Plot summary: A mysterious runaway Amazon takes leadership of the Injustice Gang, but keeps her true plans a secret from even her teammates.
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: 16 (S1.E16)
Original Air Date: April 7th, 2002 (April 14th, 2002)
Directed: Butch Lukic (8)
Written: Stan Berkowitz (7) (story) and Dwayne McDuffie (3) (teleplay)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (16)
Music: Kristopher Carter (6)
This episode aired before ‘Injustice for All‘, where The Injustice Gang are formed for the first time, creating a continuity error when they’re casually working together here.
This two-parter is named for two unrelated characters called ‘Fury’, though Aresia seems to have more in common with the second version.
Vanessa Marshall has a minor role in Part I. She was one of several actors who was beaten out by Susan Eisenberg to play Wonder Woman. Marshall would go on to voice Diana many times in animation and video games.
Recap
The Injustice Gang (under new management) break into Gotham Biotech and steal a plant. Batman was of course right on the trail and tries to thwart their escape, but their new leader, Aresia, kicks his ass.
In defeat Bruce managed to swipe the woman’s necklace, which he later takes to Wonder Woman to confirm it is an Amazon design. Diana refuses to believe one of her sisters would be a villain though.
Batman sends Hawkgirl to Themyscira to confirm his hunch. Hippolyta explains Aresia was a war refugee who washed ashore on their island following a pirate attack.
Raised as an Amazon and given their supernatural abilities thanks to magic, Aresia secretly hoarded books from ‘man’s world’, including one on… germ warfare…
The villains pull off a jewellery heist, with Aresia snatching a giant ruby and poisoning Superman on her way out. Diana is forced to allow her to escape out of concern for Clark.
Green Lantern and Flash promptly fall ill to the same poisoning. Batman confirms what’s happening for the audience, as he and Hawkgirl return to Gotham to find all the men poisoned.
To Be Continued…
Best Performance
This episode is stuffed with minor characters, with most of the actors pulling double or even triple-duty, so props to everyone for showing some range.
If I had to single someone out I think I’d go with Julie Bowen as Aresia. It’s probably nothing I’m going to remember by the end of the season, but she did a good job alternating between cocksure challenges to Batman and Superman, and her subtle manipulation of The Injustice Gang.
Susan Sullivan’s exposition as Hippolyta is pretty solid too. Finally, Kevin Conroy nicely delivered the the little barb to Diana about the hypocrisy of her claim that Amazons never leave Themyscira.
Episode Ranking
Oh hey look, another moral quandary presented by Part I that could go either way in Part II. Just like ‘In Blackest Night‘, also plotted by Stan Berkowitz.
You could very easily tell a story about cycles of violence and the ways vengeance can consume with Aresia… or they could end up inadvertently (presumably) saying all Amazons are good except for that immigrant they took in. Hippolyta makes an off-hand remark about how Aresia is meant to be spending an extended period of time reflecting inside a tower to complete her path toward becoming an Amazon. Sounds a lot like keeping her prisoner to me! Definitely a sensible thing to do to a war orphan who seemed to previously be thriving in an environment of sisterhood up to that point. On the one hand she was supposed to be finding solace in quiet introspection to complete a spiritual journey, but instead her ‘inherent failings’ led her to plot revenge against mankind. Emphasis on man. Conversely, maybe denying young women a sense of community for an extended period and offering no direct guidance could be harmful. At the very least, a stringent one-size-fits-all culture can’t be good, right?! If I had to guess, I’d say they won’t come down on one side or the other and it’ll instead just be my crackpot ass holding a 23 year old children’s cartoon to an unfair standard.
Structurally the episode is decent, keeping Aresia’s ‘deal’ a mystery for most of the run time, but letting her beat up the strongest members of the Justice League and then revealing she’s an Amazon, so we have a bit of a ‘What if Wonder Woman were evil?’ story at work. Beyond just who she is and what she can do, they conceal her plan to take revenge against all the men of the world until the final moments, starting with Gotham. It’s a fun idea for a superhero cartoon given the massive gender gap of the medium, and I like that you can piece it together before Batman overtly tells anyone slower on the uptake.
Speaking of Batman, I liked how he tried to consult Diana as a friend about his theory Aresia is an Amazon… but then when she tells him absolutely no way he just sends Hawkgirl to confirm his suspicions. It perfectly encapsulates the character because he gets to have it every which way. Good detective work to match the design of the necklace to the Amazons. Sensible idea to ask Diana to confirm. Kind of a dick move to immediately discard her answer and secretly seek a second opinion. Respectful to send the only other woman on the team as he knows men are forbidden from setting foot on Themyscira. And of course the whole thing proves him correct (as always), which (in his mind) justifies ignoring Diana. Batman is always right. Batman’s kind of a dick. Batman’s secretly nice. Batman rules.
It felt a bit clunky for Diana to leave Green Lantern and Flash to try and track down Aresia given her link to their target, but I guess they needed an excuse to infect more members of The League, and John Stewart has become the resident detective on the team thanks to his Power Ring solving everything for him instantly. Sorry, Bruce.
Themyscira at times looks even prettier than it did in ‘Paradise Lost‘, but the whole ‘characters and backgrounds exist on different planes of existence’ problem is back, as the people and objects of interest have very clean outlines, while the painted landscapes are far smoother. Such an unfortunate new problem that they never suffered from before now to my eye.
While I’ll never be mad about giving more time for slice of life stuff, Diana’s displeasure for women’s fashion/beauty products surely felt extremely dated even 20 years ago?
Overall I liked the episode, despite all these criticisms. But only to a point. Part II could send it in either direction
- Injustice for All
- Paradise Lost
- In Blackest Night
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
- Fury (NEW ENTRY)
- War World
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
Aresia (Julie Bowen) (first appearance)
Soloing The DC Trinity (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) is a pretty strong way to make a first appearance. She’s well written, manipulating her teammates into helping her achieve her goals by seeming to put their wants and needs first. She’s empathetic and gentle with them, and then lets them grab all the loot they want and escape without her, blissfully unaware she just wanted the ruby for her potion.
Plus she fucking gasses her own team! Gnarly. I’ve alluded to the difficult position they’ve written her into; On the one hand can anyone be too mad about a plan that exclusively targets men? On the other, I think we have more than enough ‘immigrants are trying to kill us!’ lunacy going on in the real world. Then and especially now. Her motivations make sense, having her village destroyed by war and then losing her mother when pirates sink the ship they hope will take them to a new life, but there’s a chance they’re going to use Part II to declare she’s just evil and broken beyond repair.
Off the strength of her design, fighting prowess and thought-provoking (again, could go either way!) backstory, I’ll tentatively place her high.
The Injustice Gang (Olivia d’Abo/Mark Hamill/Stephen McHattie/J.R. Yenque/Karen Maruyama (third appearance)
The notion of this group persisting without its founding members Lex Luthor and Ultra-Humanite is kind of interesting to me. The entire thing was a Lex vanity project to get revenge on Superman, and while the team were sick of his shit by the end, they clearly realised they stand a better chance against the Justice League together than solo. But that a newcomer was able to talk her way into a leadership role says a lot about her and them.
I talked about Aresia already, but Tsukuri is the other new face and she is… a blatant rip-off of Katana despite being touted as an original design. Still, swords are cool, and I’m always going to be in favour of non-male, non-white characters getting some play given what a sausage party superhero media can be. She also fares better against Batman than Star Sapphire or Solomon Grundy, who have a significant power advantage over her, so that’s neat.
Anyway. They remain kinda fun, each getting a tiny moment to shine, even if it’s just something like Copperhead using his snake tail to choke out an unsuspecting security guard. But they are persisting on the Rule of Cool, lacking developed personalities and stories. It makes sense as they’re functionally henchmen to heavier hitters like Lex Luthor and in this case, Aresia, who isn’t a big name, but did get a two-parter written about her.
I feel like they maybe have to drop below someone like Orm who had a proper story? Hmm. Maybe after Part II?
- Lex Luthor
- The Joker
- The Imperium
- Hades
- Draaga
- Aresia (NEW ENTRY)
- The Injustice Gang (–)
- Deadshot
- Orm
- Felix Faust
- The Manhunters
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Gorilla Grodd
The Matt Signal 
Leave a comment