Killer Frost makes for a killer view for the teaser as she hunts down an old flame that has left her cold.
What They Say:
Darkseid Descending
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Darkseid has long been a big name villain that I’ve liked ever since the famous Legion of Super-Heroes storyline way, way back in time and I’ve enjoyed most of the incarnations of the characters in other mediums over the years. This episode brings him back into play as Batman has formed a new Justice League in order to combat the bigger threats the world faces. His new organization is amusing in that it plays up the old Justice League International angle where it’s a humorous group with a lot of conflict between this group of misfits. It goes back into the 80’s Justice League territory very easily and it all comes to the small screen perfectly.
Batman’s new group brings in the familiar faces of Fire, Ice, Booster Gold, Aquaman, Guy Gardner and the new Blue Beetle alongside the mainstay of the long suffering Martian Manhunter. He just wants to have his cookies and avoid the heat. And the know it all Skeets that wants to just help out. There’s a great moment where things turns to a fight between all of them rather quickly, precipitated by Booster taking over Hal’s old room when Guy wants it so he can take over more of Hal’s turf, and it ends up going completely off the rails when the Manhunter’s cookies get tossed and he turns into a Martian octopus to take everyone out of commission. All while Ice continues to make odd comments that conflates Greek mythology with Darkseid’s Apokolips.
While the first half of the show deals with all the comedy, the second half goes big with all the Apokolips material as the group is easily captured because they lack teamwork when Darkseid’s forces invade Earth. Naturally, everything is put in place to let this group of heroes finally come together, and it is the kind of thing that does work but in that kind of wacky way that this series operates. There’s a grand scale to events here with the armies involved and that lets everyone really cut loose with their powers and attacks. It’s serious but it has its moments of levity as well, particularly with Aquaman and the way he phrases things. Watching the invasion playing out over Washington DC gives this a really great feel, especially when it comes down to a moment between Batman and Darkseid alone.
In Summary:
While the fight between a man and a god is largely comical in a way, and that it even comes down to this, it’s the kind of sequence that does go big in the way that this series often does and often needs to. The episode overall has a lot of great material, especially for fans of this particular Justice League as done in the comics years ago, and for Darkseid fans as well since we get a Darkseid invasion with lots of the Fourth World details brought in, even if it’s not fully exploited. Just bringing these characters to the screen even for a little bit is great and having it go so big, so fast, and to have it as a formation point for this new League helps to tie it all together very well. Episodes like this really bring home my younger days and a lot of the golden times of my comics youth.
Grade: B+
