COMICS-(JUSTICE LEAGUE: "In Blackest Night" two-parter)
The new JLA series isn't messing around. The first two "regular" shows wasted no time
and immediately dove into the Green Lantern mythos. A special two parter, called
"In Blackest Night", the story focuses on GL John Stewart,
and includes the Green Lantern corps,
the Manhunters, the Guardians, and even Kanjar-Ro. If you want to be a freak and
refer to these shows as "episode 2" and "episode 3", be my guest...and be sure
to drop by The Android's Dungeon this weekend.
The show opens with John Stewart visiting his old neighborhood. He bumps into
an old high school teacher after foiling a robbery. This sequence is a bit stereotypical,
as the background music is reminiscent of "Shaft". Furthermore, John and his teacher
play basketball and go to an all-black barbershop. I understand that there was a
fried chicken eating scene, but it was cut out.
The Manhunters then arrive to "arrest" John Stewart. After the
obligatory skirmish with the JLA (they detected the Manhunters from
the Watchtower), Stewart surrenders peacefully and is taken into
space to stand trial before an intergalactic court. Wonder Woman is
"on another mission" and Batman is "unavailable", but the rest of the JLA
manages to follow along to catch the trial. The Guardians of the Universe make
a quick cameo as they are shown observing Stewart's surrender.
When the JLA arrives on the alien planet (I don't believe it was given a name),
my comic nerd meter goes into overdrive. Several members of the Green Lantern Corps
are there to witness the trial. Inlcuding Kilowog, Arrkus Chummuck, Tomar-Re,
the big head guy, and the carrot/vegetable guy (I forget their names). Plus, one of the key
witnesses at the trial is longtime JLA foe, Kanjar Ro! We finally learn why
Stewart is being tried, and why he willfully surrendered- he accidentally destroyed an entire
planet while pursuing Ro, in the past. Stewart's guilt and responsibilty is played up well,
and this plot is actually another idea stolen from the comics. In 1988's lame
"Cosmic Odyessy" series, John Stewart rushed into a trap which led to the destruction of
an entire planet. For years Stewart felt guilty, and his failure was a major point
of his characterization in the comics.
Hawkgirl and Flash try to stall the trial, while Superman and J'onn investigate
Kanjar Ro's story. Since Stewart isn't putting up a fight, Flash decides to
act as his lawyer. The judges say "we don't have lawyers...we solved our lawyer problem
years ago". When Flash asks about this, the discovers that if he acts
a lawyer, he'll share the same sentence as his client. Flash sez:
"That's crazy!" The Judges respond: "No...that's how we fixed our lawyer problem".
Flash then does his Johnny Cochrane impersonation. No, seriously...he does
Johnny Cochrane, that's not a lame analogy. Funny shit. Kilowog is called as a witness,
and then five Guardians make an apperance. All to no avail, as it appears
John Stewart is guilty.
Meanwhile, Superman and J'onn have been snooping around and found out that it was all
a plot by Kanajr Ro and the Manhunters to frame Stewart. Ro used a massive hologram
to make the planet disapear, so Stewart never destroyed it. It was all a ploy to
draw the Guardians away from Oa. The JLA shows up just in time to prevent
Stewart and the Flash from the death sentence. Suddenly, the scene shifts to Oa, as the Manhunters are
attacking the remaining Guardians and the main GL Power Battery. The Manhunter-Guardian-
GL connection is quickly detailed. It goes by pretty quick, and unless you're a comic fan,
you might not catch it. In short, years ago the Guardians tried to protect the universe
with a robotic police force- the Manhunters. The Manhunters proved too harsh, and were replaced
by the more compassionate Green Lanterns. The Manhunters were re-programmed to
perform monkey work, and now they're rebelling.
The JLA, the five Guardians and the other GLs show up on Oa to oppose the
Manhunters. The Manhunters manage to crack the Central Battery, but John Stewart
runs in, recites the GL oath, and beats them with his willpower, focused through his
Lantern ring. The cartoon fails to mention that all GL rings are powered by the
willpower of their bearer...so a non-educated fan may feel ripped off that John
beats a massive robot invasion by simply turning on his ring.
Everybody flies home HAPPY. A bit of tension between Stewart and his fellow
GLs is hinted at as the show ends. A spiffy little two-parter that introduces
viewers to the entire Green Lantern situation. After watching this, you realize
how infinitely cooler the GL "space police" idea is... as opposed to
the current, lame ass, 20-something, "I'm part of a great tradition but only
fight third level bad guys and hot chics" comic book GL, Kyle Rayner. Another strange
factor is the "destoyed" planet. Kanjar Ro mentions that 3 billion people
were killed when the planet blew up. Apparently these 3 billion people
had no communication with any other planets. How else would a hologram prevent
a planets' populace from NOT reaching out to their neighbors? But I'll let this one slide,
and just pressume that the planet was filled with 3 billion amoebas and tadpoles.
Reminder that this show is on Monday nights, 10;30 pm MST on Cartoon Network.
Assuming I have the free time,
I'll try to provide weekly updates, until I hit a re-run. So drop by next week, campers.
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