Plot summary: With The League and Fate’s ragtag crew joining forces, they opt to take the fight directly to the chthonic entity in its home realm.
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: 42 (S2.E16)
Original Air Date: November 15th, 2003
Directed: Butch Lukic (20)
Written: Dwayne McDuffie (10)
Animation: DR Movie Company Co., LTD. (4)
Music: Lolita Ritmanis (20)
Ichultu is an obvious stand-in for Chtulu, who Dwayne McDuffie was unaware was public domain when he wrote the episode.
Hawkgirl’s full name is finally revealed as Shayera Hol. She also says Thangarians bow to nobody. Put a pin in that.
With Martian Manhunter not appearing in either part of this story, it marks the first time J’onn has been fully absent from an episode in the series.
Recap
Dr. Fate struggles to repel Ichultu, but Hawkgirl lends a hand and between them they are able to temporary re-seal the rift from which the monster came.
Fate reveals that thousands of years ago King Poisedon of Atlantis banished ‘The Old Ones’ with a magical trident, at the cost of his Kingdom sinking beneath the ocean.
Hawkgirl reveals her people once worshipped Ichultu, hence her knowledge of Fate’s incantations. The group form a new plan to take the fight directly to the entity… but Aquaman refuses.
Arthur returns to Atlantis, rallying his people against an invasion of demonic undersea creatures. Despite their overwhelming numbers he drives them back with the power of the trident.
The other heroes – and a surprisingly effective Grundy – battle monsters of their own on their way to Ichultu, who takes particular interest in Hawkgirl due to his past ties to Thanagar.
Thinking he can regain his soul, Grundy fights his way inside Ichultu, damaging organs and slaying hordes of creatures within the creature, seemingly at the cost of his own life.
Hawkgirl follows and strikes the final blow to Ichultu’s… brain? Heart? Soul? Whatever it is, it does the trick, with Aquaman having previously arrived to seal the rift the demon army was pouring through.
Grundy and Hawkgirl share some final words of comfort, and the heroes later give him a proper burial and funeral. D’aww.
Best Performance
Once again, Maria Canals-Barrera steals the show in my opinion. From the humanising element of explaining Thanagar’s mythos, to her sarcastic quip about more in-fighting, she’s become one of my favourite members of the team thanks in no small part to how she’s performed. Her ‘speaking Grundy’ was a delight, with excellent deliveries of “Grundy help Birdnose, Birdnose help Grundy, okay?” and “Excuse me. Hawkgirl smash.” Then she ties a bow on all of that by quietly wanting to admit she doesn’t believe in souls, only to heed Diana’s advice and tell Grundy the comforting lie.
The heavily modulated Rob Zombie as Ichultu is fun too, talking all that shit to the team and engaging Hawkgirl in a spirited debate about her people’s faith.
Mark Hamill is still fun as Solomon Grundy, but as I’ve said before, it’s kind of one-note fun, and I’m always going to favour more varied acting. Though the death scene is pretty good.
Episode Ranking
I talked last time about how despite them making ‘a thing’ of it, the decision to put the two factions in conflict when they could have resolved everything by simply talking was annoying for the audience, especially combined with the lack of exposition. They correct that almost immediately, and Hawkgirl spoke on my behalf with the funny “We’re not going to fight again, are we?” It’s not just a good line, it’s also an interesting one given her defining trait for much of the series has been throwing hands too quickly without thinking through the consequences. Call it a personality 180 if you want, but I do think there’s an argument that her experiences in World War II, as well as just the long term impact of growing closer to the team have changed her perspective. Of course she can’t perpetually be the voice of moral reason, as she talks the pure-hearted Wonder Woman and Superman around on their allegedly necessary treatment of Solomon Grundy for the ritual.
This brings us back to another tricky story element from last time: Superman vs Grundy. While Clark’s heart is in the right place, he dismisses Grundy’s agency, seemingly deeming him little more than an animal, with the patronising question of “Does he even understand what you’re asking of him?” It’s not even asked directly to Grundy! This may be the worst Superman has been made to look from an ethical standpoint. But he also learns some lessons, such as attempting to fly ahead in Ichultu’s realm, so used to being the most powerful, only to be scolded by Fate. He’s arguably the least effective member of their little squad, with Fate, Hawkgirl and Grundy decimating creatures left and right, and even Diana taking down more than him. This makes sense, as these creatures are based more in magic, which he has no advantage against.
While it’s out of character for Clark to be somewhat villainous, Aquaman is comfortable with such a role and it made a lot more sense for him to be the source of conflict within the team. Conflict within a team in a television show is good, by the way. Arthur is perpetually stubborn and puts Atlantis over everything, every time. This is why he’s not on this incarnation of the Justice League, and why he’s found himself beefing with Superman and Green Lantern in his previous appearances. You need somebody to argue for the original plan, otherwise they look dumb for having tried it in the first place, and as a kicker he takes with him the trident we just saw was capable of defeating the monsters moments earlier. This is good shit, as they only just gained an advantage in Hawkgirl’s knowledge of the threat, only to suffer an immediate set-back, while also paving the way for Aquaman to realise the error of his selfishness and help them in the end. They could have done even more with that – perhaps had Mera talk some sense into him – but hey. They even kind of had him and Diana make peace after seeming to hold a grudge after their fight last time, working together to seal the rift to Atlantis.
Last episode we got a dirge of extremely strong locales, whereas here they go all-in on Ichultu’s realm, which looks pretty cool. Lots of abstract floating rock formations and crazy shifting skies. To make up for the lack of variety we instead get some gnarly creature design. The various freakish demon fish invading Atlantis, the faceless monsters with screaming mouths on their hands, and whatever the hell you’d call the thing Fate fought at the end were particular highlights.
The show has been extremely good at world building, particularly in Season One, and two characters get some mythology here to mixed results. I liked the idea of pre-sunken Atlantis playing a big role, but wish we could have seen just a little more from this era, as things mostly boiled down to a tweaked Aquaman design as ‘King Poseidon’ summoning a magic trident to defend a bland golden city from the squid monsters. Conversely it’s really nice to tie so much to Hawkgirl, in particular her being confronted with the reality of what she thought were just fairytales, and her sincere questions to Diana about gaining strength from belief. It softens her. Plus it taps into the whole ‘ancient aliens’ cultural uplifting conspiracy theory tropes as she explains how the chthonic entity functionally civilised Thanagar, whose increased acknowledgement in Season Two is for obvious reasons. The episode makes good on all of that by having Shayera learn lessons from her comrades about faith and spirituality, allowing for a surprisingly touching ending.
And all of that is without getting into personal favourite Dr. Fate kicking all kinds of ass. No room for it really, and it’s all ‘rule of cool’ so doesn’t actually bear discussion, but I had fun!
While there are still a few nagging issues with ‘Part II’, it’s enough of an improvement on ‘Part I’ that I think the collective deserves to move up one spot and crack the Top 10. If both parts were as strong as this I’d be placing it a couple of spots higher. Easily Dwayne McDuffie’s best scripts to date.
- The Savage Time
- Legends
- Only a Dream
- Twilight
- Hearts and Minds
- Injustice for All
- Paradise Lost
- In Blackest Night
- Tabula Rasa
- The Terror Beyond (↑)
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
- A Knight of Shadows
- A Better World
- Fury
- Maid of Honor
- Eclipsed
- War World
- Metamorphosis
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
Ichultu (Rob Zombie) (second appearance)
Oh hey, the actuall villain has arrived! Yes, the big tentacle monster did appear very briefly at the end of last episode, so this is his second appearance, but what was I going to say about those 10 seconds???
There’s no real depth here, as Ichultu is so incomprehensibly large, with such an inconceivable biology, that it becomes more like they’re fighting a talking location than communing with a sentient being. Still, cool design, solid voice performance, extremely powerful. That’s not nothing!
Solomon Grundy (Mark Hamill) (seventh appearance)
Again, very clearly not a villain in these episodes. He even calls this ragtag crew his friends, dies a hero’s death and makes Hawkgirl cry for goodness sakes! But generally if a character I have ranked on the list has a large role in an episode I list them here anyway.
Huge showing for Grundy in terms of raw strength, brawling his way through Space Hell, pounding demons left and right. I enjoyed his ears perking up when he hears Ichultu steals souls, demanding his own back, punching his way inside the elder god and killing everything in sight. Is it a bit weird to elevate him from ‘strong villain’ to ‘knockoff Hulk’? Yeah, maybe a little, but it made for some fun television, and the pathos given to him by the ending means he HAS to go even further up the list.
- Darkseid
- Dr. Destiny
- Lex Luthor
- Despero
- The Joker
- The Injustice Guild (and Brainwave!)
- Amazo
- Solomon Grundy (↑)
- Vandal Savage
- The Injustice Gang
- The Imperium
- Brainiac
- Hades
- Draaga
- Aresia
- Deadshot
- Orm
- Simon Stagg (and Java!)
- Colonel Vox
- Felix Faust
- Ichultu (NEW ENTRY)
- Eclipso
- Morgaine le Fey
- The Manhunters
- The Justice Lords
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Gorilla Grodd
- Doomsday
The Matt Signal 
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