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June 14, 2005
Billy Batson on TV after 30 years!
Holy Moley! Captain Marvel returned to television last Saturday in one of the best Justice League Unlimited episodes ever. This particular episode was written by Dwayne McDuffie and J.M. DeMatteis (who writes the funny Justice League stuff with Keith Giffen). They found the perfect actor to record Captain Marvel’s dialogue: Jerry O'Connell, from Sliders and Crossing Jordan. His young voice coupled with the script really brought the Big Red Cheese to life (“Golly! Gosh! Nice to meet you, Mr. Superman, sir”). There were many comedic moments in the episode, the best one being Captain Marvel’s naïve ability to trust his fellow man, which unfortunately extends to Lex Luthor. Lex is not only running for President, he’s re-building a whole city area to help the under-employed. Superman isn’t buying any of it, but he fails to see the subtleties of Luthor’s plot, and this puts him on a headlong course against the good Captain. Of course, this leads to a battle between the two superpowers, but it’s comical as they destroy building after building in a mad rampage to stop each other. They’ve never had Superman uses his powers in such an unrestricted manner! I liked some of the other touches that respected Captain Marvel’s past: his eyes were dots and his school name was “C.C. Binder Elementary” after his creator. DC and Warner Brothers are sitting on top of a gold mine and they don’t even know it; Captain Marvel is the ultimate young person’s wish fulfillment fantasy. If Harry Potter can be a successful book and movie franchise, there’s no reason why Billy Batson can’t be as well.
Another cool recent episode of JLU was “Double Date” written by Gail Simone, and if Oracle had made an appearance, this would have been a Birds of Prey episode. Green Arrow and Black Canary had to protect a super-criminal called Mandragora, who is in the Witness Protection Program and waiting to testify against the Mafia. Huntress, who saw Mandragora murder her parents as a child, wants to find Mandragora and kill him. She gets an assist from The Question, voiced by the excellent Jeffrey Combs from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Re-animator. I love this version of the Question, as the writers took him back to his Steve Ditko roots, examining conspiracy theories and digging into the truth, rather than being another kung fu dude like the Denny O’Neil version. Great fun watching Canary and Arrow together and we get to see that famous “Canary Cry” animated at last! I love Canary’s comment (“Ewwww”) at the Huntress’ randy behavior in the last scene. It would be great to have a boxed DVD set of all JL and JLU episodes. Nuff said.
