JLUCast 18: “Hearts and Minds”

When the Green Lantern Corps fail in their mission to extract a powerful alien cult leader named Despero, John Stewart leaves behind his Justice League teammates to save his former mentor and lover Katma Tui. But both the League and the Corps find their fin-headed foe more powerful than they ever imagined, due to his link to the mysterious Flame of Py’Tar!

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Clip credits:

Clips from Justice League “Hearts and Minds”, music and theme by Lolita Ritmanis

14 responses to “JLUCast 18: “Hearts and Minds”

  1. I love the background that you give for the animation guest-stars. To add, Keith David’s voice roles also include Spawn in HBO’s late night animated series. For big Disney fans from the 1990s, Keith also voiced Goliath in the fan-favorite Gargoyles series which also had plenty of post ST TNG actors taking up roles.

    1. Good call on Gargoyles, Brian. I will admit, I didn’t watch the series much, as it was past my personal “Disney Afternoon” days, and I was lucky to keep up with BTAS and STAS in college. But it’s certainly a huge fan-favorite with a lot of people, and I know David’s Goliath was a huge part of that. I really need to deep-dive into this on Disney +.

      Chris

  2. Keith David was a great choice for Despero.

    On more important matters, I love the idea of Cindy putting Chris “on the shelf” until she was ready to date him. Good thing this other woman was obviously not that appealing. I think we all need to hear the full details of this story, maybe the next Valentine’s Day episode?

  3. Impressive pod cast. Most Impressive. Ah so in this episode Keith David plays less evil Rowling. And they call them Despero. Speaking of Mr. David… what no mention of Goliath? From Gargoyles? If were going Disney that would be my point. Or Spawn. And the awsome bounty hunter he played in the Quick and the Dead. On to the cartoon. Despero wouldn’t be a failed or refuse of his calling from Py’Tar. More of a demon that peeresses his calling. If he just ignored it. Py’Tar could just move on. Abd use their back up. Gwads always have a back up.

    I have an outfit like the one Katma wares here. No she’s right John wouldn’t look good in it. Maybe in his own John Karter out fit… hmm. Moving on. Kilowog was great here. But, like him better when Henery Rolins voices him in the Green Lantern thing. Emerald dawn I think it was. But, this actor is good. How does the Landlady not recognize Flash? He’s not Mr. Low profile. Still cool seeing Flash and Kilowog team up and eating food.

    Oy Hawk Girl running into John’s ex. awkward. Still glad it builds to show how She’s the one for him. Kind of like the Hawk Man story does the same thing from Hawk Girl’s perspective. His power ring not working is oy. But, it gives him not only to show he’s still a hero with out the ring, but his reconnecting to it is him saving Hawk Girl. So saving who you love works. And she’s saved him countless times so it’s fine. A decent build up.

    LOL the ring to the eye thing is cool. John did a good shot. J’ohn teaming with the gwad of this world is cool. Ah yeah sad that the people that were mind wiped got turned to trees too. Shifflet is kind of cool. and J’ohn having the TOS moment is cool. Are the knowing look of Hawk Girl and John ware their slowly becoming a couple.

    1. Sorry about missing out on Gargoyles. I feel like I need to turn in my Disney Parks card! Like I mentioned to Brian up above, I pretty much missed out on Gargoyles, because I’m old. I was just a bit past the demographic for that one, and I didn’t have the connection like I did to BTAS, X-Men, Spider-Man, etc, which also had animated shows at the time, which I of course watched.

      Off to Disney +!!!

      Chris

  4. These 2 episodes are so good, but I have to show my JLI with props to Kilowog. I love his depiction in JLU, and the voice actor is excellent. Dennis Haysbert is wonderful channeling some “Brad Garrett” for my favorite Poozer, and the writers give a great version of his character: big, strong, but science whiz, and lots of heart. And his scenes with Flash, so good.

    But then there’s the question: what *is* a “Poozer”? Is it a word that has lots of different meanings, like “aloha”? Or is it a swear word that can be used with affection as well as derogative? Or, and this wouldn’t surprise me, is it a really strong curse word and Kilowog just swears constantly? So he’d fit right in as a sailor or working on the docks? Honestly, I don’t wanna know, because my gentle ears couldn’t take it.

    Thank you for the shout-out, Chris! I had so much fun on that episode with you and the other FW Poozers! Take care, Franklins!

    1. You’re welcome Pooz…er…I mean Tim!

      I’m not sure what a Poozer is either. Maybe it’s the Bolovoxian version of “butthead”, which can be a derogative or a term of affection?

      Someone needs to go back and re-read the Englehart/Staton run of Green Lantern Corps and report back in.

      Chris

      1. Dialogue given to Kilowog in those early books included words such as “pooz” that are, I think, meant more as verbal flavor than as terms we’re supposed to understand the meaning of. “Like pooz!” is something Kilowog said once, equivalent to an action-movie hero shouting “Like hell!” But that wouldn’t make pooz = hell necessarily.
        Recall Admiral Kirk’s colorful metaphors — the words’ meanings don’t matter, what matters is the character employing them in a manner meant to punctuate a statement.
        Really only the one derivation on that word — “poozer” — caught on after Englehart.

        Many years later in the Blackest Night crossover, a Peter Tomasi story defines “poozer” as meaning a naive rookie, and indicates Kilowog originally learned the term from his drill sergeant, but then (a) later in life, Kilowog must have simply started lumping in lots of folks as “poozers” regardless of whether they fit that definition, and therefore (b) there’s not much use in that retcon-a-riffic backstory for the term … so I guess, take it for what it’s worth.

        1. Right, Doug. In the GL Corps series with Englehart, I had taken “poozer” to be the equivalent of “bastich”, which could be positive or negative depending on the context. But that was only a guess. Though my take on the word is part of the reason that retcon you had mentioned in the Tales of the Corps Kilowog story never stuck in my head canon. The other part was that I felt it better that such alien expressions be left up to the reader’s interpretation. I never understood why “everything” had to be “explained.”

          I remember a fun letter by a reader of Englehart’s run in which they mockingly “clutched their pearls” because of children being exposed to all of the salty language these aliens were spewing in each issue of GLC.

          BTW, one of those regular curse words was “frim”, exclaimed by Arisia. I think Xum used that curse word in one of his Done in One Wonders shows, spoken by the alien soldier played by Cindy.

          And I am with Tim on liking Kilowog being a “science whiz.” That was one of the most unique aspects of Kilowog that Englehart brought to the character. A big lumbering alien who speaks in simple terms would immediately makes us assume he is just a musclebound simpleton, but then he surprised us with his vast scientific and medical knowledge and he would whip up these incredibly complex ring constructs (even though “Kilowog is by no means complicated”). This aspect was something that was lost on later Green Lantern writers starting with James Owsley, who made the character a typical “gruff drill sargent” in the Emerald Dawn series. However, the writers of the JLI titles remembered, and they used the ex-Green Lantern effectively as the team’s tech support.

          1. Wow, thanks for doing the homework, guys! I bought the first few issues of the relaunched Green Lantern Corps title, but I didn’t stick around too long.

            Chris

  5. One thing I forgot to mention is that this was the episode that taught me how to pronounce “Despero.” Given the other O-villains the JLA fought in the comics like “STAR-O”, “AMAZE-O” and “CAN-JAR-O”, I had always been pronouncing Despero as “DESPAIR-O” — and sometimes I still do.

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