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Justice
League Unlimited
The Once and Future Thing, Part 2
Original Airdate - 01/29/05
This week's episode not only brings last
week's time traveling plotline to a close, but also caps
off the first season of Justice League Unlimited.
Having chased Chronos into the future,
Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Batman find themselves smack
dab in the middle of a crossover with Batman Beyond
and Static Shock.
They
meet up with future Batman Terry McGinnis, Warhawk (revealed
to be the son of Green Lantern and a certain winged JLU
member), Static Shock (who has met Green Lantern in a cross
over from his own show) and eventually a future version
of Bruce Wayne.
Together the makeshift Justice League fight
Jokerz and Chronos for control of the future, while the
time stream itself phases different heroes in and out of
reality.
TO&FT wasn't a bad episode, but it didn't
reach its full potential. It's not every day that Batman
gets to meet not only his future self, but also the man
that carries on the Batman mantle. Likewise, Green Lantern
and his son spend little time getting to know each other.
Those are both major events in the WB:JLU universe and yet
almost no time is spent exploring them.
There are good moments, Hal Jordan's appearance
being the highlight, but things wrap up too quickly and
too neatly for my taste. Time travel stories are never that
tidy.
Surprisingly,
the ongoing government conspiracy plotline isn't wrapped
up here. Guess we will have to wait to see what develops
in season four, starting next weekend.
Derek's
Continuity Corner
Almost
none of the future Justice League Unlimited members have
comic book antecedents, though they have appeared before.
As you might have guessed, it was on a two-part episode
of Batman Beyond, the toy-line driven show that
turned out to be actually really good. (As opposed to the
current The Batman, for which we have ever-dwindling
hope that it will be worthwhile.) That
series also established the Jokerz, a gang worshipping the
original (and assumed dead) Joker. To see the clown prince
of crime's ultimate fate, rent or buy the Batman
Beyond - Return of the Joker DVD.
In the
future League's first appearance, Static was not a member;
that promise was set up on an episode of Static Shock!
However, Warhawk was there, though it's doubtful that
Bruce Timm had plans for him to tie so tightly into Justice
League continuity -- that show had not yet made it
off the drawing board. He definitely followed the Thanagarian
code. The closest parallel he has in comics would perhaps
be the children of Katar and Shayera Hol that appeared in
The Dark Knight Strikes Again, savage children
hellbent on revenge against Lex Luthor.
The
DCU has not explored the League's near-future descendants
very much, though a recent arc in Teen Titans hints
at a League made up of today's teen heroes turned fascist.
There is a League in the 857th Century, as told in the event
DC 1,000,000. And, of course, in the 31st Century
we have the Legion of Super-Heroes, three members
of whom appeared in Superman: The Animated Series.
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