August 21, 2004: Justice League Unlimited Review

Second week in a row I haven't watched Teen Titans. I have it on tape though, so eventually...

"Hawk and Dove"

This is one of those reviews where you're still not sure what to make of the episode. I enjoyed it when I watched it, but I enjoy almost all JL episodes. There's a lot wrong with this episode, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly what...

In a nutshell, that crazy Greek God of War, Ares is making trouble. He had Hepheustus design an armored robot, which Ares gives to one side in the Kasnian Civil War. J'onn is aware of the hostilities and has Wonder Woman, busy beating up some punks, gather the brothers Hawk and Dove to head out there and make everyone play nice.

Okay, the good: Voice acting is once again top-notch, with Michael York playing a deliciously evil Ares, Ed Asner a slimy, honry Hephestus, Jason Hervey as the Peacenik Don Hall/Dove, and Fred Savage as the War Hawk Hank Hall/Hawk. I expected the roles of the former "Wonder Years" brothers to be switched, the always annoying Wayne as Hawk and the introspective Kevin as Dove. And yet, after you see this episode, you wonder how they would have pulled that off.

The scene with Hephestus and Diana was great. He mentions he made the armor for Diana's mother and sees that Diana "fills it out" better. He even taunts her with the weakness he puts in all his creators, even her armor.

Lastly, it was nice to see Kasnia again after last season's "Maid of Honor" and a few other mentions of it in both Justice League and the Batman: Myster of the Batwoman movie.

Mixed: J'onn's comments to Diana. First, he refers to humans as if Diana is not a human. Which is perfect and odd at the same time. On one hand Diana is human, but on the other hand, she was created from clay. An odd dichtomy and not as easily distinguishable as Superman being an alien, but posing as a Human. And it is an Amazonian trait to seperate themselves from "Man's World." I think that J'onn said it to goad Diana and make her realize her recent actions were further seperating her from being fully human.

What I'm really mixed about is J'onn's comments about Diana being more aggressive lately. It certainly fits with the comic characterization of her as a Warrior first. However, I do wonder if the writers didn't decide to take this path with Diana to fill in the role vacated by Hawkgirl of the more savage member

Hawk and Dove were mixed too, good characters in a plot that seems custom made for them, coincidentally.

The Bad: First, aside from their fight in the bar (leaving their questionale uses of their powers aside) we really don't get much of an introduction to them. As someone who's heard of Hawk and Dove, but really hasn't seen them in action, I do wonder what exactly their powers are. It seems that they are enhanced speed and strength, but can they rival the Flash and/or Superman? Also a line or two of how they got their powers would have been nice.

As I said earlier, also problamatic was the fact that they seemed too perfect for the job. Hawk's aggression was needed to highlight the problems with the are and Dove was needed to provide the solution at the end.

Also I didn't really like the robot. The fights with it reminded me a lot of the JLA versus Vandal Savage's war machines in "A Savage Time." Also, Ares came off as annoying and not a real threat after all. The resolution was too easy and there isn't much to make me want to watch the episode again.

It's a "C" episode for me. Which is a shame, because I thought the previous 3 episodes were great.