But then, they seems like the sort of thing they leave to J'Onn who seems to be the very essence of professionalism. I think, somehow, an assessment from J'Onn would feel more 'normal' than one from Batman (who, whether or not he meant to, will always seem to be saying 'you suck!' to the junior heroes) or Superman ("lemme see, here are the ways I am more super than you...")


On a related tact, I *finally* got to see Flashpoint and was amazed at J'Onn's calm when dealing with the aftermath. No telling the president "Dude, Superman stuck his head in the cannon to try and stop in going off -- back off!". Though on the other hand, considering Luthor's running against PotUS in the election, he should probably have tried the "I'm sure a public enquiry will show that Cadmus is actually a front for Luthor to infiltrate the US military, and develop bioweapons to allow him to stage a coup d'etat and seize the presidency by force." tact.

That might have gotten some attention, made PotUS more sceptical of Waller and taken some heat off the league.

Diana could probably deal with those HR issues decently as well. GL would probably get quickly annoyed by having to do the paperwork. Flash would blow it off as pointless. And people may not listen to Hawgirl.

Hawkgirl: Well, I see you haven't been logging hours in the Javelin simulator.
Shining Knight: At least I'm not a traitor who almost got the Earth destroyed.
Hawkgirl: Yes, I noted that in your file.

...Black Lightening...

Why?


Love the conversation going on in here. It's brought back my love for comics.



That was funny!

Did the Shining Knight speak in "olde world" english? If so, might want to throw a "verily" or "wench" in there too.

I suggest that the dialogue might go a little more like this . . .

Hawkgirl: Well, I see you haven't been logging hours in the Javelin simulator.
Shining Knight: At least I'm not a traitor who almost got the Earth destroyed.
Hawkgirl:  That's true.  However, you have one other serious personnel problem we should discuss.
Shining Knight: What's that?
Hawkgirl:  You should know not to talk trash to a woman . . .  holding . . . an . . . ELECTRIC MACE!!!!!
[Shining Knight goes flying through HR office door and lies stunned on the waiting room floor, followed by Shiera, who is carrying a sparking mace in one hand, and a clipboard and pen in the other]
Hawkgirl:  [Handing clipboard and pen to prostrate Shining Knight] If you agree with our comments today, please sign here.  If you disagree, well . . . [mace sparks ominously]

Of the two I'd have more confidence in the ex-military man who worked as part of an intergalactic police force to handle paper work better than the ancient Greek warrior princess who spent most of her life living in an island paradise.


Because creators having rights and making money off of their intellectual property is a bad thing that must be snuffed out, less the serfs get restless?

I just want to say that there's no way Deadshot is C-list. Between the comics and the cartoon, he has been a member of the Suicide Squad/Task Force X (where he survived dozens of dangerous missions and ended up doing some heroic things), sneaked into the JLU's orbiting headquarters and perpetrated a successful robbery under their noses, taken down an large group of angry hired-gun supervillains by himself, assassinated a prominent U.S. Senator, singlehandedly driven warring mob factions out of a crime-ridden neighborhood to protect its inhabitants, and joined a team of villains who pretty much told Lex Luthor, Black Adam, Talia, and Deathstroke to go screw themselves. The guy might get beaten by Batman once in a while, but he's one of the biggest bad-asses in the DCU, and he doesn't even have any super powers.

Vercingetorix--that was funny. Thanks.

Don't get me wrong, I think Tony should get paid too, but, realistically, the shows only have so much budget. If they have to choose between putting Black Lightning in the ep. and paying for an extra day of production, I can't blame them for choosing the production.

Tony Isabella owns the rights to BL, so anytime DC wants to use him, he gets paid a royalty. However, DC still gets to say how BL is used in the story. Isabella has no creative control.

DC has used BL in some stories the past couple of years, and they seem poised to make use of him in the upcoming Infinite Crisis.

Why didn't they kill him off in the previous Crisis?

Zerowing, Tony does NOT own the rights to BL. He has a "profit participation" deal where he gets money under certain circumstances... like BL appearing in a cartoon. (Or a movie or live-action tv show, for that matter.)

He does NOT get paid for appearances in DC Comics. At all.

Vercingetorix I have to agree, a budget is a budget. But doing stuff like the Black Vulcan mess is kinda low.

I'd say the Wonder Woman of the comics could handle assessments, but from what I've seen, the WW of JLU hardly mingles with the 'junior' heroes at all. The one prominent episode where she did - Hawk and Dove - she spent most of the time calling them idiots. I don't the JLU version has the patience required to deal with the 'less than perfect' without starting a fight with them.

GL could do it too, I agree. People would probably hate being assessed by him because he's such a hardass, but they'd be no serious problems IMHO.

But to be fair, it was Hawk and Dove. I think Jonn was punishing WW for something by teaming her up with those morons (well, Hawk ain't so bad, but I just wanted to pummel Dove the entire episode).

I thought they were funny.

I can see him blowing off the forms and being all, "Look, just... follow orders and duck when they're shooting at you. I gotta go."

Exactly. Snotty little hypocrite.

Heh. I was pretty indifferent to both Hawk & Dove on the show, but I've always liked Dove more than Hawk. Then again, he deserved to die for wearing that hideous baby-blue costume. Baby blue is just wrong (sorry, UNC fans).

Of the original seven, I would guess that the two favorites to be assessed by would be Flash and Batman. Flash because he's the most personable and Batman would get that overwhelming power isn't needed for being a hero. WW and GL would be next because a ultra powered solo heroes, they'll probably just be looking for people who won't be burdens. Hawkgirl is a traitor, which has been covered before. Jonn strikes me as someone too into metrics to be favored. And Superman? *shudder* He would be unimpressed no matter what you can do. The only way through would be to kiss ass like no tomorrow and Luthor is punk who should be jailed (but not killed!).

Batman? The worlds ultimate perfectionist, the control freak, the guy whose entire persona is crafted around fear and intimidation. You make the slightest mistake around Batman and he'll tear you a new one. The great irony of Batman is that he's become the least human of all the heroes. The alien, the immortal princess, and the guy who runs at the speed of light are all more "human" than Batman.

Yeah Batman. He's also the guy who can't seem to go out without some underaged sidekick hanging about. Plus, his persona is one of intimidation, but he also runs a multibillion dollar company and always has a supermodel at his side when the cowl comes off. I'm not saying it would be an easy assessment, but the guy would be fair.

Hmmm... there is one time when we see Batman in 'assessment' mode, I think. In the Booster Gold highlight episode, Booster Gold has saved the world (but nobody saw) and saved this girl's life (which they kinda did see) but Batman basically threatens to kick his ass later for not being on traffic duty like he was supposed to be.


I can see assessments from Batman being really brutal.
"I know I didn't catch the enemy spaceship but if I kept going I was going to run out of air before I got home."
"And?"
"And, er, I'd have died, Batman."
"And?"

I don't get why most of the heroes would put up with the assessment crap. Would Green Arrow really stand there while Batman told him how to be a better hero? I'm glad they're changing the structure of the League next season (at least that's what I took away from the end of Divided We Fall), cuz I never liked how the Big 7 lorded it over the other members.

I find it hard to believe that Batman would actually bother to "assess" most of the other heroes: he should be more concerned with getting himself back to Gotham. BG was an exception, because everyone thought he was a joke.

While I'm not sure if Steel was speaking for everyone, it seems like most the JLU looked up to the original 7 as the best of the best, so if they were going to take criticism from anyone it would be them. Superman, in particular, is the shining example, and even with the changes I think the founders will still have a greater authority.

The thing is, in the comics Superman has confessed that he has great admiration for Batman and heroes like Batman. He admires the way they can get the job done despite not having any special powers.

Huh, I didn't think I was that far off in my assessment breakdown. I'll just go to my corner and cry.

Hey, kids. If anyone's interested, Toonzone has the titles of the first 4 episodes for the new season. Which is apparently now scheduled to begin mid-September. (On CN, anyway. God knows when the rest of us will be seeing them.)

The titles are... meh. Episode 1 is just too... punny. Episode 2... I'm tired of "Blank of the Blank" titles. Episode 3, though, sounds like campy fun. Episode 4 sounds pretentiously poetic.

Not sure... are episode titles considered spoilers? I certainly think the title for Episode 1 is.

Hmm, for some reason I find the titles less than impressive. I'm sure the episodes themselves will be fine, but for some reason the titles sound like something Superfriends would use. Just add an exclamation point to the first three and it's just that campy.

"We are Legion"

Woohoo! It's gonna be a looooong three weeks.

Did anyone catch Once and Future Thing pt2 last night? First time seeing it, and I liked it. Really thought Kevin Conroy's voice work between young and old Batman were excellent. However, does this mean that if we were to ret-con, then when Bruce Wayne in the future first meets Terry McGinnis, he should have not have been surprised that he would take up the Bat mantle?

Wait, so they're airing the new episodes back to back? Are they "two-parters"?

I have a feeling they're not. Which in itself is odd, but why would CN want to push out the double amount of episodes when there's only 13 in total? Also, I noticed they changed the airing time from 9pm to 10pm. 10pm? And it's still only rated Y7. Odd.

Yeah last weekends episode was really good. I always enjoy Bat-driven humor. Although the grabbing people by the shoulder thing was really disconcerting.



I think they actually caught that loophole. Terry never takes off his cowl, Batman tells everyone not to get too curious about thier future, and I think the only time Bruce actually says the name Terry he is by himself. (Hearing Terry die, which was a bit of a shock)

# "I Am Legion": Lex Luthor escapes from a maximum security prison, only to be invited to join Grodd's unstoppable Legion of Doom.
"Shadow of the Hawk": Batman is suspicious of Shayera's new boyfriend, a mysterious archeologist with sinister ties to her Thanagarian past.
"Heart of Stone": Supergirl, Stargirl and Green Lantern go to Skartaris, the fantastic, hidden world at the Earth?s core, to help free it from the rule of a brutal dictator.
"Elegy": Wonder Woman stumbles onto a plot to steal the powers hidden inside the 3000-year-old, frozen remains of the legendary hero, the Viking Prince.

Never let it be said that the JLU folks don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of DC heroes. Viking Prince? I never would have dreamed that a guy like this existed, especially since he seems more like a Marvel guy with his background.

Hawkman? Cool.

I think that's what all of Shining Knight's apperances really are, an in-joke about all the obscure heroes they dug up.

Yup, he's real real. (Info about the character in link, you don't want to know? Don't click.) Though, from what I've read he doesn't have any powers to speak of. Which makes me think that the might be more like Viking, the transparent Thor rip off currently appearing in Superman/Batman than the original character.

I never heard of the guy, but as soon as a I read the name, I immediately thought Thor rip-off

Thanks for the spoilers. I really mean it.

Bruce Timm wanted to use any unique-looking characters that weren't just buff men and women in Spandex. That's how we got Shining Knight as well as the cowboy Vigilante, the Question, Crimson Avenger, B'wana Beast, and Nemesis (the blonde guy in the black turtleneck and no mask).

Plus, Shining Knight has his own miniseries now, thanks to Grant Morrison.

I think it's a different Shining Knight. I liked how SK and the Vigilante were often paired up (the nanotech spider ep and the Suicide Squad/Task Force X ep). Now, if Timm could have worked a SK, Vigilante, Stargirl, S.T.R.I.P.E., Crimson Avenger and Green Arrow team-up/storyline, I would have been one happy fanboy.

Is this coming season truly the last season ever? Just 13 more episodes before I'm reduced to watching The Batman?

DVDs, monsterzero. Nothing should ever reduce you to watching The Batman.

Heh!

There's been no official word yet as to whether or not this will be the last season. But JL/JLU has hit that magical 52 ep. mark a long time ago so I wouldn't be surprised if this were to be the last season. I mean, it's not as if Cartoon Network especially prizes this show. I'm still baffled by the 10pm time slot.

More episode titles and teasers, airing dates unknown (courtest of Toonzone):

Episode #31 - Flash and Substance
Batman and Orion see a different side of the Flash when a rogues’ gallery of villains attacks the museum that is opening in his honor.

Episode #32 - Dead Reckoning
The ghost of a circus performer convinces Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to help him retrieve the stolen souls of a mystic order of Monks.

Episode #33 - Patriot Act
When an out of control super soldier threatens Metropolis, Green Arrow leads seven non-powered Justice Leaguers, including Crimson Avenger and Shining Knight, in a battle they can’t hope to win.

Episode #34 - The Great Brain Robbery
A mystical accident leads to Lex Luthor and the Flash’s minds being swapped into each other’s bodies.


Looks like they may be poking more fun at Marvel.

Deadman!!!! Very cool.

Anyone else find this amusing considering Michael Rosenbaum plays Lex Luthor on Smallville? I wonder if we'll see any similarities in his voiceover work as LL and the live version.

Of those, Patriot Act excites me the most. A group of unpowered heroes? Led by Green Arrow? Right up my alley.

Actually, this is a homage to Seven Soldiers of Victory, and I'm willing to bet the team will include Vigilante, Shining Knight, Stargirl, STRIPE, and Crimson Avenger, who were all members of the original Golden Age version of the team along with Green Arrow.

Who's Orion? I'm guessing it's not the ancient Greek hunter.