Plot summary: John Stewart mounts a one-man mission to try and rescue his former teacher-turned-lover from The Legion of the Third Eye, led by Despero.

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: 35 (S2.E9)

Original Air Date: October 25^th, 2003

Directed: Butch Lukic (17)

Written: Keith Damron (3)

Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (31)

Music: Lolita Ritmanis (17)

While Despero is a relatively prominent DC comic villain, The Legion of the Third Eye were created for these episodes. Never one for subtlety, Bruce Timm outright confirmed the cult are partially based on the Taliban.

Flash finds a copy of Old Yeller in John Stewart’s apartment. We’ll later get verbal confirmation this is his favourite movie.

One of the creatures in Despero’s flashback heavily resembles Marvel’s The Thing.

Recap

A quartet of Green Lanterns are cornered by a massive fleet, taking refuge inside an asteroid. Their rings have seemingly no effect on their strange pursuers, with 2 Lanterns perishing in the skirmish.

Katma Tui commands Kilowog to leave her behind in order to warn The Guardians of the Universe, and he reluctantly does just that as she ostensibly perishes in a giant explosion.

Kilowog crash lands on earth where The League help him. He explains the attackers are called The Legion of the Third Eye, and his group failed to kidnap ‘extract’ their leader, Despero.

John tears off into space to find Katma (revealed as his instructor and former lover), tracking her to Kalanor, where the grip of Despero’s cult on the populace makes itself abundantly clear.

Thinking he’s being slick and stealthy, John is almost immediately captured and brought before the despot, who claims to be a prophet of ‘The Flame of Py’tar’.

John calls bullshit on the whole thing and they fight, but Despero proves far too strong. He orders a priestess to toss Stewart into the flame, and a compliant Katma Tui does exactly that!

Luckily ‘the resistance’ teleport John to safety, with Katma revealing herself as an undercover operative in Despero’s cult. They argue a bit, and then kiss. Only way John knows how, apparently.

Despero draws more power from the Flame of Py’tar for both himself and his army, ordering them to begin his cosmic invasion…

To Be Continued…

Best Performance

Rene Auberjonois has typically played sketchy characters in his various DCAU appearances over the years, but he’s also excellent as the crotchety, pessimistic Green Lantern Galius Zed, constantly complaining and irritating his fellow corps. I was also impressed with his ability to mask his voice when playing the Kalanorian punished for owning books, given how he’s usually so easy to recognise.

Dennis Haysbert remains a joy as Kilowog thanks to his distinct drawl, and I’m thrilled they gave him a lot more lines than his last appearance. Great character in general, and this is one of my favourite versions of him thanks to Haysbert.

But who are we kidding? Keith David fucking rules in everything he does, and this is no exception. Despero’s initial dialogue is relatively generic – he wants to take over the universe etc. – but David sells it all so well. From there he almost whispers his backstory, before bellowing battle cries, and both work extremely well. You know I love that kind of range. All throughout there’s a quiet confidence that makes the character magnetic. Truly, if you can cast Keith David, you should cast Keith David.

Episode Ranking

The intense first scene was one of the better cold opens in the series to date, immediately conveying the power of Despero’s cult given how much we’ve seen John Stewart achieve solo. Four Lanterns being powerless against the group is just a huge statement, though they take some clever artistic license by having Katma Tui be able to fend off a dozen of the attackers when a single one of them was able to breach a shield conjured by Kilowog and Galius Zed. That’s not a criticism; it makes Katma look like a complete badass.

I liked the decision to imply John and Kat’s past before it’s verbally explained, with him absolutely rocketing into the sky the second he hears she’s in danger. They also linger for a moment on Hawkgirl’s face as she watches him leave, playing with their ever-evolving romance subplot, as all this happened seconds after they were accused of bickering like “an old married couple” by Flash. We see this behaviour mirrored when John and Kat are reunited, with her punching him, arguing for a bit, and then rekindling their past romance. It may not be the healthiest of patterns, but it does make for a juicy love triangle and preview of what’s to come with Hawkgirl.

I even enjoyed the B-Story with Flash and Kilowog letting themselves into John’s apartment to seek out his Lantern, the first time one has appeared in the series. It makes sense Kilowog would be out of juice after such an intense mission and then flying as fast as he possibly could to try and warn them, so much so that he crash-landed. And this scene remains good in spite of the slightly awkward ‘angry landlady’ scene! We should see all of the characters’ apartments more often in my opinion. Civilian identities, supporting characters, hobbies, all that good stuff.

The Legion of the Third Eye banning reading and whatnot is a little on the nose (and they later do a full Nazi salute), but these kinds of extremist cults are a reliably compelling plot device as we instinctively want to see them overthrown. I’ll talk about it more below, but they also act as a solid proxy for Despero, and it allows a compelling central ‘boss’ character to take out, as well as a strong army of grunts. We know The Justice League are on their way for ‘Part II’ and they’ll need warm bodies to battle, while a rematch between John and Despero is inevitable, and I’m genuinely invested in the outcome of that fight. Plus I spent most of Season One praising the writers for establishing and exploring other cultures, and Kalanor, the Legion and the Resistance give you a nice big slice of that pie, not to mention it’s always fun to see the GL Corps in action.

I think that’s the simplest essence of what makes this a good episode, that they do a LOT of set-up for ‘Part II’, but without sacrificing anything in terms of making ‘Part I’ interesting in its own right. Strange new world, multiple factions in conflict, super compelling villain aided by a strong vocal performance, and some major stakes. They used the cold open to convey how serious Despero and his crew are, and then wrap the episode with their invasion beginning. Expert work by Keith Damron… though he burned me in Season One as I loved the first half of ‘A Knight of Shadows‘ but was extremely let down by the conclusion. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

1. The Savage Time
2. Legends
3. Only a Dream
4. Twilight
5. Hearts and Minds (NEW ENTRY)
6. Injustice for All
7. Paradise Lost
8. In Blackest Night
9. Tabula Rasa
10. The Enemy Below
11. Secret Origins
12. A Knight of Shadows
13. Fury
14. Maid of Honor
15. War World
16. Metamorphosis
17. The Bold and the Brave

Rogues Roundup

Despero (Keith David) (first appearance)

As a rule of thumb it normally pays dividends to talk about a character a bunch before you actually show them, and The Legion of the Third eye were already established as extremely dangerous in the opener, so when their leader finally shows up a little over halfway through the episode there’s a decent amount of hype. He lives up to it in my opinion, hovering cross-legged (ostensibly to meditate), flanked by armed guards, and talking a very big game.

Naturally he gets a sympathetic backstory, outcast over his literal third eye and spinning a tall tale about being saved from thieves by flames bursting from the earth. You’d have to assume he’s lying, but it works nicely either way. One of the reasons to think this, is he demonstrates some degree of hypnotic ability, acting through his guards at times, which is pretty cool. And that’s before he wipes the floor with Green Lantern.

Keith David also adds a lot here, as – in ‘Part I’ at least – he’s like 80% ‘aura’, 20% personality, but David’s able to make that small sliver feel all the more substantial.

All in all, while I think there’s a little more they could do with personality quirks and whatnot, he does have all the ingredients of the best villains of the DCAU’s past. Great design, great set-up, sympathetic backstory, tremendous voice actor, and he can fight. Straight into the Top 5.

1. Lex Luthor
2. Darkseid
3. Dr. Destiny
4. Despero (NEW ENTRY)
5. The Joker
6. The Injustice Guild (and Brainwave!)
7. Amazo
8. Vandal Savage
9. The Injustice Gang
10. The Imperium
11. Brainiac
12. Hades
13. Draaga
14. Aresia
15. Deadshot
16. Orm
17. Simon Stagg (and Java!)
18. Colonel Vox
19. Felix Faust
20. Morgaine le Fey
21. The Manhunters
22. Kanjar-Ro
23. Mongul
24. Gorilla Grodd