Justice League Unlimited (2004 - 2006)

Justice League Unlimited review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

I’ll never forget the first promo I ever saw for Justice League Unlimited. Debuting on Toonami, the show received a commercial narrated by the immortal Peter Cullen. He quickly recapped the events of Justice League, where the team seemed to disband/rebuild. Then Cullen spoke the words as the music dropped; “They’ll need a bigger team. A much, much bigger team.” As he speaks, we get the first shot of what looks like two dozen heroes crowding the watchtower. And there’s plenty more where that came from.

Justice League Unlimited felt as though Bruce Timm and his team cracked open the DC Comics vault and decided to have it for whichever heroes and villains they wished to use. Episodes can range from placing Supergirl, Green Arrow, and Captain Atom on a mission to stop a giant monster to Booster Gold feeling left out of the conversation. Anything can happen and anyone can be present in an episode and there’s something intensely exciting about it, especially since the lack of two-parters makes the singular episodes better-contained adventures and characters vignettes.

But this does not mean JLU is bereft of continuity. Far from it, in fact. Throughout the entire first season is a building arc on the nature of the secretive Cadmus organization, determined to create government-sponsored meta-humans that can be called upon when and if the Justice League goes rogue. It’s a valid concern given everything that has gone on within this world. Aside from the Thanagarian invasion of Justice League’s finale and the chilling visions of the Injustice League in an alternate universe, there was also that time Superman was brainwashed by Darkseid to enslave Earth.

Doctor Emile Hamilton hasn’t forgotten that time way back in Superman: The Animated Series when he was forced to operate on Supergirl with his life threatened. There’s a great moment in this series where Superman corners Hamilton and argues that Hamilton wasn’t justified in ultimately cloning Supergirl because of his fears, breaking his trust with Superman. Hamilton isn’t as easily swayed; “The chicken or the egg, Superman.”

There’s a lot that goes in this show and the fact that the characters are still fun and charismatic really bolsters the appeal far past the intriguing plot of questioning meta-human vigilantism. While the story of Cadmus continues, other fun little asides pop up that are just downright adorable. One of the funniest episodes features Wonder Woman being turned into a pig by a witch and the only way to change her back is if Batman will sing a somber lounge song. It’s such a ridiculous episode that was apparently mentioned as an offhanded joke when struggling for scripts and it ended up becoming one of the most delightful standalone episodes of the run.

Everything about this series ties into previous DC Comics animated series in more ways than one. Previously Batman villains play a central role in Cadmus. Small things from Superman: The Animated Series come bubbling to the service, especially when it comes to explaining the odd and left-field revival of the robot Brainiac. Even Batman Beyond comes about in both a time-travel episode and acting as the series epilogue (but really an epilogue to the whole DC animated series universe).

It’s for this reason why the second season is far more off-beat for being more about the villains than the heroes. It’s clear that the first season of Justice League Unlimited was intended to be the last and it’s clear to see the exit route they were taking. After all, their timeslot was Saturday evenings on Cartoon Network. Yet they were given an order for another 13 episodes, leading to a victory lap of a season that rolled out the Legion of Doom in a very creative and fun way. There are also lots of hilarious episodes in this season as well, mostly involving The Flash. One of the highlights is when The Flash and Lex Luthor have their brains swapped, leading to some ridiculous sequences. Trapped in The Flash’s body, Lex Luthor thinks he has the edge by pulling off the mask and revealing the true identity of the hero. He only stares blankly at the face of Wally West in the mirror; “I have no idea who this is.”

Justice League Unlimited takes everything that worked in Justice League and amps up for more than just a ballooned roster. It taps into more characters, more storylines, and a firmer focus on the nature of vigilantism and patriotism in a way that no other comic book series has yet to top. It’s for this reason and many more that it remains one of the best animated series ever made.