Sunday, November 25, 2012

JLA: The Savage Time (24, 25, 26)


returning from a mission in space, six of the JLA- Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, The Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman are saved from a temporal blast that leaves them outside a transformed Earth.  though why there wouldn't have been counterparts to them is beyond me, since Bruce has one.
as we see here, he's still Batman because the new regime broke into his house and killed his parents.  must have been a cowardly, superstitious lot as well to inspire the costume.  there's a good bit in here when Batman sends the rest back in time to WWII to see how the Axis powers won.

and here we have a War Wheel.  for some reason I thought these were an idea of Kirby's,turns out they came from the pages of the Unknown Soldier.  they look really cool in action.
logically they make no sense whatsoever.  but then neither to guys running around in capes and masks, right?  there is a line about costumed heroes that the leader says is more Allied propaganda, but we never see anyone else from the time period in costume.
except the Blackhawks.  which is a really cool idea and I'm glad they used these Quality heroes.  only four of the 'Hawks get featured, but they had like 12 or so in the comics.  I think I've only ever read one of their stories, and for the life of me I can only remember "Chop Chop" being a character.  how sad for me!
nice little interaction with Shayera and Clark.  this Superman really does look older than the previous cartoons, which I approve of.  I think that changes next season.
and John gets to meet and fight the enemy with Sgt Rock and Easy Company, which I've probably read some stories of, but since war comics aren't my thing, I can't remember any of them at all.  I know the character.  remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to play Sgt Rock (and Doc Savage) in various movie projects?  wish I didn't!
here's our villain, the immortal Vandal Savage.  of course, he's not referred by this moniker in the episode, but for us long time comic readers we knew who he was right away.  though how his past self knew how to use the computer from his future self I'll never figure out either.  damn time travel stories!
and Diana meets a non-goofball version of Steve Trevor, (voiced by Patrick Duffy) which is nice to finally see.  here's their second kiss.  I gotta say hearing him call her "Angel" was really cool, since that's what he called her in her first comic book appearance.  yeah, I don't know war comics, but superhero stuff, I'm pretty good on that.
the gang defeats Savage and leaves him for dead (suckers) and somehow travels forward in time.  Superman is quite glad to see this Batman, as are the rest of our heroes.  no mention is made of the advanced tech left back in the 40s, since no one would try to duplicate any of it at all...
very touching last scene.  I've never been a huge fan of Steve Trevor, but that's due to the writing mostly.

this was a good three parter to end the first season.  it had a larger portion of good episodes to merely entertaining ones, and this one is one of the best stories.  next season will be even more fun to watch and review!

2 comments:

joecab said...

The War Wheel is actually from Blackhawks comics, not the Unknown Soldier. And yes this was a great story with quite the touching ending.

X7 said...

d'oh! they did say that in the commentary, but then I got distracted by the Unknown Soldier's cameo!