Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 21-22: Wild Cards
This episode is one of the most fun episodes of Justice League, and that's not simply because it stars the final appearance of Mark Hamill's Joker in the DCAU. (Chronologically he'll show up in Batman Beyond... which aired like three years before Justice League was produced) And, wow, Joker does go out with a bang. It's a very fun episode that has a good chunk of it spent with Joker pretending to be a reality TV host as he broadcasts the events of the episode to the audience, both fictional and us in the real world, about the exploits of the Justice League as they try to disarm the crapton of bombs he's planted in Las Vegas, all the while unleashing Evil Teen Titans... er... the Royal Flush Gang upon the Justice League.
This episode is one of those where Joker truly feels threatening, with the threat of planting bombs in wacky locations all over the city, as well as commanding a group of superpowered impressionable kids by 'freeing' them from a government compound, making him as much a threat to the League as Luthor or Grodd is. And while lesser stories might simply relegate Joker's scary factor by downplaying his clowny antics and highlighting insane gory shit like cutting his own face off and slicing his tongue, this is one of those stories that makes Joker feel threatening while still maintaining an aura of sick fun instead of just... sick.
The Royal Flush Gang is also an interesting concept, too. In the comics, the Royal Flush Gang is an ever-rotating group of villains based on playing cards, and they've actually made a prior (or future, chronologically-wise) appearance in the DCAU during the course of events of the far-flung future of Batman Beyond. Here, they add a pretty cool backstory of Joker waltzing into a government facility to free the imprisoned metahumans inside, where they like him so much that they go along with his insane schemes unquestioningly. They're also voiced by the voice actors of the Teen Titans, which is a bit of a nice meta-thing that I never caught up until now. There's also a bit of power-swapping to make them more threatening to the League and not simple copy-pastes of the Titans, but it's still very, very cool to listen to King (Scott Menville) channel the Robin voice while being a smarmy smug bastard, or for Queen (Tara Strong) be a perky alpha-bitch style member of the group that is a stark contrast to her subdued, gothic role as Raven. Ten (Khary Payton/Cyborg) and Jack (Greg Cipes/Beast Boy) don't get much to do beyond fighting the League and are generic thugs personality-wise, but listening to Cyborg and Beast Boy's voice actors trash-talking Batman is just hilarious. Also the fact that I'm actually doing this review while starting my coverage of Teen Titans' second season is a fun moment for me, too.
That leaves Ace (Hyden Walch/Starfire), but we'll talk about her way, way, later down the line.
The episode is just a lot of fun, skipping back and forth between Joker in the studio to things happening in Las Vegas. The League parts are mostly standard fighting scenes and bomb-disarming ones, at least at first, but you can't deny that seeing another superpower brawl is entertaining as all hell. One of the key events is the Green Lantern and Hawkgirl romance as we inch ever closer to the season finale, and in this episode (which starts off with a 'waaait are they having sex?' fake-out to the older, more perverted audience) we have Green Lantern get nearly killed when they failed to contain one of Joker's bombs. And while we as the audience knows that Lantern will be fine and dandy, Hawkgirl doesn't know that, and her concern, her panicked CPR attempt and biting back at orders because she wants to tend to Lantern first is well-done. This is TV-land so shocking a non-breathing, pulseless human with a jolt of electricity instantly revives him, but hey, I've since grown to accept that we will never get a realistic representation of medical emergencies in TV shows. So anyway. And the scene at the end when the crisis is over, where John confronts the ever-evasive Hawkgirl about their mutual feelings, telling her to take off that war-space-viking helmet and see each other as a man and a woman is well-done. (The little joke with the old lady in Las Vegas finally scoring jackpot is hilarious as well)
There are some other highlights for the other members of the JLA, the most awesome of which is yet another nice Flash moment where literally within seconds he zooms out with the final bomb and lets it explode harmlessly outside the city. As I keep mentioning, it's very rare for Flash to actually have a badass moment that shows off just how powerful super-speed (when used seriously) can be, and that's an awesome bit right there. Though considering that the focus is on the Joker/Harley/Batman/Ace and Green Lantern/Hawkgirl plot, the other two leaguers that show up -- Superman and Flash -- really didn't have much to do beyond fighting scenes. (Diana and J'onn are absent beyond short non-speaking cameos in Joker's monitors).
The highlight is obviously just listening to Mark Hamill's Joker ham it the fuck up in the studio in such a fun yet disturbing way that I've never really been satisfied with any other incarnation of Joker, animated, live action or printed. In between talking about how his ratings will fly through the roof due to all the wanton violence and explosions (that's true, Michael Bay is making a crapton of money) and being a bit meta by talking about Green Lantern and Hawkgirl's relationship ("will Hawkgirl ever stop sublimtaing her passions with that big honkin' mace?") or counting down from 23 minutes, the runtime of a cartoon episode ("what, did you expect a round number?") he's just such a riot to have on screen that I'm half-tempted to just stop writing this review and just do a big marathon of all Joker episodes in Batman: TAS. The lines here are all just so hilarious. "I can't believe he didn't suspect a trap... you see what happens when you don't watch enough television!?" "The suspense is killing me. 'Course, it's gonna be the explosions that kill them."
While the first part ends with the mini-cliffhanger of Green Lantern's "death" -- which is kind of moot since the two-parters in season two are aired together anyway -- the Joker reveals his slightly-meta plot. Everyone is watching with all the medical drama, violence, death and whatnot, and his master plan isn't just to dick around with the League and having them scramble all over Las Vegas for bombs. No, getting TV ratings, while a very Joker-y scheme to play, isn't his master plan. His plan is to get everyone to watch the TV show, watch the Joker and little shell-shocked Ace on the telly, while Ace unleashes her power -- which is the ability to alter perception and basically drive everyone insane. The best part of it, well, is that Joker's already immune to all of Ace's powers because he's already crazy. And as the viewers, well, you're "feeling" the effects of Ace, too, as a random giant cartoon mouse walks behind Joker as he monologues about his big plan. It's not as super-meta as Deadpool comics, but hey, this is the right balance between being meta and being self-contained.
Ace and the rest of the Royal Flush Gang got their origin story in the first part, and some in the second part, and it's actually pretty tragic. Captured at young ages by government agents (we'll explore this a bit more in future seasons) that wouldn't feel out of place in an X-Men story, poor Ace is just feared by everyone else, she's implied to have lobotomized her parents by accident, no one wants to play with her, and she's even put with one of those power-restraining collars that seem to be all the rage in superhero settings. Even during the 'interview' phase of Joker's show, other Royal Flush Gang members like Queen and Ten are a bit skittish when talking about Ace, noting without question that Ace is the most powerful of them.
Of course, with Joker in the picture, Batman has to be on the forefront of all of the action, and after taking out Jack, he confronts Harley Quinn, who is an absolute delight to see in her old classic domino-full-body-jester outfit. She's been spending short scenes in the first part as Joker's helicopter camerawoman, before all the superhero action grounds her helicopter and she gets to talk to Batman. Batman employs a classic tactic that we saw from 'Injustice for All', and I bet several times over Batman: TAS too, where he tries to play with these villains he's familiar with, these villains he understands, and try to turn them against each other. Yeah, Ace is just a teenage kid, but Batman plants the idea in Harley's head that Ace might replace Harley Quinn as Joker's favourite sidekick if not quite Joker's girlfriend. Joker going all "the best sidekick a homicidal maniac ever had" on-screen for Harley to hear isn't helping matters either.
Of course, while Harley whacks Batman (which is a nice moment of awesome for Harley right there, too) for ever suggesting this, the seeds of doubt has been planted, and throughout the second part Harley shows up at the Joker's base, confronting him over betraying her. Joker is the epitome of all abusive boyfriends, because he mollifies Harley's anger with a few well-placed sweet words... before bitch-slapping her for playing into Batman's hands and leading him right to their doorstep. It's quite... hard to see this emotional and physical violence as an adult, whereas as a kid it was just harmless slapstick comedy. Amazing how a decade of worldly knowledge changes perspective, huh.
Batman, however, feels the brunt of Ace's power and begins to hallucinate as well, losing sense of perception, seeing upside-down frogs and whatnot. The animation team really could've made it more psychedelic instead of just, well, vertigo-with-hallucinations, but Disney this ain't. Joker beats Batman quite brutally, but Batman pulls out the power-nullifying headband from Joker's jacket. Joker might be immune to Ace's powers now, but the fact that he has that headband, something that Ace has expressed nothing but hatred for, is the ultimate sign of betrayal for Ace. It's a bit ironic considering how Batman usually has contingencies against his own teammates (and a sign of parallelism between the two rivals), but for all of Joker's sweet talk about how Ace is his buddy and friend and sidekick, the clown still has this lobotomizing headband in his pocket ready to shut Ace down when she's no longer needed.
Ace... doesn't take it well, and she removes her power from the television viewers and directs it all towards the Joker, showing that even the insane can be driven even more insane. Joker's a bit of a drooling mess at the end of the episode, but considering we know that he'll be back in Batman Beyond, sporting a personality more akin to the modern-age, more psychotic version of the Joker, I can't help that Ace might've simply turned Joker into something more. Oh well, we'll talk about that if I ever cover Batman Beyond.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- The Royal Flush Gang is an ever-rotating group of five villains based on cards, with many, many incarnations in the DC comics. I've talked about them a bit in the review itself, and the meta-ness of them being voiced by Teen Titans voice actors. It's also a very cool coincidence that Joker himself is also the name of a card -- I don't think Joker and the Royal Flush Gang ever worked together in the comics.
- John Lynch, the government agent that captured the pre-Royal-Flush-Gang kids, is a supporting character in DC's Gen-13 comics, where he's less of an evil government agent and more of a benign version of Nick Fury.
- Joker buys his airtime using the alias Gwynplaine Entertainment, which takes its name from a character in Victor Hugo's novel, "The Man Who Laughs." Batman's creators have been known to state that Joker's model has been Gwynplaine from that very novel.
- Harley Quinn references the episode 'Trial' from Batman: the Animated Series when she tells Joker off for an incident where she was traded for a commuted sentence.
- Joker's line when talking about stealing the Royal Flush Gang, "they would've gotten away with it too, were it not for me meddling with the kids!" is a twist on Scooby-Doo villains' catchphrase.
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