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Lunch » Tags » Movies » Reviews » Justice League Unlimited: Season Two

Justice League Unlimited: Season Two

1 rating: 5.0

13 episode DC animated series

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Tags: Movies, Comics, Dc Comics, Comic Book And Graphic Novel Adaptations, American Animation

1 review about Justice League Unlimited: Season Two

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Yeah I know, all good things must come to an end.

Apr 17, 2012

by Madpenguin
posted in Speech Bubbles: Comics & Graphic Novels

Rating:

The Justice League narrowly survives the Thanagarian invasion, and as a result of her betrayal to the Justice League, Hawkgirl leaves the group. The Justice League decides to expand their group with far more superheroes than before with intentions on better protecting the Earth, as well as many others who cannot protect themselves.

Previous Seasons:

Justice League - Season One

Justice League - Season Two

Justice League Unlimited - Season One

Justice League Unlimited - Season Two:

The terrifying fusion of Brainiac and Lex Luthor have been defeated by the Justice League's founding members. Brainiac has been destroyed and Luthor's taken into custody. Later, Luthor escapes from police custody and is rescued by another supervillain. He meets his benefactor in the form of Gorilla Grodd, who has put together an organization of supervillains that look after each other. This begins a new deadly alliance. -summary

JLU Season Two continues and ends the series with these final 13 episodes, that happens to carry on almost all of the elements that made Justice League such an outstanding series to begin with. Like many great things, I was sad to see it end, because the series still felt as if it was capable of much more. As a fan of Justice League to include the DCU as a whole in comic form, I still feel the series never reached its true potential and it was capable of so much more. Let's not forget, this series took place well after major DC storylines such as Emerald Twilight, Zero Hour, and even Final Night. So yeah, there was far more life left in this series with the right direction and imagination.

The series sticks to its guns, and provides the comic book fan with everything they could possibly love in a show like this. Once again, the show is heavily action oriented with the old school superhero vs. supervillain formula coming in large supply to kick off the episodes. Almost every episode begins with a fierce battle, and the redundancy could have very easily grated on my nerves, but since the fights were so entertaining in a short time, well I have to give it the nod.

The animation is still on point with excellent fight choreography. Watching Black Canary and Huntress in battle is just a feast for the action fan. The animation moves like water and you will see a variety of different strikes and take downs. The greatness continues during those showdowns with plenty of bodies on the screen, and once again, the heavy hitters like Superman and Wonder Woman never ceases to be entertaining. There are some really cool backgrounds, like the evening setting made up of an ominous dark orange color-scheme surrounding Gorilla Grodd's fortress, and one flashy segment of his ship shooting across the galaxy at light speed. The production values were well used and they don't stop there.

The sound effects deserve a mention as well. There's this really cool effect of Wonder Woman's fist clashing against Hawkgirls weapon that produces this huge, flesh against metal clanging sound I really liked. There's another segment where Superman's mightiest blow collided with a very powerful enemies jaw, that sent him crashing through multiple buildings. Plus the soundtrack to back up all these moments compliments things very well. Justice League Unlimited is a style clinic to me in every aspect. And lets not forget the voice acting, which I still think is superb. I can never get tired of hearing Michael Ironside voicing the terrifying figure of the mad demi-god Darkseid. He has had the character down since the Superman: Animated Series, and he never missed a beat. Powers Boothe does a splendid job with the calm, calculating, yet vicious Gorilla Grodd. I loved when he told the Flash how much he hates him, and threatened to snap someone else's neck. The animation and voice direction were well done from my perspective.

The stories are still stand alone for the most part, and although it may appear that some of the episodes are mindless brawls, with the episode To Another Shore coming to mind. It does work towards future plot development along with character development, and when looking at where the plot went, I think it was all worth it. This season also ties up many previous plot threads providing some needed closure, such as the relationship between Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. The cream of the crop can very will be the final two episodes Alive! and Destroyer. These are actually two parters that follows Lex Luthor's betrayal of Gorilla Grodd, while he seeks to revive Brainiac on his quest to godhood. This leads to the revival of Darkseid, who is far more powerful than before and orchestrates a full scale invasion on the Earth, with his goal to make Superman suffer for killing him.

The writing has many moments of great entertainment, and the fan service is still kept at a high level for the serious comic fan. More characters get a little bit of screen time like the sister duo Ice and Fire, plus we see the Legion of Superheroes. There are homages galore to the original Legion of Doom from Challenge of the Superfriends, as well as the old Wonder Woman spin change reminiscent of Lynda Carter. And I swear I saw my old toy collection when the Justice League took a dive into the pages of Warlord, as he battled against his nemesis Lord Deimos.

Something I neglected to mention in my review on the previous season, is the wire tight meshing of comedy. The comedic segments never felt forced, and it's just something to see Batman some how in on the joke. But when the series tries to be funny, it clearly hits the ball out of the park, with the episode The Great Brain Robbery being the best example. Here, we see a mind swap between Lex Luthor and the Flash, with the former stuck in the Justice League's orbit HQ, while Flash is trying not to be found out by the villains of the Secret Society.

As great as I think the series to be, the one thing I found missing was the depth of the first season. Now the episodes are good, but this time the action and the plot overshadows everything, and terribly missing is the commentary found during the Cadmus Project storyline. Plus in their attempt to cram in more superheroes and villains, some of the characters receive no dialog at all, and in other cases names aren't even mentioned. I have a hard time believing even fans will completely ignore this, so I'm sure casual fans and newbies will find this to be a bother.

In closing, Justice League Unlimited is still a series that I think parents should be careful when letting their kids watch. There's a lot of physical action, references to death and even a couple of off-screen killings. So with that in mind use your own judgment. For me, this is a series that I cherish, and I think it was an excellent follow up to Batman and Superman, in which, it is set in that continuity. If you're a lover of comics, animation, or both, then this is something that shouldn't be missed.

Pros:
-Production values, Action-galore

Cons:
-Minor writing issues

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peterww April 25, 2012

Ice and Fire? Never heard of them. I've got some catching up to do so thank you for pointing the way to a series that sounds worthwhile. Well done.

Madpenguin April 25, 2012

Yeah, the two sisters who were apart of the Justice League. I would have enjoyed seeing more of them. They frequent the comic.

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FM_ALEX April 18, 2012

Why did they all have to come to an end, great review.

Madpenguin April 25, 2012

I know right. And thanks man.

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woopak_the_thrill April 17, 2012

Yeah, Black Canary and the HUNTRESS were very fun episodes. Stellar review as always--after your flurry of video game reviews you "Penguinizing" TV series now! LOL

Madpenguin April 25, 2012

Thanks. Those episodes were really cool, and I loved how dangerous an uncontrolled Wonder Woman can be. And it's been crossing my mind to hit up more TV series. But i'm not going to be able to for awhile since I'm remodeling my home.

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