Plot summary: Superman is taken prisoner and made to participate in gladiator fights for the amusement of Mongul, ruler of War World.

For background on the creation of Justice League and info about how I’ll be covering it, check out the Series Primer.

1. Notes and Trivia
2. Recap
3. Best Performance
4. Episode Ranking
5. Rogues Roundup

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 12 (S1.E12)

Original Air Date: February 24^th, 2002

Directed: Butch Lukic (6)

Written: Stan Berkowitz (5)

Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (12)

Music: Lolita Ritmanis (4)

This is an adaptation of ‘Gladiator’, a four-issue Superman arc from 1989. There are also more than a few similarities with Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, released a couple of years earlier.

Mongul is inspired by Ghengis Khan and the Mongolian Empire, hence his name. Len Wein designed him specifically as a physical challenge for Superman. Artist Jim Starlin even claimed he was meant to be the Thanos of DC, even though Darkseid pre-dates both.

Bruce Timm has talked about these being two of the least liked episodes of the season in large part because of Superman being portrayed as weak, a running theme which they’ll change from Season Two.

Recap

Superman and Martian Manhunter attempt to ‘safely’ blow a huge asteroid into pieces, but failed to account for high levels of hydrogen and get completely blown to hell!

The unconscious duo are scooped up by a passing alien ship… but it turns out they collect potential gladiators to fight for the amusement of Mongul, ruler of ‘War World’.

However rather than fighting inside an arena the gladiators are teleported out to some desolate wilds, while a bloodthirsty audience watch on giant screens.

Draaga, the reigning champion, overcomes and then executes a whacky new challenger, much to the crowd’s uproarious approval. Mongul is displeased with the lack of decent opponents.

Upon arrival Superman mounts a daring escape, getting J’onn to safety, but where our Martian pal is able to phase through a forcefield, Clark is trapped and recaptured.

Mongul punishes the attempt by selecting him as Draaga’s next victim. While the champ is crazy strong and fights dirty, Clark of course emerges victorious, but refuses to murder him so gets attacked…

To Be Continued…

Best Performance

Eric Roberts is one of the premium ‘anything for money’ actors, racking up a truly astounding number of appearances and he’s only good in a scant few of them. This is not one. I just really don’t think he’s remotely trying to tailor his performance to the character design of Mongul. Not every huge character needs a booming, rumbly voice… but they also probably shouldn’t just sound like a barely conscious Eric Roberts.

Conversely, William Smith is oddly engaging is Draaga, with every word out of his mouth sounding pained and weary, fitting for a champion gladiator. That he ends up being the best performer in this episode is probably more damning of the rest of the cast. The Leaguers are all fine and nothing more.

Episode Ranking

One of the greatest strengths of this show so far has been how quickly and effectively they’ve been able to give us a window into other worlds and races, whether it be the diverse nature of The Imperium, the various aliens at John Stewart’s trial, or the peoples of Atlantis and Themyscira. This episode takes us to another strange world full of whacky characters… but appears to have zero interest in showing us their society or culture. There are some loose references here and there to how bad life is for the locals, but both times that’s dismissed incredibly quickly so we can get back to those ‘sweet, sweet’ gladiator fights.

Precious little really happens in the episode, which devotes most of its creative energy and run time to the pair of battles, with Draaga winning the first, and then Superman serving as the main event. If you’re going to invest so much in fight scenes then they at least need to be really good, but unfortunately the first is extremely short, and the second is only okay. They do a solid fake-out when Draaga recovers after what seems like the knockout blow, but it’s really just ‘your turn, my turn’ as they wail on each other, which is the least interesting kind of fighting.

On that subject, I do understand the general complaint/jokes about Superman being taken down so easily throughout the series, but if this particular episode bothers you then you’re a tiny little baby. A hydrogen explosion is a hydrogen explosion. Most depictions of Superman don’t just shrug off weapons of that magnitude. Plus who knows what species Draaga is supposed to be? I have zero issues with their fight being close, especially as Draaga has ostensibly been battle tested by fighters from across the cosmos. Plus Clark isn’t even interested in fighting him at first, only increasing his effort level when he chucks giant slabs of concrete at him. If anything I’d argue this makes Superman look stronger, as he seems more irritated than wounded, and when he decides ‘enough’, he easily pummels Draaga into the dirt. Even the underhanded tactics and dropping a damn building on Supes do nothing and he emerges victorious. Is it the forcefield or security robots that people hate? Like truly who cares about this stuff in a story that is explicitly designed to test the limits of Superman’s strength. Is anyone under the impression Batman would have been able to handle all of this? J’onn is weakened by just being on the planet for goodness sakes.

The B-Story is Green Lantern and Hawkgirl following the trail towards War World. They bicker and do the cop routine on a variety of aliens. It’s not terribly interesting, even when you know where they’re taking these two characters. I just find John Stewart unlikeable more often than not, particularly when he’s directly opposed to anyone that isn’t explicitly villainous. You can chalk it up to his military background if you want, but that’s not going to help someone like me not think he’s simply being a dick 90% of the time. He was in no position to assess Shayera’s guilt for the opening incident, and is a hypocrite for scolding her over her heavy interrogations given he behaves the exact same way. On paper that may sound like some cute romantic tension, but given the context I can’t really enjoy it from that side either. It’s all just very autopilot stuff. Oh, and J’onn walks around in a cloak to hide his identity, helplessly watching Clark’s fight. Also nothing.

Huge fan of the fucked up design of ‘Krodar the Terrible’, who I’m not sure I could even describe. Like a kind of… murderous robot jellyfish? That’s not doing it justice. It’s not just cool on paper though, as it hangs from the ceiling and stealthily grabs Draaga by the throat, and then when the champ pulls a building down onto it, it briefly crawls from the wreckage sparking and covered in oil like a true horror movie monster. I also enjoyed the alien crocodile they fed the corpse (and almost J’onn) to, which has a real video game dungeon boss feel to it. So kudos on the creature design if nothing else.

1. Injustice For All
2. Paradise Lost
3. In Blackest Night
4. The Enemy Below
5. Secret Origins
6. War World (NEW ENTRY)

Rogues Roundup

Mongul (Eric Roberts) (first appearance)

Almost an interesting character. Almost. You’ve seen a character like Mongul dozens of times. He’s just a right wing dictator, distracting the populace from the awful conditions he has them living under with entertainment. In this case it’s gladiator fights, and that’s where that near-miss on being interesting comes in, as he makes mention of building Superman up with preliminary battles before pitting him against Draaga. You know, like a boxing or wrestling promoter. He also does the weigh-ins to hype the crowd. But this is really just window-dressing and throwaway lines as Mongul is just a generic evil dude at the end of the day.

Draaga (William Smith) (first appearance)

I mean, I guess he’s a villain in the sense he spits in Superman’s face and then spends a few minutes hitting him with increasingly larger objects… but he’s really just a victim of Mongul, ostensibly a prisoner set to live out his days fighting. He does appear to be granted a greater degree of freedom than his challengers, which again gets at the ‘almost interesting’ stuff, but he’s really just a big brute who can give and take a punch.

In a more interesting episode I might have gotten something out of the crowd turning on him the second he loses and him sincerely asking for a warrior’s death, but this is not an interesting episode.

1. Lex Luthor
2. The Joker
3. The Imperium
4. Hades
5. The Injustice Gang
6. Deadshot
7. Orm
8. Felix Faust
9. The Manhunters
10. Kanjar-Ro
11. Mongul (NEW ENTRY)
12. Draaga (NEW ENTRY)