Originally posted at the DL April 2015
I basically go by sets for these breakdowns, so JLU Season 1 encompasses what the internet tells me is actually two seasons, which DOES fit with how the season shakes down. I gave definite consideration to following that just to give myself a second best episode vote, buuut I guess I should just follow the pattern I have.
So as previously discussed, Justice League had a goddamned amazing run of television between Twilight in JL Season 2 and Epilogue at the end of this season. The most negative I have to say about it is individual bad episodes, and there ain't many of those. JLU season 1 sees the fullest use of continuity in the DCAU, and it's glorious. Everyone remembers the Cadmus arc of course, but it goes well beyond that. Followups to Justice League episodes (Cadmus itself is one to For a Better World of course, but there's also ones for Starcrossed, Terror Beyond, Paradise Lost, Tabula Rasa, Twilight...), Batman Beyond writ large, the outright fucking continuity porn that is Epilogue itself... this season is a reward for the faithful, and yea it was good.
So CK Loves Continuity aside, what's going right here? There's broadly two sorts of episodes going on. Ones to highlight characters in the expanded roster and how the sheer might of the league is affecting the balance of the world, and ones showing the League as a whole struggling with the world's new perception of them. So we got two things that lead to good stories: showing how new characters interact with established ones, and showing characters struggle with their own morality against the reality of their world. Overall the first half has more of the first and is a bit weaker, but still has some amazing emotional moments. And For the Man Who Has Everything, which is one of the best remembered episodes in the series and the only Alan Moore adaptation he's actually reputed to enjoy. High praise indeed.
But naturally the major highlight of the season is Cadmus. One of the things that always stood out to me about it is the entire arc feels out of place in a DC universe. Like, guys, Superman is going to say fuck it and take over the world? But they do put a lot of work into earning that fear (Continuity strikes again!) so it works for purposes of the story. And watching Justice League from start to finish again does mitigate some of the "really Supes? Overreact much?" aspects because you can actually see the entire story starting to weigh him down gradually. Batman's interaction with Amanda Waller remains a highlight as well, although his calling the League out for... banishing Doomsday to the Phantom Zone of all damn things is still odd. They do an excellent job ramping up as well. Clash is great as the sort of breaking point, where everyone involved is Over This Shit and then this happens. Question Authority, Flashpoint, Panic in the Sky, and Divided We Fall are functionally a four part episode with steadily escalating action, great moments for every character involved, the amazing culmination of Flash's series-long character development, and surprisingly enough only the second time in the whole DCAU we see a villain die for keeps. (sure, they might have brought Brainiac in a sufficiently long-running version of the show, but realistically it would be years before they'd be willing to undo something as awesome as Flash destroying Brainiac molecule by molecule after delivering multiple punches powered by circumnavigating the globe. You don't bring someone back from the dead casually after that.) But...
Best Episode: The main contest here is between two unlikely candidates for me, Ultimatum and Epilogue. Ultimatum is a combination of "Bruce Timm is a complete comic book history geek yo" and condensed tragedy, which is an excellent cross section of things. But I gotta give it to Epilogue. I know some folks don't care for making explicit what they feel worked better as unstated or symbolic, but I'm willing to allow it for the story moments it provided. The teenaged Terry is likable and all that, but what they give us here is a chance to see a Terry that's spent half his life fighting the never-ending battle, and struggling with just what he gave up to do that. He's not burning for revenge or fighting to please people now, but the grinding realization that he doesn't have to actually die to give up his life to the cause and the turmoil he's trying to work through because of that is presented incredibly well here. As well, the vignette with Ace is just great, a perfect summary of who Batman should be.
Weakest Episode: Initiation. Just sorta tedious, in particular the needless character friction for Supergirl, Captain Atom, and Green Arrow, although it does the narrative job of introducing the expanded league that it needs to.
Grade: 9/10. Yeah, I think I do like this more than Justice League Season 2.
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