Plot summary: An evil alliance of former Superman foes unite with the intention to finally murder the Man of Steel… and seemingly succeed!
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: 45 (S2.E19)
Original Air Date: November 29th, 2003
Directed: Butch Lukic (21)
Written: Dwayne McDuffie (11)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (35)
Music: Kristopher Carter (17)
Captain Marvel (Shazam, not Carol Danvers) was intended as the replacement for Superman but his legal rights have historically been sticky, so they went completely the opposite direction and decided on Lobo as he’s the last character anyone would predict.
Green Lantern suggests Metamorpho to join The League due to their previously established friendship. He (and basically anyone you can think of) will join in JLU.
Naturally Superman’s funeral attendees are an all-star cast, including: Lois Lane, Ma & Pa Kent, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Lana Lang, Supergirl, Lex Luthor, Maggie Sawyer, Alfred, Tim Drake, Dr. Fate, Inza, Aquaman, Mera, Hippolyta, Orion, Lightray, several Green Lanterns (Kyle Rayner proof of life!), and of course Bibbo Bibbowski.
Snapper Carr claims over 400 heads of state are at the funeral, dramatically overshooting the number of countries on earth.
On the point of Lex attending the funeral of his nemesis, this is likely a deliberate mirroring of Joker mourning Batman in ‘The Man Who Killed Batman‘. In both cases the hero of course turns out to be alive.
Recap
Metallo, Toyman, Livewire, Weather Wizard and Kalibak form a Superman Revenge Squad, hoping their powers combined can take down The Man of Steel.
Unfortunately for them, Clark doesn’t roll solo these days, and the entire League show up for a huge fight. Superman takes a bullet massive energy blast for Wonder Woman… dying in the process!!!
While the world mourns the loss of their greatest hero, Batman remains steadfast in his belief Clark yet lives, rejecting an invitation to become a full-time member of The League.
Speaking of which, Lobo of all people crashes into the Watchtower, demanding to replace Superman on the team. The others are naturally none too thrilled with this proposal.
However when villains declare open season on Metropolis, the team have no choice but to allow ‘The Main Man’ to assist them in capturing all of the rogues, seemingly allowing him to join them after all.
On a strange red-skied world… Superman lives!!!
To Be Continued…
Best Performance
No Bud Cort, Malcolm McDowell, Miguel Ferrer or Lori Petti returns here due to lack of budget, with Corey Burton and Maria Canals-Barrera filling in for their characters. It would be insincere to claim they sound just like them, but they do a generally decent job of capturing the spirit of the characters. Brad Garrett continues to achieve his goal of making Lobo extremely irritating.
Carl Lumbly delivers a wonderful eulogy for Superman. Susan Eisenberg and Michael Rosenbaum adopt an appropriately somber tone. But Kevin Conroy is yet again the one to really crush it. I thought he was decent when he was making his case to Alfred that Superman was still alive, burying himself in his work, but what really sealed it for me was his own private eulogy for his frenemy after admitting out loud to nobody that he may be wrong after all.
Episode Ranking
There are certain stories that are inherently extremely compelling and you have to work quite hard to mess up. The Death of Superman is one of these stories.
The DCAU boasts some of the finest composers in television, but the choice to hold several seconds of silence (and a little bit of rain noise) in the moments after Superman’s ostensible death is SO incredibly powerful. Bravo on that one. More than that, they make sure to sell the gravitas visually, with the rapid cuts to various shocked heroes and bystanders, and then follow that up with an excellent Wonder Woman/Flash moment. Diana saying ‘alright, fuck this’ and almost braining Toyman, tears in her eyes, while the silliest character in the team talks her down by correctly invoking Clark’s wishes is superb character writing.
Similarly, their various reactions in the aftermath show good understanding of the cast; ex-military John Stewart dons formal dress (his green coat is fucking baller); Diana’s funeral garb is comprised of traditional Themysciran attire and her mother is there despite their awkward rift to really sell how BIG this is; the deeply private Hawkgirl weeps alone on a secluded cliff-face; Flash reveals a lot of his comical behaviour was because Superman acted as a safety net; J’onn is generally optimistic, but is prone to crises of confidence like this, questioning how they’ll go on without Clark; and Batman is equal parts total psycho – repeatedly watching the footage of Superman’s death to try and prove he’s not really dead (later proven correct, as always) – and understatedly sentimental – absentmindedly handling a piece of Clark’s cape as he works. You even get some bonus understanding of Alfred on top of all of that, as he modulates his sarcastic digs at Bruce just a little given the circumstances, and tries to push for his seemingly insane boss to still go to the funeral instead of working the case. And of course Bruce attends the funeral in ‘secret’ anyway, and later says some nice words to Clark’s monument, again demonstrating that balance of being a big hearted weirdo. Each of these reactions is entirely correct.
The funeral is also handled extremely well, with all-day media coverage, global dignitaries and a parade of returning DC characters – importantly getting the entire STAS cast – and playing the ‘even Lex Luthor!’ card sublimely. From Hawkgirl thinking Bruce has shown up after all due to the hushed murmur of the mourners, to Lois Lane admonishing him for daring to show his face, and then of course the power of having them arrive at a moment of emotional honesty, it’s all just exactly what you’d want from such a moment. The eulogy is well written, playing up Superman’s immigrant status, and beyond fan service, it is just really nice to see so many characters gathered for the burial, complete with a huge public monument. Also did I mention how fucking cool John and Diana’s outfits are???
I like the idea of them doing auditions for a Superman replacement, teasing what’s to come from the sequel series, but rolled my eyes when Lobo of all people arrived. Aquaman, Metamorpho and Supergirl are all suggested, and I think all three would have been better, especially as two of them come with baked-in past conflict with the team, and the third is the closest approximate of Clark but is inexperienced. But I guess they wanted a bit of levity to offset the sadness of the death fake-out.
All of that, and the cliffhanger teases an entirely different aesthetic and drama to play with next time. Truly, an excellent episode. One of the best individual ones in the series. Time will tell if ‘Part II’ can sustain or even surpass it.
- The Savage Time
- Legends
- Hereafter (NEW ENTRY)
- 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
- Secret Society
- Eclipsed
- War World
- Metamorphosis
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
The Superman Revenge Squad (Corey Burton/Maria Canals-Barrera/Michael Dorn) (first appearance)
Obviously ensemble groups of villains are a logical choice to combat The Justice League… but it feels a bit much to have done so many of them in a short space of time. We had The Injustice Gang appear twice in Season One, and then the siloed appearance of The Injustice Guild. All fine. Then The Gang returned, we got The Justice Lords, The Secret Society and now literally one episode later is The Superman Revenge Squad. It just feels like overkill, or at least poor pacing.
Anyway, each of them deserve a fair shake. While Superman has a bad rap for not having good villains, seeing four of his better ones (and his very worst one) together does kind of underline what a problem Justice League has on that front. They’re just here to get smacked around for a few minutes by The League to set up the larger premise, but they demonstrate more personality and bombast in that time than 90% of the other villains in this show.
Also what vindication for a Toyman truther such as myself! He does by far the most damage of anyone in the group thanks to his giant toy robot mech and its suspiciously powerful energy blasts. For a few minutes they want you to think he fucking killed Superman!
Aresia has felt like a good security guard for the top half of the list so far, as everyone above her has something genuinely interesting going on, and everyone below is either flawed or one note. There’s nothing special about this ensemble (one of many as I’ve said) but they are a lot of fun.
- 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
- The Superman Revenge Squad (NEW ENTRY)
- Deadshot
- Gorilla Grodd
- Orm
- Simon Stagg (and Java!)
- Colonel Vox
- The Secret Society
- Felix Faust
- Ichultu
- Eclipso
- Morgaine le Fey
- The Manhunters
- The Justice Lords
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Doomsday
The Matt Signal 
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