Plot summary: Rick Flag coerces a team of villains to break into The Watchtower to try and steal a dangerous artefact.

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 17 (S2.E4)

Original Air Date: May 21^st, 2005

Directed: Joaquim dos Santos (9)

Written: Dwayne McDuffie (6) (story) and Darwyn Cooke (1) (teleplay)

Animation: DR Movie Co., LTD (9)

Music: Kristopher Carter (6)

This episode is written by the late Darwyn Cooke, a legendary cartoonist and my favourite comic book artist. This is his only proper screenwriting credit, which has always tickled me. He wrote a Batman Beyond short that features barely any dialogue, and gets credit for the adaptation of his book Justice League: The New Frontier.

Clock King becomes the first and only person to say ‘Martian Manhunter’ out loud. I’ve of course been using it liberally – because who are we kidding? – but he otherwise exclusively goes by J’onn J’onzz.

It’s those damn Lightspeed Energy Bars again! If you recall, Flash endorsed them in ‘Eclipsed‘ and then they showed up again in ‘Hereafter‘.

The League’s vault contains Grodd’s helmet, Weather Wizard’s wand, Lex Luthor’s battlesuit, various Thanagarian weapons, one of the Gorilla City hoverbikes, pieces of giant robots made by Lex and Toyman and Luthor’s power disruptor.

The traitorous Watchtower worker has the last name Vance. He is the son of Robert Vance and father of Bobby Vance from the Batman Beyond episode ‘Lost Soul‘. All we needed was a ‘Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration’ to complete the set.

This is the last time prominent members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery will appear in the DCAU due to the upcoming Bat-Embargo. They get away with KGBeast, Blockbuster and Copperhead later as they’re very low down the ladder.

DCAU Debuts

Okay strap in because we have a lot to get through thanks to ~~The Suicide Squad~~ Task Force X and some background Leaguers finally getting to actually do things.

Rick Flag Jr. has a slightly complicated publishing history, having debuted in 1959 (created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru.) His extremely long tenure eventually became problematic so he was retconned to be a father and son, both named Rick Flag, with Sr. serving in World War II’s Suicide Squad, and Jr. acting as Amanda Waller’s most loyal soldier in Task Force X. He appeared in The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker played by Joel Kinnaman, with his father played by Frank Grillo in Superman and Creature Commandos.

Captain Boomerang is George ‘Digger’ Harkness, created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino in 1960 and is one of The Flash’s most prominent rogues. He’s a surprisingly competent mercenary in general, but the headline is of course his various boomerangs, some deadly, some silly. He was a much goofier character in his early days before drifting in a more serious direction… though he’s still often used for comic relief because, ya know, Australian. Jai Courtney played him in both Suicide Squad movies, and he’s also absolutely everywhere in animation and video games.

Plastique was created in 1982 by Gerry Conway and Pat Broderick. Bearing the ridiculous – even by comic book standards – real name of Betty Sans Souci, she’s able to create explosions from her own body in the comics, vs just being a demolition expert in this episode. In one of my favourite pieces of insane comic book history, she took a time-travelling Terry McGinnis’ virginity while Bruce watched the whole thing through binoculars in the mostly terrible ‘Future’s End’. She was also in a single episode of The Flash played by Kelly Frye.

Shining Knight aka sir Justin debuted in 1941 and was created by Creig Flessel. A member of the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin blessed him with magic that allowed him to stay alive for centuries in an almost Captain America style incident. In addition to eternal youth, he’s got general superhuman physiology, but the main headline is Merlin gave his horse – Winged Victory – wings! Unbelievably he does appear in one other place aside this cartoon, as a recurring character in Stargirl.

Finally, Al Rothstein is Atom Smasher, though he originally went by Nuklon from his debut in 1983 until he was renamed in 1996. The creation of Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway, he’s the godson of Al Pratt, who went by The Atom in DC’s Golden Age (before Ray Palmer inherited that title) and has the ability to grow, with his strength increasing to match his size, serving on Infinity Inc. and The Justice Society. ‘Tom Turbine’ was an obvious riff on him in ‘Legends‘, while Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland played him in The Flash and Noah Centineo portrayed him in the smash hit Black Adam.

I know Vigilante ‘debuts’ here by my normal rules, but he’s got a bigger episode coming up soon…

Recap

Deadshot is led to the electric chair… only to be released into the custody of Colonel Rick Flag Jr. who strong-arms him into an operation to break into The Watchtower.

Flag introduces Lawton to his teammates: Captain Boomerang, Clock King and Plastique. After going over the plan in great detail, the group take the place of some Watchtower techs and are beamed aboard.

After tricking their way past security Plastique and Deadshot head to a reactor to set off explosives, creating a distraction so Flagg and Boomerang can infiltrate a weapons storage room.

Turns out their mission was to steal The Annihilator armour, which promptly kicks the ever-loving fuck out of Atom Smasher, one of The League’s strongest members.

J’onn realises what’s happening and tries to prevent their escape, but Plastique forces him to stand down by threatening to murder the unconscious Atom Smasher.

Captain Atom comes to the rescue, but Deadshot sees an opening and shoots one of Plastique’s explosives, creating enough of a distraction for the others to teleport away.

Flag is of course revealed to have been taking orders from Amanda Waller who begins making plans for The Annihilator. He then informs Deadshot that he will have to serve 5 years in Task Force X.

In the aftermath J’onn identifies an inside man on their support staff, and he and Green Lantern wonder who they can trust anymore…

Best Performance

Okay, now I definitely hear Michael Rosenbaum‘s Kevin Spacey impression when he’s doing Deadshot. He was certainly sarcastic in his last appearance, but that’s increased dramatically here as he shit-talks literally everybody he encounters. I particularly enjoyed his smartass trolling of Green Lantern in the elevator which almost gets them caught, and then flirting with Plastique after. But it’s the ice fucking cold “C’est la vie.” when he ostensibly kills Plastique (or at a minimum leaves her stranded) to ensure the getaway that really seals it for me. Kinda weird they didn’t put Flash in the episode given they already had him in the booth, but hey, he got to do some Vigilante!

Juliet Landau sounds so different as Plastique compared to her most iconic roles. I hope she had fun doing the breathy flirtatious femme fatale stuff, because it comes across that way. Her and Rosenbaum bounce off each other well.

Donal Gibson’s Australian accent is bad, as would be expected.

Episode Ranking

This episode originates from the creative team wanting Cadmus to score at least one big victory over The League as the main ongoing antagonists should be perceived as a credible threat and thus far have been beaten pretty easily. Darwyn Cooke also ‘broke the episode’ when he got the idea to set the entire thing from the villains’ point of view instead of The League’s, and the end result is one of the coolest episodes in the series.

I deeply love when a creative team shows their age with some throwback sensibilities that you just don’t find in modern fiction anymore. I’m referring here to Cooke’s obvious affinity for campy spycraft, with the group of Watchtower techs meeting in a cornfield at the start of their shift. Kris Carter gets what he’s going for and sets the score to full heist mode, where it firmly remains throughout this slick little espionage caper. We’ve got glasses with various secret high tech functions, weapons concealed in all manner of bonkers places (Plastique’s fake layer of skin was a highlight for me, but the ammo clips inside Lightspeed Bars are a close second) and a self-assembled plastic gun, all set to bongo drums and brass. And as is tradition things don’t go quite to plan, as there’s a second locked door that wasn’t on their blueprints, and an unaccounted guard catches Deadshot and Atom Smasher. Deadshot and Plastique slide under blast doors and sprint up stairwells to beat a timer. Where has this show been?

It’s also just a smart plan, with the ostensible reactor explosion drawing away Captain Atom, while Martian Manhunter is busy coordinating an evacuation of the non-powered support staff and Green Lantern has to use his powers to transport those unable to board escape ships, effectively occupying the three heaviest hitters currently on shift. J’onn does of course eventually deduce what’s really going on, but even he can’t stop them at that point.

I also thought it was smart to utilise some of the lesser League members in Vigilante, Shining Knight and Atom Smasher to act as sacrificial pawns in making Task Force X look better. Somebody had to catch a beatdown for that agenda, and fans wouldn’t accept one of The Big 7, so it’s the two oddballs getting owned by an unarmed military man, while the much tougher Atom Smasher gets solo’d by The Annihilator to remind viewers how powerful it is. Why have this enormous roster if you’re not going to use them, ya know? It also makes J’onn look all the stronger when he’s able to almost take them on by himself, which is nice as he’s mostly stood around giving orders in JLU after frequently being the most terrifying team member in Justice League. He almost beats The Annihilator by himself for goodness sakes! But why doesn’t he? Because of a callback to the start of the episode where Plastique explained how she’d handle Superman if he showed up, threatening to shove one of her explosives down Atom Smasher’s throat. Darwyn Cooke, I adore you.

It may seem like a silly little thing, but the pan around Plastique’s awe-struck face while she takes in the enormity of The League’s operation is a good bit, and as an audience we likely take this stuff for granted. In fact I love them highlighting the support staff, who are definitely visible in the background in a lot of episodes, but properly acknowledging The LogisticsTM it would take to keep this organisation going warms my heart. It also means things like having to share an awkward elevator ride with Green Lantern, who apparently barely talks to ‘the help’. Never change, John! I’m a big fan of everyday minutiae in heightened settings like superhero media. Actually you know what, none of this is a silly little thing, because it all ends up letting them tie a bow on the episode as John and J’onn descend into paranoia as they look around at the dozens of ‘anonymous’ faces working among them day after day, any of who could be a Cadmus agent. Suddenly the many ordinary humans are the threat and the two borderline gods are fearful. Perfect.

By far the most stylish episode in the series, the only thing keeping it from the top is the emotional depths they plumbed with Superman in ‘For the Man Who Has Everything‘. I was mighty tempted despite that, but honestly that’s such a special little slice of superhero history, especially given the Alan Moore factor.

For the Man Who Has Everything
Task Force X (NEW ENTRY)
Fearful Symmetry
The Return
The Once and Future Thing, Part 1: Weird Western Tales
The Ties That Bind
The Cat and the Canary
The Greatest Story Never Told
Dark Heart
Initiation
This Little Piggy
Kids’ Stuff
The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time Warped
Doomsday Sanction
Wake the Dead
Ultimatum
Hawk and Dove

Rogues Roundup

Task Force X (Michael Rosenbaum/Adam Baldwin/Juliet Landau/Donal Gibson/Alan Richins) (first appearance)

Obviously the Harley Quinn-led iterations of the group have become far more famous, but this is a really solid lineup in my opinion. The no-nonsense demeanour of both Flag and Clock King offsets the more comedic Deadshot and Captain Boomerang (who is probably at his least annoying I’ve seen him off the comic page), while Plastique sits somewhere in the middle, aloof, but not entirely disinterested. Making sure the five are likeable (Flag is boring, but that’s fine) is hugely important given they’re the leads of the episode, but they do make sure to remind you they’re villains as well. They come across as hyper competent, working their way through or around the various Justice League security measures. Rick Flag even personally kicks the asses of Vigilante and Shining Knight!

Also not for nothing but I like that Clock King brings meticulous study of shift patterns to the table, as well as timing out how long they’d have to respond to Superman if he walked through the door. Fugit seems like an odd fit for the group given he wasn’t very rough and ready, but planning is extremely important to an operation like this!

This might seem awkward, but I don’t see how they’re not Top 3 off this lone appearance. They’re not quite able to match Lex Luthor or Circe on the personality front, but they run rings around basically everyone else and they actually achieved something; They beat The Justice League!

The Annihilator (second appearance)

No Ares this time, but who would have thought the big rage-powered behemoth would be back? I’m tempted to spin it off and place it slightly higher than Ares because they did a good job of underscoring what an effective tool of destruction it is in this return appearance, taking on Atom Smasher with relative ease. Yeah, screw it, let’s really piss off anyone who happens to be following along my rankings week to week!

Project Cadmus (CCH Pounder/Juliet Landau) (third appearance)

As a reminder, they’re getting packaged up until they do something substantial solo. It’s just Waller and Tala this time, with the latter having made a veiled reference to this plan in the last episode, which is cute. As their resident magic expert, she makes sense to take control of the mystical automaton.

Lex Luthor
Circe
Task Force X (NEW ENTRY)
Amazo
Chronos
Mongul
Granny Goodness
Galatea
Project Cadmus (–)
Dark Heart
Tobias Manning
The Jokerz
Doomsday
Roulette
Solomon Grundy
The Annihilator (↑)
Brimstone
Ares
Mordred (and Morgaine le Fey!)
Mordru
Virman Vundabar