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Justice
League Unlimited
The Balance
Original Airdate - 05/28/05
A number
of ongoing plot threads weave together this week as The
Balance follows up on the ongoing conflict between Felix
Faust and Hades, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman's
exile from Paradise Island.
Felix
Faust, now trapped without a physical body in a mirror belonging
to the sorceress Tala, advises her on how to use her newly
acquired Annihilator armor (she received it at the end of
"Task Force X").
But the old magician has a trick up his noncorporeal sleeve
and fools Tala into casting a spell that traps her in the
mirror and frees Faust so that he may posses the armor.
Meanwhile, up
in the Watchtower, The Flash tries to use charm to get Hawk
Girl and Wonder Woman to put aside their differences after
that whole "Thanagarian invasion" misunderstanding. Alas,
not even Flash can mend that fence. As Wonder Woman leaves,
she spots J'onn wrestling with Etrigan/Jason Blood and learns
that all of the JLU team members with magic based powers
have freaked out. J'onn wisely uses this emergency as the
perfect excuse to handcuff Zatana to a table.
Back
in her quarters, Wonder Woman is visited by Hermes, who
is there to deliver orders from Zeus. Wonder Woman is to
travel to Tartarus (the Greek equivalent of Hell, not the
phone booth from Doctor Who, nor the fish condiment)
and defeat Felix Faust, who has overthrown Hades as ruler.
Wonder
Woman eventually accepts the order, but figures it might
be a good idea to bring along Hawkgirl's mace, as that scientific
alien weapon disrupts magic. Unfortunately, since she's
not on good terms with Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman tries to steal
it and gets caught. The outing sounds like fun to the Thanagarian,
however, and Shayera joins Wonder Woman on her bogus journey
to Hell.
Not
only do Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman finally bury the hatchet
(not literally) but Diana gets a boost in her powers. It
turns out that the star in her tiara is a button that activates
previously unknown features in her bustier. (The Atom may
have discovered those features, but he stayed mum.) Also,
her golden lasso is finally used as the truth serum we've
always known it was.
Stories
of magic and Greek mythology rarely hold my attention in
comics, but "The Balance" does a nice job of keeping
the story simple and focusing more on the character relationships.
It's nice that JLU doesn't maintain a status quo
and characters and plotlines are constantly developing.
While not a blockbuster episode, it was enjoyable.
Derek's
Continuity Corner
Not much
needs to be said in this episode, though Goodson failed
to point out that The Shining Knight and The Vigilante got
another chunk of screen time, which is both welcome and
weird.
Felix
Faust appears more like the old Starman villain The Mist,
but that seems more aesthetic than a continuity tweak.
For
fans of the Annihilator armor, it seems to be a variation
on the Apokolips armor Steel wore in DC's summer cross-over,
Our Worlds At War. Whether it be forged by old
gods or New Gods, the armor means trouble.
Lastly,
if you've picked up issues of Hawkman and wondered where
the heck Shayera is, know that she plays a big part in the
current comics mini-series The Rann-Thanagar War,
the first issue of which is probably still available at
your local comics shop. In that comic, Shayera has grown
up enough to be Hawkwoman, and explaining her continuity
may be more than I have the energy to do today. So buy it
and enjoy it, and no, to the best of my knowledge, Shayera
and Wonder Woman do not hate each other.
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