Justice League: Legends Part One

Screen Shots

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Episode Credits

Synopsis

The Justice League battle a 8-story tall, green-and-purple robot in the heart of the city, but they are unaware that it is being remotely controlled by Lex Luthor – revenge for his earlier defeat at their hands (“Injustice For All“). The League manage to dent the robot’s armour, but Hawkgirl, GL, and J’onn J’onzz are knocked unconscious in the battle. Superman breeches the robot’s armour giving Batman the opening he needs to destroy its engine with a well placed batarang. The failing robot topples towards the unconscious Leaguers, but it is momentarily held aloft by the Flash’s whirlwind. The robot and everything in a sphere surrounding it – including Hawkgirl, GL, J’onzz and the Flash – vanishes in a blinding flash of light.

When Flash and co. awake they find themselves in an unfamiliar alleyway with the smoking remains of Lex Luthor’s robot. However, they cannot contact either Batman or Superman. J’onn tries reaching out to them telepathically, but he collapses after he’s overwhelmed by a vision of a nuclear Armageddon. They spread out to look for their friends and it quickly becomes clear that they are no longer in Metropolis. People, buildings, and vehicles seem to be from the 1950s, but the local newspaper (the “Seaboard City Time-Picayune”) confirms that the date hasn’t changes. The Flash doesn’t recognise the name Seaboard, but they do recognise the sound of a burger-alarm and race to stop a nearby robbery.

A flamboyant local criminal, the Music Master, is stealing a Stradivarius violin from a music shop. Green Lantern blocks his escape, but he’s surprised when the Music Master refers to him as the Green Guardsman. The Music Master escapes, but not before Lantern manages to snatch the violin from him. Seaboard City’s resident superheroes then arrive. The don’t ask questions and assume that Lantern and the Flash are criminals as they are still holding the stolen violin. Hawkgirl and J’onn arrive with two new local heroes. Green Lantern is stunned when he recognises one of them. The brawl between the two groups intensifies much to the delight of a watching blond-boy. However, it is only when the Flash saves the child from falling debris that his speedster counterpart realises that they’re fighting fellow superheroes and not supervillains.

The two teams retire to the local heroes mansion headquarters where they introduce themselves as the Justice Guild of America (Catman, Black Siren, Green Guardsman, Tom Turbine, and the Streak). The boy who the Flash saved was Ray Thompson, a junior justice guardsman – their sidekick of-sorts. However, the jollities of the introductions are cut short when J’onn has another painful vision. The attitudes of the Justice Guild are a little old-fashioned for some of the League to understand. Black Siren wants Hawkgirl’s to help prepare snacks for the men, but Green Lantern asks her to play along in trying to gather more information. He then explains to the Flash that he recognises the Justice Guild from the comics he use to read as a child. Their adventures taught him how to be a hero, but he is at a loss to explain why they have now come face-to-face with people he believed were fictious.

Tom Turbine explains that there is a continuum of parallel worlds, each vibrating at a different speed. When the Flash absorbed the energy from the exploding robot he accidentally created a rift in the dimensional barrier that transposed the Justice League into the Justice Guild’s Earth. J’onn explains that the comic book writers on their own Earth must have had a psychic connection to events on the Guild’s Earth and that they were unwittingly recording the Guild’s adventures. Tom explains that he’s been tinkering with a transdimensional gateway that should be able to send the Justice League home, but he hasn’t yet been able to find a suitable energy source.

The Justice Guild’s enemies, the Injustice Guild, have also noticed the Justice League’s arrival. The Music Master, Sportsman, Doctor Blizzard and Sir Swami argue about who will defeat these new heroes. Sir Swami proposes a wager. Whoever stages the most extravagant crime will have the honour of devising a plan to destroy the Guild and League. The local police arrive at the Justice Guild’s headquarters to deliver a letter from the villains – the Injustice Guild challenges the Justice Guild to expect a crime spree based on the four classical elements (earth, fire, wind, and water). The League are preplexed as to why criminals would tip off the authorities, but they happily agree to help the Guild. The Streak then gives them Justice Guild decoder rings making them honorary members of the Justice Guild.

The two teams of heroes then pair up, one hero from each team.

• Green Lantern and the Streak find the Sir Swami stealing a ruby (fire element). His magical blasts keep them at arm’s length until he dives into a phone box. They run to pull the door open, but by then he has vanished in a puff of smoke.
• Hawkgirl and the Green Guardsman find the Music Master stealing a priceless antique flyer from the Museum of Flight (an air based crime). However, the Guardsman prevents Hawkgirl from simply knocking it out of the sky. He tells her that the flyer is irreplaceable and that they’ll have to use their wits not violence. Two window-cleaners in an aluminum cradle are knocked from a building by the passing Music Master. The Guardsman’s powers have no effect on the aluminum cradle so Hawkgirl has to save them on her own. She then goes after the Music Master alone, but he knocks her unconscious with a blast from his accordion.
• Seaboard City’s Mayor is about to unveil a new fountain (water element) when Doctor Blizzard attacks. The Flash and Black Siren trade cold based quips with Blizzard, but even they are hard pressed to avoid his razor sharp icicles and chilling blasts. They think they have him defeated, but the Flash is distracted when he has to save a bus full of nuns from hitting a TNT truck. Blizzard freezes the Flash and Siren in a solid block of ice.
• The Sportsman makes off with the Seaboard City Clay (earth element) Tennis Court Championship trophy as his crime. But, he’s pursued by Catman and Ray in the Catcycle and from the air by J’onn J’onzz. The Catman leaps on the truck driven by the Sportsman and is hanging on to the front grille until saved by J’onn. Suddenly, J’onn’s debilitating headaches return and he drops to the ground. He sees an image of a ruined and bombed out Seaboard City before passing out. Catman is forced to break off the chase to turn back to help J’onn.

When Hawkgirl recovers from the Music Master’s attack she finds herself in a peaceful graveyard on a hill overlooking Seaboard City. There is a line of five graves that are over grown with vines. Hawkgirl feels compelled to look closer and is horrified to find that they are actually the graves of the Justice Guild, the same heroes that are currently helping them save the city!

Commentary

The Justice Society of America

The Justice Guild are a pastiche of a group called the Justice Society of America. The Society are the original comic-book superhero team. I’ve mentioned them several times in these recaps so I’ll try to be brief. Superheroes started appearing in comics during the late 1930s, but each hero – for the most part – occupied his own little world and never met or interacted with characters from other titles. That was until All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940-41). All-Star was an anthology title and featured the stories of 8-different characters. For the first two-issues these stories were separate, but the third issue introduced a framing sequence. The heroes were sitting around a table telling stories (their individual adventures) to each other. The name of this club of heroes was “the Justice Society of America” (JSA).

There was a gradual evolution in the JSA’s adventures. At first they just related their own separate adventures to each other, but they soon started have linked adventures with each hero fighting some fragment of a large villain’s scheme. War time pressures on paper forced the number of chapters to drop so the heroes started fighting in pairs or small groups rather than on their own. By degrees the JSA went from being a Gentlemen’s Club for superheroes to a true crime-fighting unit. Their adventures lasted through the 1940s – even after many of their individual comics had been cancelled – until the early 1950s when All-Star Comics #57 (Feb-March 1951) was finally turned into a Western title (All-Star Western) and the superheroes were replaced by cowboys.

In the late 1950s DC Comics started reviving and updating some of their old superhero concepts and this led to the creation of an updated, second generation superhero team called the Justice League. It was later revealed that the League and Society actually co-existed with each other on separate parallel Earths. The Society lived on Earth-Two while the League lived on Earth-One. However, it was the Society’s adventures that set the mold for almost all subsequent superheroes teams. Even their pattern of splitting-up into small groups, originally due to paper shortages, was carried over into the League. It’s referenced in this episode when the League and Guild split-up to fight the Injustice Guild.

Society to Guild

The League and Society originally met in Justice League of America #21-22 when they teamed-up to fight a collation of villains from both Earths. Thereafter, once a year, the League and Society would crossover to each others world to have adventures. When the producers of the Justice League started working on this episode when intended for it to actually include the Society and to be an homage to those crossovers.

Bruce Timm described their original intention on Toonzone:

We wanted to use the golden age JSA, rather than the more recent incarnation, to contrast the “old school” superheroes with a more contemporary take on the characters. [...] Now, taking this course with the story meant that we ended up gently (but affectionately!) spoofing the Golden Age guys, with their old-fashioned primary-colored costumes, their roll call, their teen mascot, their too-good-to-be-true personalities, etc.

The fun in the story comes from seeing how the Justice League react not only to the the golden age heroes, but also to the wild Golden Age villains and the whole Golden Age-styled world they live in, like an incredibly romanticised version of the late 1940′s. All well and good, we thought we were on to something. The script turned out well, exciting, funny, charming, and oddly moving in its own way.

However, DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz had some concerns with the story. He felt the story as written disrespected the JSA, and was overall an inappropriate use of the characters. We pleaded our case, but we could clearly see his point, too – the DC guys have spent a lot of time and effort in revitalising the JSA recently, to the point here it’s now one of their most popular titles. We certainly didn’t want it to seem as if we were saying the JSA was a joke. No disrespect was intended on our end–quite the opposite! We wanted the story to be a love letter to the original JSA, and a bittersweet nod to simpler times. Paul saw OUR point and quickly agreed to a compromise: we’d change the names and designs JUST ENOUGH to make them NOT QUITE the JSA, but still get the point across.

[...]

It DID give us a few hairy moments, as all this stuff was happening at literally the eleventh hour. We were actually on the phone with the legal department, awaiting clearances on our new JGA characters’ names, AT the voice-recording session. We started recording not knowing what some of the characters names were going to be!

It’s funny how things work out. At first, we were still kinda disappointed that we couldn’t use the “real” JSA, but we’ve come to realize that the story actually works BETTER this way. The “GL”, “Flash”, and “Black Canary” doppelgangers are fairly close to the originals, but the “Wildcat” clone is almost a Batman/Wildcat hybrid, and the “Atom” character has quite a bit of classic Superman in him as well. So, in effect, we’re not just spoofing/paying homage to the the JSA, but also to the Fox-era Silver Age JLA, too…sweet!

The Justice Guild

The Black Siren -  is a direct copy of the original Black Canary. The Siren’s name is shown on her gravestone as Donna Nance. The original Black Canary was Dinah Drake, the daughter of the police man. She became a costumed crime fighter after the chauvinistic police department wouldn’t let her follow in her father’s footsteps. Her daughter, Dinah Lance, was a member of the Justice League using the same costume and codename. It is the second Black Canary who joins Justice League Unlimited and attracts Green Arrows attention in “Initiation”.

The Siren is voiced by Jennifer Hale. Hale has provided a few voices for Justice League including Giganta, Inza Kent, and Zatanna from future episodes. She even voiced the Black Canary, the character the Siren is based on, in the Justice League Heroes video game.

Catman is an amalgam of an Adam West-era Batman and a JSA hero called the Wildcat. Wildcat was Ted Grant, a heavyweight boxer, who uses his pugilistic skills to keep the streets safe. In later years Wildcat has become famous for training a new generation of heroes, including the second Black Canary and Catwoman. The 1960s Batman TV show needs little introduction, its Batman was inspired by the 1950s Batman. The Catman’s alter ego is partially obscured on his tombstone, but it could be “T. Blake”. The name Catman comes from the Cat of Wildcat and the man of Batman, but it is also the name of a relatively obscure Batman villain and his alter ego is Thomas Blake. Catman is voiced by Stephen Root

The Green Guardsman – he is a direct copy of the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott. The science fiction Green Lantern Corps was a latter addition, the original Green Lantern got his magic ring from a lantern which had once been an Aladdin-like lamp. At a key moment the Green Guardsman reveals that his ring has no effect on aluminium. This is a reprise of Alan Scott’s ring not effecting wood. The Guardsman’s alter ego is Scott Mason. Scott is obviously from Alan Scott. Mason could be a nod to Hollis Mason, the older Owlman from Watchmen.

The Green Guardsman is voiced by William Katt. Katt voiced Hawkman of the Justice Society when they appeared on Batman: Brave and the Bold. He actually owns his own comics company.

The Streak – a direct copy of the first Flash, Jay Garrick. Jay was a college football-star who gained superpowers after inhaling fumes from heavy-water. The original Flash wore a World-War One style helmet, but the Streak wears a football helmet instead – possibly a nod to Jay’s college days. The Streak’s name is not clearly shown on his gravestone, but his name looks some like Ja.. ..r.. so it’s probably something like Jason Gorrick or some other play on Jay Garrick. The Streak is shown as the leader of the Justice Guild, the Flash was the Society’s first chairman. The Streak is voiced by David Naughton.

Tom Turbine - is an amalgam of features from several different heroes – in RPG terms he’s the “brick.” . His strength and the way his face is drawn, with no whites to his eyes, matches the art style of Joe Shuster – the co-creator of Superman. It’s also the style they use for the DCAU Superman. Turbine is a superstrong puncher so there is a parallel with the later Atom. Unlike the 1960s Atom, the 1940s Atom didn’t shrink, and was only called the Atom because of his short stature – more like a boxing nickname than a superhero codename. The need to activate his powers is a parallel to Hourman, he had an “hour of power” each time he took a miraco pill. Tom Turbine describes himself as an expert in nuclear physics and he is the one to explains how the League arrived on the Guild’s Earth. From his gravestone it seems that Tom Turbine is his real name. Tom Turbine is voiced by Ted McGinley.

The Injustice Guild

The Music Master – This is a music themed villain who tries to steal a Stradivarius, makes a getaway in a flute styled car, and uses an accordion as an offensive weapon. He is based on a villain called the Fiddler. The Music Master is voiced by Udo Kier.

The Sportsman – This sports themed villain is based on a character called the Sportsmaster. It’s a fairly uncomplicated concept – sports obsessed villain uses sporting equipment to stage crimes. The Sportsman is voiced by Michael McKean. McKean played Perry White in Smallville. He played a classic style villain when he voiced the 50s Joker in the “Legends of the Dark Night” episode of Batman TAS.

Doctor Blizzard - There is a later Flash villain called Captain Cold and Batman has a foe called Mister Freeze, but this particular chilly bane is based on a character called the Icicle. Doctor Blizzard is voiced by Corey Burton who played Brainiac in his appearances in Superman TAS, Justice League, and Legion of Superheroes.

Sir Swami - This character is based on a villain called the Wizard. Sir Swami is voiced by Jeffrey Jones.

Misc

• The figure on the yacht controlling the rampaging robot doesn’t speak and we aren’t shown his full face, but its pretty obvious from his battlesuit and lower face that it’s Lex Luthor.
• John Stewart’s uncle Jimmy had the largest comic book collection he’d ever seen. That’d be his uncle Jimmy Stewart.
• A painting in the villain’s cave headquarters shows a bearded man touching a globe. This is an homage to Vandal Savage, an old Justice Society foe, who lead a group called the Injustice Society. He will he the Justice League’s opponent in the first season finale.
• The Streak: “You’re a credit to your people son.” Ouch, the Streak shows the causal racism that was endemic at the time. Its a sly line, but underlines a lot of the less wholesome attitudes that are often glossed over in 1940s and 1950s romanticism.
• Getting frozen in a solid block of ice is an occupational hazard for the Flash. The same thing happened to him and Superman in his first DCAU appearance, Superman TAS “Speed Demons“.
• Seaboard City takes its name from a comic book company. Seaboard Periodicals was a company that published a line of comics called Atlas Comics in the 1970s.
• The Seaboard City Police Chief is an homage to Chief O’Hara from the Adam West Batman TV show.
• Superman and Batman appear in the episode tag, but only George Newbern’s Superman speaks.

Opinion

Highlights

Nuns on a bus heading for a TNT truck.

Oddities

The Green Guardsman’s ring doesn’t work against aluminium so he can’t catch the cradle, but he could have caught the window cleaners themselves far sooner than Hawkgirl.

My Thoughts

I don’t know how people who have never heard of the Justice Society feel about this episode, but I think its one of the best. We never really saw the differences between the Eart’s played up in the comics. In the comics, the Society were usually depicted as being older than the League – their parent’s generation – rather than their contemporaries. By changing that, by making the Guild and the League contemporaries, the cartoon is able to show us the Guild as they appear in their prime.

The 1950s Earth reminds me of the film Pleasantville (which I must admit if one of my favourite films) and I like the way they didn’t totally gloss over the difference in attitudes between then and now (the accepted sexism in the Guild and the Streak’s line to Lantern). Those really did exist in the JSA’s stories. Wonder Woman, the first female member, was often listed as just the team’s secretary.