The Outcaster’s Tim Price joins Chris & Cindy to discuss Part One of JLU’s two-part series finale, “Alive!”. Lex Luthor’s search for Brainiac leads to a deadly civil war amongst the Legion of Doom! But just when Lex thinks he’s finally revived Brainiac…enter DARKSEID!!!
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Clip credits:
Clips from Justice League Unlimited “Alive!”, music by Lolita Ritmanis, theme by Kristopher Carter.
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Fun Legion of Doom spolight review…
This is the last chance for Auntie Cindy to voice Tala? I don’t see any reason why “Tala” cannot show up in future installments of the House of Franklinstein…
Grodd has survived death in the comics at least twice. The first time was actually a means to escape his prison cell in Gorilla City. In THE FLASH #115, Grodd created a pill that would kill his body and transfer his mind into another living being on Earth, which ended up being a human named William Dawson, who fought the Flash in that issue. Grodd’s mental powers later changed Dawson’s body into a gorilla who resembled Grodd (in THE FLASH #127).
The second time was in the 1978 FLASH SPECTACULAR, where he was “executed” by Solivar in a disintegration chair in a scene that was adapted in a CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS episode, but Uncle Paul will eventually get into that story on DC SpecialCast…
Good point on Tala! Maybe Gentelman Ghost or Grundy needs a new girlfriend…
I think I was aware of the first Grodd story you mentioned, and I have that Flash Spectacular! Defintely looking forward to Paul’s coverage of that one.
But dying in the vaccum of space seems pretty final. I hope if Grodd transferred his mind to one of the LoD members, it was one who survived Darkseid’s arrival!
is it my imagination or is the art WAY BETTER Than usual
2 yeah at one point when he had Brainic he slapped around the question pretty good. ethier leftover Brainic or lex gives himself super strength all the time. His main foe is Superman he understands punching
3 early 200s writers liked having Luthor save the day
spoiler
Lex saves the day here
HE KINDA SAVES THE DAY IN BOTTH INFinite and final crissis.
I’d rather follow Lex. If your follow ethier one you’re going to prision at some point. I’m getting busted by Superman thANK YOU
The animation was really nice in this one, for sure.
I guess you can No Prize Lex having some remnant of super strength left over from Brainiac. It makes more sense than anything else. Although with him rattling no about how he missed be merged with him, I would think he’d bring it up if he had any remnants left. But it works.
I’m not a big fan of the “villain saves the day” bit, but I will let it slide for this arc, because this whole season has really been Lex’s story.
Thought on Lex’s cosmic knowledge.
His fusion with Brainiac left Lex with a greater than 12th level intellect. Additionally, Brainiac has traveled extensively throughout the cosmos. Presumably this was a facet of his mind that was left with Lex.
As seen above, your No Prize makes sense. Certainly more sense than regular Lex being THAT smart. I know he’s a genius, but geez!
Great work, Franklins (and Tim), covering the first half of one of my absolute favorite TV finales of all time.
I like to think the was indeed the death of Grodd, and all the other LOD members who we don’t see at the very end. It’s the series finale, after all—and the denouement of the extended animated universe— so why not add the dramatic finality of a whole bunch of characters kicking the bucket? Besides, they aren’t too many images cooler than a ranting gorilla being sucked out of a spaceship airlock—let’s treat it with the appropriate seriousness.
I guess I can buy Luthor being able to tell where Brainiac was located by the positions of the stars—there was a planet or two there, he’s a genius, and the animators took care to show him gazing intently at the image while it lasted—so why not. What I find harder to swallow is that by pressing the exact same button on his belt, he could both shoot gas out of Goldface’s helmet (what, did he sabotage the helmet while Goldie was asleep?), and take control of Grodd’s super-powerful brain. Yes, I know, because comics.
When Tala apologizes to Grodd and offers to help him, and he says, “I want Luthor’s big, fat head on a platter,” she subtly cocks an eyebrow. Love that; it’s true, the animation in this episode is especially good.
And the storytelling is even better, never more so than in the big intra-villain battle. Nearly every villain got to show of their particular power or skill in thrilling detail (though it’s kind of hilarious how Luthor resorts to trying to whack the Electrocutioner over the head with a fire extinguisher). And the semi-comedic subplot of Killer Frost vs. Toyman provides a nice contrast to the pure violence. I didn’t mind one bit that this episode didn’t feature the League; the whole thing is nearly perfect.
Finally, you didn’t call out my own pick for Justice League Communicator: Once he’s got her trussed up and ready to serve as a magic tuning fork, Luthor refers back to Tala’s bout of begging with a sly, “I’m a sick person too.”
In DCAU terms, I think all of these guys stayed dead too, for that very reason. And even “in canon” comic appearances aren’t canon to me unless they’re on screen.
Lex’s magic belt buckle did a lot of heavy-lifting in this story arc! But the rest is so good, I can forgive it.
The “sick person” retort was indeed quite nice. The voice cast was at the top of their game in this one too!
I can totally believe that Lex’s universal belt buckle actually does what he *thinks* of doing. thanks to the crazy tech at his disposal in the Hall of Doom. Just one of a few things I didn’t get into because I was already talking too long. And you all don’t know the herculean effort Chris had to do editing the recordings. Bless you, Chris!
Oh, “sick person” was on my list. Course my list was practically all of Lex’s line, so I had to prune it a smidge.
Yeah, at this point its hard to mention it all, or our episodes would be 4 hours long covering a half hour episode!
I do have one topic I didn’t get into for time purposes. I wish, budget’s be damned, that the intro had been completely redone swapping Legion of Doom characters for Leaguers, and vice versa. I even have a rough casting list worked out. Being honest with myself, I’m spoiled because newer shows would do that bit, and JLU was just a few years early for that gimmick. But man, it would have been cool.
I’d love to hear other opinions on villains to swap for heroes, but here’s mine.
Green Lantern – Sinestro
Superman – Luthor
Red Tornado – Major Disaster
Black Canary – Silver Banshee
Flash – Heat Wave
Question – Toyman
Batman – KGBeast
Shayera – Volcana
Wonder Woman – Cheetah
Shining Knight – Crowbar
Vigilante – Bloodsport
Martian Manhunter – Grodd
Supergirl – Tala
Green Arrow – Merlyn
I like that! I wish they had taken the time to do that, maybe with a different, darker theme. Enterprise did that with the Mirror Universe episodes, right? That would have been a lot of fun.