- Title: Justice League Unlimited – Hearts and Minds
- wiki: link
Our Throwback Thursday post takes us back to the animated adventures of Justice League. Although I don’t think it was necessarily deliberate, Justice League didn’t paint a very flattering picture of the Green Lantern Corps. In their first appearance, the Corps abandoned John Stewart (Phil LaMarr) when their fellow Lantern is accused of destroying an entire planet in “In Blackest Night.” In the opening scene of “Hearts and Minds” Galius and Arkkis are killed by soldiers (rather easily). There’s also an odd story break where John Stewart’s old flame Katma Tui (Kim Mai Guest) somehow survives the same encounter, escapes without notice, hides her identity as a Green Lantern and joins the villain’s inner circle of priestess concubines. That’s quite a bit to happen completely off-screen without any explanation.
Katma has mixed reactions to seeing John Stewart again, and (as with the Lanterns in the previous episodes) actually gives up on John when Despero (Keith David) gets in his head and disrupts his ability to use his Power Ring. While this allows the show to reinforce the faith the League has in him, it’s not a great look for the Corps (especially a second time around). Plot issues aside, Katma is a fun character from the comics who I’m glad to see earn a spot in this pair of episodes. The villain here is Despero whose mutation has given him control of the power at the heart of the planet Kalanor which he has chosen to wield as both mind control and weapon, gathering and army of flame-powered zealots to his side. How this power works (especially light years away) isn’t explained. To defeat Despero, the Justice League will need to learn more about the Flame of Py’tar leading to an unusual anime-style ending to Despero’s search for power.
