Minds” episode makes it clear that Kyle it is still in continuity.

The group of Green Lanterns briefly seen in this episode are Arrkis Chummuck, Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Larvox, and Galius Zed (Graz). There is a credit in the voices for “Forian”, but no such character is named on screen. However, Kilowog does mention the Forians during his evidence next episode.

The Manhunters

The Manhunters have a venerable and varied history in DC Comics, but they weren’t always tied into the Green Lantern mythology. The first Manhunter was an adventurer and private detective called Paul Kirk who only gained a superhero costume thanks to a bit of a relaunch by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (the creators of Captain America). They left the title after a few issues, but Kirk’s new red-and-blue costume remained. This Manhunter would have remained a nearly forgotten Golden Age superhero if he hadn’t been taken up by Archive Goodwin and Walt Simonson and relaunched in a memorable 1970s series that ran in the back of Detective Comics. The Goodwin/Simonson run established a secret Manhunter sect which had recruited Paul Kirk and given him his costumed identity. The Manhunter council eventually turned out to be the badguys and Paul Kirk sacrificed his life to destroy them. A couple of years later Jack Kirby returned to the Manhunter concept. He introduced a variation of the Council/Sect and had it recruit a new champion, Mark Shaw, as a replacement for Paul Kirk.

Kirby’s version of Mark Shaw & the Manhunters only appeared in a single issue (First Issue Special #5). However, it was that character and the now established Manhunter cult that made their appearance in Justice League of America #140-141 (March-April 1977). JLA writer Steve Englehart turned the concept of the Manhunter sect through 90 degrees and tied them into the origins of the Green Lantern Corps. During the story it was revealed that the Manhunters had originally been a race of androids created by the Guardians of the Universe as their first army of crime fighters. The Manhunters turned against the Guardians and were stripped of their responsibilities and weapons, but they were not decommissioned. The Manhunters stuck to what they knew best and went underground as bounty-hunters while they formulated their revenge against the Guardians. On Earth the Manhunters created a secret cult to hide their activities and employed human agents to do the bulk of their work – Mark Shaw and Paul Kirk were among these agents.

Englehart’s story had the Manhunters attempting to discredit the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps by making it appear that one of the Green Lantern’s had destroyed a planet. In the comics that Green Lantern was Hal Jordan and it was the human Manhunter, Mark Shaw, who was dispatched to capture him. Hal believed that he was responsible for the planet’s destruction and went willingly with Shaw. The League refused to believe the evidence and eventually exonerated Jordan. Things change a little bit in the cartoon version. The Earth based Manhunters are ignored completely and its obviously John Stewart and not Hal Jordan who has the bad day. However, the Lantern’s guilt, the set up of the destroyed planet, and revelation of the Manhunters origin is preserved. The comic book story ended with the defeat of the Manhunter’ plan to discredit the Green Lanterns. The cartoon goes beyond that and features a final pitched battle between the Green Lantern Corps and the Manhunters.

Something that is not often mentioned, but is referred to in the original Manhunters JLA story is the resemblance of the Manhunters to the Guardians. The Guardians of the Universe look like little blue-skinned old monks in red-robes (the epithet “smurf” has been thrown at them more than once). So when they built the Manhunters they called on a little bit of wish fulfillment to design a race of physically imposing blue-skinned warriors in red-armour. Almost as if they were based on the Guardian’s original physiques before they evolved into sci-fi sages.

Kanjar Ro

Kanjar-Ro is one of the League’s oldest foes in his own right – even if he’s only a bit-part pirate in this episode. He first appeared in Justice League of America #3 (Feb 1961) as one of a quartet of warring alien leaders. He’s reappeared time and again through the years as a proto-typical wannabe tyrant. In this episode Kanjar-Ro is voiced by Rene Auberjonis, one of the most recognisable voice artists in the business. Auberjonis is of course better known as the shape shifting police man Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Other notes

This episode marks the first appearance of the Javelin 7, the League’s shuttle craft. It provides the League a way to travel from the Watchtower to Earth and as demonstrated in this episode it’s also capable of interstellar travel. Flash can’t pilot the Javelin.

J’onn: “Wonder Woman is on another case, Superman is dealing with an earthquake, and Batman would only say that he’s busy.” After the pilot, most episodes only feature a subset of the seven Leaguers. Wonder Woman and Batman do not appear in this episode.

John Stewart’s history teacher was Al McGee. Its been a long time since Stewart paid a visit to his old neighbourhood.

Hawkgirl was a cop on Thanagar.

Great Moments

John Stewart walking the streets of his old neighbourhood. It may seem an odd choice, but we see relatively little of the Justice Leaguers’ alter egos in the first two seasons.

Oddities

Just how powerful is J’onn J’onzz’s telepathy? In this episode he’s able to read John Stewart’s mind across a vast interstellar distance.

My thoughts

In Blackest Night is a strong story to start off the normal episodes of the Justice League series. It’s one of the classic, recognisable Justice League stories from the comics and fits in well with the animated universe. I was a little disappointed that Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin didn’t get a credit for their original story, but I’ve never been entirely sure how close an adaptation has to be before a credit is mandated. I do understand the need to keep up a certain level of action, but this episode is effectively a court room drama and the inclusion of some of the set piece action sequences feels a little forced. I’m thinking of the armed robber at the start and the attack on the arriving JLA. Nevertheless the mystery of John’s crime and his reluctance to confide in others is nicely set up.