Superman drafts Batman into the League of Superheroes when he suspects there is a traitor among them. Batman ferrets out the traitor, and the reason for his treasonous behavior. It all comes down to a one-on-one battle between Batman and one of the greatest heroes of all time.
Batman must go up against the traitor within the JL ranks, which will have lasting repercussions on Batman, and the JL itself.
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In Metropolis, tourists gawk at the Justice League Unlimited watchtower. Within, Micron, a JLU member who can shrink and grow, fights a training robot, then answers a call from an unknown source. Thereâs a monorail out of control! Micron hurries to the scene. He rescues the driver of the monorail, then rushes to engage the brakes and turn the train from its path. That done, he goes to leap clear in the textbook last-minute escape, but a force field goes up over the door, barring him in, so heâs inside when the monorail derails and crashes.
Meanwhile, in Gotham City, Inque has stolen an experimental airplane and the Batmobile is in hot pursuit. Batman shorts out the planeâs electronics, and it goes down in a pond, but Inque escapes. She fights Batman, gets the worst of it, and then takes a bystander hostage. However, the bystander starts spinning around at incredible speed, scattering Inque to the four winds - itâs Superman! The Man of Steel sports a stark black and white costume these days and has some gray hair, but heâs still pretty tough.
Superman goes with Terry to the Batcave, where he asks Bruce if Terry can join the League. Bruce says itâs not up to him; itâs up to Terry. But Bruce wonders if heâs supposed to be a replacement for Micron. Superman says no, Terry has what the JLU needs.
At the JLU Watchtower, Barda, an amazon from Apokolips, is angry with Superman for bringing Terry in without consulting his fellow Leaguers. Warhawk, an armored guy with wings, agrees. The new Green Lantern, a hovering bald child, says they shouldnât get angry, but Aquagirl agrees with Barda â they donât know Terry, and Superman should have treated their opinions with more respect. But Superman tells them this isnât up for discussion â Batman is staying and thatâs that.
Terry is a bit dismayed and suggests this might have been a mistake. But Superman says he needs someone he can trust. Micron is still clinging to life, but even with the Leagueâs high technology, it was a very close call. Superman wants Batman there to spy on the others, because he suspects one of the Leaguers had something to do with Micronâs accident.
Aquagirl apologizes for the others, invites Terry for a swim, and then leaves him to study. Barda and Warhawk practice in the battle room, while Green Lantern meditates in a parklike chamber. Terry watches Aquagirl dart in and out of underwater hoops, then calls Bruce to tell him he doesnât like spying on heroes. When Aquagirlâs monitor goes black, he instantly leaps to find out whatâs wrong. The water in her tank is boiling! He tries to unlock the tank, but the door is too strong even for him, so he rushes next door, steals Bardaâs Mega-Rod weapon, and blasts the door. Water gushes out, just in time, as Aquagirl has already passed out. Warhawk and Barda chase him and see Aquagirl rescued, but they suspect he was behind her accident. When Aquagirl explains he wasnât at fault, they blame him for not calling for help. They just donât like him.
Terry finds a vital part burned out in the tank controls. Superman confirms that thereâs a traitor in the League; every circuit in that part was fused solid. Later, the Leaguers send Batman out on patrol while they handle an emergency. Bombs are exploding across the city, and the League rushes to the rescue â except Batman, of course, stuck on patrol.
Superman catches a falling cargo container off a sinking ship and pulls buildings off victims, as does Green Lantern. More bombs set a large building on fire, but Green Lantern catches the falling building with green hands. Aquagirl summons dolphins and a whale to save shipwrecked sailors. Superman sends Batman to help Warhawk rescue people from the roof of another building. Although flying ambulances are on the scene, they donât quite get everyone before the fire reaches the roof. Batman saves the last two people, but then Warhawk gets an emergency call and takes off. Batman didnât hear any such call, but takes off anyway, after him. Warhawk tells him to scram. Since Superman told Batman to stick with Warhawk, thatâs what heâs trying to do. A missile comes arcing in from above, and Warhawk goes after it, redirecting the missile back into the air. Then, all at once, it explodes, and Warhawkâs cracked helmet slams into the Batmobileâs windshield.
Barda lands and accuses Batman immediately â after all, Warhawk heard a call on the JLU frequency, but nobody else did, and they only have Batmanâs word that there ever was such a signal. Superman tells Barda to back down, but itâs obvious Terryâs not real popular at the moment.
Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, the shining stars of the WBâs Superman and Batman shows, have been lobbying for a JLA series for years. Each time, the suits told them no â do more Superman and Batman. So now theyâve finally snuck the League in, under the umbrella of Batman Beyond!
Although two Leaguers bite the dust in this episode, itâs hard to believe theyâre just going to throw the concept away after the current two-parter concludes. Itâs also hard to believe Superman is really a villain. The killer has used two fake JLU messages, a force field and a sabotaged computer â weâre clearly looking at a master technologist here. So why couldnât he fake up the image on the Batmobileâs computer? That would make it a master technologist with a grudge against Superman. Hmm ⊠Lex Luthor, perhaps, or Brainiac? Sure hope so â for all this showâs dark, adult-oriented tone, it would still stink out loud if Superman became a bad guy.
The JLU comprises six members: Micron, who can shrink and grow; Aquagirl, daughter of Aquaman, who controls fish and can swim acrobatically; Green Lantern, with all the powers of the Green Lantern ring; Warhawk, who has an armored battle suit and wings, and a Hawkman motif; Barda, the wife of Mister Miracle, who is super-strong, can fly with jet shoes, and carries a Mega-Rod which can emit energy blasts or duplicate various tools. Superman appears to have the same powers as always.
There wasnât a body when Warhawk blew up. Think heâs really dead? This critic suggests that Warhawk is the most likely villain, if indeed it is a traitor in the League, although I also think itâs more probably some outside villain. Weâll see!
In part one, Superman asked Batman to join the Justice League Unlimited to ferret out a traitor in their midst who almost killed Micron. And then Terry and Bruce jointly discovered that the traitor was, in fact, Superman himself!
This week, Batman and the rest of the League spot Superman fiddling with the controls for Micronâs medical tube as he floats unconscious. Warhawk accuses Superman of being the traitor, and Superman angrily says itâs not Warhawk whoâs the traitor, but all of them, working together! Aquagirl tries to defuse the tension, touching Superman on the chest, and something under his shirt squirms away from her touch!
Superman lashes out with heat vision, which Green Lantern blocks. Warhawk tackles Superman and gets beaten down; Barda fires her mega-rod, but Superman puts Warhawk in the beamâs path, then throws him at the others. Batman is knocked sprawling, but Micron escapes from his cell and grabs Superman, giving Batman time to get a box from his belt. Barda blows Superman through the wall, and he flies off.
Terry calls Bruce. He had the kryptonite (supplied by Bruce) but hesitated to use it because, well, itâs Superman, the first and best superhero of them all! The League concludes that Superman probably went to his Fortress of Solitude â fortunately, Bruce knows right where that is.
So theyâre up in the Arctic Circle when Barda boom-tubes them in. They canât hope to surprise him (the Boom Tube is awfully loud) so they stay together and search for him. They pass though a huge space zoo of space creatures; one of the cells is open, and has been for a while.
Superman attacks them, but it turns out to be a Superman robot! Then some more robots buzz them, only to be shot down by Barda and Green Lantern. The real Superman snatches Batmanâs swinging line out of midair and hauls him in like a fish, but Batman whips out the kryptonite. Superman sinks into unconsciousness. Warhawk wants to finish him off, but instead, they pull off his shirt, revealing a huge starfish-shaped parasite on his chest. Itâs bonded to his skin, and they canât get it off without risking harm to Superman.
Aquagirl contacts the starfish telepathically and discovers itâs a form of marine life, captured from a world of water by an alien collector who preserves species by picking up the last of any worldâs life forms on his big zoo-starship. Eventually Superman was captured by the collector, and escaped, as did the starfish. But the starfish saw how strong Superman was, and determined to use that strength for himself. One day, in Supermanâs alien zoo, the starfish jumped him and took over his nervous system.
That was years ago; Supermanâs been possessed for years! But the starfish wasnât done there. It planned to take over the world, breeding countless copies of itself to enslave every being on the planet! And all that remains is to release them from the water tanks under the Fortress into the Arctic Sea.
The heroes discover the tanks full of starfish, and boom! The fish are all over them, possessing everyone except Batman, who electrifies his costume and shocks the fish off him. Now he has to fight the rest of the League, including Superman, whom the other possessed Leaguers revive!
Barda hurls the Kryptonite shard away from Batman, and the League closes in. Batman uses a flash grenade to cover his escape, and the Batmobile arrives, sent by Bruce. Unfortunately, Supermanâs after him! Superman tears the wing off the Batmobile, and it crashes. Terry staggers out, gets close to Superman and electrifies the starfish on its chest. Itâs considerably less invulnerable than Superman, and it falls off him, restoring Supermanâs mind to his own control. He doesnât seem to remember much.
Superman and Batman take on the rest of the possessed Justice League; theyâve almost opened the door to release the starfish. Superman shoots Green Lanternâs fish off his face with heat vision, and Batman frees Barda with electricity. Aquagirl dives to open the door, and Batman dives after her, but crowds of starfish cover him up until he shocks them loose. Superman starts heaving big rocks into the water, hoping to block the passageway at the bottom of the pool before the starfish get to open water. That means Batman and Aquagirl will be crushed, but he knew the risks. Batman manages to lift a huge rock off Aquagirl and haul her to safety, then remove the starfish from her face.
Then Aquagirl reads the fishesâ minds, discovers where they came from, and Barda uses a Boom Tube to send them back to the planet where they came from.
The Leaguers all want Batman to join the League full-time. Even the old Batman, they say, never made it past part-timer. He wasnât what youâd call a joiner. Terry says that goes for him, too, and declines permanent membership.
Permanent League membership apparently means residing at the Watchtower and not doing private adventures; it would effectively transform this series from Batman Beyond into Justice League Beyond starring Batman. I have trouble seeing this as a bad thing, but WB is famously unwilling to do a JLA series, so perhaps they wouldnât let Dini and Burnett do it. Still, the League can now show up whenever they want, so this is one step closer to a real League series, and the future setting helps by removing continuity shock issues.
It makes no sense at all for the starfish creature to bring Batman in to locate a traitor when it knows full well that IT is the traitor. So letâs not mention that any more.
Remember last week when I said it would stink for Superman to be a bad guy? Well, he was and he wasnât. We got to fight Superman without the serious reservations Iâd have about Superman being genuinely evil.
The starfish creature, though never named in the episode, is Starro, the first enemy the Justice League ever fought, back in Brave and the Bold #10. Does Paul Dini love the League or what? When Superman is chasing the Batplane, thereâs an echo of the music from the Superman TV show, which is doubly chilling now that Supes is a bad guy.
The collector of life forms is from the Superman episode âThe Main Man,â who captured Superman and Lobo as the last sentient forms from their respective worlds.
Madame Web and the Beyonder transport Spider-Man to an alien planet where no evil exists. As a test, the Beyonder introduces evil into the planet and tasks Spider-Man with choosing a team of super-heroes to fight alongside him against the growing evil in the once peaceful planet.
Ah, âSecret Wars.â Often the subject of a love/hate relationship of the showâs fans based merely upon its title. And the complaints? Itâs nothing like the real âSecret Warsâ classic Marvel crossover! Where are all the villains? Why is Spider-Man the leader? Some questions are left for the episodes themselves to answer others are left to the apparently not-so-common common sense.
Itâs a translation of âSecret Warsâ comic arc in a Spider-Man show. Spider-Man. Itâs only logical they would use his villains. Itâs the same answer as to why he is the leader. This show did guest stars very well, because it managed to find a great balance between developing the guestsâ respective characters and having the story take place in Spideyâs world. Take the Daredevil episodes, for example. Spideyâs villain were used, but were given connections, and in turn, the guest had a connection to Spidey, as he was Peterâs lawyer.
I especially liked the somewhat slower pace of the episode. Whilst itâs true a lot of the episodes had a lot crammed into them, taking a breather is always appreciated. I was especially impressed with The Beyonderâs explanation of his fascination of good vs. evil. I loved Spider-Man selecting his team. Whilst there were a lot more people in the original âSecret Warsâ line up, most of them were horribly underdeveloped, and came across as horribly two-dimensional. I can understand why he chose whom he did. Since this line up is often the subject of much controversy, I thought Iâd go though each of them.
The Fantastic Four - As Spider-Man himself explained, he has never faced, or even met, Dr. Doom. Knowing how dangerous Doom is, Spidey wouldâve been foolish to ignore the FF, as he put it, theyâve fought him and won. These episodes did a fairly good job with the FF. The designs were pretty cool. Spider-Man: The Animated Series changed things up for their designs here, taking a more modern root with their costumes. The Thing was slightly jarring to look at, and Johnny Stormâs flame was orange instead of his bright red, but overall, the Fantastic Four worked here.
Iron Man - The weirdest choice, as there was no real specific reason for Iron Man to be here, other than the fact there were friends. Perhaps Spider-Man felt he needed someone he could trust, especially since he wasnât sure if the FF would help him or not. The armour design is the same as the one in âCarnage,â but still looks really cool. A nice detailed design that actually looked good every single time it was used. Itâs also worth nothing here that the animation in this episode was on par with the first season. There was some really beautiful stuff here.
Captain America - Again, he helped Spidey defeat Red Skull. Itâs also obvious from the previous âSix Forgotten Warriorsâ arc that Spidey considers Cap something of a legend. Hell, he even got him out of the vortex that held him prisoner. His design was fine, both here and in âSix Forgotten Warriors.â I wouldâve preferred the colours to be a little brighter, but well ⊠it couldâve been worse. Cap also became an interesting foil to Spider-Man and The Black Catâs relationship, I especially enjoyed their little would be romance.
Storm - The hardest to justify, as Spideyâs experience with her in âThe Mutants Agendaâ was brief, to put it bluntly. It was pretty odvious she was only used here for her powers. She was the only X-Man to be used, because her voice actress was available at the time (thatâs it, yup), whereas the rest of the X-Men actors were Canadian and wouldâve had to be flown in to L.A, which proved too expensive for Fox.
As youâve probably gathered, I really enjoyed âSecret Wars.â I love part one, but dig part three just that little bit more. On to the next episodeâŠ
Spider-Man, along with Iron Man, Captain America, the Lizard and Storm teleport the Black Cat to the alien planet where she reveals her origin. As the villains grow stronger, Spider-Man and his new allies gather the rebels of the alien planet and prepare for an all out attack against the evil forces plaguing the planet!
Whilst itâs true that part two is easily the weakest part of âSecret Wars,â itâs still entertaining. One odd point is the beginning of the episode with The Black Cat, Blade and Morbius. I wasnât expecting to see them here (the voices must have already cost a fortune!), but thankfully the extended cameos were important to the plot, as Spider-Man used the last of the machineâs power to transport The Black Cat to Battleworld in order to help him and his team.
Speaking of The Black Cat, she does get a neat, small scene with Captain America while they are heading to their next battle. Thereâs a neat discussion between the two and their connecton with the Super-Soldier Serum. That said, it was a little annoying to sit through an extended retelling of her origin. For an episode which bridged the beginning and ending of arguably the biggest story the series, I donât see the point of telling that story again, especially as time is limited. Surely the time couldâve used on something anything.
Despite the fact there was a hell of a lot of characters to animate, this was a very nice looking episode, as were all âSecret Warsâ episodes. The designs of the aliens were a little generic and tall robots built by Alister Smythe seemed as generic as they could possibly be. As much as I love this show, I donât think I could stomach more Slayer-bots. The original Spider Slayers were the best, the rest of them were dull, generic robots, most of them defeated far too easily.
The guest stars were still handled pretty well, specifically Iron Man, who revealed a little about himself. Despite the fact Iâd seen all of season one of his own 1990s animated series at the time, I knew relatively little about him, as none of the writers of his show bothered to develop him. I was a little disappointed we didnât see the Fantastic Four, but they were basically the stars of the next episodes, so it made for it.
Spideybeing the leader is a little unnatural for the character, but it works so well here, even with Captain Americaâs logical arguments and actually added some growth tot he character so late in his own show. Whilst this episode did waste some of its runtime, and was nowhere near as entertaining as part one or itâs conclusion, it was still an entertaining endeavour.
Spider-Man and his newly formed team of heroes travel to New Latveria and find a civilization ruled by a just and fair Doctor Doom. While there, Doom offers Ben Grimm a device that allows him to switch from his Thing form to his human form and gains his trust. However, Reed is unconvinced and begins an attack against the Latverian ruler but is stopped by Doomâs robots, and is held for treason along with the rest of the heroes. Left with no choice, Spider-Man and the Thing launch a campaign to free their friends only to find that Doom has gained new powers.. the Beyonderâs!
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The final part to âSecret Warsâ ends the arc on a high-note, ending better than it began! Itâs not all that faithful to itâs comic book counterpart, true, but itâs actually more entertaining, in my opinion. As with all âSecret Warsâ episodes, the animation shined.
I especially like The Lizard here. Itâs no secret that he was a stand-in because they werenât allowed to use The Incredible Hulk, but I found that it was pretty convenient as it allowed the story to bring in more characters from Spider-Manâs world and help ground Peter, even though they were fighting on an alien planet.
The main villain of the piece is finally unveiled - Dr. Doom! Spider-Man: The Animated Series treats him better than most other animated series. His voice, his design, his character - all of it is simply so much better than his appearances in other animated shows at the time. Itâs a shame we never got something of a follow-up. Iâd love to see âSpider-Man vs. Dr. Doom - Part 2!â
Even though it was only a small moment, itâs worth noting that this is, to my knowledge, the only time Spidey and the Human Torch have had an animated team-up. There was something odd about the FF here, they seem nothing like they are in their own cartoons, but that makes sense since John Semper has stated that he wasnât fond of their previous animated appearances. That said, Sue and Johnny have great designs, but Reed and Ben not so much.
âSecret Wars, Part Threeâ also has some of my favorite quotes in it:
Spider-Man: âHold on Doom. Weâre not your pawns. Under that metal suit, youâre just a very disturbed human being. You canât possibly control the God-like abilities youâve stolen. You might place us all in great danger if you donât give that power up!
Dr. Doom: Do you take me for a fool? Who amongst you has ever wanted to give up your superpowers?
Spider-Man: I have. Because Iâve learned, time and time again, that with great power, there must also come great responsibility.
Unfortunately, as itâs the case with this show sometimes, itâs followed up with a really silly scene in which the heroes are about to be crushed by a mountain. Itâs almost embarrassing to watch, quite frankly.
Thankfully, we can push that out of our minds knowing that, all in all, the arc hits the landing here in the conclusion. Plus we get a great cliffhanger of whatâs to come!To know all that weâve just watched was merely a test for Spidey made me wonder what was coming next when I first saw it.
And it doesnât disappoint, Iâm happy to say.
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