JLUCast The Cat and The Canary

Chris and Cindy begin their coverage of Justice League Unlimited Season 2! FW All-Star Ryan Daly joins them to discuss “The Cat and the Canary” featuring Green Arrow, Black Canary and Wildcat!

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Clip credits:

Clips from Justice League Unlimited “The Cat and the Canary”, music by Michael McCuistion.

13 responses to “JLUCast The Cat and The Canary

  1. Great episode! Plus Ryan!

    I was so happy that Green Arrow got as much to do on JLU as he did. He’s always been one of my favorite characters (just one appearance on Super Friends? ONE?!?) and he’s presented well here.

  2. A really great episode to start the kinda-new season of JLU. The addiction story was very nicely done as you all said, but I’ll admit I didn’t see the parallel on my own, and since they chose not to make it about alcohol or drugs, that avoided it feeling like a cringey “very special episode”. But even with me missing that theme, the emotional beats still hit amazingly well. Excellent job for a kids cartoon, as Chris would say.

    I don’t remember if you all mentioned this bit. When Wildcat is holding Arrow in the air, Arrow smiles and winks at him, which REALLY set Wildcat off. Now, on the one hand, this is a great sly nod to the audience that a trick is about to be played. But on the other, it’s pretty blatantly a not-so-great gay coded act, intended to goad Wildcat to attack hard. Of course, I didn’t think about this when the show aired. Now, it’s not a great move. Thankfully it’s over quick and not dwelled on, except that a lot of Arrow’s mocking throughout the fight was targeting Ted’s masculinity, and this is the escalation of those taunts. It doesn’t ruin it for me, but I do hope the scene isn’t offensive in that light.

    I’m so glad you’re back, Franklins! And Ryan was the perfect addition, natch. Till next time!

    1. Great catch, Tim! I hadn’t really thought of it as “gay coding”, but I guess you could see it that way. Kind of like how Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) goads Billy Clanton (Thomas Hayden Church) into starting the gunfight at the O.K. Corral with a mere wink in Tombstone.

      Being straight, I can’t say if a gay audience member may find that offensive nowadays. I personally think it’s innocent enough, and can just be read as Ollie be a smart-ass, but others mileage may vary.

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  3. Thanks for a great discussion of a great episode, Franklins and Ryan. I especially appreciated the analysis of the addiction angle, and I think it was spot on. The DCAU really portrayed the best version of Ollie without misrepresenting the character. That included his occasional flashes of deep insight, along with incidences of dunderheadedness. It’s good that DC has some heroes that are consistently portrayed as admirable, but still flawed, just like heroes in real life.

    Glad you’re back, and looking forward to next time!

    1. I do agree this is Ultimate Ollie here. He’s opinonated, compassionate about standing up for the little guy, but not annoying and overly confrontational just to be so. Every time Ollie shows up, it’s a treat, and thankfully they used him quite a bit!

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  4. Great episode of JLUCast, about a great episode of JLU.

    All I have to add is something very, very nerdy: Are you sure that goon hanging out with Hellgrammite, Evil Star, Bloodsport, and Tracer is Amygdala? He really doesn’t look much like him (unless there’s some other animated version I’m not familiar with).

    My best guess would be a one-off villain from Detective #480, the Gork. The story was written by Denny O’Neil, who credits this as inspiration for his eventual creation of the “Venom” storyline that led to Bane, which is why I sought this issue out years ago (and remember it so well).

    In fact, for what it’s worth, the Batwiki at batman.fandom.com IDs this character as the Gork, but I swear, I’m not the one who made that edit.

  5. When I think of JLU, this is the first episode that comes to mind, specifically the way the action is done and how hard-hitting it is (with the camera shakes etc) making a (relatively) unpowered brawler seem like she’s hitting as hard as Superman and deserves a place in Earth’s most epic team.

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