matt_zimmer | Justice League Umlimited "Dead Reckoning" (Spoilers)

I'm still trying to absorb what I've just seen. An awful lot happened in the space of 22 minutes and I still have yet to decide if I liked it or not.

First off, if Grodd IS dead I have to give it to the writer's for having stones of steel. Luthor SHOULD be in charge of the Legion of Doom and this was the best way to go about it. I actually thought that after Luthor shot Grodd he would rise up and reveal his ultimate plan was to become immortal but that didn't happen. I actually agree with Luthor that Grodd's plan to turn everyone into monkeys was a REALLY poor one after all that build-up. And I LIKE monkeys! Luthor's goal that was shown in I Am Legion is a far more sinister and dangerous one and I'm glad that that looks to be where the arc is building.

There was a LOT of cold-bloodedness in this episode especially Deadman using Batman's body to shoot and kill Devil Ray. The true irony of the situation was that Diana has been shot by him before and would have easily survived. Bruce's sanity may be gone for now though. At least I REALLY hope that this is addressed in Batman's next appearance. Considering only POINTING a gun made him give up being Batman in Batman Beyond's Rebirth there had better be SERIOUS repercussions for him for the rest of the season. Otherwise it will have seemed tacked on. I have faith that the writer's WILL follow up but I have to admit the fact that Batman shot a gun last episode with no ill effects has me fearing the worst. True, he wasn't AIMING it at anyone but still, I had assumed simply FIRING a gun would have been tramatic for him and the issue was never raised.

I don't know boo about Deadman but his accent REALLY got annoying when he was inhabitting Superman. I imagine a bunch of people are going to complain about not knowing anything about him like the rest of the new characters on JLU but the only thing I needed to know about him was that he aggravated me and that was easy enough for me to comprehend.

The villians and guest cast were as good this episode and I am really glad for most of them their original voice actors were back, especially Juliet Landau as Tala and David Ogden Stiers as Solovar. It was great seeing Gorilla City again.

Going back to the cold-bloodedness of this episode I have to admit I was shocked at what happened to the Monk Master after Devil Ray shot him. I was kinda bummed that it was retconned at the end but if I had to choose the writer's killing off the monks or Grodd and Devil Ray the latter two were the smartest choices especially considering they made sure Deadman would be sticking around. I wonder if he and Bruce were to meet again if his explaination would have ANY justification to Batman considering he had threatened to kill him earlier in the episode. No easy answers here.

Bizarro was used rather perversely in this episode. Before now he has been shown to merely be misguided but Luthor programming him with "opposite" commands (which I assume comes from the comic books) is sick on a level I have rarely seen on a kids show. It's just so twisted I can barely wrap my brain around it. I noticed when Superman was fighting him that he had a rather disgusted look on his face and I don't blame him. I rather had hoped that Superman's attitude toward Bizarro would have been touched on since he was Bizarro's FRIEND on the old Superman cartoon but the season isn't over yet. As it stands I can imagine Superman feeling a level of distaste for Bizarro similar to Batman's feelings towards Two-Face only without the sympathy.

The episode was good and well-done for the most part with a couple of snappy one-liner's which are Dwayne McDuffie's specialty. But did I actually LIKE it? I'm still not sure. It sorta reminded of some Buffy episodes I've seen (mainly from season six) that had a LOT of unpredictable twists and jaw-dropping revelations but were somewhat disconcerting to the viewers at the end. I've sure b.t. will take that as a high compliment but honestly I'm a little bit disturbed. I will probably have to give the episode **** for execution but *** for how much I actually enjoyed it. That average's out to ***1/2.