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Justice
League Unlimited
Wake the Dead
Original Airdate - 12/18/04
Somewhere
in the night a gathering of D&D geeks are doing what their
parents always suspected they were, using black magic. Things
don't go as planned, but no one loses an eye so they call
it a night.
Elsewhere,
Hawkgirl is throwing a pity party with Dr. Fate and Aquaman
as guests. (Could there be two more perfect guests for a
pity party?)
The
King of the Sea tries to pick a fight with Hawkgirl but
can't. The warrior spirit inside her has been snuffed out
and not even being called names by a guy that smells like
tuna can provoke her.
When
Fate's ankh alarm goes off, he rushes to the grave of Solomon
Grundy only to find it empty. He assembles his own version
of the Outsiders (or Defenders if you prefer) and join Green
Lantern, Superman and Vixen in the fight to contain Grundy.
Wake
the Dead picks up where Justice League's "Starcrossed"
left off as well as some other plot threads that have developed
along the way, most notably this season's "The
Return." Amazo (who was actually called Amazo in
the episode) was fun to see again, but it was clear that
the writers needed an excuse to get him out of the way in
order to advance the plot.
My only
real problem with the episode is that it is unclear who
is responsible for Grundy's return. We could assume that
the D&D geeks from the opening scene had something to do
with it, but it isn't really made clear that they are. Were
they just screwing around and accidentally revived Grundy,
coincidentally doing it in such a way that Dr. Fate couldn't
undo their magic? If they didn't do it, what was their role
in the story? Maybe I missed something.
Giving
the spotlight to Vixen was a waste since they spent little
time developing her and most of the attention she got was
on the receiving end of a Grundy foot stomping. Even John
forgot she was around once Hawkgirl showed up (not that
I'd blame him).
Basically
we learned that she's a model, she's got claws and she can't
fight very well. Not that there is a Vixen fan club out
there that will be mad about how she was portrayed, but
come on. If you're not going to give her something interesting
to do, at least have her show more skin.
Works
for Top Cow comics.
Derek's
Continuity Corner:
This episode
marks a change of voice for Solomon Grundy. In previous
episodes of Justice League, Mark Hamill voiced the behemoth.
Here, the lovely and talented co-creator of the whole megillah,
Bruce Timm, provides the less-than-dulcet tones.
It's perhaps
appropriate, as for years in the comic books it has been
established that Grundy dies and regenerates over and over
again, sometimes with variations in personality. Often mindless,
he occasionally possesses a crude evil intelligence. At
one point, he became docile enough to develop a sort of
crush on Jade, the daugher of the original Green Lantern.
That crush turned deadly in the pages of Infinity, Inc.,
where Grundy was manipulated into killing the Star Spangled
Kid -- whose pseudo-namesake has appeared on JLU
as Stargirl.
Originally appearing
in the 1940's as an enemy of Green Lantern, Grundy has been
retconned to awkwardly fit in the Batman rogues' gallery,
most likely because both heroes operate out of Gotham City.
During a brief Golden Age revival in the sixties, Grundy
also faced down Hourman and Dr. Fate. Alan Moore established
the beast as a failed attempt at creating a plant elemental,
a la Swamp Thing, the first time it was fully explained
why Grundy kept returning from death.
Eventually, he
showed up in Opal City, possessed of rudimentary intelligence
and a kind heart. When Grundy sacrificed his life to save
that of the latest Starman, Jack Knight, Knight went on
a crusade to a nightmare world to bring back his ally. There
he learned of Grundy's multiple personalities, and coincidentally
we learned that Batman's favorite Woody Allen film is Interiors.
As for Vixen,
she first appeared as part of 1978's "DC Explosion,"
an expansion of the line which was followed by the "DC
Implosion," when the company couldn't afford to keep
all their books afloat. She next appeared as a member of
the Suicide Squad, where she dated Bronze Tiger. Most recently,
she joined the Ultra-Marines (the group that inspired the
episode "Ultimatum") and most likely will appear
in JLA: Classified. She was mentioned in the first
issue of that title.
Vixen has an
animal totem necklace which allows her limited powers from
the animal kingdom. Right now, it seems more likely that
her selling points are exactly as Goodson described above.
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