Plot summary: Dr. Destiny traps most of The Justice League in nightmares while Batman battles his greatest adversary to date: Feeling Very Sleepy.
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: 32 (S2.E6)
Original Air Date: October 11th, 2003
Directed: Butch Lukic (16)
Written: Stan Berkowitz (16)
Animation: DR Movie Co., Ltd. (2)
Music: Michael McCuistion (16)
Flash trying to escape the dream world via a payphone is almost certainly a nod to The Matrix.
Most of the signs in Green Lantern’s dream world are gibberish (much like in ‘Perchance to Dream‘), but Humuhumunukunukuapuaa is Hawaii’s state fish.
Superman calling Jimmy his pal moments before accidentally killing him may be a nod to the creative team behind ‘Superman’s Pal‘ disliking the way the episode turned out.
Batman tries to stay awake by playing loud music, and later humming ‘Frère Jacques’ inside his own head, which may be a nod to him resisting truth serum in the comics by reciting children’s nursery rhymes to himself.
J’onn struggles to enter Hawkgirl’s dreams. Put a put in that…
Recap
Flash, Superman, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl all find themselves trapped in nightmares praying upon their biggest fears and insecurities thanks to Dr. Destiny.
J’onn cannot wake Penny Dee, so he instead rounds up Clark and John and takes them back to the Watchtower, leaving Batman to track down Dr. Destiny.
When Penny dies, J’onn feels he has no choice but to enter each of the League’s minds to try and bring them out of it.
With each successful rescue he brings that hero into the mind of the next, teaming up to drive Dr. Destiny back again and again until they’re all finally awake.
Meanwhile Batman realises Dee is hiding at an old LexCorp facility, struggling to stay awake and fend off Destiny’s powers while racing to confront him.
Bruce takes Dee down, causing him to accidentally inject himself with a powerful sedative. He is returned to prison, ostensibly in a permanently catatonic state. Batman crashes hard.
Best Performance
This is a really difficult choice, as the entire regular cast are at the top of the game. I assume ‘character wrestlers with their own subconscious’ is an ideal piece of direction for a voice actor. George Newbern plays Clark descending into desperation extremely well, including having a stab at the more monstrous version of Superman. Michael Rosenbaum is afforded a chance to play Flash straight for once (as well as delivering a half dozen quips) and the results speak for themselves. Carl Lumbly gets to play quasi-therapist, while Phil Lamarr and Maria Canals-Barrera openly yearn for each other.
William Atherton remains excellent, calmly whispering horrors into the ears of the heroes in a legitimately unsettling manner. That he could be so perfect as the painfully boring John Dee, while also fitting the scarier Dr. Destiny design without changing his voice up much is a testament to how well he understood this character treatment.
However when Kevin Conroy exceeds a certain quota of classic Batman bullshit I am simply honour-bound to give him the award. Whether it’s him casually stating he’ll improvise his way around Destiny’s psychic powers, hurriedly demanding a strong coffee, brushing off Dee’s attempts to enter his mind, or being dead serious when he says his superpower is never giving up, it’s all just perfect.
Cruel to hear Dana Delany for only a moment, knowing she’s barely going to appear anymore despite so many episodes featuring Superman 😦
Episode Ranking
Dream sequences are such fertile ground for character development. They only did a couple last episode, and I was really hoping they’d follow through here with some good ones. They did not disappoint.
Flash watching a cartoon version of himself with bigger muscles beating up Solomon Grundy, only for children to criticise his technique speaks to his inferiority complex and general juvenile nature. The giant frog in the fridge was delightfully weird, and the kids turning into tiny… vampires(?) was classic horror. We then move on to his more explicit fear: never being able to slow down, something he reveals he has been worried for his whole career. Dr. Destiny elaborates that this is all a metaphor for him ending up alone. Surprisingly heavy stuff from a scene that on the surface is meant to purely be absurd and to let John Dee look menacing. Flash is the perfect choice to lead off with as he seems to never take anything seriously, continuing to make jokes even in the face of Destiny’s melancholy barbs. Due to the nature of Wally’s anxieties, he ends up having to be the only one to save themselves, which is a nice Mental Health MomentTM.
Next up is the more overtly horrifying Superman nightmare. Losing control of his abilities and killing everybody he loves is an infinitely compelling angle to take with a character who is often accused of being too powerful. I like that they threw in Lois Lane pecking at him about being secretive too, as we saw his struggles with protecting his identity repeatedly throughout STAS, and inadvertently pushing Lois away as a result. As the dream progresses we see him take on a more hulking appearance, clumsily hugging Jimmy Olsen to death, perhaps speaking to him sometimes feeling like an ungraceful oaf due to his immense strength. Like living in a world of cardboard, if you will… Heck, they even seem to incorporate their adjustment of his strength due to fan complaints he was too weak into Season One, as Clark implies he’s getting more powerful over time, only exasperating his fears about one day losing control. Finally, no matter how godlike he may seem, his safe place will always be Kent Farm. Gorgeous.
Green Lantern’s plays in a similar lane, fearing all his time in space means he will no longer be accepted in his community, with his old neighbours cowering in fear, both sides unable to understand each other. He literally no longer speaks the language of ‘the streets.’ Their choice to have John’s eyes permanently glow green as a result of how long he’s been in the Green Lantern Corps seemed like just a cool throwaway design choice in Season One, but they’re able to wield that here to better sell his ‘othering’. They cap it off with the Lantern energy literally bursting out from his skin as he screams in pain. Again, heavy shit! It was a nice touch for him to step into the giant Power Battery not to give in to his fears, but rather to repeat his trick from ‘In Blackest Night‘, absorbing the power required to defeat the villain.
Hawkgirl’s of course has a suspicious element we can’t talk about yet, but luckily they don’t dwell on that and instead show what are probably the most relatable fears of the bunch: Heights and being buried alive. More specifically, what if her wings suddenly stopped working and she fell out of the sky? We also saw her claustrophobia on display last episode when Luminus trapped her in a metal box. Her calling John’s name first adds more to what they’ve been teasing between the two, while J’onn’s inability to access her mind… also can’t be talked about yet.
J’onn gets to enter each of their minds to calm them down, fitting of his outsider status and the dichotomy of his struggles with human emotion, while often being the most empathetic of them all. That his method for helping Clark seems to be ingesting Superman’s fears into his own mind, bearing the pain on his behalf, just furthers the tragedy of his character. The rest he’s able to just give sage wisdom, but that’s good too.
On top of ALL of that, this is some classic Batman Bullshit (complimentary.) Deducing John Dee’s physical body must be vulnerable while he uses his powers is solid detective work, while his response to the conundrum of how he intends to stop Dee from thinking is so arrogantly vague. I truly love it. And the entire thing is fuelled by his ability to function without sleeping, which he boosts via triple strength coffee, smashing out his own windshield and blasting music. Never change, Bruce. The scene with him making his way deeper into the LexCorp building to confront Dee, while Dr. Destiny appears in reflective surfaces to taunt him is really cool, and his edge-lord claim that his brain’s not a nice place to be is perfect for this story. And THEN he simply neutralises Dee’s powers through sheer force of will. This may be the most Batman he has been in Justice League.
It’s a shame there wasn’t room for Wonder Woman even with it being a two-parter, as I’d love to see the nature of her nightmares too, but they already did so much here, and I guess we firmly know about her hang-ups from ‘Paradise Lost‘, while the rest of the team are far more private.
Anyway, all I was really looking for here was that Part II be strong enough to retain my initial placement. Instead the story was really elevated, overcoming the few tiny problems with Part I and driving the episode up into third place. I even considered putting it over ‘Legends‘, but it’s difficult to overcome the emotional tribute to DC’s past.
- The Savage Time
- Legends
- Only a Dream (↑)
- Twilight
- Injustice for All
- Paradise Lost
- In Blackest Night
- Tabula Rasa
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
- A Knight of Shadows
- Fury
- War World
- Metamorphosis
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
Dr. Destiny (William Atheron) (second appearance)
There’s venom in Dee’s declaration that Flash is used to leaving people like him in the dust, speaking yet again to his resentment of being average. Likewise his claim to only have beef with the super-powered members of The League, being willing to let Batman go because he perceives him as a normal person like him. We also learn that Dee was in prison for working security at LexCorp when The League initiated a raid, which in many ways makes him a bystander victim of a war between the powerful.
I really like that despite such a physically intimidating appearance, most of his damage is done with talking. Even when things do get ‘physical’ it’s actually all just facilitated by his psychic powers, with his cape choking Superman and Martian Manhunter, and then growing giant to fight the whole team, exactly as he did in his own dream sequence at the start of ‘Part I’. I’ve said many times how good the creative team are at having their cake and eating it too, and this is yet another example. A kaiju monster fight against a non-physical villain? The best of both worlds!
I am going to bump him up a couple of spots because of the way they never lost sight of the man behind the costume in favour of his powers simply allowing them to do dream sequences. John Dee is a surprisingly vindictive person, torturing others with their deepest fears, knowing exactly what to say to drive them deeper into despair. He arguably came closer to killing The League than any of the bigger, sexier names, and he has a cool design to boot. Only the richer characters of Lex Luthor and Darkseid have been more engaging in my opinion.
- Lex Luthor
- Darkseid
- Dr. Destiny (↑)
- The Joker
- The Injustice Guild (and Brainwave!)
- Vandal Savage
- Amazo
- The Injustice Gang
- The Imperium
- Brainiac
- Hades
- Draaga
- Aresia
- Deadshot
- Orm
- Simon Stagg (and Java!)
- Felix Faust
- Morgaine le Fey
- The Manhunters
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Gorilla Grodd
The Matt Signal 
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