Justice League (Season 1)

Originally Posted at the DL March 2015

Hello again DCAU.  So Justice League plays differently from any other DCAU entry, due to all episodes (well, except the Christmas one, but that's next season) being a multi-parter.  Kinda a feel of always trying to be epic.  Although with the premise of the show, a certain amount of that is needed.  Logically speaking, every enemy has to be so threatening that Superman cannot beat them alone, which automatically sets the bar high.  By and large they get that part right even if other stuff sometimes goes wrong.



Season 1 improves almost linearly, sometimes for production reasons and sometimes for storytelling ones.  Production is simple, new episode format, increased need for VA cast, few other things, they took a while to work out the kinks.  The storytelling ones are a bit self-inflicted.  Despite being the fourth series in the DCAU, with the previous 3 completing their runs, 4/7 of their primary cast were actually new characters, and one of the remaining three was actually a one shot cameo who I don't know was confirmed as actually the same Flash (although I believe that Flash in Superman TAS was indeed Wally West.  THEN AGAIN.  Season 1 of JL does not actually address Flash as Wally West at any point so.)  So a big chunk of the first half or so of the season is highlight episodes for GL, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter.  Flash and Hawkgirl are sorta skipped over but the latter is probably intentional (and it works since her presented personality is pretty straightforward and fun anyway).  Season 1 Flash is kiiiinda a dipshit though.  They figure him out later but pretty weird going back to this season and seeing him.

The pick of first episode villain is weird.  Is this a straight callback to the original JLA #1 or something?  I've never seen reference to it before.  The next couple are more kinda exploring the scope of the show and testing waters as it were, so all told we get to about episode 8 before a particular good storyline shows up.  Unsurprising of course: continuity is the DCAU's friend and it having so much to draw on is why it ultimately became the standard for animation, at least for me.  Once we get past that first quarter of the season or so the show largely maintains a pretty reasonable standard of quality, roughly equal to the TASes overall.  That later seasons of the show are, at least to my memory, a step up from this... well refer back to previous statement I suppose.

Best Episode: The Savage Time.  I'm not sure single episodes of the JL multi-parters stand out like they did in other series, so I'll just nod the full serial here.  Anyway, great concept, lots of good moments, both on epicness and poignancy, and seeing Bruce Timm geek out about comic history is always a treat (relatedly I thought about giving Legends the nod but not featuring the full cast is a small hit there).

Weakest Episode: Secret Origins.  The introductions of the heroes feel very forced and don't really establish their characters in an interesting way.  They also burn too much time setting up the premise and take entirely too long to introduce the rest of the League, which would make sense if this was made as I pilot and the rest of the series commissioned later, but from the release dates, commentary, and other online tidbits I don't think that's true.

Grade: 7/10.  Thought about going up to an 8 since it ends pretty strong but it feels a bit too uneven for that.