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Justice
League
Hearts and Minds
Original Airdate - 10/25/03
It's Green
Lantern week on Cartoon Network! After an hilarious appearance
on Duck Dodgers, the Green Lantern Corps show up for
a galactic butt kicking on Justice League. Too bad
it's their butts that end up getting kicked.
Hearts
and Minds is a timeless tale of a disfigured outcast,
Despero, driven from his town for being generally ugly and
looking too much like the three-eyed child of the Savage Dragon
and Barney the Dinosaur.
While
wandering around on his planet he is attacked by thieves,
but the life force of his planet comes to his rescue. The
meeting moves Despero spiritually and he ends up believing
that he is the new messiah of his people. Many of the townspeople
believe him (it helps to have a glowing third eye in these
situations), but over time a resistance develops.
Soon
Despero and his Desperites are getting into trouble with the
Green Lantern Corps. The show begins with Kilowog, Katma Tui,
Tomar-Re and a handful of other GLs fighting Despero's army.
A few Green Lanterns are killed and Katma sacrifices herself
to give her green compadres a chance to retreat.
Kilowog
shows up at the Justice League watchtower looking for help.
John Stewart rushes off into the heat of battle because he
used to knock boots with Katma Tui (she was his "mentor"),
leaving Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Kilowog to
do all the clean up work. Before too long, John finds himself
defeated before Despero and a traitorous Katma.
 On
the plus side, she traded in her Green Lantern outfit for
a hot Return of the Jedi like metal bikini. (Moans
at the ultimate fanboy fantasy.)
This
was my first exposure to Despero (that I can recall since
I have a poor memory for such things). He didn't seem so tough.
Apart from the energy blasts from his third eye, there was
not really all that much to him. He was just a guy that misinterpreted
words from his god. Haven't we all been there?
The strength
of season two of Justice League thus far has been that
even the episodes that are not home runs are still packed
with entertaining and interesting parts.
Batman,
Wonder Woman and Superman all got the week off, but the other
four members managed to hold their own. Batman and Wonder
Woman were presumably off consummating their partnership from
last week's episode
and Superman was probably left out because he would have cleaned
Despero's clock in two minutes.
If you
didn't get enough sexual tension last week between Batman
and Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern traded goo goo
eyes this week. With everyone pairing off, and a rising weekly
death toll, Justice League moves closer and closer
to being The Authority each week.
How long
before Flash is a heroin addict (not just a heroine addict)
and Martian Manhunter is sharing a bed with Superman?
Back to the episode…Katma made a quick reference to perhaps
needing to "recall Rayner." Long time Bruce Timm fans know
that Kyle Rayner showed up in an episode of Superman: The
Animated Series, but no explanation has yet been given
as to why John Stewart is the current GL. At least now we
know that they know and they know that we know.
Flash
continued his streak of looking like an idiot in Hearts
and Minds. This week he was beat over the head by an old
Asian woman with a broom. You could argue that he was too
much of a gentleman to fight back, but from personal experience,
I honestly believe that she was too fast for him.
While
Despero just didn't do it for me as a villain, he was voiced
by one of my favorite actors, Keith David (Gargoyles, Spawn,
They Live.) "Hearts
and Minds" was worth the sixty minutes of my life for his
voice work alone.
When
you combine that with the Flash and Kilowog comedy show, this
episode was at the very least satisfying.
The one
thing that did bother me was that on last week's episode "Maid
of Honor," Flash crashed the Javelin-7 into Vandal Savage's
space gun. This week the Justice League is flying around in
it again. What gives?
Did this
episode take place before Maid of Honor? Were they
flying the Javelin-8 this week? Is Javelin-7 just a name for
the class of ship, like B-52 and there are hundreds of them?
Enquiring minds want to know…
Derek's
Continuity Corner
While not the first villain to menace the League in comics
(that honor goes to either those weird elemental star emperors
or Starro The Conqueror, depending on which writer you believe),
Despero definitely has long-time status. He started off as
a red-skinned humanoid of average build and a scaly fin fanning
out from his head, then mutated into something more gorilloid
while his fin changed directions into something more like
a mohawk, the version used in this episode.
His greatest
crime, which most fans are willing to let slide, is killing
Vibe.
Later,
the Martian Manhunter destroyed Despero's mind, and his body
was possessed by the computer mind of Justice League ally
L-Ron, previously a short robot now back to being a short
robot in the pages of Formerly Known as the Justice League.
 Also
in regular DC continuity, Katma Tui didn't just mentor John
Stewart; she married him. Yes, the first in a line of alien
loves for this most stoic of Green Lanterns (who, by the way,
was shown up on Duck Dodgers -- Daffy was far more
creative).
In a move
straight out of the comic book guide to quick pathos, she
was murdered by The Predator, who turned out to be a male
aspect of the Zamorran Queen, Star Sapphire.
Said queen
was also merely a psychic construct of Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan's
longtime girlfriend -- and the Zamorrans were later revealed
to be the female counterparts to the all-male Oans. There's
another Star Sapphire, too, with the same look and powers
but possessed of a French accent. Presumably, this is the
one used in earlier Justice League episodes, except
her accent is British on TV.
Is it
any wonder that Timm and company completely ignore Hal in
their animated adventures?
Next
Week
"A Better World." The team sets out to eliminate all crime
from the world.
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