Plot summary: The League realise the relic they have gathered for Felix Faust is the key to the underworld, which unleashes the banished god Hades.
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: 11 (S1.E11)
Original Air Date: January 28th, 2002
Directed: Dan Riba (6)
Written: Joseph Kuhr (2)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (11)
Music: Kristopher Carter (5)
DCAU’s version of Greek mythology is established to be wildly different, with the Olympians and Titans’ roles somewhat reversed, and the manner of Hades’ control of the underworld changed from he, Zeus and Poseidon drawing lots for control of their respect domains. Hades’ characterisation is far closer to Satan, fitting of an episode named for John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
For some bizarre reason there is an EXTREMELY obvious (if very brief) re-use of footage from ‘Speed Demons‘ when Flash is evading Faust’s spells.
This episode gets a direct sequel in JLU, ‘The Balance’, which expands on the Hippolyta/Hades affair and Diana’s origins.
Recap
Batman reports on his findings about Faust’s past to the rest of the team, drawing attention to recent journal entries about Tartarus.
Diana realises the relic they’d been gathering is the key to the underworld, which would allow Hades to escape. Oh! And Hades is Hippolyta’s ex! Draaaamaaaaa.
Faust attempts to go back on their deal by turning Diana to stone too, but the rest of The League attack. Unfortunately Faust’s magic proves stronger than they anticipated and he slips away.
Diana leads the team deep below Themyscira to the Gate to the Underworld, but Faust has already opened it and set Hades free… only for his master to immediately turn on him.
Hades summons a legion of undead soldiers, and while each one falls easily to The League, their numbers advantage proves utterly overwhelming.
Hippolyta instructs Diana to destroy the key that opened the gate, which causes everybody in the area to get sucked back through it, with our heroes narrowly avoiding this fate before it closes.
Returning to the surface, Faust’s demise allows for the spell over the Amazons to be reversed, restoring them as the sun rises.
Hippolyta recognises the four visitors as heroes and thanks them… but tearfully condemns Diana for bringing men to Themyscira, formally exiling her from the island.
Best Performance
Susan Eisenberg remained relatively good as Wonder Woman, but had to share the spotlight with the rest of the team throughout, and aside from the emotional final scene, she just didn’t get to flex her acting muscles as much.
Jonathan Rhys-Davies could do the booming angry voiced mwahaha villain stuff in his sleep. Where he really gets to strut is stuff is in the creepy harassment of a chained up Hippolyta. That kind of thing is harder than it may sound, and he’s very good at the sinister undertones. There’s still plenty of the former though, with great enunciation of “You dare to challenge a god?!” Making a character feel simultaneously like a slimeball and unspeakably physically powerful is tricky, and Rhys-Davies nails it.
Robert Englund never really gets there with Faust though 😦
Batman’s white hot contempt for Flash touching random curios in Faust’s house is funny, but also pairs quite nicely with the far softer “Don’t make this harder than it already is.” at the end when Flash is trying to be the voice of empathetic reason. Kevin Conroy: pretty good voice actor.
Episode Ranking
Gah. I’m torn. I talked last time about how a lot of kids develop an interest in Greek mythology. To the shock of precisely no-one, I was one such child. So on the one hand I like that this episode plays in that space, serving up some appropriately stylised artwork to accompany Diana’s exposition… but on the other hand it irks me that they get it so wrong. It shouldn’t really matter, as ‘real world’ mythology is frequently warped in comic properties that incorporate such things… but it still bothers me. Also the monologue makes Diana look pretty stupid when she knows that the key was broken into pieces and that the gate to the underworld is under Themyscira… where she encountered Faust and was given this relic-hunting mission. You really didn’t put 2 and 2 together here?!
They do their best to bribe me into compliance with Hades’ fun design (more below), and conjuring a giant horde of skeleton soldiers, complete with undead horses. I LOVE that one of them is just a torso, walking on its hands with a sword between its teeth. Their sheer numbers are cool to see too, and it of course activates the relaxed rules around heroes mutilating their opponents when they’re not human, so you get Superman slicing dozens of them in half and whatnot. I was initially underwhelmed by the resolution, but they got a solid amount out of Diana barely rescuing her mother and kicking Hades back down to Tartarus.
I also love that they left themselves enough time after the battle to restore all the Amazons and deliver Diana’s punishment. It’s a bittersweet ending, with Hippolyta torn between her motherly pride and queenly duties, and Diana at once being devastated and accepting. It does a lot to flesh out the Amazon culture, and plays in a similar space to John Stewart initially accepting his sentence before learning he was framed. I hope the show can continue to demonstrate solid world-building and complex moral dilemmas.
I stopped banging this drum for a bit, but it’s once again super jarring to me that the characters and the backgrounds seem like they’re in different planes of existence. It’s at its most prominent when they’re applying ‘texture’ to surfaces, such as the pillar Hippolyta finds herself chained to in this episode, or most of the environment in The Imperium base in ‘Secret Origins.’ I find this so distracting and in my opinion the show ends up looking cheaper because of it.
Tiny thing, but it is a bit weird Superman and Wonder Woman don’t seem overly bothered about the fact they utterly demolish a mall in the middle of the night. I guess Bruce will pick up the bill, but it would be nice if they looked in any way phased by what they did.
I prefer Part I, but even with multiple things irking me about Part II, I don’t think it’s enough to lower the overall, so it maintains its second place ranking.
- Injustice For All
- Paradise Lost (–)
- In Blackest Night
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
Rogues Roundup
Felix Faust (Robert Englun) (second appearance)
Revealing that Faust is a disgraced archeologist laughed out of academia, only to be vindicated by magic turning out to be very real and taking fucked up revenge… is kinda cool? They don’t dwell on it too much, but the three stone faces hung on his wall are gnarly given what he’s done to the Amazons in this two-parter. On a similar note he appears to be having a full conversation with the Hippolyta statue while waiting for Diana to return…. so… maybe not all there after all?
He puts up a surprising amount of fight against 5 members of The Justice League, particularly thanks to the giant vines he conjures. But naturally he gets his comeuppance for meddling with forces beyond his ken as Hades turns on him instantly, turning him into a withered old man. Then he fully fucking dies and gets sucked down into Tartarus. Let that be a lesson to any academics thinking of straying from their true path!
Now that we have his complete picture I’ll bump him up by one spot, but he still ends up as more of a conniving henchman, and there’s a ceiling on that.
Hades (Jonathan Rhys-Davies) (second appearance)
I didn’t bother ranking him last time because he just appears as talking fire and threatens Faust in a booming voice, making vague allusions to a master plan. Which is kind of nothing. By contrast we have so much to unpack here!
He’s upgraded to a physical body this time around, and I kinda dig it as a synthesis of a campy supervillain costume and edge-lord heavy metal imagery. Revealing he just looks like ‘a guy’ under the badass helmet, complete with douchebag facial hair is funny to me, though unclear if they intended this. Likewise, whether they meant it or not, the emphasis on feeling the touch of “living” flesh again sure does imply he’s been fucking the undead for 3,000 years. No kink shaming here of course. Although Hippolyta clearly doesn’t feel the same way, as she calls her ex’s more monstrous visage his “true face.” The life of a Monster Fucker is not for the weak.
They do mitigate some of his ‘just a guy’ design by having him breathe fire (and make a crazy monster noise as he does so), even before Faust’s spell reveals his more demonic appearance, complete with horns, fangs, elongated ears and three long tongues.
His unwanted advances towards Hippolyta and Diana are gross, especially when you consider… The Implication. He’s not Diana’s father, but all the same, extra, extra creepy. Funny touch that he ostensibly saves Hippolyta from being sucked into Tartarus; He’s either escaping this or he’s going back, but whichever it is, he’s doing it with Hippolyta.
I kind of wish we got to see him cut loose against Superman in particular, but will have to settle for him effortlessly swatting a Batarang out of the air and taking zero damage from Flash’s assault.
Some may balk at his staunch few minutes of screen time netting him such a high placement, but I wouldn’t say we’re drowning in excellent villains so far, and they pack an awful lot into his brief appearance. He’s cool, he’s powerful, he’s funny (intentionally or not), and he’s well voiced.
- Lex Luthor
- The Joker
- The Imperium
- Hades (NEW ENTRY)
- The Injustice Gang
- Deadshot
- Orm
- Felix Faust (↑)
- The Manhunters
- Kanjar-Ro
The Matt Signal 
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