Change My Pitch Up

One of my favorite comics-based television series was the Justice League Unlimited. Its roots were the the serious-but-still-fun 1990s Batman: The Animated Series and meant as a sequel to the Justice League. JLU focused on expanding the standard, comics-DC Universe into the DC Animated Universe. While revolving mainly around the standard JL team (Superman, Batman, et. al.) each episode had guest stars and cameos ranging from the obvious (Aquaman) to the obscure-ca.-2004 (the Crimson Avenger). Again, it balanced good old fashioned superheroics – there was a drag-out fight almost guaranteed in each episode – with surprisingly consistent and three-dimensional characterization and an evolving continuity. While the episodes stood on their own, there was an overall arc which was very clearly plotted out from the beginning and expanded on within each episode.

Img. co DCAU Wiki.

The Justice League Unlimited episode “Ultimatum" presented a team of superpowered individuals named the Ultimen. Pictured above, the Ultimen consisted of , from left to right: Wind Dragon, Juice, Long Shadow, Downpour and Shifter. The Ultimen were a the face of a secret project meant to discredit the Justice League, who were growing too powerful for the shadow government's comfort.

Image co. here and here.

If the character designs seem a little familiar, that's because these are all rehashed versions of the superheroes created by Hanna Barbera. Invented for the numerous incarnations of the 1970s and 80s DC comics cartoon Super Friends, they were an attempt to insert some multiculturalism an viewer-identification (the previous characters meant for the latter purpose were the unpowered Wendy and Marvin and fit in about as well as it sounds.) Wind Dragon was based on Samurai, Juice on Black Vulcan, Long Shadow on Apache Chief, and Downpour and Shifter on Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins. One of the numerous in-jokes about the Ultimen was that they reflected the mores of the Superfriends era. In contrast to the secretive Justice League, the Ultimen were publicly-oriented and unnaturally wholesome; even Superman, the invulnerable boy scout, had trouble withstanding their wholesomeness.

One of the other major alterations to the series was the updating of Aquaman's incarnation to that of the 1990s Peter David version. No longer the useless-on-land hero of yesteryear, Aquaman became the warrior-king of 70% of Earth's surface. It is the conflict between Aquaman and the Ultimen that is the meat of this post, referenced way the hell up at the beginning. It is also my absolute favorite scene in Justice League Unlimited. Context-wise, the Ultimen and the Justice League got into the requisite battle and Aquaman has just taken out Downpour's sibling Shifter. (It should start playing at 2:03 into the video.)

Having grown up watching Superfriends - thanks Cartoon Network - I have to say that was a long time coming.