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Justice
League
Secret Society
Original Airdate - 11/22/03
Why do
gorillas and superheroes go together so well? We may never
understand it, but it seems that these two are more inseparable
than chocolate and peanut butter.
"Secret
Society" begins with Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern
out on patrol. They run into The Shade, who is stealing a
microchip from a safe. While trying to escape, Shade is picked
up by a mysterious woman who offers him a ride back to her
place. (gulp.)
The mystery
woman, Giganta, introduces Shade to her partners Sinestro,
Parasite, Killer Frost and their leader, Gorilla Grodd. Shade
wants no part of what he calls "the New Injustice League,"
but Gorilla Grodd convinces him that things will be different
because they are calling themselves the Secret Society.
Meanwhile
Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern are bummed out because
they let Shade get away. They hold an impromptu meeting with
the rest of the league and come to the conclusion that they
need to practice working together as a team.
Soon
they have set up a training facility in the desert and are
running different drills. Things don't go as smoothly as they
could have and the League begins to get on each other's nerves.
Batman thinks they are wasting time, Hawkgirl rushes into
things without backup and Superman has a "super man" complex.
Each of their so called weaknesses are believable to an exaggerated
degree.
Superman:
"I've had better luck handling whole armies and you know why?
Because I didn't have to worry about anyone but myself."
It's
far more interesting to see a Justice League that doesn't
get along then the usual "Super Friends" we are used to seeing.
Frank Miller was right; Superman and Batman don't have personalities
that would mix. Hawkgirl and to some degree John Stewart are
not team players.
While
the Justice League practices snide remarks, the Secret Society
applies their teamwork efforts to break Clayface out of prison.
With the team complete, they pull off their first real job
of luring Batman into a fight in a warehouse. Batman is no
dummy, though, and has the rest of the team watching his Bat-Butt.
A huge
fight sequence erupts and the League gets their clocks cleaned.
(Will someone explain that expression to me?) This causes
more squabbling and the League breaks up with everyone going
their separate ways.
"Secret
Society" was a good episode. It had a standard formula
of evil team vs. super team and those are always fun to watch.
Most of the episode was fight scenes but the verbal exchanges
between characters was far more entertaining.
Morgan
Edge makes an appearance as the guy the Secret Society robs.
(Why did he have Clayface in his vault?) Edge is only notable
because his character has appeared twice on Smallville
this season. The minor Superman villain of the 80s has become
trendy again.
I believe
this is also the first appearance of Green Lantern villain,
Sinestro. He seems out of place on the team as all the other
members of the Secret Society are B-class villains. An entire
episode could have easily been devoted to Sinestro.
I've
never seen Giganta (who is smoking hot, by the way) in the
comics before but I vaguely recall her being on Super Friends
as a member of the Legion of Doom. I could be confusing her
with someone else. Derek will know for sure.
Gorilla
Grodd explains that Giganta used to be an ape but she's now
a wicked hottie that wears short skirts and can change size.
Honestly,
if I was an evil super genius, I'd spend my days changing
animals into sexy she-beasts.
Derek's
Continuity Corner
Giganta, indeed, used to be an ape, and yes, she was a
member of the Legion of Doom. Often pitted against Apache
Chief, even though she's really a Wonder Woman villain from
the forties, the TV Giganta was given the ability to, um,
grow without the use of a magic word like "Inuk-Chuk!"
The Secret
Society also echoes a group that had its own title in the
late seventies: The Secret Society of Super-Villains.
Though Grodd was a member in the comics, the actual founder
turned out to be Darkseid. But it was a cool concept, in which
there were only two "permanent" heroes in the book:
Captain Comet and a good clone of Paul Kirk, Manhunter (that
concept was revived recently in Kurt Busiek's Power Company).
Next
Week
"Hereafter" Superman makes the ultimate sacrifice to save
the others. (I'm going to have a box of tissue handy and not
because I think Giganta is going to make a cameo.)
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