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Justice League: Season 2 -Warner Brothers (2002)
Summary More Justice League animated goodness? How can you go wrong? My Thoughts
I really enjoyed the first season of Justice League, but most everyone agrees (and by everyone I mean people in chat rooms and Shawn) that it got better in the later seasons. This box set pretty much helps to prove that theory by increasing the greatness of the series by a factor of 8.3 or something like that. I’m bad at television show calculations. The episodes on this disc prove that the creators really decided to “take it to the max” by green lighting stories that are much more intense, dramatic, and fun than most of those found on the first season DVD. I suppose the first season existed to break everyone in to the whole good superhero cartoon business before really knocking our collective socks off. If you’re a fan of the Superman Animated Series like me, the start of the second season of Justice League is a real treat. In the “Twilight” episodes, Darkseid’s failure at taking over New Genesis results in Apokolypse being vulnerable to attack by Brainiac. Desperate for help, Darkseid turns to Superman. I’m glad I watched the last volume of the Superman animated series before watching this one, since they fit together so perfectly. It also gives the Superman series a little more closure, with Superman being able to finally kick the crap out of Darkseid. There are some standard issue episodes as well including “Tabula Rasa” which is done well, but it’s nothing that will blow you away. “Only a Dream” and “Eclipsed” are rather bland affairs, although they do feature a couple of nice sequences. “Maid of Honor” is a pretty good Wonder Woman adventure, especially if you pretend that there was some extra special fun that went on off camera that seemed to be hinted at between Wonder Woman and the princess she meets. “Terror Beyond” was great simply because it featured more of Dr. Fate. Dr. Fate is so awesome. “Hereafter” is really great too, but only because of the second half that I really can’t give away here, because it will ruin most of the fun.
“A Better World” is notable for having repercussions later on in the world of Justice League: Unlimited. Its also known for having the ultra cool Justice Lords, although the only Justice Lord costumes that really rock are Superman and Batman’s. Both the “Secret Society” and “Wild Card” episodes are great super villain team-ups to try and rub out the Justice League. “Wild Card” is particularly good, because most of the plot is focused on the Joker’s point of view. Even better, the episodes take place in real time. “Comfort and Joy” is the Justice League’s Christmas episode. Yeah, they say the word Christmas and everything! Seriously though, even if it’s corny, it's heartwarming and I expect I’ll give it a spin sometime during the Christmas movie rounds from now on. Finally, season two wraps up with the big three part “Starcrossed” where Hawkgirl betrays the team. Whoops, that was a spoiler. They’re done well and are a pretty good payoff for all the character development they did over the course of this second season. It also leads to some really great character development and plot points for the team in the ensuing Justice League Unlimited episodes to come. The picture quality of this set is about a dozen times better than that of the Superman: Animated Series, and on par with the previous Justice League set. The colors and shading here are amazingly deep and clear. The sound is good enough, but where in the hell is the Dolby 5.1 mix? It would be so great to hear some super surround sound action. Extras Warner Brothers must have really bet that their Superman release tie-in with this set was going to sell no matter what, because they don’t even attempt to put any motion menus on this set. The importance of motion menus has become a little passé, yet they could still try a little. There’s not much in the way of extra features, either. Three’s a whooping three commentary tracks. That’s sarcasm there, by the way. “Justice League Declassified” is a little feature that has the creator’s talking about the second season. It’s exactly like all the other features like this on previous releases by these guys. Interesting, yes; original, no. What’s really strange is that on the back of the DVD it says it’s brought to you by Phil Lamarr (the voice of Green Lantern), but it certainly isn’t. Someone screwed up there. Score: Episode Average: 8.5 Extras: 6.0 Edition: 7.0 -Paul
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