Plot summary: The Justice League find themselves in a mysterious alternate universe where they meet The Justice Guild of America!
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: 18 (S1.E18)
Original Air Date: April 21st, 2002
Directed: Dan Riba (9)
Written: Andrew Kreisberg (1)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (18)
Music: Lolita Ritmanis (6)
Lex Luthor’s robot in the opening is a tribute to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The Justice Guild’s HQ strongly resembles the mansion Joker buys in ‘Joker’s Millions‘.
James Tucker drew the majority of the Justice Guild designs as he had a particular affinity for silver age comics, which he would incorporate into his show Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Green Lantern says he used to read Justice Guild comics with his uncle James. This is almost definitely a nod to Tucker.
It ends up being very different, but the initial fake-out that they’d travelled back in time only to learn it’s a parallel dimension was used in Justice Society: World War II. Spoilers, I guess.
The Justice Guild
Okay strap the fuck in.
This episode was originally written to feature The Justice Society, aka the forerunners to The Justice League. DC’s Paul Levitz refused to give them the rights as he felt the portrayal was unkind and the company were in the middle of trying to revamp the team. Thus the designs were tweaked a little and the names changed.
- Green Guardsman/Scott Mason is Alan Scott the original Green Lantern
- Tom Turbine is an amalgamation of The Atom, Superman and Hourman.
- The Streak is Jay Garrick the original Flash
- Black Siren/Donna Nance is Black Canary/Dinah Lance
- Cat Man/T. Blake is Wildcat, though shares his name with Thomas Blake/Catman
- Ray Thomas is Snapper Carr, the Justice Society’s teen sidekick who was changed to a TV reporter in this series. (He’s named for Roy Thomas and Raymond Bradbury)
As for the villains:
- The Music Master is The Fiddler
- The Sportsman is Sportsmaster
- Dr. Blizzard is The Icicle
- Sir Swami is The Wizard
While none of this is a secret, there was an elaborate message board hoax with a fake teaser for the episode with the character models changed to exactly match The Justice Society. It was claimed that this trailer actually aired on Cartoon Network but they were forced to change the episode before it aired. Obviously that would be impossible to do so quickly, but whoever made the fake did a very convincing job, with many swearing they remembered seeing it on TV despite it not in fact airing. The Mandela Effect in action. You can watch a pretty fascinating video on it all here:
Recap
The Justice League take down a giant mecha controlled by Lex Luthor but when its reactor explodes it levels a chunk of the city, with several of the team nowhere to be seen in the aftermath!
Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter awaken confused and unable to contact the others. J’onn attempts to use telepathy but is bombarded with horrifying images.
Exploring the city, they initially think they’ve been sent back to the 1950s, but a newspaper gives the correct date.
They thwart a robbery by the whacky Music Master, but are set upon by a team of superheroes who mistake them for criminals. When Flash saves an innocent bystander they think better of it.
‘The Justice Guild’ introduce themselves (and their young sidekick Ray Thompson), which deeply troubles John as he claims they’re all characters from comics he read as a child.
They hypothesise that Flash inadvertently matched the vibrational pattern of this universe in the opening battle, bringing them here. They guess the comic writers have a subconscious psychic link to their world.
Before they can try and find a way to go home, The Injustice Guild enact a series of whacky plots, so the teams split into pairs to try and take each villain down.
Not only do they all fail to stop the crimes, Hawkgirl finds herself in a graveyard… with tombstones for each member of The Justice Guild!
To Be Continued…
Best Performance
Okay we have a LOT of fun choices here. The guest heroes and villains all turn the camp factor up to 11, with David Naughton (The Streak), Michael McKean (Sportsman) and Udo Kier (Music Master) in particular doing an excellent job. Stephen Root is a great casting but I know he could do more as Catman if he were afforded more lines.
The regulars are in good form too. Phil LaMarr softens his performance due to his confusion over his childhood heroes coming to life, as opposed to his usually combative default mode. Michael Rosenbaum is on top form as Flash playfully mocks The Guild and teases Hawkgirl for having to go along with the 50s gender norms. And Maria Canals-Barrera absolutely seethes with frustration, including her consternation that Green Guardian’s powers don’t work on aluminium.
On balance I think I’d go with Michael McKean. Not only does he do the best job of capturing the campy feel of the era as Sportsman (netting him the most lines of the villains), but he also does this wonderful over the top Irish accent as one of the friendly police, absolutely crushing the bad joke about not being as fast as The Streak. I loved him as the 60s style Joker in ‘Legends of the Dark Knight‘ and I love him again here.
Episode Ranking
Even with multiverse stuff being done to death in recent years, this is the platonic ideal of ‘one of those’, using it to pay sincere tribute to the past in a way that would potentially break the show’s continuity if they tried to play it straight. I feel like if you’re a DC fan you have no choice but to squint a little and imagine it is in fact The Justice Society and that this whole thing is a loving tribute to DC’s past. I think it still would generally work if you had no idea it was an homage and just assumed the Guild are campy alternate versions of the League given they roughly map to the main cast. The designs they came up with are excellent, but I can’t help but think this would have felt even more special if they’d gotten to use the real characters. Still, everything is note perfect, with the voice cast buying into what they’re driving at, and the 50s aesthetic fitting nicely.
Speaking of which, they had some tongue in cheek fun with the era, with Black Siren offering to bake cookies and leave the men to talk, and John Stewart being called “a credit to your people, son.” Plus the whole design of Sir Swami. Obviously it feels icky now, but I’m actually glad they didn’t shy away from this aspect, as Wonder Woman literally did secretarial work for the Justice Society at one point. If you’re going to do the thing, do it warts and all, ya know? I assume this is part of what made Paul Levitz refuse to let them use the real characters, but hey.
The battle between the two teams before they realise they’re on the same side is probably even more fun than the League’s battles against The Injustice Gang thanks to their mirrored powers. John and Green Guardian using different ring constructs was the highlight for me, but I also got a kick out of The Streak keeping pace with The Flash, and Tom Turbine’s ridiculous power belt. I also enjoyed them splitting up to take on the Injustice Guild at the end. I initially expected them to pair roughly by powers (Green Guardian with Green Lantern, Streak with Flash etc.), but I think it worked better the way they did it and made for some colourful combos. They even kept Hawkgirl’s fiery temper consistent as Green Guardian had to stop her from destroying the priceless biplane. In fact she gets so irritated with her partner that she orders him to stay with the window cleaners they rescue so she can take down Music Master alone… only to fall to his powers and crash land in a graveyard, facilitating the big reveal.
And it’s a really good reveal! We can’t get properly into it yet, but as cliffhangers go, learning that the team they’ve been working with are actually dead is pretty good! Plus J’onn’s psychic visions give you the clues before they confirm anything, with the half second flash of a nuclear blast at the start, and then his crippling headache at the end. It’s similar to the feedback Superman was receiving from him in the opening three-parter, which was one of my favourite elements of those episodes.
Obviously if you hate all the camp you’re going to have a very bad time with this, but to me Part I is in contention for the best individual episode in the show to date. They came up with a great high-concept elevator pitch and then committed extremely hard to every aspect of it. Plus they opened with a gorgeous fight against a mech and I didn’t even talk about it! I think ‘Injustice for All‘ achieved an awful lot despite its flaws, so Part II will have to work hard to maintain the top spot.
- Legends (NEW ENTRY)
- Injustice for All
- Paradise Lost
- In Blackest Night
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
- Fury
- War World
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
The Injustice Guild (Udo Kier/Michael McKean/Corey Burton/Jeffrey Jones) (first appearance)
Basically everything that I talked about with the Justice Guild applies to their enemies. Excellent designs, really well voice acted, good tribute to the past etc.
Given the high concept of the episode there’s not a lot of room for them to have proper characters, so they keep things simple by leaning HARD into their respective gimmicks. Having a competition to see who can commit the best crime and then the winner getting to devise their next plan is such a Batman ’66 style overly-convoluted plot. And they tell the heroes what they’re doing! I love it.
In many ways I think these four are executed better than almost any villain in the show to date. Something irks at me for placing them so high on the list, but honestly, even if they’re lacking in complex personalities, they are deployed nearly perfectly in their intended role, and they each manage to outfox a duo of superheroes so… that’s pretty good!
- Lex Luthor
- The Joker
- The Imperium
- Hades
- Draaga
- The Injustice Guild (NEW ENTRY)
- Aresia
- Deadshot
- Orm
- The Injustice Gang
- Felix Faust
- The Manhunters
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Gorilla Grodd
The Matt Signal 
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