Screen Shots
Episode Credits
- Writer: Stan Berkowitz
- Director: Butch Lukic
- Composer: Lolita Ritmanis
- Storyboard: Aluir Amancio, Butch Lukic, Ricardo Morales, Bob Smith, Adam Van Wyk
- Animation Services: Koko Enterprise Co. Ltd
- Main Cast: Kevin Conroy (Batman), Maria Canals (Hawkgirl), Phil LaMarr (Green Lantern), Carl Lumbly (J’onn J’onzz), George Newbern (Superman), Michael Rosenbaum (Flash)
- Supporting Cast: Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor), Mark Hamill (The Joker), Ian Buchanan (Ultra Humanite), Oliva D’Abo (Star Sapphire), Steve McHattie (Shade), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Cheetah), Efrain Figueroa (Copperhead), Jason Marsden (Snapper Carr), Grant Heslov (Doctor), Ashley Edner (Trina)
Synopsis
The unearthly green glow of kryptonite bathes the Lexcorp penthouse as Lex Luthor stands over the body of the dying Superman. For years, Lex Luthor has hidden a catalogue of illegal schemes and plots behind the facade of a respectable billionaire businessman and philanthropist. The vainglorious Lex is more than happy to boast about his criminal activities safe in the knowledge that Superman is about to take that confession to his grave. However, the Justice League has called Luthor’s bluff. J’onn J’onzz has been impersonating Superman and Luthor’s confession is all they need to finally arrest him.
Green Lantern and the Batman burst into the room, but Luthor blows up the penthouse office and escapes across Metropolis in a one-person jet craft. Its only then, once the kryptonite is off the table, that Superman intervenes. Luthor’s missiles only delay his capture, but the chase ends suddenly as the little craft tumbles out of the sky. Superman catches it, but he is surprised and concerned to discover that Lex has passed out, the apparent victim of a massive seizure.
Superman was the last person Luthor saw before he passed out and he is also the first person he sees once he regains consciousness in the prison hospital. Lex immediately starts making legal threats, but Superman explains that the prison doctor has something to tell Lex. Normally kryptonite radiation does not effect humans, but Luthor had been carrying around the chunk he tried to kill Superman with for years. That long term exposure has caused a rare form of blood poisoning. The seizure was just the first major symptom. Doctor Patel’s diagnosis is that Luthor’s condition is terminal. Luthor remains angry and confrontational. He barks “Happy, Superman?” and ignores his offer of assistance.
Prison life doesn’t agree with Luthor especially when he discovers that he is in a cell next to the opera loving Ultra-Humanite (a mind to rival Luthor’s own in the body of a large albino gorilla). The Humanite’s loud music so enrages Lex that he hacks into the prison TV system just to broadcast an insult. The Humanite has been happy to play the model prisoner and gardener as may perks as possible during his incarceration. Nevertheless, even he can be bought and Luthor offers to pay well for his services. The Humanite electrocutes his guards and frees Luthor. Within minutes they’re out of the prison and over the wall. The police start combing Metropolis and the escape immediately attracts Batman’s attention. The villainous duo divert the authorities long enough to make a getaway by blowing up an apartment block. Batman and Hawkgirl save a little girl from the upper floor, but they lose Luthor’s trail.
With Luthor’s money the Humanite hires a motley crew of mercenaries and villains and instructs them to meet at the disused Metropolis Pictures Store. Copperhead and Cheetah are the first to arrive. Their innate distrust immediately starts a confrontation that only degenerates when Solomon Grundy, the Shade, and Star Sapphire arrive. Its only when the five villains are finally together that Luthor and the Humanite reveal themselves. Lex tells them that they best in the world at what they do, but even they are shocked and bemused when he tells them that he’s brought them together with the intention of destroying Superman and the Justice League.
The Humanite’s crew stage an ambush with a fake hostage alert at the Metropolis Federal Building. Luthor watches the battle between his mercenaries and the Justice League from an over looking balcony. He’s spotted by the Batman who leaves the battle to tackle its ringleader. During the battle Wonder Woman protects herself by deflecting one of Star Sapphire’s blasts, but it inadvertently destroys the balcony holding Luthor and the Batman. The Humanite is quick to save Luthor (his meal ticket) and the distraction allows Copperhead to bite Batman.
It is clear that the villains are loosing the upper-hand so Luthor reluctantly allows the Shade to cover their escape by blanketing the area with darkness. Cooperhead’s venom almost kills Batman before the League can administer an emergency antidote. The Dark Knight is up and about almost immediately, but Superman insists that Batman rest. Needless to say, the belligerent Dark Knight ignores Superman’s request and even challenges J’onn J’onzz to stop him taking a Javelin back to Earth.
Meanwhile, the equally belligerent Lex Luthor is berating the villains for their lack of results. The Shade demands more money and Grundy even threatens Lex, but he warns them that they’ll get nothing if he dies. Their discussion is cut short by the sudden arrival of the Joker. He questions how they could have their little party without inviting him. Luthor retorts that they don’t need a lunatic like the Joker, but he instantly proves his value by finding the tracking device that Batman placed on Luthor. Shortly afterwards, the Caped Crusader arrives at the villains hideout. They are ready for him. The Joker pushes Batman over a ledge and cackles madly as his enemy lands unconscious on a table below.
Commentary
Lex Luthor
Clancy Brown reprises the role of Lex Luthor from Superman: The Animated Series and at the start it appears that the status quo is pretty much as it had been before. Lex Luthor had been the running villain in Superman: The Animated Series. It followed the pattern from the comic books of the time, first established in MAN OF STEEL #6 (November, 1986), of Luthor using the facade of a respectable business man to hide his shady dealings and illegal schemes. However, this episode twists that with Luthor’s fall and his quest for vengeance against Superman and the Justice League.
A key part of Luthor’s fall is his kryptonite poisoning – the word cancer is never used, but that’s what radioactive exposure would do. While substantially changed this plot-element echos back to the late 1980s where Luthor discovered that a kryptonite signet ring he’d used to keep Superman at bay was actually killing him. That entire plot line took years to play out with Luthor faking his own death and transplanting his cancer-free brain into a new cloned body. He even passed himself off as his own son before Lois Lane discovered the truth.
The Injustice Gang
Just as the Justice League is an assemblage of the World’s Greatest Heroes so there have been associations of villains to oppose them. These groups are so self destructive that they rarely survive beyond a single encounter. The oldest is the “Injustice Society of the World” which first fought the Justice Society in ALL-STAR COMICS #37 (November 1946?), the Shade and Ultra-Humanite were members at one time or another. These groups have had different names over the years – the Injustice Society/Gang/League, the Secret Society, or even just The Society – buts its nearly always the same group of core characters. The casual viewer will be most familiar with is that of the Legion of Doom from the old Superfriends cartoon. Notice that the villains never use a collective name for themselves in this episode – they’re just Luthor’s hired mercenaries.
Bruce Timm originally resisted the idea of this sort of team because he believed that teams of villains diminish the individual villain, but he was convinced to change him mind by Rich Fogel and James Tucker (see Toonzone for full quotes.).
An interesting observation about this particular group of random villains is that almost all of them date back to the Golden Age of comics. Solomon Grundy fought the original Green Lantern, the Ultra-Humanite and Lex Luthor were Superman villains, Cheetah was a Wonder Woman villain, the Shade and Star Sapphire were Flash villains, and the Joker was a Batman villain.
The Ultra-Humanite was one of Superman’s oldest enemies, but he was supplanted in that role by Lex Luthor. Revision of Superman’s history removed his Golden Age adventures from continuity, but the Humanite was too good a villain to loose and was revived as an enemy of the Justice Society. He is known for the gimmick of switching his brain between bodies, but his first body didn’t look to different so from the modern Lex Luthor. He then transplanted his brain into the body of a Hollywood movie actress, but it’s the large white gorilla that most people remember. Luthor’s own body swap, mentioned above, was probably inspired by the Humanite stories.
The original Star Sapphire may have been a Golden Age Flash villain, but the more familiar form seen here is a 1960s Green Lantern villain. She was Carol Ferris, the brainwashed girlfriend of Green Lantern Hal Jordan. So while Hal may not have made it into the cartoon his girlfriend has. The Star Sapphires were created by a tribe of females that split off from the Guardians of the Universe. Their powers are obstinately the same as a Green Lantern, but they uses the Star Sapphire gem rather than a ring. The key difference is that the Sapphire gem takes control of a person’s mind and dampens their free will whereas the Lantern ring requires a strong and free will to work effectively. Oliva D’Abo who voices Star Sapphire later provides the voice for Morgan Le Fay in a couple of later episodes.
The only villain that doesn’t date to the Golden Age is Copperhead. He first appeared in BRAVE AND THE BOLD (vol. 1) #79 (June 1968) and is named after Agkistrodon contortrix, a venomous snake from the pit viper group. It’s famous for striking without warning. If the original Copperhead had an alter ego it hasn’t been revealed. He fought Batman a number of times before being killed by the vigilante Manhunter (not the same the Manhunter androids from last episode).
The Cheetah is a Wonder Woman villain – the first to appear in the cartoon. She is Barbara Minerva, in the comics she was an archaeologist who made a sacrifice to a Cheetah spirit/god to gain superpowers. Despite the name she usually isn’t depicted as quite so furry as she appears here. More details about her are revealed in the second part of this episode.
The Shade is an odd character. He was an old villain who was transformed into a surprisingly complex character during James Robinson’s run on STARMAN. Outside of his home city he’s just another supervillain, but at home in Opal City he’s more ambiguous and will side with the heroes to save a city he genuinely likes. He has the power to create shadows. At its simplest this just means blacking out an area, but he’s sometimes shown as able to create shadow constructs much like Green Lantern or Star Sapphire create light constructs.
What exactly Solomon Grundy is changes with the telling. He is an undead monster, the reanimated remains of a 1930s gangster whose body was dumped into Gotham City’s Slaughter Swamp. We see a version of his origin in a later episode after he develops an unusual friendship with Hawkgirl. In the cartoons he’s used as a surrogate for the Incredible Hulk and will often use phases like “Grundy Smash.”
Nothing really has to be said about the Joker as this is the same character that Mark Hammil has been playing for over ten years. This Joker met Lex Luthor before during a three-part Superman/Batman team-up story.
Misc.
Wonder Woman appears in the flight scene fighting Cheetah, but she doesn’t speak and isn’t listed in the cast credits.
Oddities
Hawkgirk’s quips about the Flash being unable to get a date because he’s the fastest man alive. What could she mean?
Highlights
The return of Lex Luthor. His subplot and his line in belligerent banter really lifts what could have otherwise been a “by the numbers” episode.
My thoughts
When they created the Justice League cartoon it was inevitable that this story would be told. The heroes unionise so villains respond with their own group. It’s an arms race that plays out throughout the rest of the series – first with Grodd’s small group, then JL Unlimited, and finally in the last season with Grodd and Luthor’s massive association of villains. What I find interesting here is that the villains get equal, if not greater, scene time than the heroes. The episode with Grodd’s group is about tensions between the heroes, but here its really about Luthor’s fall and this group of mercenaries he brings together. I had forgotten that the Joker was in this story until he showed up at the end of this episode. Its a great surprise and really gives the sense that the balance has shifted.
Rating: 
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