Plot summary: Despite protests from the rest of The Justice League, John Stewart is brought in to stand trial for the destruction of an entire planet.
For background on the creation of Justice League and info about how I’ll be covering it, check out the Series Primer.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 4 (S1.E4)
Original Air Date: November 19th, 2001
Directed: Butch Lukic (2)
Written: Stan Berkowitz (1)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (4)
Music: Kristopher Carter (2)
The episode title is of course the second line of the Green Lantern oath, following ‘In Brightest Day…‘, the STAS episode that introduced Green Lanterns to the DCAU.
John’s uniform does not vanish when he surrenders his power ring, atypical of DC continuity.
It is established Wonder Woman and Batman are busy. At least one member of The Justice League is missing from most episodes, with only nine featuring the complete lineup. That’s one way to juggle a seven-person team, I suppose!
The ships that attack the Javelin when the League arrive on Adjouris 5 are similar to the ones deployed by Jax-Ur & Mala in ‘Absolute Power‘
Flash jokingly asks if there’s a Hawkboy. Put a pin in that…
Recap
In deep space a tribunal is called seeking justice for vague but heinous crimes. The court summon the robotic Manhunters to bring in the accused, John Stewart!
Speaking of our resident Green Lantern, he’s taking a leisurely stroll through his native Detroit, thwarting a robbery and reconnecting with the locals. Normal guy stuff.
J’onn J’onzz, Hawkgirl and Flash spot The Manhunters heading for earth and intervene, but get their asses resoundingly kicked. Luckily Superman arrives to turn the tide.
John finally hears the commotion and joins the fray, but demands both sides stand down. Shockingly he agrees to come quietly, handing over his Power Ring and allowing himself to be handcuffed.
The Manhunters escort John to Adjouris 5 where a furious mob are gathered outside the court house. A small group of Green Lanterns go as far as to call him a disgrace the corps. Jeez.
The Justice League (minus Batman and Wonder Woman) follow but are met with armed resistance. After a scuffle they’re permitted to watch the trial if they agree not to interfere.
The prosecution calls Kanjar-Ro, a space pirate who testifies that in John’s attempts to arrest him for smuggling, one of his attacks set off massive volcanic activity that destroyed the planet Adjours 4, killing 3 billion.
During a recess, The League approach John and assume Kanjar is lying, but he refutes this and confirms he is in fact… guilty!
To be continued…
Best Performance
It was really nice to hear Garrett Morris as John’s old school teacher, no matter how briefly. I think he helps pull an understated, natural performance out of Phil LaMarr as they reminisce and tease each other. LaMarr is so much better when he’s relaxed rather than trying to project himself into the militant ex-marine they’ve written him as. I get that’s the character, and you need some conflict to make the team dynamic work, but I think he often ends up sounding forced in that mode, compared to the smoother, more somber work he’s doing here. I think it’s close, but I’ll give it to him.
Maria Canals-Barrera is way better than in the opening three-parter, in part because she has a lot more lines. The temper and aggression remain, but she’s allowed to mix in some more flirtatious and charming banter. She’s just humouring Flash, but I enjoyed some of their back and forth. I also really liked her delivery of “Oh, that.” when Superman has to point out she’s potentially about to cause some massive collateral damage amidst the battle over Adjouris 5. They also sneak Maria in as one of the three judges, where she succeeds in flattening her voice out. I was tempted to go with her to be honest.
James Remar managing to sound too robotic when playing an actual robot is extremely funny to me. One of the worst actors going IMO. It’s a small role but Kurtwood Smith is a perfect casting as The Prosecutor. Ditto Rene Auberjonois as Kanjar-Ro.
Episode Ranking
This episode opens in really strong fashion, with a nearly perfect cold open. I don’t think they’ve utilised these at all in the DCAU to date, but they’re a staple with Justice League, albeit only in Part I’s as they always use that slot for a ‘previously on…’ in Part II. As dramatic openings go, it’s difficult to top one of your heroes being accused of ill-defined but incredibly serious crimes in space court. They build on that nicely with a few solid minutes of character work (more on the two scenes below), and then transition into a great little action sequence. For John to then surrender and quietly accept it as he’s pelted with alien produce and insulted by his fellow Lanterns is a pretty surprising commitment to the bit as we go the entire episode with no choice but to assume he is in fact guilty.
I think their ability to carry that assertion throughout the episode is its greatest strength, and even when they finally reveal what exactly John is accused of, it’s a complex moral quandary. Even in Kanjar-Ro’s somewhat slanted testimony there’s no claim John did any of it on purpose, but cops should be held accountable if they shoot at criminals and accidentally kill bystanders. They almost never are in real life, but hey, cartoons are aspirational! You don’t need to have seen Part II to know John will ultimately not be convicted, but we’re not here to comment on that yet. As things stand this ends up being a surprisingly compelling episode of television, far and away better than any of the three parts of ‘Secret Origins’.
John’s little stroll through Detroit is dripping in cliché, but I’m also a painfully white Brit, so I’m not really best placed to comment on the representation angle. I’ll say that the scene is a lot less cringe than in the Superman episode ‘Heavy Metal’. Tiny thing but I’m glad John missed the shot he took when returning a basketball to a kid, as him draining a deep three pointer would have been a little overmuch. I’m not really sold on John’s civilian outfit, but from memory I don’t think we see him out of costume many times in the series. Kristopher Carter’s choice for the score leans heavily into the Blaxploitation direction, but wanders into soft porn territory which is… something. Ultimately I think the scene ends up being cute, which was surely what they were aiming for.
Not to delve into heavy spoilers for those that don’t know, but it’s nice to establish early on that Hawkgirl was a detective on Thanagar, pairing nicely with John’s role as a space cop. It’s also one of Flash’s least egregious instances of harassment as she merely smiles and leaves rather than wanting to throttle him, and they tie a ribbon on the whole thing with J’onn reminding everyone he’s the loneliest man in the universe. This is the kind of stuff that is so important in an ensemble, and it makes me glad they opted for everything being a two-parter so they wouldn’t have to cut any of it for time. They found a way to strike a balance for JLU, but I can understand them struggling to fit everything into 22 minutes at this stage. I would also categorise Superman taking it as a compliment that Hawkgirl forgets he’s not human in this same way. More of the team just hanging out, please!
The Guardians’ comments about diversity end up being weirdly funny. They’re of course talking about recruiting for the Green Lantern Corps from across the universe, but given the explicit racial overtones of the Detroit scenes, it sends your mind in the wrong direction. The Guardians are known for being somewhat cold, but I suppose I do understand the idea that they can’t get too attached to any one member, and that if they’re going to welcome all comers, they also have to accept some of them may get themselves into trouble. Still, feels charged. Heck, the episode is called ‘In Blackest Night’ and is remembered for John returning to Detroit to reminisce. They had to know, right?
The League’s battle with the security of Adjouris 5 is less good than their opening salvo against The Manhunters, but I did enjoy Superman being the one to worry about collateral damage and having to correct Hawkgirl’s errors. J’onn adds to his terrifying powers by telepathically forcing one of the guards to sleep. Feels kind of bogus they’d be permitted entry to the trial after physically fighting security and the bailiffs but hey, cartoons!
Anyway, most of that is just adding a little flavour to an already rock solid premise. Strong cold open, strong cliffhanger, great character work and a couple of solid fight scenes in the middle? Straight to the top!
- In Blackest Night [NEW ENTRY]
- Secret Origins
Rogues Roundup
The Manhunters (James Remar) (first appearance)
There’s only so much personality you can get out of a suite of identical robotic sentinels, but the opening fight scene is the most fun one in the show’s short history to date, as they toss Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter around like dolls. Superman was busy, you see. In fact when Clark does show up his usual role in the show is reversed as he manages to walk through one of their dope energy beam attacks and snap their weapon. It was also cool to see J’onn utterly curb stomp one into oblivion only for it to get right back up and fling a car at him.
Where things get interesting is when one of the Manhunters overhears Arkkis Chummuck calling it a stupid robot and taking great offence, only to be held back by their leader. I talked about this with Brainiac in STAS but generally the best way to make robot characters interesting is to initially characterise them as unfeeling and then demonstrate that they’re slaves to emotion after all. It’s just a tease for now, but it does save them from being overly generic.
Still, not as good as The Imperium.
- The Imperium
- The Manhunters [NEW ENTRY]
The Matt Signal 
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