Justice League

Screen Shots

Synopsis

Previously: The Amazons were a race of immortal women who, led by their Queen Hippolyta, dedicated themselves to worship of the Olympian Gods and the ways of the ancient Greeks. Potents and omens warned of danger to the entire world from an invasion led by aliens called the Imperium. The Gods protect the Amazons’ isolated island home (Themyscira) and Hippolyta was content to leave the outside world to its fate. Her daughter, Diana, disagreed and left Themyscira to become a superhero called Wonder Woman. She allied herself with other heroes to defeat the invaders and form a group called the Justice League. (Secret Origins Parts One, Two and Three).

Eight months later…

A powerful storm called Hurricane Gardner lashes the Beach City coast of Metropolis. Snapper Carr reports from the seafront that citizens have been advised to find shelter and to keep the roads clear for emergency services. A fire truck on one of Metropolis’s elevated Highways swerves to avoid flying debris and plunges over the railing. It is caught by Superman with help from Wonder Woman. She then rescues a little girl trapped up a tree and delivers her back to her mother. Wonder Woman is momentarily distracted by the warmth of the relationship between the mother and daughter and doesn’t notice a falling street sign until Superman sweeps her to safety. She confesses to Superman that she left Themyscira against her mother’s wishes and fears how that has effected their relationship.

On Superman’s suggestion, Wonder Woman decides to return to Themyscira and make peace with her mother. She rehearses her excuses like a naughty school girl during the flight there, but doesn’t get a chance to use them. Upon arriving she discovers that the City of the Amazons has been ransacked. Fallen masonry lies everywhere and several of the larger buildings are on fire. The Amazons themselves have been petrified, turned into stone statues. Their poses show that they were fighting against some sort of intruder. Wonder Woman finds her mother, Queen Hippolyta, similarly frozen in the main temple.

Wonder Woman notices the approach of an unidentified sorcerer and gains the upper hand against his spells until he threatens that “Harm me and the others will remain as they are… cold, hard, stone!” He then introduces himself as Felix Faust, “a humble student of the mystic arts” who came to Themyscira searching for the first fragment from an ancient sacred relic. The Amazons refused to cooperate and he claims that he was forced to defend himself. He then offers to restore the Amazons to their original condition if Wonder Woman finds the other parts of the relic for him. He demonstrates his ability to do so by briefly lifting the curse on Queen Hippolyta.

Faust reiterates his demand that Wonder Woman collaborate with his search. He tells her that she has twenty-four hours to find the other fragments of the relic and gives her three crystals that will lead her to them. After Wonder Woman has left, Faust informs his unseen master that their plan has changed and that he’s found a pawn to retrieve the pieces for them. Wonder Woman contacts the Batman and asks him to check up on Faust’s background. She doesn’t say why she wants to know, but Batman is concerned and begins tracking the path of her Javelin.

The first crystal leads Wonder Woman to an exhibit of ancient Greek items at the Museum of Natural History. It’s late at night and Wonder Woman enters through an unlocked sky light. The crystal leads her to a pot containing the relic, but she inadvertently crosses an electronic eye-beam and the Museum goes into secure lock down. She smashes the pot and grabs the cylindrical relic, but that causes a massive stone statue of a Greek warrior, four times tall as a man, to come to life and attack her. The Guardian is stronger than her, but when it wrestles the relic from her she fights back ferociously, desperate to save her mother. Wonder Woman pounds the Guardian into pieces and then picks up the relic.

The commotion at the Museum (or Batman’s tip off) attracts Superman’s attention and he demands an explanation. Once the Flash and J’onn J’onzz arrive, Diana explains her problem with Felix Faust and also points out that men are forbidden from setting foot on Themyscira (a law she’ll uphold even if Faust won’t). With a grin J’onn says that they’ve got no choice, but to help Diana fulfil her bargain. The second crystal leads J’onn and the Flash to a stepped pyramid/temple somewhere in Latin/South America. The Flash is in and out of the pyramid with the relic in a second, but that wakes its Guardian – a gigantic fire breathing serpent. The Guardian floors J’onn with its flame breath until the Flash tricks it into tying itself into a knot. That gives J’onn a chance to recover and K.O. it. Elsewhere, Batman finds Professor Erlich at the University and asks him about Faust.

The third crystal leads Wonder Woman and Superman to a shopping mall (Metro Mall) in Metropolis. She is rather perplexed by the fashion boutiques, but Superman spots the relic with his x-ray vision. It is buried beneath the Mall’s foundations and he excavates down to retrieve it. It is becoming increasingly evident that somebody went to a lot of trouble to stop these relics from begin discovered, but before they can ponder that point further a flash of light blinds them and Superman drops the relic. Neither hero can see the other after their eyes have cleared. Wonder Woman finds her self fighting a bat-winged demon while Superman finds himself fighting an amphibian-like monster. It is Superman who first realises that an illusion is making them see each other as the monsters. Superman refuses to fight back against Wonder Woman and is barely standing when she realises who he really is.

Back on Themyscira, Faust councils to his master to have patience. Wonder Woman will bring the relics to them and when she does dominion over the Earth will be theirs.

Commentary

Paradise Lost

The title of this episode has two meanings. The most obvious is that Paradise Lost is the name of a 17th century epic by the English writer John Milton. It is a retelling in the style of the old Greek epics of the Bible story about the corruption of Adam and Eve, the first humans, and their expulsion from Paradise. The second meaning relates more directly to Wonder Woman and the Amazons. In the Wonder Woman comics the Amazons are an immortal tribe of women who are charged by the Olympian Gods with guarding Doom’s Doorway, a portal into Hades’ Underworld. Doom’s Doorway is located beneath the island of Themyscira, an island paradise whose precise location has never been established (its sometimes depicted as being in the Bermuda Triangle). Another name for Themyscira is Paradise Island, so Paradise Lost is also an allusion to Wonder Woman’s exile from her home.

Faust, Felix Faust

Felix Faust is an old foe of the Justice League. He first appeared in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #10 (March 1962) written by Gardner Fox, illustrated by Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs, and edited by Julius Schwartz. Felix Faust is based on the figure of Faust from German literature. That Faust is the archetype of the sorcerer who sells his soul to the devil. Faust is a 16th century German folk-story about a sorcerer who makes a deal with a devil in return for divine knowledge. He may have been based on a real figure, possibly the alchemist Johnn Georg Faust, but the myth has been adapted for numerous works and plays.

The Faust story first made the leap into English with Christopher Marlows’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Marlow (a contemporary of Shakespeare) gives the name of the demon that Faust deals with as Mephistopheles. In Marlow’s play the alchemist (scientist) Faust reaches the end of mortal enquiry and seeks to know even more. He summons the demon Mephistopheles and through him bargains with the Devil to be given twenty-four years of life with Mephistopheles as his servant. However, Mephistopheles is a tricky foil and Faust wastes the allotted time given to him. At the end of the play Hell claims Faust without his redemption.

In the 18th century Goethe adapted the legend for one of the greatest works of German literature. His version is framed as a challenge between God and Mephistopheles over whether Mephistopheles can corrupt the righteous Faust or not. As in the older plays the devil normally succeeds, but Goethe inverts the ending and ultimately has Faust finding redemption.

The original Justice League story is loosely based on the legend the sorcerer, here called Felix Faust. He seeks to regain or strengthen his existing abilities by releasing a trio of ancient demons called Abnegezar, Rath, and Ghast from their extra-dimensional prison. To do that Felix Faust needs to gather together the Green Bell of Uthool, the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath and the Red Jar of Calythos. The Justice League defeat him and Faust becomes locked into a cycle of trying to attain greater power before being damned in some manner for his attempts. He always manages to escape Hell or wherever he’s ended up and just goes right back to try again.

This episode of Justice League includes elements loosely based this original comic book. Rather than the Demons Three or Mephistopheles Faust is working for Lord Hades, the god of the underworld. The bell, book, and candle are replaced by the three parts of the key needed to release Hades. The three demons guest star in the Justice League Unlimited episode The Balance which is a direct sequel to this two-parter.

Felix Faust is voiced by horror legend Robert Englund – Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street films. He also voiced the Riddler in The Batman cartoon.

The Amazons

The back story of the Amazons isn’t revealed until the next episode, however several of them are name checked or are shown.

• Diana – Wonder Woman, Princess of the Amazons.
• Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons and Diana’s mother. Susan Sullivan reprises her voice role from Secret Origins.
• Antiope – name checked when Wonder Woman first sees the petrified Amazons. The original Antiope was Hippolyta’s sister and Diana’s aunt. She led a splinter tribe of Amazons who didn’t migrate to Paradise Island. This Antiope is presumably a different Amazon with the same name.
• Philippus – also name checked when Wonder Woman first sees the petrified Amazons, I assume she’s the statue we’re actually shown. Phillippus was the General of the Amazon army and is one of the post prominent figures in their society.
• Menalippe – is name checked when Diana recognises one of her amphora in the Museum of Natural History. The label on it describes it as “6th Century B.C. Earliest known example of a red-figured amphora. Artist Unknown.” In the comics Menalippe was the Amazon’s oracle.

Misc.

• The Hurricane at the start of this episode is named Hurricane Gardner after Gardner Fox, the original writer of the 1960s Justice League comic-books.
• I can’t remember J’onn J’onzz being explicitly noted as being vulnerable to fire in this show, but he does seem to get hit by fiery explosions and flame throwers quite a bit.
• The little girl that Wonder Woman saves from the tree is called Cassie – this is the name of the second Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman’s sidekick.
• Wonder Woman mentions that it’s been 8 months since the events of Secret Origins when she left Themyscira.

Opinions

Highlights

Wonder Woman’s fight against the Stone Guardian in the Museum.

Oddities

Wonder Woman tells Superman that she can’t put off her return to Themyscira any longer, however, they’re in the middle to Hurricane Gardner’s assault on Metropolis. Surely she could have waited until the emergency at hand had passed.

My Thoughts

This is the first regular Wonder Woman themed episode and highlights fundamental issues with the character. Her regal heritage makes her straight laced and at times rather self-righteous. Her various “I’ve got you sister!” and “Great Hera!” can become rather tedious. The character package could so easily lapse into pastiche, but the Justice League writers generally manage to keep the balance. What makes her work as a character is the undercurrent of loneliness and isolation in the modern world. She’s the capable, but spoilt rich kid who suddenly finds herself separated from the comfortable and loving environment of her upbringing. You get the ever so slight feeling that she is a little girl playing at being a serious adult. Something reinforced by the amusing excuses-sequence on the Javelin.

Given all the above, this is a right royal romp of a story. The “find the fragments” bit is a classic comic book split-the-group setup and is interesting enough I suppose. Where his story really sparkles is when Wonder Woman is confronting Faust. He is such a contemptible, slimy weasel that you can understand Wonder Woman’s revulsion. Yet the same things that repulse her create a fantastic villain for us.

This first season was animated in the traditional television 4:3 aspect-ratio, but it was framed so that the action looked best in the letterbox 16:9 format – the format used for later seasons. The DVD releases are in 4:3, but I tried setting by PS3 to letterbox mode allowing it to crop the top and bottom. The effect works surprisingly well.

The animation of Wonder Woman goes a little odd on Wonder Woman’s eyes during one or two sequences. It’s like they’re painted on her face, like an Eqyptian mask, rather than set into it like normal eyes.

3.5