JLU Review: Kids' Stuff

Sorry to say, I screwed up the tape and missed this week’s Teen Titans. I’ll have to catch it next weekend when it re-airs Saturday morning.

But I did fix the tape in time to catch Justice League: Unlimited, though I ended up watching the repeat on Sunday night…

The plot is pretty simple; Morgan Le Fay and Mordred (of King Arthur fame, last seen in the Season 1 episode “A Knight of Shadows”) find the Amulet of First Magic. They also have a disagreement, when Mordred reveals he despises his mother for keeping him young all these years. He grabs the amulet and uses it to banish all adults to a nether-realm.

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are fighting members of the Injustice League, Copperhead and Deadshot (who we met before in Season 1) and Blockbuster and one of this week's many nods to fanboys, the KGBeast (Batman foe, but most recently mentioned by Black Lightning in Identity Crisis #1).

In the nether-realm, they meet up with Morgan, who seeks their help in defeating her son. They agree, but as Green Lantern remarks…”I don’t like where this is going…”

Mordred takes over what appears to be a Medieval Themed Disney World amusement park and remakes it into a twisted kingdom, where he sits granting the wishes of kids (which range from toys to milk for one girl’s baby sister). The Justice League appear there, but they are kids.

Superman and Wonder Woman seem to take to being kids again rather easily. Batman does, to some extent, though isn’t happy his friends are stronger and faster than he is. And poor John realizes he needs glasses again. Lucky for him he has a ring, but he makes some modifications to his glasses when the others laugh at him (more on this in a minute).

What follows is a series of confrontations with Mordred, the first of which lands the JL in a pit where they have to face off against the Baby Demon, Etrigan (also seen in “A Knight of Shadows”). The fight goes poorly for the JL, until John burps Etrigan and Superman is elected to change his diaper.

On the next go-round, they decide to split up. Diana chooses Bruce, but then changes her mind to Clark. Clark is ready to go when Diana changes her mind again, she does want to go with Bruce. Clark is befuddled, to which Lantern replies “For a man with fifty kinds of vision you sure are blind.”

They are no match for Mordred, but they soon convince him that he’s afraid to grow up. He of course falls for it and changes into an adult, breaking the spell and returning the adults to Earth. Morgan comes and lives up to her end of the bargain, returning the JL and the Demon to their proper ages.

Okay, so I like so many other comic fans were quick to call this episode World Without Grown-Ups (the “event” which introduced Young Justice and split Earth into an Adult Earth and a kid’s Earth) and Sins of Youth (another Young Justice “event” where the kid heroes turn into adults and vice versa). But it managed to acquit itself nicely and stood on its own.

It was nice seeing Morgan, Mordred, and the Demon again. Also nice seeing the brief reappearances of Copperhead and Deadshot. It’s little things like this that help with continuity…

The most fun aspect of the episode was seeing the Jlers as kids, especially John. The writers of this show seemed to have figured Kyle Rayner’s personality would fit John well, and I think it did. The first homage to Kyle was the glasses, which John changed to resemble what some disillusioned fans called Kyle’s “Crab Mask.”

John spends an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what “kewl” constructs he should make, though when push came to shove, he went with the old Alan/Hal standard…the boxing glove.

Lastly, John creates a Mangaesque robot during his battle with Mordred, which is Kyle’s forte. In fact, the animators used Kyle’s more stylized symbol on the robot instead of the standard one first seen with Hal Jordan.

Diana’s kid comes out in her crush on Bruce, though it appears the writers want to keep the illusion of the Clark, Bruce, and Diana triangle. Season 2 hinted at romantic feelings between the two, most notably when Bruce danced with Diana in “Maid of Honor”) and later in Starcrossed, when they split into teams, where Diana just happened to be paired with Bruce.

Overall, it was a rather fun episode, obviously with a few extra bits aimed at us fanboys. With the premise “Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Green Lantern are turned into kids,” so much could have gone wrong. But, instead they pulled out a few really nice moments and it hardly seemed like only a half hour.

Still a few things about this new format bug me. First are the scenes from the episode in the opening credits. I guess it’s nice when they spotlight new characters, but these past two episodes, especially; they seem to spoil a lot. My second main gripe is the lack of Flash. Hopefully he’ll be in later episodes, but I don’t even remember him getting a speaking line in “Initiation,” and he was completely left out of this episode and last weeks’ episode. Same goes for J’onn, who I’m afraid will be relegated to the Watchtower and only sparse appearances to move the plot along.

It’s a fun show, but I would have been happier with a more final ending to Justice League and a brand new show (instead of just another season) for Justice League: Unlimited. Of course, if that were the case, this episode and last week’s would have been put into Season 2.

It’s an “A” episode, definitely. Next week: Hawk and Dove!