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A Better WorldOriginal Airdate: November 01, 2003
Review:
Since the beginning of the season, a lot of people have been getting excited about A Better World, and the Justice Lords. It seems like the writers took every cameo possible and crammed it into this episode. Then when you thought they couldn?t cram anymore cameos, they crammed in more from a different dimension.
While the episode was a lot fun, it didn?t seem to flow very well, and was rather disconnected. As if it needed to be three-parter, or more appropriately just be followed up later in the season. There were a lot of questions raised during the episode, and it didn?t seem to answer any of them during the entire episode.
The main issue that I felt that never got answered was what was really wrong with the Justice Lords? Obviously they choose to fight crime with a more brutal fist, but who?s to say that that?s wrong? The issue isn?t black and white, but the episode seemed to force the Lords as bad guys, and the Leaguers as good, when it?s really not the case. The Batman vs. Batman conversations tried to touch on it, but there just wasn?t enough time to cover everything.
Speaking of the Batman vs. Batman, that fight was pretty damn cool, but the conclusion seemed rather unrealistic. Lord Batman, convinces Leaguer Batman that he?s right, and then less than an hour later, vice versa? It?s sort of strange as Batman?s likely the most stubborn of the Leaguers. I?d have expected neither of them to give up their opinions so easily.
Doomsday! For such a major Superman villain, he was handled poorly. First of all his appearance was totally random. He did nothing but fall out of the sky, and serve as a punching bag for Superman. Though the fight rivaled Superman/Doomsday, and Superman/Mongul, there was no build-up at all. Granted Doomsday fell out of the sky in the comics as well, but there was still a build-up to the big fight. This is the villain that killed Superman, and this is all he gets? Seems rather lame. Even Bane got his own episode in Batman: The Animated Series. Surely Doomsday deserves more? Of course, this all doesn?t apply if it was meant to setup a Doomsday appearance later in the Season. Which seems like it might be the case, as Doomsday is now the ?stupid? Doomsday that we?re all used to.
Finally what happens to the Justice Lords? The hard question of what to do with them is completely ignored. Do you keep them in the ?real? dimension and let crime run rampant in the alternate dimension? Do you let them return to their dimension, even though they?re basically dictators there? Do you hold them captive realizing that they could break free at any time? Once again, this is all moot as long as well see the Lords again at some point in time.
That was a lot of complaining huh? Basically I don?t think the episode was given enough time, and really deserved to be a three-parter. Still there were a lot of things that it did well.
The action was amazing. Superman/Doomsday, Batman/Batman, Flash/Superman, and Luthor vs the Lords were all fights that just made me go ?Wow!? This doesn?t even include the other mirror matches, which was everything I was expecting them to be.
I love Lex Luthor. He?s just a man, but he constantly bests Superman and the League. Last season when I saw him reduced to a crazy mad-scientist, I was severely disappointed. They had turned one of the best villains into just another two-bit villain with crazy revenge schemes. This season has seen him transform back into the man he was, and climaxes at the end of the episode. Seeing him using his mind and wit to secure his freedom was masterful, and got him back to the character that I know and love. If crazy scientist Luthor was necessary to get to President Luthor, then I?m glad it happened.
Batman?s Rogue?s gallery was a welcome return! Now if we?d only see some of them in the normal universe!
The new costumes were also interesting. Though it?s rather mean of them to tease us so often with the Batman Beyond symbol. First in Mystery of the Batwoman, and then in A Better World? Can we please just get Terry back? (yeah I know, it?s never going to happen)
Overall, I?d have to say this episode just didn?t flow as well as the other episodes. I know what the writers were trying to accomplish, but they didn?t seem to quite reach it. They didn?t fail by any stretch, and if there?s a follow-up episode to this, it would fix all the problems I have with it. Still anything that brings the ?real? Luthor back, gets an A in my book.
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Justice League is a cartoon on Cartoon Network. Justice League is owned by DC Comics. http://www.JLanimated.com is created and owned by Timothy Wan. Please contact Tim Wan before reproducing any of the work on this site. |
