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Justice
League Unlimited
Divided We Fall
Original Airdate - 07/16/05
Holy
pacemakers, Batman! Picking up from last week's cliffhanger,
the founding members of the Justice League and Amanda Waller
confront an egomanical Lex Luthor. Unfortunately for Lex,
Brainiac uses that moment to violently reveal that he has
been hiding inside of Lex's body since the events of "Ghost
in the Machine," an episode of Superman: The Animated
Series which aired in 1997.
Fanboys
everywhere tip their hats to that one (80% of which are
the fedoras they wore in highschool.)
After
our heroes get kinda grossed out for a moment, the scene
quickly turns into a heated battle between the League and
Luthorainiac. Only J'onn has the mad skills do any damage,
which momentarily causes Luthorainiac to retreat. He returns
with his spaceship, which had been hidden inside (or as)
Lex Corp tower.
The League now battles Brainiac's skull
ship but the fight is over before it begins. Batman remarks,
"That was too easy" and he's right because it was just a
distraction while Luthorainiac escapes.
Lex and Brainiac have a heart to heart
(head to torso?) with each other and reach an agreement.
They will cooperate long enough to absorb all of the information
on Earth and then destroy the planet. They will repeat this
process with the rest of the galaxy, then probably the universe
and if they have time, the multiverse. After that they will
go their separate ways and probably make awkward small talk
over the phone on Christmas.
To
accomplish this goal, Luthorainiac needs the alien technology
seen in the JLU episode "Dark
Heart." Amanda Waller and the Justice League
anticipate this move, but not fast enough. When they arrive
at Cadmus labs, Luthorainiac has already absorbed the alien
technology and uses it to replicate the Justice Lords.
Before
I rave about how great the episode was, let me just quickly
point out one nitpicky thing that really stuck in my brain.
Batman would NOT appear at a press conference on stage in
broad daylight in front of a hundred thousand people. He's
the "Dark Knight" people. He doesn't do media appearances!
Anyway…
We've drooled and fawned over every chapter
in this story so far and the ending is no different. Again
the writers have masterfully called back plot details from
previous episodes and worked them into the story in a very
believable and totally awesome way.
As
Derek pointed out last week, our biggest gripe about JLU
originally was the lack of depth the storylines had, given
the 30 minute timeslot. That issue has obviously been resolved,
but our second biggest complaint wasn't addressed until
this episode. Throughout Bruce Timm's run The Flash has
been pigeonholed as comic relief. Too often Flash was portrayed
as the weakest member of the team who Forrest Gump'd his
way through most fights.
In
"Divided We Fall" it's Flash that saves the day
and thus, the world. Finally the Scarlet Speedster can hold
his head high.
This
is the first time we've seen a Justice Lords version of
the Flash (because he's dead in the real Justice Lords'
universe). In case Derek doesn't mention it, the Justice
Lord Flash's costume is based on the comic book version
of the Reverse Flash aka Professor Zoom. Pick up a copy
of the most recent issue of The Flash to see him
in action.
Derek's
Continuity Corner
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