Justice League Unlimited debuted this weekend. Oh, don’t bother going to that link. For some reason, Cartoon Network has kept the JLU site woefully un-updated. You wouldn’t know the show’s new season started if you relied on their site to tell you.
The big news is that, like Superfriends before them, they will spend the season fighting The Legion of Doom. Lex Luthor escaped to a swamp where a rather familiar-looking headquarters (slightly redesigned) appeared from behind a cloaking device. Gorilla Grodd has founded the Legion very much in keeping with the DCU’s Secret Society of Supervillains as seen in “Villains United.” It is an alliance against the superheroes to combat them directly.
The Justice League, meanwhile, has left their orbital headquarters to live in the MetroTower. And the MetroTower is really nothing more than a redesign of the Superfriends’ Hall of Justice! Okay, you have to squint, and the first glimpse of it went by very fast, but if you widen the dome of the Hall of Justice and extend the center pillars into a tower, there it is.
(I’ll try to get some screen captures but it was easier for me to get them from VHS. I recently bought a DVR which records to DVD, and I’m not sure how to get a screencap from a DVD.)
These first two episodes were strong. Just look at all that occurred in the space of an hour:
Luthor escapes to Legion of Doom HQ, overflowing with villains.
Chuck of the Blackhawks flies into action.
Flash finds a woman he can’t hit on.
Agent King Faraday appears as the new JLU Liason to the Dep. of Justice.
Blackhawk Island appears, complete with dozens of continuity refs.
JLU vs. The Extremists.
Carter Hall (real name: Joe Gardner!) appears with a complicated Hawkman history that still makes more sense than the in-continuity version.
Quick cutaways to JLU adventures (including a cool fighting move from Elongated Man that wins the day). I couldn’t place all the combatants.
Shadow Thief appears.
… and more!
DON’T STOP READING YET!!!!
Probably the coolest thing of the whole hour was an ad for the Teen Titans premiere next weekend. Why? Because it features THE DOOM PATROL! An animated Doom Patrol vs. The Brotherhood of Evil features next weekend and I hadn’t heard about it. See a clip of Robotman in action!
Watch for it. Next weekend. Teen Titans.