Episode Credits

Synopsis

Previously in “War World” Part One: An accident while demolishing an asteroid leaves Superman and J’onn J’onzz floating unconscious in space. The plight attracts the attention alien slavers who kidnap them before the rest of the Justice League can respond. Superman awakens to finds himself on War World, a planet where the poor, underfed, unemployed masses are kept placid by the endless spectacle of violent gladiatorial games. Mongul, the charismatic ruler of War World, announces that Superman is to fight his champion, Draaga. Superman refuses to fight for Mongul’s amusement, but its clear that his hold over Draaga is stronger. Superman eventually bests Draaga, however, Mongul orders Superman’s execution after he refuses to kill his vanquished opponent.

Mongul’s robotic security guards bring Superman to his knees, but they aren’t powerful enough to kill him instantly. Mongul enjoys watching the impudent Man of Steel writhe in pain and prepares to have his guards deliver a fatal blow. J’onn J’onzz, who is under cover in the crowds watching the fight, starts a chant in support of Superman. It’s enough to start a ground-swell of support among the crowd in favour of Superman. Even Mongul recognises the danger of executing a popular gladiator and, at least for now, allows Superman to live.

The exhausted Superman and Draaga are teleported back to the gladiator dungeon. The other gladiators cheer Superman  for defying Mongul. They tell him that Draaga once tried to do the same, but was broken by Mongul. The gladiators then tell Superman that they’ve arranged an escape route for him via an off world garbage ship, but the Man of Steel refuses to leave War World without J’onn. He tells the gladiators to put Draaga on the escape ship instead, that way Draaga won’t he executed by Mongul and he won’t be around to try and avenge his defeat by Superman. Draaga’s honour demands that its better to die in combat than be defeated – in his eyes Superman’s mercy has deeply shamed him. The garbage ship dumps Draaga on a remote junkyard world.  He seals an oath of vengeance by branding Superman symbol into his own chest.

Even farther out from War World, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl are squashed into the back of a small space craft that belongs to a smuggler they “convinced” to take them to War World. They are so busy bickering with each other that they don’t notice the smuggler seal their compartment and starts to flood it with a knock out gas. When the come around Hawkgirl and Lantern find themselves dumped on a barren desert world. Lantern confesses that his ring could probably take them into space, but without knowing where they are they risk running out of charge before reaching Earth or War World. They eventually spot the camp site of other castaways and, after a brief fight, ask if anybody knows the way to War World. A voice from the shadows proclaims “You want to find War World? Talk to me!” It’s Draaga. Fortunately for all involved they’ve been all been dumped on the same junkyard world.

On War World, Superman’s symbol has become an icon for resistance, the populace flock to him because he does not fear Mongul. The tyrant has the defiant Superman brought before him. He explains that Draaga once defied him as Superman does, but his secret weapon – a planet destroying cannon pointed at Draaga’s homeworld – kept him in line. Superman retorts that the same demand won’t work on him as Krypton is already gone, but Mongul says it’ll stay pointing at Draaga’s homeworld. Mongul knows that the particular world he threatens is not important as Superman will bow to his demands as long as any inhabited world is threatened. Mongul offers to spare Draaga’s world on the condition that Superman has one last fight. This time Superman will fight Mongul and he has to agree to “lose badly!”

Draaga leads Hawkgirl and Green Lantern to War World, but he avoids questions about why he has a scar on his chest similar to Superman’s emblem. While they’re still above the city Draaga punches Green Lantern, forcing him to drop the force bubble they’re riding in. Hawkgirl dives to catch Lantern, but by the time he’s safe Draaga has run off into the city. Draaga sneaks into the crowd as it gathers for the fight between Mongul and Superman. The combatants are teleported to the battle arena (revealed to be on War World’s moon) and the fight begins immediately. Mongul reminds Superman that a planet’s life depends on his defeat, but Superman clobbers Mongul under the excuse of making their fight look convincing. Draaga sneaks into the teleportation facility and sends himself on to the battle field while they fight.

J’onn J’onzz had spied on the earlier conversation between Superman and Mongul about the secret cannon. He infiltrates the weapon’s station disguised as Mongul and tries to have the weapon decommissioned. The strain of holding Mongul’s shape is too much for J’onn (War World’s atmosphere is still weakening him). He accidentally drops his disguise and fights off the first wave of guards, but soon finds himself pinned down by enemy gunfire. J’onn is saved by the arrival of Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, but the weapon commander responses by beginning the firing sequence that will destroy Draaga’s homeworld. Hawkgirl uses her Thanagarian mace to block the emerging beam causing it to feedback into the cannon. The resulting explosion destroys the facility.

On the battle field, Mongul moves to finish the prone Superman, but he is ambushed by Draaga who then attacks Superman. The Man of Steel tries to explain to Draaga that Mongul is threatening to destroy his homeworld. Draaga is shocked and confused by Superman’s selflessness, but he is knocked down by Mongul before he can respond. Superman and Mongul are then left to finish their mock contest. This time Superman doesn’t fight back and allows Mongul to dominate him. Mongul declares the contest “Game Over!” and for a second time he tries to kill Superman. This time it’s Green Lantern who intervenes with his own quip, “we’re going into overtime”"

J’onn explains to Superman that they’ve destroyed the death ray and that Draaga’s world is safe. Without the cannon Mongul has no hold over either Superman or Draaga. Superman stands aside to allow the Draaga the chance to regain his honour against Mongul. Mongul and Draaga’s fight comes down to good to old-fashioned boxing with the Leaguers forming a ring around them – Green Lantern even coaches Draaga on keeping his defenses up. It’s important for War World that Draaga is seen to defeat Mongul fairly, without the Justice League’s help. Draaga proclaims, “This is for my people, and this is for my humiliation, and this is for Justice!” as he boxes Mongul unconscious. The crowds call for Draaga to finish Mongul, but quietly remarks “No. He doesn’t deserve the honour.” Draaga offers Mongul’s crown to Superman, but he refuses and leaves it, and War World’s future, in Draaga’s hands.

Commentary

Green Lantern and Hawkgirl

In a panel discussion feature included with the Season One DVD set the producers describe how they had written Hawkgirl’s subplot into the Series Bible from the first day and how they had deliberately put out disinformation about her back story. The Series Bible also included the romance subplot between Green Lantern and Hawkgirl – an element that the Producers credit to DC Publisher Paul Levitz.

This story, and in particular the second part, features the start of the awkwardness between Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. They’re stuck together, bickering like a married couple, for most of the episode, but they do work effectively together. Hawkgirl also evades Lantern’s comment about Thanagar. I find it interesting that they represent the two different examples of a professional fighter. Lantern, as the ex-marine, is about control and precision. It’s his job to fight and he’s good at it, but it’s not his first impulse. For him violence is only a means to an end. By comparison, Hawkgirl the warrior, is about ferocity and speed. Her first impulse is to respond with violence. For her a fight can be an end in itself.

The Ending

The Producers discuss the ending of War World on the same Season One DVD panel:

Moderator: Were there any [episodes] that people didn’t respond to?

Bruce Timm: Oh everybody hated War World!

Rich Fogel: The problem with War World all comes down to the end of it.

Bruce Timm: Absolutely!

Rich Fogel: At one time we had Superman kicking everybody’s butt. You [Timm] came in and said we’ve seen Superman kick people’s butt before. Let’s do something different.

Bruce Timm: We probably shouldn’t have had Draaga in the story. [...] that brings up a good point too. Season One, we got called on the carpet for making Superman a wimp. And, guilty <raises hand>, guilty as charged. We didn’t know we were doing it. We were actually using it as a kind of dramatic crutch early on. It’s like “oh hey, if Superman can get taken down right away [it means that] this is a really bad threat, everybody else is in trouble.” We didn’t realise it had become a reoccurring gag until we started getting the internet comments and everybody was saying, “Wait a minute! Why is Superman such a wimp now?” It’s like, “You know there really is a pattern.”

For that matter, does Bruce Timm had a range of actors that play him in these DVD features? He appears quite different in each DVD feature I’ve seen him in (glasses, no glasses, longish hair, short hair, beard, no beard). He’s either a master of disguise or that’s not always the same bloke.

Misc.

• In the comics the Green Lantern Rings link into an extensive database of planets and star systems making it effectively impossible for a Green Lantern to get lost. That obviously isn’t a feature of the DCAU GL rings.
• Normally J’onn J’onzz is almost as powerful as Superman, but that would have made him another strong contender in the Gladiatorial Games. By weakening J’onn the writers remove him from contest leaving the focus on Superman. We are never told what it is in the atmosphere that is weakening J’onn.
• In the publicity at time of broadcast Bruce Timm teased that, “In addition to her regular role as Hawkgirl, Maria Canals does a HILARIOUS unbilled second voice as… well, you’ll see…” I don’t know for sure, but I assume he means the “old woman” who talks to J’onn J’onzz in the crowd of aliens.

Opinion

Highlights

Hawkgirl and Green Lantern’s arguing.

Oddities

How is Hawkgirl’s mace able to deflect a blast capable of decimating an entire world? That things is tough, but planet-destroying-beam tough?

My Thoughts

I quite enjoyed watching this back and the second part is certainly better than I remember. The issue of Superman’s variable strength doesn’t play so heavily as I remembered as it’s made clear by the plot that he’s deliberately not fighting back against Mongul. The ending with Draaga finishing Mongul doesn’t bother me so much, but I would have liked something more from Superman – even if it’s just him warning the other Leaguers to “Say back! This is Draaga’s fight now!” That gladiator dungeon is very Star Wars – I particularly like the dull lighting and the George Lucas style “optical wipes” between scenes.

Superman is a captive for most of both episodes, J’onn is literally powerless, and Hawkgirl got them into this mess in the first place, plus she lands Lantern and herself in trouble with a dodgy contact. So Green Lantern is pretty much the “Man” in this episode. Without Lantern’s ring they’d have had no way to follow Superman and J’onn, its Lantern who saves both both of them at the end, he has to keep Hawkgirl from killing everybody in sight, and he even manages to school a gladiatorial champion in basic boxing technique. There in lies one of the biggest problems with this episode – the Justice League are pretty darn  useless for 99% of the time. They should sack J’onn and hire Draaga.

Episode Credits

Synopsis

The Justice League investigate a 3-mile wide asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth. It is still orbiting beyond Saturn, but the League want deal with the threat as early as possible. Superman and J’onn J’onzz wear space suits to place explosives on the asteroid while Hawkgirl monitors their progress from Justice League Watchtower. She detects unstable hydrogen pockets within the asteroid and warns J’onn and Superman. They try to retreat, but the asteroid’s explosion is a lot bigger than they were expecting. Hawkgirl can only watch in horror as the explosion engulfs her teammates and her radio link with them goes silent.

The unconscious Superman and J’onn J’onzz drift amid the debris from their wrecked Javelin and the asteroid. The captain of a passing star ship remarks that its “Incredible” that they’ve survived and orders them brought aboard. The ship is not on a mercy mission, however, as it’s a slave ship that is hunting for powerful warriors. They’re surprised to have found a living Kryptonian and believe that Superman will make an excellent addition to the Gladiator pool. The ship’s destination is War World. It’s a cosmopolitan world, but it is crippled by food shortages, blackouts, and severe unemployment. War World’s charismatic ruler, Mongul, keeps his wretched people enthralled with public displays of gladiatorial combat, but of late Draaga, the popular champion, has been more than a match for any opponent Mongul’s slavers can find.

The latest slave/gladiator, Krodar the Terrible, is a bulbous inhuman robot. He and Draaga are teleported to the arena – an empty, shattered city beneath a blood red sky – while a host of floating cameras relay images of their battle back to the crowds on Warworld. The crowds chant for Draaga, but the outcome is never in any doubt. Mongul asks the crowd if Krodar Krodar “>should be spared, but the crowd just boos. Mongul declares “Long live democracy!” and Draaga finishes the droid. The crowds, however, weren’t booing Krodar. They were booing the falling standard of the games. Mongul then warns his starship captain that his next specimen had better be more of a crowd pleaser.

Superman awakens to find Draaga studying him. Draaga calls him pathetic and then spits in his face. Superman refuses to rise to the challenge and doesn’t free himself from his chains until after Draaga has left. He finds J’onn unconscious, next to where Mongul’s guards feed the bodies of ex- and reject gladiators to a monstrous alien crocodile. Superman saves his friend from becoming croc bait, but something in War World’s atmosphere is weakening J’onn, sapping his strength. They manage to escape the palace security droids, but become separated when a force field surrounding the complex lets J’onn past, but not Superman. The Man of Steel is recaptured, but J’onn manages to disappeared into the surrounding city. Mongul had hoped to build Superman up with some preliminary matches, but he must now make an example of him for trying to escape. Mongul’s command is “Give him to Draaga!”

Earlier at the Watchtower, Green Lantern John Stewart, had berated Hawkgirl for not watching her team-mates more closely. She retorts “Do you want to stand here pointing fingers or do you want to do something about it?” By the time they arrive at the blast site Superman and J’onn are long gone. Lantern’s ring detects the ion trail from the starship that kidnapped their friends and they follow its course. They lose the trail near a refuelling outpost and turn their attention on the local scum. Lantern plays good cop, to Hawkgirl’s bad-cop to convince a local smuggler to admit that he’d heard something about a Kryptonian being taken to War World. Hawkgirl then demands that he takes them there.

On War World, J’onn J’onzz joins the crowds streaming into the palace to watch Superman and Draaga’s fight. Superman defiantly refuses to fight for Mongul’s amusement, but once in the arena he’s forced to fight just for his own life against Draaga’s onslaught. Superman tries to reason with Draaga, but the gladiator tells him that neither of them has a choice. Superman takes Draaga’s pounding, unable or unwilling to match his ferocity. Draaga’s claim of victory is premature as Superman rallies with the call of “Enough!” Superman returns Draaga’s blows, defeating the exhausted gladiator.

Mongul and the watching crowd and are stunned. The fickle crowd turns hostile at their former champion and Mongul orders Superman to finish Draaga. Naturally, the Kryptonian refuses to murder Draaga, even after Draaga asks for an honourable death. Mongul then orders his security droids to kill Superman for refusing his command. J’onn watches helpless as his friend is brought to his knees by the droids.

Commentary

Mongul

Mongul has the rare distinction of being one of Superman’s few pre-Crisis opponents that can actually match him physically. He was introduced in DC Comics Presents #27 (Nov 1980) as the villain of a Superman/Martian Manhunter team-up (ergo the central characters in this story). It is often assumed that Mongul was a pure Jim Starlin creation, but, while Starlin was the artist on his first appearance, it was the writer Len Wein who created Mongul specifically as a physical challenge for Superman (2006, The Krypton Companion, pg136).

Mongul often comes across as a poor man’s Darkseid. An idea that is reinforced by the fact that Jim Starlin also created the Marvel’s Thanos (allegedly a Darkseid homage). Of his move from Marvel to DC Starlin has stated that “I consciously wanted to go over and do Thanos at DC. Never quite worked out that way.” (2005, Back Issue #9, pg81).

Mongul made a number of pre-Crisis appearances, but his most famous appearance was in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s “For the Man Who Has Everything…” in Superman Annual #11. This is widely recognised as being one of the greatest Superman stories of all time. It was adapted almost scene-for-scene for the Justice League Unlimited episode of the same name.

The bulk of the “War World” story is adapted from Mongul’s first modern appearance. He appears as the ruler of an artificial world called Warworld, a planet sized battle station, what holds sway over a larger section of space. Superman, who for convoluted reasons had exiled himself from Earth, is found drifting in space by Mongul’s slavers. He is brought to Warworld to fight in Mongul’s gladiatorial games. Superman is forced to fight a gladiator called Draaga, but his refusal to kill him eventually leads to a revolution that over throws Mongul.

Mongul is voiced by Eric Roberts. He is a Hollywood character actor who has a nice sideline in scene-stealing genre villains. His most memorable genre villain is as the Master opposite Paul McGann’s Eight Doctor in the 1996 Fox version of Doctor Who. Roberts played Salvatore Maroni in The Dark Knight, the mob boss who throws acid at Harvey Dent creating the scars which turn him into Two-Face. He reprised his role as Mongul for aforementioned JLU adaptation of “For The Man Who Has Everything.”

Draaga

Draaga who first appears in Superman vol 2. #32 (June 1989) in a storyline that closely parallels his animated appearance. He was a gladiator fighting in the arenas of Warworld for the amusement of its ruler Mongul (see above). Superman is swept into the games and defeats Draaga, but refuses to kill him. Draaga is bound by a personal Klingon/samurai like sense of honour and vehemently believes that Superman owes him an honourable death. The story ends with Draaga defeating Mongul sparking a revolution that sees Draaga take over as Warworld’s new ruler. In a subsequent storyline Draaga becomes a pawn of Brainiac when the computer tries to use Warworld as a base from which to launch an invasion of Earth. Draaga ends up sacrificing his life to save the Earth after witnessing the nobility and heroism of Supergirl.

In “War World” Draaga is played by William Smith. Smith has a list of appearances stretching back to the 1940s and has played the villain of the week in almost any action, western, or detective TV show you care to mention. He was Conan’s father in Conan The Barbarian and was one of Zsa Zsa Gabor’s henchmen in the original Batman TV show.

The asteroid

Oh dear, astrophysics fail on so many levels.

• Blowing up an earth crossing asteroid doesn’t save the planet.  You haven’t altered the centre of mass of the object, just dispersed it over a larger area. You exchange a large asteroid for a shower of smaller asteroids whose individual size is still going to be sufficient enough to devastate large areas.
• Mushroom clouds in space. The characteristic mushroom cloud we’ve all seen in movies occurs because an explosion goes off in a fluid constrained by a gravity well, i.e., an atmosphere. The expanding gases from the explosion seek the route of least resistance away from the detonation site. In this case that routine is straight up along the gradient from high pressure (at sea level) to low pressure (at altitude). This is the same reason that weather systems move from regions of high to low pressure. The plume of gases passes through different layers in the atmosphere and until it reaches the height where gravity finally overcomes the kinetic energy of the explosion. The gases pile up at this height and spread horizontally forming a distinctive mushroom cloud. The asteroid we see in this episode would not have enough gravity to keep at atmosphere so there would be no mushroom clouds from the explosions.
• Hydrogen pockets. Methane pockets are a real danger to miners and are parallelled here by saying that the asteroid has hydrogen pockets. For both methane and hydrogen to explode you need three things – the gas itself, an ignition source, and oxygen. This asteroid has the first two, but the lack of at atmosphere means that there is no oxygen. Even if there was hydrogen contained within the asteroid it would be in the form of ice or locked up in some other compound.

Misc.

• Krodar the Terrible is said to hail from parts unknown. It’s a phrase that use to be used to describe some of the more enigmatic contenders in the WWE (then WWF) including the Ultimate Warrior .
• Flying triangular robots. Mongul must shop at the same branch of Alien Tyrants R Us as Brainiac.
• There had been a game plan for Green Lantern and Hawkgirl and for her ultimate betrayal of the team since the show started. That doesn’t really pay off until the end of Season Two, but this episode really starts to highlight the chemistry between the two. Hawkgirl had already stood up for Green Lantern in “In Blackest Night” against the rest of the Lantern Corps, but she didn’t have much character interaction with him.
• Incredibly minor point: cartoon “War world” (two words), comicbook “Warworld” (one word).

Opinion

Highlights

Superman being Superman – turning the other cheek, refusing to fight.

Oddities

Green Lantern berating Hawkgirl and needing prompting to go after his teammates.

My Thoughts

My feelings about War World are conflicted. I have a fondness for it because it was the first Justice League episode that I ever saw, but it is generally thought of as one of the weaker episodes of the first season. I now think that should be regarded as assessment of how strong the other first season episodes are instead of a critique of how weak this one is. Watching it back, the animation and direction are actually rather good. It’s real crime is highlighting the weaknesses of the Season One Superman and in not translating the intensity of Warworld.

Argh! Why does the DCAU Superman constantly do this? Why is he such a masochist? He just sucks up Draaga’s blows, letting himself be pounded into mincemeat on the off-chance that Draaga will have some sort of miraculous conversion and decide to become a flower seller. Then, once even he’s had enough, he KOs Draaga in a matter of seconds. So frustrating. Superman’s ability to fight is as inconsistent as Hulk Hogan during a Wrestlemania.

The original Warworld was a planet sized fortress that, while not entirely dissimilar to the Deathstar, truly lived up to its name. Mongul, as its ruler, had a real stature that is lacking in his adaptation. The DCAU Mongul seems like a game show host in comparison. He has more in common with Damon Killian, the host from Running Man, than the classic Cesar at the Coliseum motif. Nevertheless, a change to Mongul’s character/use was probably necessary to differentiate him from Darkseid.

Changes

2009 Oct 27 – Added notes on Draaga and William Smith. Changed post title from “Warworld” to the correct “War World”.