Plot summary: Morgaine le Fey finally acquires ultimate power for her son Mordred… who promptly banishes everybody over age 8 to another dimension!

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 5 (S1.E5)

Original Air Date: August 14^th, 2004

Directed: Joaquim dos Santos (3)

Written: Henry Gilroy (1)

Animation: DR Movie Co., LTD (2)

Music: Kristopher Carter (2)

As recounted in ‘Injustice For All‘, Cheetah was originally intended to die but an animation error put her in the back of a police truck, so she got to return here working with Blockbuster, Copperhead and KGBeast.

Bruce Timm intended to distribute this and two other ‘silly’ episodes (‘This Little Piggy’ and ‘The Greatest Story Never Told’) far apart to break up the season tonally, but apparently forgot all about that and produced and aired them all very close together.

The child version of John Stewart wears a mask identical to the one famously worn by Kyle Rayner in the comics.

Teen Titans is not canon to the DCAU (good luck, James Strecker!) but there are a number of links, including this episode’s ‘Shadow Realm’, which is used in two episodes of TT.

DCAU Debuts

No new Leaguers this time. I guess on the villain side you’ve got Blockbuster and KGBeast? Neither are terribly interesting, usually just popping up whenever they need a big guy to punch. The latter was technically in Batman v Superman but like… not really.

Recap

Morgaine le Fey leads a complaining Mordred to The Amulet of First Magic… which the little brat immediately uses to turn on her and banish every adult in the world to another dimension!

This includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, caught in Mordred’s vanishing wave after foiling a bank robbery by a cadre of villains!

le Fey explains the situation to the League, transforming them into children so they can return to Earth, which Mordred has transformed into an over the top hellscape.

They fight off a wave of toys brought to life before being tossed into a dungeon, where a Baby Etrigan the Demon is running the Sarlac routine. Diana soothes him into compliance.

Our heroes try to steal the magic amulet from a sleeping Mordred, but he wakes up, grows giant, and brings dragon statues to life to attack them.

They eventually destroy the amulet but the spell remains, so The League just berate Mordred into turning himself into an adult to prove a point… instantly banishing himself in the process.

This reverses his spell, and then Morgaine le Fey honours her deal with our heroes and turns them back into their original forms.

She then returns to care for the now incredibly elderly Mordred. Apparently him futzing with his age broke whatever she’d done over the years to keep him young and that means… old? Who knows.

Best Performance

Hoooo boy. I’ve made my feelings about child actors pretty clear in the past, so imagine how much fun it is for me to review an episode featuring almost nothing but that. In fairness, they’re better than what we’ve gotten in the past, with Dakota Fanning naturally by far the best of the group. Her sassy little ‘You okay, tough guy?’ to Bruce after catching him was wonderful. She does her best with the scolding of Baby Etrigan, but that sucks as a concept, unfortunately.

Kevin Conroy fills in as (adult) Etrigan (albeit only a single word), while the remarkable Dee Bradley Baker does his uncanny ‘baby crying’ voice for Baby Etrigan.

Whatever, let’s just say it’s Dakota Fanning and get out of here.

Episode Ranking

Rough. Stuff.

Let’s start with some positives; I enjoyed the little opening mission for our four veteran Leaguers, particularly Batman using a Batarang like its namesake to strike KGBeast from behind after seeming like he missed. I think it’s smart to just toss out a small ensemble of bad guys to get wailed on for 1-2 minutes per episode to keep the world feeling big and lived-in, justifying this mega expansion of The League.

I adore the messy child’s drawing aesthetic of ‘The Shadow Realm’ (not to be confused with the one from YuGiOh… oh, did you know that just meant hell and everyone who went there fucking died??? Because I didn’t until Ben Phillips told me like a year ago!)

Also WonderBat lives! I got a little worried when they removed all traces of their romance from the third part of ‘Starcrossed‘, but we’re so back. Between her catching him when he falls, John calling her his girlfriend, and Clark being oblivious to their dynamic, the cuteness of it all accounts for most of the charm of this episode.

Aaaand that’s about it. You can absolutely do an interesting version of this story, but they very much didn’t. For instance, I feel like if you’re going to do this, you need to really delve into our heroes having to get creative with their solutions as they’re so used to relying on their perfect adult physiques. Bruce already has to do that to level the playing field in a world of superpowers, aliens and magic, but seems completely rattled by not being as physically capable as normal. John struggles a bit more with his constructs (shouldn’t a child have more imagination?) And then Clark and Diana appear in no way limited by the transformation. The four just go about their business in smaller bodies, voiced by child actors. You could charitably say them bullying Mordred and calling him chicken is the kind of thing that only a kid would think of… but ehh.

It’s visually charming at least. I got a kick out of stuff like dragons, toys coming to life, and John building himself a mech suit… but there’s just nothing going on under the hood with this one. And yet it’s still better than ‘Hawk and Dove’!

For the Man Who Has Everything
Fearful Symmetry
Initiation
Kids’ Stuff (NEW ENTRY)
Hawk and Dove

Rogues Roundup

Mordred (and Morgaine le Fey!) (Soren Fulton/Olivia d’Abo) (first appearance)

For as annoying as Mordred is, there is something kinda funny about him instantly turning on his doting mother the exact second he gets his hands on some true power. And then the limit of his imagination are outlawing adults, making the world look like cartoon hell, and conjuring toys and shit for his followers. Again, kind of funny.

But ultimately the Justice League formulate a plan to take down a kid who has fallen asleep in his outdoor throne bed as the crux of the third act… and that’s no bueno. Sure he grows giant. Sure he brings dragons to life. But he’s just not remotely interesting or fun.

Morgaine being willing to make and honour a bargain with The League to reverse his damage is kind of interesting, especially given the outcome is her still taking constant care of her son… now as a drooling bag of bones. Get help, lady. Cut the cord!

Mongul
Galatea
Brimstone
Ares (and The Annihilator!)
Mordred (and Morgaine le Fey!)