"Justice" By Chad Hudgins

Starting in the fourth season, there have been other heroes from the DC universe showing up and meeting Clark for the first time.  Flash showed up first, and then in season five both Aquaman and Cyborg appeared.  Then this season Clark met Oliver Queen AKA the Green Arrow.  Tonight it all culminated into something I had been hoping for….the creation of the Justice League! 

Before I go in depth I must warn that there will be spoilers 

“Like a Flashback 

The episode started on a high note for me.  We have Chloe confronting one of Lex’s scientists about level 33.1.  For some strange reason he sees this as a reason to pull a gun on her, but the payoff was getting to see a familiar red blur knock the scientist across the room, thus saving Chloe.

Clark speeds after the savior, and what follows is a wonderful scene where they are racing through the city.  Clark ends up in the middle of a basketball game, and sees a character in a red hood standing on the other side of the basketball court.  I only had a slight problem with this, as it put his identity at risk in a big way.  It is made up for in an awesome display of Bart’s super speed.

Clark goes in super speed mode, where everyone around him slows to a stop…you know, the effect they have used since the first season.  He runs up to Bart, reaches out to grab him, and Bart super speeds away.  That was awesome!  They showed just how fast Bart is, he super sped in super speed mode.  It was a very well done effect and awesome to see.

Kyle Gallner reprised his role as Bart Allen, and I couldn’t have been happier to see him.  He really does a wonderful job in his role, and had me laughing several times throughout the episode.  Two things in particular he did that made me laugh was the bad pick up lines he used on Chloe and the even worse Spanish he used.  Bart cleaning out Martha’s fridge also worked well, as that was a nod to the many Flashes of the comic books.

It was nice to see Clark’s initial reaction when he saw Bart, one of happy surprise.  Since they left things on such a good note the last time Bart was on the show, I found it a little odd that Clark was acting so distrustful of him early on.  It worked though considering Bart was known as a petty thief. 

I truly hope that this isn’t the last we see of Bart Allen.

“Oliver’s 5”

A little ways into the episode Bart gets himself in trouble.  It seems his mission is to gain information on the 33.1 labs that have been constructed by LexCorp.  Well, it goes sour, and he gets himself captured by Lex.

That is where Oliver’s team comes in.  When Clark went to see Oliver about Bart’s involvement with Ollie, it is explained about his disappearance.  The reveal of the team put together by Oliver was really fun to see.  The interplay between these characters was just wonderful, with some truly humorous dialogue.  A.C. and Victor Stone have several funny conversations between them. 

One of my favorite movies is “A Knight’s Tale,” and one of the reasons I like it so much is that the characters all go so well together.  They banter, joke, fight, and remain truly loyal no matter their differences.  It makes you care about the characters involved.  That is what I saw with these five characters throughout the episode.

Something I found interesting was Chloe’s involvement in the whole affair.  They basically turned her into Oracle from the comic books.  She was informed by Clark of what was going on, and she played the role of the information hub for the team during their mission.  If for some reason Chloe was ever introduced into the DC comic universe, this would be a great role for them to put her in.  Plus I had a good laugh when they codenamed her Watchtower, after the JLA base in the comics.

“The Mission Impossible” 

This is where the real meat of the episode was.  Clark went ahead of the team to save Bart, but accidentally entered a room full of refined Kryptonite.  Since Clark could have handled this whole mission by himself, they keep him in this room for most of it.  This caused the junior Justice League to have three parts to their mission.  First was to rescue Clark, second was to rescue Bart, and third was to destroy the facility.   

First off, I loved the introduction of the codenames.  The fact that Oliver dubbed Clark “Boyscout” was hilarious.  The mission allowed some of the heroes to show off some of their abilities.  Cyborg hacking into the mainframe was an extremely well done scene, as was Green Arrow slicing Lex’s face with an arrow.  One thing I found strange was the fact that Aquaman had practically nothing to do.  They conveniently put the lab off of a body of water, which gave him the underwater access; but other than that he wasn’t really that helpful on their mission.

The thing I loved in particular was Clark saving Bart from his containment chamber.  Once that part of their mission is finished, Oliver informs Clark that he will be blowing the facility sky high.  I was happy that Clark wanted to make sure that everyone was out first, since that is something Superman would do.  Many people complained of the “Right Stuff” strut away from the exploding factory.  You know what though?  I loved it!  They looked very powerful, like a group of people you don’t want to mess with.  It gave me goose bumps.

“What is Lionel’s Deal?”

I think this is a question everyone has been asking themselves since the fourth season.  He just does not stay very consistent with his actions.  I think that is planned though, and hopefully soon we will find out what motivates our favorite villains father.  Lex showed him a picture his security camera took, and all it showed was a red blur.  Lex thinks it has something to do with Clark, but Lionel lies and says that Clark was with him for dinner during that time period.

Why did Lionel lie?  Is it to protect Clark, or is there some personal reason Lionel wants to keep these things secret?  Only time will tell.

“In Conclusion” 

What can I say?  I loved this episode!  It was a pure superhero action romp that kept me entertained the whole time.  The only thing that would have made it better is to have the Justice League kick the snot out of Brandon Routh.  But I guess you can’t have everything.

Seriously though, the action was good; as was the characterization of the team.  The final goodbye between Lois and Oliver was sad, but truth be told I don’t feel so bad for her; not when you know the man she eventually snags.  The episode ended on a great note when Oliver and his team leave Clark’s barn with Ollie saying “Let’s go save the world.”  Oh, and Chloe, I think you meant Super Friends…not Amazing Friends.

This is probably the closest I’ll get to ever seeing a live action JLA, and I hope we get to see them again.  “Justice” deserves a superb five out of five.

Picture from Kryptonsite.com

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