- Title: Justice League – Season One
- tv.com: link
The greatest heroes of the planet band together to stop criminals…wait I remember this show, it had a monkey named Gleek right? Wrong. Unlike SuperFriends, Justice League takes the characters and situations they encounter seriously and does a pretty good job of adapting the comic version to the TV screen.
When aliens who have already destroyed Mars thousands of years ago attack the Earth the Martian Manhunter (Carl Lumbly) gathers together the world’s best heroes to make a stand. Superman (George Newbern), Batman (Kevin Conroy), John Stewart the Green Lantern (Phil Lamar), the fastest man alive – the Flash (Michael Rosenbaum), a warrior from the planet Thanagar – Hawgirl (Maria Canals), and an amazon princess – Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg) team to make Earth’s last stand.
After saving the day the team stays together and forms “The Justice League.” Familiar faces will pop up from time to time with a revamped look including Aquaman, the Demon, Metamorpho, and villains like Gorilla Grod, the Ultra-Humanite, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, and Lex Luthor.
The first season is probably the weakest of the show’s five season run by having to spend time developing so many characters and the interplay between them. Still there are plenty of reasons to pick up this set. The final three-part episode “The Savage Time” takes the League back to WWII to stop Vandal Savage and includes some great cameos by Sgt. Rock, the Blackhawks, and Steve Trevor. They take on Lex Luthor and the Injustice Society that includes the Shade and Star Sapphire in “Injustice For All.” and get sent into another dimension and meet Green Lantern’s childhood heroes the Justice Guild in “Legends.”
Okay Hal Jordan should be Green Lantern (although Stewart actually turns out to be a pretty good character. At least they didn’t choose Kyle). Now that I got that off my chest, as a first season the show comes off pretty well and ends strong. Yes Superman is kinda of wimp in the early episodes, Wonder Woman says “Hera give me strength” way too ofen, the War World episode is really dumb, and the lack of chapter breaks on the DVD will drive you mad. But the show, even in these darker moments, still works, gives us some good episodes and great characters, and lays the foundation for some even greater shows over the next four seasons. So what are you waiting for? Go out and pick it up already.