CASE FILES - Justice League's "Injustice for All"

NOTE:  This article obviously contains SPOILERS.  Proceed at your own risk!

Episode Details

• Writer:  Stan Berkowitz

• Director:  Butch Lukic

• Animation Studio:  CNK International (formerly Koko Enterprises Ltd.)

• Original Airdate:  September 6, 2002 (Part One), September 13, 2002 (Part Two)

Official Summary

When Lex Luthor discovers that he has contracted an incurable case of kryptonite poisoning, he blames the Man of Steel. Using his vast personal fortune, Luthor hires a team of the world’s most powerful supervillains to destroy Superman and the Justice League. He taps Joker, the Ultra-Humanite, Solomon Grundy, the Shade, Star Sapphire, Cheetah, and Copperhead to assist him in his diabolical efforts. The entire Justice League must assemble to face their greatest challenge yet.

My Summary

Busted by the Justice League in a sting operation and diagnosed with terminal cancer, Lex Luthor vows to destroy Superman and his allies before his impending demise.  Escaping from prison with help from the Ultra-Humanite, Luthor hires a group of professional supervillains to carry out that task.  Calling themselves the Injustice Gang, they seek the Justice League’s destruction, but rivalries and in-fighting threaten to destroy the fledgling team before they can carry out their mission … a situation made worse by the manipulations of their prisoner Batman.

Voice Cast

• George Newburn as Superman

• Kevin Conroy as Batman

• Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman

• Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern, Prison Guard (Uncredited), Public Television Announcer (Uncredited)

• Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash, Cop (Uncredited)

• Maria Canals-Barrera as Hawkgirl, Batcomputer (Uncredited), Police Dispatcher (Uncredited)

• Carl Lumbly as J’onn J’onzz

• Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor

• Mark Hamill as The Joker, Solomon Grundy (Uncredited)

• Ian Buchanan as The Ultra-Humanite

• Olivia D’Abo as Star Sapphire

• Steven McHattie as The Shade

• Sheryl Lee Ralph as Cheetah

• Efrain Figueroa as Copperhead

• Jason Marsden as Snapper Carr

• Grant Heslov as Doctor Patel

• Ashley Edner as Trina

Background

In developing a series like Justice League, the creative team had to deal with the inevitable comparisons to their predecessor:  the collection of seven Hanna-Barbera cartoons that are collectively referred to as Super Friends (1973-1985).  As a result, there were times when Producer Bruce Timm’s initial impulse was to avoid certain subject matter rather than jump in and encourage those comparisons.  Case in point:  when it came to “Injustice for All,” the episode featuring a “Legion of Doom”-style team-up of costumed supervillains, Timm initially resisted the premise, saying “it was too Super Friends” (Harvey, “Rich Fogel Talks”). Fortunately, Producer / Writer Rich Fogel and Producer / Character Designer James Tucker “convinced him that [they] had to do a story like this” (qtd. in Harvey, “Rich Fogel Talks”) and, eventually, Timm even warmed to the idea, as he revealed at the 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con:

[T]hat’s one of the cool things about this show … that, once you start doing a show like the JLA, there’s just certain things that you have to do.  You know, it’s like, you’ve gotta do the Injustice Gang, the Legion of Doom … whatever you want to call ‘em.  […] And the cool thing about the Injustice Gang is that they’re cool, but they’re kinda uncool.  They’re kind of corny, but we tried not to fight the corniness of it.  It’s like, no, this is the show where literally all the supervillains team up and fight all the super guys.  And it’s just a really fun episode. (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”)

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, this two-part episode was pulled from the schedule for nine months.  In theory, it should have run on January 21st and January 28, 2002 (the date that the two-part “Paradise Lost” aired, the subsequent episode in terms of production order), but it dropped instead on September 6th and September 13, 2002.  The official story is that it was held back to coincide its release with the Justice League:  Injustice for All video game for Game Boy Advance, but I’m not so sure, as Midway Games acquired the Justice League license from DC Comics and Warner Bros. Consumer Products on April 29, 2002 (Allstetter, “Justice League Video Games”), and the video game itself was announced on May 23, 2002 (Allstetter, “Briefly”).  In the end, it was released on November 18, 2002 (Allstetter, “Justice League Video Game”) to little fanfare and certainly no corporate synergy connecting it to the episode that, by that point, had aired two months prior.  That said, to this day, there have been no other given explanations, though I privately speculate they might have held it back simply to use it as a “season premiere” for the fall.

The mystery postponement of this episode caused a major snag to Season One continuity, as “Injustice for All” originally set up material that would have paid off in later episodes, but the jumbled release dates screwed that up.  For example, the Injustice Gang—or, at least, Copperhead, the Shade, Solomon Grundy, and Star Sapphire—returned in “Fury” (original airdate April 7th and April 14, 2002), but since this episode aired first, it caused a host of questions, particularly when the Shade compared the team’s new leader to Lex Luthor, who—in terms of airing order—had not officially appeared yet on the show.  Speaking of which, Luthor did make a silent cameo in “Legends” (original airdate April 21st and April 28, 2002), but casual viewers could not make the connection, especially considering how his face was not fully shown, and he was wearing power armor that wasn’t officially revealed yet.  And while hardcore fans could probably put two and two together, the non-comic book reading viewership was most likely confused.

In addition to those problems, there was also the matter of the international markets, as “Injustice for All” aired overseas first, allowing bootleg copies of the episode to turn up on file sharing applications like Kazaa before its official American airdate. Hell, even Cartoon Network got into the mix, such as when they aired the commercial below in April 2002, teasing viewers with a pivotal scene to an episode they would not officially air for another five months:

In response to the collective confusion and frustration, the creative team was forced to do damage control, such as Bruce Timm’s February 6, 2002 statement to Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone):

How will this affect the continuity of the other Injustice Gang episode, “Fury?”  The answer is “not too much.”  All anyone needs to know is that, in “Injustice,” Lex recruits a group of supervillains to help him take down the Justice League.  I don’t know if this is exact grouping of villains has ever been used before, so whether you call ‘em the Injustice Gang or the Legion of Doom or the Secret Society, it doesn’t really matter.  They never call themselves anything in either episode, but in-house, we generally refer to them as the Injustice Gang, if that makes a difference.  [Anyway], at the beginning of “Fury,” we find them taking orders from a new boss.  That’s about it. (qtd. in Harvey, “Justice”)

However, as the premiere date approached, they allowed themselves to be more candid, such as Rich Fogel’s September 4, 2002 statement to Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone):

We’re very excited that “Injustice for All” is finally airing this weekend.  Putting together Justice League’s first season was like building a huge mosaic or jigsaw puzzle.  Each episode builds our understanding of the team and the world they live in.  With this episode being held back, we felt that a giant piece of the total picture was missing. From the very beginning, we knew fans would want answers to the question of what Batman can contribute to such a powerful group, and how someone like Luthor could become a credible threat.  If this episode doesn’t entirely answer those questions, at least it raises the issues.  We expect that Luthor will become an even greater presence in the second season, and so will Solomon Grundy (who was first introduced in this episode).

Stan Berkowitz wrote a script that bristles with character and wit, and Butch Lukic handled the complex fight choreography beautifully.  “Injustice for All” is packed with action, humor, inside references, and more supervillains than you can shake a stick at.  Hopefully, it was worth the wait. (qtd. in Harvey, “Rich Fogel ‘Injustice’”)

And later, in a 2004 interview with RetroVision CD-ROM Magazine, Producer / Writer Stan Berkowitz reflected on the scheduling snafu:

The episode got a little more of a reputation because they held it back, but they weren’t holding it back for aesthetic reasons, but rather for promotional reasons.  If the video game had come out and millions had been made off of that, it would have been a great move.  This is why we don’t like to say too much about what we have coming up, because there are so many things that can screw things up.  Often, they really are just pedestrian things.  It’s great to have fans who are that dedicated, but sometimes they manifest things into some sort of horrible or evil plan on the part of the network or the studio, and there really isn’t. (qtd. in Gross 15-16)

As for Bruce Timm—who had previously said in a March 2002 interview that the episode was “a character-driven drama with a fairly large dose of humor” and “a damn fine [episode], one of the best shows of the first season, if I do say so myself” (qtd. in Allman)—added some additional insight in the aforementioned 2004 interview with RetroVision CD-ROM Magazine:

That was the show that infamously got delayed for various reasons.  The fans on the Internet knew about it and, the more it got delayed, the more rabid they were to see it.  They started building it up in their head that this was the big, epic Justice League show of all time, and it was never our intention to make it that.  We really wanted it to be a romp; again—and I hate to use this phrase—Super Friends done right.  There’s some fairly broad comedy in it.  James Tucker and I giggle like kids when we see the scene where Luthor is going through Batman’s utility belt, he lifts it up over his head, he’s squinting at it and shaking it, trying to get stuff out of it.  It just makes me laugh out loud.  Literally, though, the fans just thought it was lame.

Then there was Ultra-Humanite.  Most of [the fans] can’t wrap their heads around an intelligent, suave, giant mutated ape.  But, again, it’s total DC Comics.  You’ve got to embrace the weird.  We had a lot of fun with that show, and that’s all it was meant to be.  We got to a point in the script when Luthor has been betrayed by Ultra-Humanite, he turns to him and says, “Et tu, Humanite?”  It’s so bizarre and so hokey, but we love it.  And it also goes back and forth between humor and drama.  There’s the whole Luthor getting cancer from Kryptonite bit, the Joker is played pretty fast and loose, but there is that scene where he’s left alone with Batman, and he pulls out a switchblade and is getting ready to carve Batman up.  I think it’s a good mix.

The weird thing about it is that, just within the last year, I’ve become a big Joss Whedon fan because I’ve discovered [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] on DVD and have been devouring it.  Just a total fan.  At the time, I had maybe watched one or two episodes of Buffy, but when I look back at “Injustice Gang,” it has almost a Joss Whedon kind of mix of humor and drama.  It’s trying to find that balance.  Buffy can get pretty broad; it can get pretty out there, and I’m comfortable with that.  A lot of fans have resistance to it, because they just really want you to treat it seriously all the damn time.  You can’t have tragedy without a little bit of comedy. (qtd. in Gross 15)

In retrospect, while this episode caused a lot of headaches, it was not without its virtues, as soon-to-be writer, story editor, and producer Dwayne McDuffie offered in a 2006 / 2007 interview with Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone):

I love that show.  I don’t know why people don’t like it.  That was the one where I watched it and went, “Oh, I know how to do this.”  Stan Berkowitz doesn’t get enough credit.  He’s another guy who has written all of these incredibly key episodes and people don’t act like he’s the man.  And they should.  “Injustice for All” really informed how I approached those characters.  He gave me a lot of insight into Batman.  Gave me a lot of insight into Superman.  Just again and again. [LAUGHS.] He just writes great shows. (qtd. in Weitzman)

Commentary

When the creative team began pre-production on Justice League, Bruce Timm—already shouldering a series he was initially reluctant to take on—wrestled with the issue of history, specifically the near-decade of continuity that threatened to weigh down their new show like chains on an apparition.  Fearful that the existing histories, characters, and storylines from Batman:  The Animated Series (BTAS), Superman:  The Animated Series (STAS), The New Batman Adventures (TNBA), and Batman Beyond would get in the way of them forging ahead into new territory, Timm made the difficult decision to break from them entirely.  During an 2006 interview on the Justice League:  Season One DVD, he declared how “for the first season, […] we wanted to really establish that the Justice League was its own show” (qtd. in “Inside”), later adding in a 2010 interview how “[w]hen we first started Justice League, our first self-imposed rule that we gave ourselves was that we didn’t want to rely too much on the continuity of our previous series” (qtd. in “Unlimited”).  And, for good or ill, the show stuck by this mandate for the entirety of the first season save for two exceptions:  the Joker and Lex Luthor.  As for the former, Timm dismissed his presence with a simple explanation—“He’s the Joker.  Say no more” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”)—but Luthor’s return was more complex, as the creative team had plans for him beyond selling weapons to militaries both foreign and domestic from the comfort of his penthouse office. Indeed, they wanted Lex Luthor to get back to basics.

While the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986) transformed Lex Luthor into the corporate robber baron we are most familiar with today, it is easy to forget that, prior to DC Comics’ hard reset, there was another Luthor who aspired to be more than just a wealthy plutocrat.  In truth, the villain has held many roles in his time—dictator, scholar, con man, statesman, warlord, and savior among them—but he was best known in the Golden and Silver Ages of Comics as the criminal mad scientist with a grudge against Superman.  Though not as physically powerful as fellow villains like General Zod, Brainiac, or Darkseid, he did compensate with his super-human intelligence, allowing him to build fantastic weapons of war with which to fight the Man of Steel for decades.  And while many applaud his Wall Street transformation, it was not without its detractors—as fantasy writer Neil Gaiman lamented in an April 1994 interview, “[i]t’s a pity Lex Luthor has become a multinationalist.  I liked him better as a bald scientist.  He was in prison, but they couldn’t put his mind in prison.  Now, he’s just a skinny Kingpin” (qtd. in Yronwode 12). It was in the spirit of that sentiment that the creative team—eager to try something new with the character—decided to tear down the STAS Lex Luthor and rebuild him from the ground up.

During the initial press tour for Justice League, Bruce Timm spoke of their new Lex Luthor with a frequency that might make one wonder if he was, in fact, the eighth member of the primary cast. For example, at the 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Timm offered the following description of his transformation:

What we’ve done with Luthor is kind of fun.  Again, going back to James [Tucker’s] concept of being true to the kind of wild DC Comics’ roots—you either love it or you don’t, and we kinda love it—we thought that we’ve done enough stories with Luthor being the corporate tycoon.  That was fine in the ‘90s, but we’ve done it.  And then we did it with Batman Beyond again with Derek Powers, so we needed a new take on Luthor. So, we thought to bring him back to his basics, so he’s kind of the old, mad scientist / supervillain Luthor. (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”)

He would later expand on these changes in a 2004 interview with RetroVision CD-ROM Magazine:

One of the things we talked about doing from early on was taking Luthor out of the corporate boardroom and putting him in the mad scientist outfit; bringing him back to his old school Luthor when he was the crazed, renegade scientist.  In the comics, he was always the supervillain.  We had done a lot of stories of Luthor as the corporate, evil tycoon, and that’s all well and good, but we did it for a number of years on Superman.  Now it was time to change up, especially versus the Justice League, who are these brightly colored, larger than life individuals.  We thought it would be a tricky thing to have corporate Lex in charge of a group of supervillains convincingly.  So, we decided to have some fun and put him back in that damned green-and-purple power suit. (qtd. in Gross 15)

That said, while the transition was easy for Bruce Timm and his creative team, it was not so easy for Luthor himself, as “Injustice for All” showcased a man struggling to adapt to changing circumstances. And while it is true that he would soon excel in his new role, Lex Luthor found himself stumbling with his first steps on the villain’s journey.

Of course, there were mitigating factors to consider regarding Luthor’s graceless transition from corporate villain to supervillain.  Even accused of treason, I’m confident that someone as rich and connected as Lex Luthor could have successfully fought those charges. He is, after all, a billionaire and, if the past several decades are any indication, they are held to a different standard than everyone else, rule of law be damned (not to mention, as someone who routinely works with the military, he would still have friends in high places). Consider, for example, how he evaded similar charges in the STAS series’ pilot, “The Last Son of Krypton,” as well as any punishment from his disastrous team-up with the Joker in “World’s Finest.” At worst, he would have spent a few years in “country club” prison, running LexCorp remotely via Mercy Graves and hiring super-powered thugs to take on Superman from time to time like a mafia don. He would have been fine … had it not been for the cancer diagnosis.

According to the National Cancer Institute, terminal cancer is defined as “[c]ancer that cannot be cured or controlled with treatment and leads to death” (“Terminal”), and—according to Doctor Patel at the beginning of the episode—that is the type of cancer Luthor had. Now, the life expectancy of someone with terminal cancer can vary due to a variety of factors (and we obviously know little of cancer caused by kryptonite poisoning), but—for the sake of argument—let’s say that Luthor had somewhere between six months to a year remaining. This timeline would jibe with his claims in Part One—when threatened with death by Solomon Grundy, he shouted, “Go ahead, do it! You'll be saving me from months of bedpans and feeding tubes!” Of course, considering the increasing frequency of his seizures in Part Two prior to the Ultra-Humanite’s “treatment,” I’m probably being generous. At any rate, faced with mounting criminal charges and his own encroaching mortality, the seemingly-overwhelmed felon just gave up, albeit temporarily. However, during a period of reflection at Stryker’s Island, a dying Luthor ruminated on his long-time adversary and, grabbing for anything to live for, made a vow not unlike the one he made in All-Star Superman #1 (January 2006):

Of course, this oath extended to include the Justice League, as they helped orchestrate the sting and, in a way, he no doubt sees them as an extension of Superman himself. In JLA #11 (October 1997), Luthor declared how “I take his leadership of this preposterous team of alpha males as a direct challenge, a throwing down of the gauntlet, a clear and deliberate escalation of the hostilities between us. I intend to utterly destroy Superman’s private army and, to do so, I have assembled the perfect weapons … my very own ’Injustice Gang’” (Morrison). And, after escaping prison with the Ultra-Humanite, he did just that.

Of course, organizing a team of supervillains created additional problems for Luthor, as his “new hires” were nothing like his old subordinates from STAS. I’ve written previously about the evolution of costumed criminals in the DCAU, and—to summarize—they are eccentric, passionate individuals who act out their bitterness, rage, and sorrow in the most theatrical manners possible and, over time, they have even developed a sort of professional society. They may not have “honor among thieves” in the traditional sense, but there is, at least, a mutual understanding and acceptance of others in their vocation. And a large part of the episode’s drama hinges on the fact that Lex Luthor—despite his long-running feud with Superman—is not one of them.

They were willing to work with him, of course. After all, Luthor has deep pockets, and he did promise to help them destroy the Justice League, the main obstacle for members of their chosen trade. However, their interactions were always laced with tension as Luthor, accustomed to dealing with cowed underlings and sycophants, struggled to maintain order among a group of mercenaries who would just as soon kill him than take orders from him. The Shade, in particular, was especially hostile to and dismissive of Luthor, treating him in a manner similar to how old money would regard the nouveau riche (I suppose that would make Luthor a nouveau méchant). Already in a position of weakness due to his failing health, he maintained their allegiance using the only bargaining chip he had: by offering them more money.

Ironically, the arrival of the Joker towards the end of Part One served to bolster Luthor’s presence in the eyes of the Injustice Gang as, like him or not, the Clown Prince of Crime is a significant figure in their community. Historically speaking, Lex Luthor and the Joker have always had a strange friendship in the comics, aside from the occasional moments when one tries to murder the other, and they acknowledge each other as the greatest adversaries of their respective rivals. Now, I’ve previously speculated that the Joker, either directly or indirectly, is largely responsible for the rise of costumed villainy in the DCAU, and by offering his services as an advisor / creative consultant he is, in his way, facilitating Luthor’s transformation. Along with the Ultra-Humanite—another respected, veteran supervillain—he provides Luthor with a modicum of credibility with the rest of the group.

However, even with the support of a fellow DCAU alum, his transition into a supervillain was difficult and frustrating, given the circumstances. In a September 6, 2002 interview with Comics Continuum, Rich Fogel discussed Luthor’s arc:

When we first started talking about this episode, we knew that Lex Luthor was going to be the moving force behind it.  […]  The challenge was how to get a character as rich and complex as our Lex to convincingly move into this new role. Writer Stan Berkowitz had a lot of fun playing out this transformation, and throughout the course of this episode we see Luthor evolve through almost every version of the character that we’ve seen over the years—including the ‘50s prison gray Luthor!  Although he ends up as sort of a supervillain, Lex’s motivations remain very human.  His escalating frustration with his inability to finish off the Justice League is actually very funny.  Producer James Tucker compares it to Chief Inspector Dreyfuss’ frustration with Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies. […] Clancy Brown really embraced what we were doing and gave a terrific performance here. (Allstetter, “Justice League Animated”)

Of course, by the end of the episode, Lex Luthor—his condition improved via the Ultra-Humanite’s super-science—embraces his new role, which proves problematic following his defeat at the hands of the Justice League. Not only is he arrested in the company of several costumed supervillains and wearing his battle armor, but the very presence of the Joker among their number confirms their previous partnership, making any attempts at feigning innocence untenable. After all, it’s one thing to be accused of wrongdoing, but it’s another thing entirely to be caught red-handed alongside Gotham City’s most infamous killer for a second time. You can almost see the change in the above photo, where Luthor is being led off in handcuffs (or whatever those specific devices are called). The look on his face can be interpreted as smugness, similar to the look actor Robert Downey, Jr. had on his face after being busted for drugs back in April 2001. In a May 7, 2001 editorial published in Time magazine, actress and author Patti Davis reflected on her own experiences, commenting how that look “isn’t smugness. It’s actually honesty, as strange as that sounds. It’s a look that says, There, now you know who I really am.” After decades of being viewed as the man who single-handedly saved Metropolis from economic decline, Luthor is now plainly seen as the criminal that he always was by the world at large. Even though he is at his lowest point, the fact that he no longer has to pretend must be strangely liberating.

His bridges burning behind him, Lex Luthor’s transformation was now complete, as his secret identity has been stripped away, leaving only the criminal mastermind. And while his status quo would frequently evolve over the course of Justice League and JLU, he was—for the moment, at least—the renegade mad scientist that the creative team so desired.

Stray Observations

• While there has never been an official explanation, it is most likely that the title of this episode, “Injustice for All,” is a play on the last line of the Pledge of Allegiance: “with liberty and justice for all.” Along those lines, it could also be a reference to the classic 1979 film or the 1988 Metallica album.

• Though not directly based on any particular storyline, this episode features influences from Action Comics #600 (May 1988), where Lex Luthor learns that he has contracted cancer from his kryptonite ring, and Grant Morrison’s Rock of Ages storyline (beginning in JLA #10; September 1997), where Luthor assembles an Injustice Gang to destroy the Justice League.

• While the Justice League has faced a number of supervillain teams throughout their history, there have been at least three groups specifically referred to as the Injustice Gang:

  • Debuting in Justice League of America #111 (June 1974), the Injustice Gang of the World (above left) was founded by a newcomer criminal mastermind named Libra. Commanding a team featuring Chronos, Mirror Master, Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow, the Shadow Thief, and the Tattooed Man, Libra attempted to steal half of the Justice League’s power using a device called the Energy Transmortifier.

  • Later, Lex Luthor formed his own Injustice Gang in JLA #11 (October 1997; above right), which featured a roster of each League member’s greatest adversary (availability permitting!), including the Joker, Circe, Doctor Light, Mirror Master, Ocean Master, and Jemm, Son of Saturn (who was brainwashed by Luthor into compliance).

  • Finally, Luthor would create a second Injustice Gang in JLA #36 (December 1999) featuring some of the Justice League’s greatest adversaries, which—at the time—were Prometheus, Queen Bee, and General Wade Eiling.

• It should go without saying that the Injustice Gang was used first—rather than, say, the Secret Society of Supervillains or the Legion of Doom—because of its use by Grant Morrison in their JLA storylines four to five years prior.

• While we’re on the subject, it is worth noting that, at no point in this episode or in “Fury,” is this group of supervillains ever identified as the “Injustice Gang.” That said, the Shade later uses the name to describe this team in “Secret Society.”

• First appearing in Action Comics #23 (April 1940), Lex Luthor initially appears in “Injustice for All” very much as he did in STAS (above bottom right), though the design has slightly changed since that series. Initially portrayed as a fit, yet older man (the original character profile from the Kids’ WB! website identified him as being in his “late forties”; “Lex”), this version is taller, leaner, and possesses more pronounced cheekbones. While most likely the creative team wanted to avoid a whole explanation as to the changes in his design (similar to their transformations of Aquaman and The Penguin), it could be interpreted that Luthor’s metamorphosis came about thanks to manipulation from Brainiac.

• Considering the creative team’s “self-imposed rule that we […] didn’t want to rely too much on the continuity of our previous series” (qtd. in “Unlimited”), it is certainly refreshing to see Luthor, his Ocean Liner Deco penthouse office, and LexCorp once again.

• First introduced in the the 1940s to ’50s radio serial The Adventures of Superman, kryptonite has existed in many forms through Superman’s history, though it appears that the traditional green variety first appeared in the comic books with Action Comics #161 (October 1951). In terms of the DCAU, it debuted in the STAS episode “A Little Piece of Home,” where Lex Luthor chanced upon the rock when Superman attempted to foil a robbery at one of his museums. Described as possessing “composition materials […] not even on the periodic table,” this versatile Kryptonian fragment can be used as part of a weapon (the STAS episodes “The Way of All Flesh” and “Legacy”) or power source (the JLU episode “Clash”) but, more often than not, Luthor uses it as a cross to keep his proverbial vampire at bay.

• The episode begins with the Justice League orchestrating a confrontation between J’onn J’onzz (disguised as Superman) and Luthor, where an “incapacitated Superman” tricks him into confessing that he sold weapons to terrorists, which Luthor was involved in as early as the STAS episode “The Last Son of Krypton.”

• During Luthor’s confession, he mentions “Stavros, of the shipping company” as one of his accomplices. This could be a reference to Yanni Stavros, from the BTAS episode “Fire from Olympus.” Working as a scheduler for Maximillian Shipping Lines (owned by Maximillian “Maxie” Zeus), he was “under Interpol investigation for selling vital shipping schedules to hijackers” and was attempting to give information to Commissioner James Gordon in exchange for “a deal with the feds” before Maxie Zeus attempted to kill him with a lightning weapon.

• While we’re on the subject, it’s possible that LexCorp shipped the weapons using Maximillian Shipping Lines, assuming that 1) Stavros didn’t get fired for being a whistleblower and 2) the company survived Maxie Zeus’ arrest and imprisonment in Arkham Asylum and any lawsuits from his theft of the Electron Discharge Cannon and its use against the Gotham City Police Department. Of course, if the company went under, it is just as possible that Stavros could have gotten a job as a scheduler with another shipping company and went back to his old tricks when the heat was off.

• While most likely an Easter Egg, it is kind of fitting if Stavros, assuming he survived his previous attack and successfully testified, was involved in taking down both Maxie Zeus and Lex Luthor.

• Their trap successful, J’onn says, “[s]o much for your image as the benevolent businessman. This is the end of an era” to Lex Luthor. This is obviously a self-reference to the creative team’s new Luthor mission statement for Justice League: out, the slick corporate tycoon from the Post-Crisis era; in, the criminal mad scientist from the Golden and Silver Ages.

• Referring to our previous discussion regarding the creative team reusing materials from STAS to save money, the majority of the cold open is a point-by-point retread of the climax of the STAS episode “Brave New Metropolis.” Both scenes feature a Luthor threatening a Superman with kryptonite, only to escape the LexCorp building in a flying vehicle with the Man of Steel in hot pursuit.

• That said, considering how the Lex Luthor from “Brave New Metropolis” is identical to the Luthor from “our” universe, it stands to reason that they would have similar, if not identical, escape plans.

• During Luthor’s escape, he fires several missiles into his office in an attempt to kill Batman, Green Lantern, and J’onn J’onzz, destroying the top level of the LexCorp building in the process. Shockingly, the blast did not damage Luthor’s private aquarium, where he keeps live sharks as pets. While animated to resemble a blue wall here, the sharks can be seen in STAS episodes like “The Last Son of Krypton” (above left) and “Prototype,” as well as the JLU episode “Question Authority” (above right).

• During his escape attempt, Luthor experienced a seizure, and could have died had Superman not saved his vehicle from crashing. Waking up in what I assume to be a prison hospital, Luthor learns that he has “a rare form of blood poisoning” caused by his constant exposure to kryptonite radiation over the years. While not explicitly referred to as cancer in this episode, it will be in the JLU episodes “The Return” and “Question Authority,” with the latter directly stating that his kryptonite poisoning led to the cancer diagnosis.

• I find it incredibly odd that Luthor acts shocked when he’s told that kryptonite radiation can be harmful to humans over the long term. I mean, Professor Hamilton recognized it as potentially harmful, so much so that he kept S.T.A.R. Labs’ kryptonite sample in a lead safe, as shown in the STAS episode “Feeding Time” (though it could have been done as a courtesy to Superman). In addition, in the STAS episode “World’s Finest,” Batman discovered that kryptonite could be deadly to humans while researching the Laughing Dragon statue, which had “passed through several owners, all of whom died prematurely.” My only thought is that, in the aforementioned “A Little Piece of Home,” Luthor was so eager to test out the kryptonite on Superman that he did not give his scientists enough time to fully analyze it.

• At the beginning of the episode, Luthor reveals how he’s “carried [kryptonite] around for years waiting for just the right moment,” either through ignorance, arrogance, or some combination of the two. Considering the amount of time he’s had it around without proper lead shielding, I wonder how many LexCorp employees now mysteriously have cancer from being in close proximity to Luthor’s kryptonite (in “World’s Finest,” Superman reveals that Luthor has been lining his buildings with lead to prevent him from using his X-ray vision, but that may only be the outer walls). For that matter, how many military officers and scientists have cancer after working on or near anti-Superman weaponry through Project: Achilles or its successor, Project: Cadmus? Forget Luthor selling arms to terrorists for a moment—imagine the class action lawsuit against LexCorp by current and former employees for employer negligence and unsafe working conditions.

• First appearing in Superman #9 (September 1987), Stryker’s Island Penitentiary is the Metropolis analogue to Rikers Island in New York City. Similar in function to BTAS’ Stonegate Prison, it is the largest prison facility in Metropolis, with protocols for holding both regular and super-powered criminals. A regular home away from home for the Man of Steel’s Rogues’ Gallery, it frequently appeared on Superman: The Animated Series.

• Luthor’s gray prison uniform resembles the outfits worn in the 1960s during artist Curt Swan’s tenure on the Superman titles. Designed to express the dichotomy between him and his opponent—the brightly-colored hero—the late writer Peter David reflected on this era’s Luthor in an April 1994 interview: “[o]n the one hand, you had Superman, this incredibly powerful hero and, on the other, you had Lex Luthor, a bald guy who seemed so unassuming, who wore prison fatigues—and who repeatedly brought Superman to the brink of defeat” (qtd. in Yronwode 12).

• In this scene, it is unknown how much time has passed since his arrest or whether he is currently awaiting trial or has already been sentenced. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter to the story, but it’s stuff I think about.

• Angry at the prisoner in the neighboring cell blasting his opera late at night, Luthor slams his fist on the wall and shouts, “Hey, keep it down! Can’t a body die in peace around here?!” Obviously, this a moment of dark humor for Lex, who’s still coming to terms with his cancer diagnosis, but I wonder if, as stated above, part of him has given up. After all, in a short period of time, he’s lost his company, his freedom, and—at some point in the near future—his very life. Many in his position would just give up and wait for death, but they’re not Lex Luthor.

• Hired by Luthor to assist in his escape from Stryker’s, the Ultra-Humanite becomes his first recruit for the Injustice Gang. A favorite of James Tucker, the character’s Justice League design was co-created by Tucker (who designed the body) and Bruce Timm (who designed the head; Davis, “Justice”). At the 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Timm described the Ultra-Humanite as a “suave, quiet villain in this goofy gorilla body” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”).

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for the Ultra-Humanite: “[a] brilliant scientist who transplanted his brain into the body of an albino gorilla” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

• Making his first appearance in Action Comics #13 (June 1939), the Ultra-Humanite has the distinction of being the first comic book supervillain, predating Lex Luthor and the Joker by almost a year.

• Funny story: in his original appearances (such as the comic strip above left), the Ultra-Humanite was a bald mad scientist, and when Lex Luthor first appeared in Action Comics #23 (April 1940), he had a full head of red hair (above top right). However, in a Superman comic strip from October 1940, an artist drew Luthor with a bald head (above bottom right), possibly after confusing him with the Ultra-Humanite (Tiefenbacher), who last appeared in Action Comics #21 (February 1940). At any rate, the visual stuck, and from then on Luthor was bald.

• Fortunately for Luthor, the Ultra-Humanite was never married to a particular look, as he has worn many over his long, often contradictory history. A master of swapping bodies via brain transplant, he adopted his most famous form—that of an albino gorilla (above left)—in Justice League of America #195 (October 1981).

• Of his origins, my personal favorite is the one from JSA #36 (July 2002), where he learns that what he considers to be his personality was an impurity that developed when the original mad scientist experimented on his own brain and, over time, this impurity literally rewrote over the mind and identity of that scientist and took control of his body (above right). In my headcanon, this is the reason for his appreciation of art and a refined aesthetic, shown both here and in “Comfort and Joy.” In his mind, he presents himself as the personification of “human advancement” to compensate for the fact that, at his core, he’s a forgery of humanity. He’s not human; he’s humanite.

• Considering Bruce Timm’s fascination with splicing his DC adaptations with Marvel analogues (“ZETA”), I speculate that, when creating the Ultra-Humanite’s design, the creative team combined The Leader’s “Jiffy Pop” head (above left) with The Beast’s ape-like body (above right).

• Speaking of Beast, it is rather telling that, in the aforementioned 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con, James Tucker referred to their take on the Ultra-Humanite as “sort of like Kelsey Grammer in a gorilla suit” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”), considering how the actor would later portray the Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006; above left), The Marvels (2023; above right), and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026). Should James Gunn go that route, I’d pay to see Kelsey Grammer play the Ultra-Humanite in a future DCU film. Hell, he’s already played an ape mad scientist in the 1995 Mickey Mouse short “Runaway Brain.”

• The program that the Ultra-Humanite is watching when Luthor interrupts the signal may be Madama Butterfly, an opera written by Giacomo Puccini and first performed in 1904 at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

• Since the episode never explains how Luthor and Humanite were able to escape the island that the prison is on, I’m going to assume they stole a boat.

• When Lex Luthor sets fire to an apartment building to create a “small diversion,” I detect a note of disapproval on the Ultra-Humanite’s face. As shown in the above scene from Blackest Night: The Flash #3 (April 2010), while some supervillains have no problem with collateral damage, others prefer not to hurt civilians, limiting their targets to superheroes and law enforcement only. Considering his words to the Joker in Part Two (“Joker, you nauseate me”) and his gift to the orphan children in “Comfort and Joy,” it’s possible that Humanite may be of the latter, and it could be a reason why he chooses to sell out Luthor by the end of the episode.

• Thanks to an awkward use of stock characters, Trina—the child that Batman rescues from the fire—strongly resembles Cassie, the child Wonder Woman rescues from the hurricane in “Paradise Lost.”

• For a secret hideout, Lex Luthor chooses the closed-down Metropolis Pictures Store, which is obviously a reference to the Warner Bros. Studio Store, a chain of retail shops that sold merchandise related to Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and Warner Bros.-related properties. A counterpart to the Disney Store, the Warner Bros. Studio Stores operated in North America from September 20, 1991 (McNary) to the end of 2001 (“AOL”). Its demise coinciding with the production of Justice League, there is no way that this was a coincidence.

• Based on the fact that this is a three-story location (above right), I believe that this may have been based on the Times Square store in New York City, a three-floor retail space formerly at 57th Street and 5th Avenue (Bagli).

• During the scenes in the Metropolis Pictures Store, the backgrounds feature giant statues of generic cartoon characters, much like the Warner Bros. Studio Stores featured giant statues of characters from Looney Tunes and DC Comics (see above). With that in mind, I cannot help but wonder if generic characters like “buck-toothed green duck” (above left) and “wizard frog” (above right) were created to replace Daffy Duck and Michigan J. Frog, who may have appeared in earlier drafts of the script.

Top row, left to right:  two pictures from the BTAS episode “Christmas with the Joker” and one picture from “Harley and Ivy.” Bottom row, left to right:  one picture from the BTAS episode “Harlequinade” and two pictures from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

• According to the DVD commentary for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000, 2002), Background Design Supervisor Ted Blackman was the creator of each of the Joker’s hideouts on BTAS (amusement parks, toy factories, etc.) and Return of the Joker (the Jolly Jack Candy Company), and they each possess his “distinct design stamp” in terms of their visuals (“Commentary”). Even though he didn’t work on Justice League, the designs for the statuary in the Metropolis Pictures Store feel as though they are either an homage to or an imitation of them.

• Among the statues in the Metropolis Pictures Store are replicas of Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins, who were the teenage sidekicks of the Super Friends, replacing Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog from the original Super Friends series. Featured in The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977-1978), Zan and Jayna were Exxorian shapeshifters capable of transforming into any water (Zan) and animal (Jayna) form by touching their fists together and saying “Wonder Twin powers, activate!”

• The Wonder Twins concept would later be revisited via analogue siblings Downpour and Shifter in the Justice League Unlimited episode “Ultimatum.”

• When the scene shifts to the Metropolis Pictures Store, the first character that we see is the Cheetah. It is worth noting here that there have been three female Cheetahs in DC Comics’ history (there was also a fourth male Cheetah, but that’s neither here nor there):

  • First appearing in Wonder Woman #6 (Autumn 1943), Priscilla Rich (above top left) was a debutante suffering from dissociative identity disorder whose alternate personality had her fashion a costumed identity after being upstaged by Wonder Woman at a charity event.

  • Decades later, in Wonder Woman #274 (December 1980), we are introduced to Deborah Domaine (above bottom left), a niece of Priscilla Rich who was brainwashed by Kobra into becoming the second Cheetah.

  • Finally, in Wonder Woman #7 (August 1987), Barbara Ann Minerva (above right) was a British archaeologist who discovered a matriarchal African tribe that worships an [apparently fictional] plant god, the bloodthirsty Urzkartaga, and his champion and consort, the Cheetah. Seeking power and immortality, Minerva consented to becoming the Cheetah’s avatar, but things go wrong, and she finds herself cursed with her own thirst for blood.

• In addition to her status as one of Wonder Woman’s most iconic adversaries, the Cheetah is also notable for her presence as a member of the Legion of Doom, from Challenge of the Superfriends (1978).

• Rather than adapt one of the previous Cheetah incarnations, the creative team decided to create their own interpretation of the Cheetah. In a January 2002 interview with Starlog, Bruce Timm discussed their take, saying how “[w]e definitely have the Cheetah.  My Cheetah is a really radical interpretation. She’s not just a gal in a catsuit anymore; she’s a half-woman / half-cheetah—a biological fusion—and looks different from the original comic book version” (qtd. in Jankiewicz 31). For the record, the Barbara Ann Minerva version is not “just a gal in a catsuit,” though she did look like one.

Left to right: Dr. Kirk Langstrom, from the BTAS episodes “On Leather Wings” and “Terror in the Sky”; Dr. Emile Dorian, from the BTAS episode “Tyger, Tyger”; Professor Achilles Milo, from the BTAS episode “Moon of the Wolf” and the JLU episode “The Doomsday Sanction”; and Dr. Abel Cuvier, from the Batman Beyond episode “Splicers.”

• Rather than utilize Minerva’s mystical comic book origins, the creative team elected to tie her into the “splicer” storyline that began in the BTAS episode “On Leather Wings.” In Part Two of “Injustice for All,” the Cheetah confides in Batman how she is a scientist who, due to lack of funding, spliced cheetah DNA into herself, and this would be expanded upon later, in the 2022 children’s book The Cheetah: An Origin Story, written by Justice League Adventures veteran Matthew K. Manning. An August 2025 YouTube video by Watchtower Database recently expanded upon her DCAU background:

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for the Cheetah: “[a] feline femme fatale who is scratching for a fight” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

• In terms of the character’s visual design (above left), the creative team basically took the Golden Age / Super Friends look and combined it with the Barbara Ann Minerva “werecat” version though, again, here she actually looks like a cheetah rather than a woman wearing polka-dot pajamas.

• In the years since Justice League, this look for the Cheetah has influenced her appearance in other animation projects—such as DC Super Hero Girls (2015-2018, 2019-2021; above top center) and Justice League Action (2016-2018; above bottom center)—as well as her DC Rebirth incarnation, as shown in the above right cover from Wonder Woman #3 (September 2016).

• Chronologically speaking, the Cheetah is not the first “werecat” splicer to appear in the DCAU, as a mutated Selena Kyle appeared in the BTAS episode “Tyger, Tyger” (above left) and Tigress appeared in the Batman Beyond episode “Splicers” (above right).

• When Cheetah first arrives, she alternates between walking upright and walking on all fours. This is the only time in the episode when she does this, and it would be phased out in all subsequent appearances.

• Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something about Cheetah’s growling / roaring sound effects, most likely pulled from an audio library, that rubs me the wrong way, especially considering what cheetah’s actually sound like in the wild. Based on my digging around YouTube for a few minutes (I’m no zoologist), I’d say she sounds more like a panther.

• The first villain that Cheetah encounters is Copperhead, who first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #78 (July 1968). An unnamed contortionist who can fit into incredibly small spaces, his abilities are augmented by a specially-designed snake suit, with metallic and elastic fibers coated with a layer of silicon, allowing him to better squeeze through openings or out of chains and handcuffs. Another favorite of James Tucker (Davis, “Justice”), he modeled his design (kyerkes98) after his Silver Age appearance (above left).

• While, initially in the comics, Copperhead was just a guy in a snake suit, this version appears to also be a splicer, having a serpentine, forked tongue and vertical pupils in his eyes. However, unlike Cheetah—who is herself a scientist and responsible for her own transformation—Copperhead does not strike me as someone capable of splicing himself, implying that he was a test subject for an unknown party.

• Traditionally presented as a white character in the comics, the DCAU Copperhead is presented as a Hispanic or Latino character, as his voice actor for “Injustice for All” was actor Efrain Figueroa, and his voice actor for his subsequent appearances in “Fury,” “Only a Dream,” and “Kid Stuff” was Peruvian actor Jose Yenque.

• While Justice League is Copperhead’s first appearance, Rich Fogel revealed in the July 4, 2016 installment of Batman: The Animated Podcast that there were plans for him to appear on The New Batman Adventures (TNBA), saying how “I actually had a pretty good outline at one point. I can’t remember what the story was, but it was a pretty good Copperhead outline that was written when we weren’t sure whether there were going to be more episodes coming around” (qtd. in Michael).

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for Copperhead: “[t]his venomous villain cannot wait to sink his fangs into the Justice League” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

Top row, left to right: King Cobra, from the Batman Beyond episode “Splicers”; Zander, from the Batman Beyond episode “Curse of the Kobra”; and Kobra and their reptile men, from the Batman Beyond episode “Curse of the Kobra.” Bottom row, left to right: the Ophidians, from the Justice League episode “Eclipsed” and the JLU episode “Chaos at the Earth’s Core.”

• As with Cheetah, Copperhead was not the first snake-themed character to appear in the DCAU, nor would he be the last. On Batman Beyond, we were introduced to splicer King Cobra (who pitched hit for Copperhead in the original “Justice League:  The First Mission” sizzle reel) and the reptile-worshiping Kobra terrorist organization, while Justice League and JLU featured the Ophidians, an ancient race of snake people who can still be found today in Skartaris.

• Next is Solomon Grundy, the super-strong zombie named after a 19th century nursery rhyme who first appeared in All-American Comics #61 (October 1944). Originally an adversary of the Golden Age Green Lantern, he would later go on to become a recurring foe of multiple DC heroes, including Superman and Batman.

• At the 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Timm described Grundy as “this big, hulking critter.  We all know his back-story, but we don’t really get into it in the episode.  You guys know who he is—he’s either a zombie, or he’s whatever you want to say he is” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”). Of course, his DCAU origin would later be revealed in “The Terror Beyond.”

• In addition, Timm also revealed how Grundy was considered as a potential villain for Superman: The Animated Series (STAS) but, “for some reason, the story just never gelled, and we never got around to it” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”).

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for Solomon Grundy: “[a]nother member of Luthor’s gang.  He is a big, hulking zombie, with the muscle to crush any of our heroes” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

• In addition to his status as one of DC Comics’ most iconic villains, Solomon Grundy is also notable for his membership in the Legion of Doom, from Challenge of the Superfriends (1978).

• In designing Solomon Grundy for Justice League, it is obvious that his design drew influence from the Hulk, a recurring subject of Bruce Timm’s artwork (as shown above). Of course, the homage would become more blatant in Season Two, such as in episodes like “Only a Dream” and “The Terror Beyond.” Grundy crush!

• Of course, it is worth noting that, initially, Solomon Grundy was just tall and thin, such as the second to left photo taken from Who’s Who:  The Definite Directory of the DC Universe #21 (November 1986). It wasn’t until recent appearances, such as Batman: The Long Halloween #12 (November 1997) and Solomon Grundy #1 (May 2009), that his physique would take on a more Hulk-like visual.

• While uncredited in the closing credits, Solomon Grundy was voiced by Mark Hamill, who they tried out since they already had him in to play the Joker (Davis, “Justice”). In an April 23, 2004 post on Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone), Bruce Timm revealed that, in sound editing, they had to electronically pitch Hamill’s voice down twenty percent to get Grundy’s distinctive, guttural tone (b.t., “Darkseid’s”).

• Suddenly enveloped in darkness, Cheetah, Copperhead, and Solomon Grundy find themselves in the presence of the Shade. First appearing in Flash Comics #33 (September 1942), the character was largely ignored until he was adopted by writer James Robinson, who utilized him as a morally ambiguous immortal in Robinson’s Starman series (1994-2001).

• In adapting the Shade for Justice League, the creative team eschewed his ’90s revamp, keeping him firmly in his pre-Crisis form as a physically weak combatant who derives his power over darkness exclusively from his walking stick. Designed by James Tucker (kyerkes98), he later admitted during the 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con how “I kind of imagined [him as] sort of a goth” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”).

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for the Shade: “[he] can trap any foe in an inky, black void [that] he shoots from his cane” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

• Upstaging the Shade by snatching his “night stick” with her fuchsia energies, Star Sapphire’s next move is to condescend, referring to the assembled group as nothing but “common criminals.” First appearing in her civilian identity, Carol Ferris, in Showcase #22 (September / October 1959), she would later become the Star Sapphire in Green Lantern #16 (October 1962).

• Historically speaking, it is not surprising that Star Sapphire came off as haughty and conceited, considering how, in her Silver Age origin, she was chosen to be queen of the Zamarons, formerly a sect of female Oans who established a warrior culture independent of the Guardians of the Universe. As Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns said in a May 2005 Wizard interview, Star Sapphire is “all about arrogance. She embodies royalty gone wrong” (qtd. in Morse 17).

• Her “little man” comment at Shade’s expense is in line with her character, considering that the matriarchal Zamarons who originally approached her were similar in temperament to the the Amazon warriors of Themyscira in terms of their distrust and contempt for men.

• While never referred to as Carol for the entirety of Justice League, Bruce Timm did confirm her identity at the 2001 Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con, stating how “[h]er actual backstory is that she’s Carol Ferris, who was Hal Jordan’s boss” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”).

• It is worth noting that, as of Justice League’s 2001 series premiere, there had been three other Star Sapphires in addition to Carol Ferris in the comics. Of course, since Geoff Johns’ 2004-2005 Green Lantern reboot, there is now an entire Star Sapphire Corps.

• It is also interesting to note that, while a Hal Jordan does exist in the DCAU as a test pilot (we saw his plane at the Broome Lake Air Force Base in the STAS episode “In Brightest Day…”; above left), he did not at any point in the past receive the Green Lantern ring (a fact confirmed by Producer Dwayne McDuffie in a January 2, 2006 message board post; Maestro). His only moment as a Green Lantern occurred during a time glitch in “The Once and Future Thing, Part Two: Time, Warped,” when he briefly replaced John Stewart (above right). Now, the absence of Hal Jordan does not necessarily make Star Sapphire lesser in any way—Shayera Hol did just fine without Hawkman for the majority of the series—but, without their shared history, it did flatten her character out quite a bit, reducing her to just another background extra.

• Speaking of which, at no point during their Justice League encounters did John Stewart display any recognition when seeing Carol as Star Sapphire, which implies that, unlike Hal and Carol, they have no history together.

• While updating Star Sapphire’s costume, I’m convinced that whomever did the character design took notes from Bruce Timm’s sketches of Marvel Girl (aka Jean Grey).

• While Carol Ferris is American in the comic books, the creative team decided to give Star Sapphire a British accent. According to Bruce Timm, “Olivia d’Abo plays her.  And we just love her English accent. Her actual backstory is that she’s Carol Ferris, who was Hal Jordan’s boss. She has this psychotic breakdown, and she has this secondary personality, so we figured that her secondary personality could have a British accent” (qtd. in Davis, “Justice”).

• Coincidentally, the fourth Star Sapphire—Deborah Camille Darnell (aka Remoni-Notra), who first appeared in Secret Society of Super-Villains #1 (June 1976)—possessed a French accent (or, at least, had her dialogue peppered with French words) during her initial appearances.

• Speaking of her “secondary personality,” in her early appearances, she was initially portrayed as having dissociative identity disorder, but it was later revealed that her mental faculties were actually being manipulated by presence of the Star Sapphire gem.

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for Star Sapphire: “[t]his sexy supervillainess has class, style, and a killer power gem that allows her to fly and shoot deadly blasts” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

• It is worth noting that Bruce Timm would later return to both Carol Ferris and Star Sapphire for the short-lived Green Lantern: The Animated Series (2011-2013).

• Arriving to greet the assembled villains, Lex Luthor arrives wearing a customized, purple-and-green uniform that is no doubt familiar to many. First appearing in Superman #282 (December 1974), this is the costume worn by Luthor during his appearances in Challenge of the Superfriends (1978).

  • Some may question the color choices here, as it is very similar to looks worn by the Joker and Marvel Comics’ Green Goblin. The reason for this was revealed by longtime DC editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz, who was once quoted as saying how “[v]illains end up wearing lots of purple and green because the heroes already have gotten the best and brightest designs in red, yellow, and blue” (qtd. in Yronwode 12).

  • In adapting this costume for Justice League, the creative team went with a royal purple, rather than the previously-used fuchsia, and many of the older features were modernized, such as a button-down collar replacing the previous disco collar, and the bandoliers were replaced by a more suitable shoulder holster.

• Hawkgirl’s dig about how the Flash being “the fastest man alive” might impact his sexual prowess is an old joke, similar to those who question whether Marvel Comics’ the Thing’s genitals are solid rock as well. It’s a gag that would be revisited in the Birds of Prey’s song from the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode “The Mask of Matches Malone!”

• Using his ring’s energies to grab the Ultra-Humanite’s weapon, Green Lantern referred to him as “Magilla,” which is a reference to Magilla Gorilla, star of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Magilla Gorilla Show, which aired from 1964 to 1967. Based on my speculation as to John Stewart’s timeline, he would have been between three and seven-years-old when the show debuted, so it stands to reason that he may have watched it as a child.

• Sharp-eyed fans can see the learning curve in this episode’s fight scenes between the Justice League and the Injustice Gang. While not as fast-paced and dynamic as later group fight scenes like in JLU or even Season Two, it is light-years ahead of what was seen in the Batman Beyond episode “The Call.”

• Minus the giant cartoon statues, the interior of the Metropolis Federal Building looks too much like the interior of the Metropolis Pictures Store.

• As previously stated, Superman took a serious beating during this fight, one of the early indicators that this Man of Steel appeared weaker compared to his STAS counterpart.

• Even though she participates in this confrontation, Wonder Woman has no dialogue in Part One of this episode.

• Hawkgirl’s arrival is notable for its use of shattering glass, something the creative team was forbidden from using during the BTAS days (Harvey, “Michael”).

• Speaking of whom, the way she was able to send Solomon Grundy—a zombie brought back to “life” via magical means—flying across the room after hitting him with her Nth metal mace foreshadows its ability to negate magic, something seen in “The Terror Beyond” and the JLU episodes “Wake the Dead” and “The Balance.”

• Moments before being taken out by Green Lantern, Copperhead successfully sneaks up on Batman and bites him with the customized fangs in his headgear. According to Wikipedia, the villain uses a poison derived from copperhead snakes, and while real-life copperhead bites are rarely fatal, Copperhead’s toxin can cause death in as little as 30 minutes.

• The Injustice Gang’s escape via the Shade’s shadow powers is consistent with the comics, as he is able to transport himself and others by traveling through the source of his abilities: the extra-dimensional realm known as the Shadowlands (sometimes referred to as the Dark Zone). It is unknown, however, why Copperhead was not taken along with the others.

• During the scene in the Justice League’s infirmary (above left), note how the IV needle was inserted through Batman’s glove.

• Later, when Batman leaves to track down the Injustice Gang (using the tracer he put on Luthor during their encounter), he tells J’onn that he’s “taking the shuttle,” implying that there are, in fact, auxiliary vehicles beyond the Javelin-7.

• Arriving at the Metropolis Pictures Store to join in the “fun” is the Joker, who presumably learned of the Injustice Gang either from news reports or the initial feelers put out during Lex Luthor’s recruitment. First appearing in Batman #1 (Spring 1940), his design utilizes the same one from the flashback sequences in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000, 2002).

• As would be expected, Luthor is less than thrilled by the Joker’s arrival, considering their last encounter in the STAS three-part episode “World’s Finest,” where their joint attempt to kill Superman devolved into the Clown Prince of Crime nearly destroying all of Metropolis with Luthor’s Lexwing.

Left to right: one page from Infinite Crisis #2 (January 2006) and two pages from Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006).

• After some coercion, Luthor allows the Joker to join his team, which is a good thing, considering how he traditionally does not like being excluded from big supervillain team-ups. When asked why he included a “wild card” like the Joker in his Injustice League during his Justice League of America run, Dwayne McDuffie said in an October 2007 interview how “[c]onsidering what happened the last time somebody tried to assemble the villains and didn’t let the Joker play [in Infinite Crisis], it’s probably a good idea to let the Joker play” (qtd. in Boyle).

• Seriously, what the hell was Batman thinking? After successfully tagging Luthor with a tracking device, he traced the Injustice Gang back to their hideout, only to get ambushed by the Joker. Did it ever occur to the Dark Knight to tell his teammates that he knew where Luthor was? Was his ego so bruised by getting saved by Hawkgirl and poisoned by Copperhead that he felt a need to bring the entire group in by himself? Maybe it was pride, maybe it was a flex to remind everyone that he is a solo act, but he kinda brought this on himself.

• Batman wakes up to find himself shackled in the building’s basement. Luthor describes his manacles as titanium restraints with a “stasis field” that blocks his mind from being found by J’onn J’onzz’s telepathy. It may also provide some cover for the rest of the Injustice Gang, seeing as how J’onn could have looked for Lex Luthor’s mind instead (as he unsuccessfully attempted to do in “Tabula Rasa”).

• Batman’s restraints appear to possess strong Jack Kirby influences; compare them to similar ones used on the cover of Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971).

• My kingdom for an HD-quality copy of this image without the opening credits text.

• When the Joker’s suggestion that they kill Batman now is rejected by Luthor, I love how the rest of the team stares at him with a “hmm … maybe we should kill him” look. Considering his reputation, the supervillains must be well aware of how dangerous Batman is even when he is restrained, while Luthor probably still thinks of him as only “a mere mortal in a Halloween costume,” as he referred to him in the STAS episode “World’s Finest.” Unfortunately, this is one of Lex Luthor’s flaws, as he tends to be dismissive of any superhero who isn’t Superman (an example of this occurred in Saga of the Swamp Thing #53 [October 1986], where he blew off the title character, saying how “I know from invulnerable … and this refugee from a canned sweet corn label isn’t it” [Moore]).

• One of the episode’s themes is the focus on Lex Luthor and Batman, the two members of their respective teams that actually have a lot in common. After all, they are both billionaires who, for their own reasons, have elected to put on costumes and associate with super-powered individuals (the Joker possesses the super power of plot armor). The difference, of course, is that Batman is much better at it than Luthor, having more years of experience, along with a unique skill set and a customized cache of weapons. Had he the benefit of time and patience, Luthor would do well to study and emulate the Dark Knight’s methods.

• Solomon Grundy’s electrocution while attempting to open Batman’s utility belt is pretty par for the course, as the Dark Knight has often booby trapped his costume to prevent outside tampering and to protect his identity, such as in the above scene from Batman #609 (January 2003).

• Tasking Grundy and the Ultra-Humanite with watching their prisoner, Batman begins to psychologically manipulate his jailers. Maybe Luthor should have taken the Joker’s advice.

• To facilitate Luthor’s as-yet-unidentified plan, he examines Batman’s utility belt, seeking a way to unlock its secrets. Unfortunately for him…

• …the Dark Knight has manipulated the two physical powerhouses into fighting each other over their pay. Irate, Luthor puts Cheetah in charge of watching Batman.

• As Lex Luthor leaves, I love the detail of Cheetah’s tail swishing back and forth as she studies Batman. According to PetMD, a cat’s swishing tail reveals that they are “intently focused on something,” and they may be preparing to pounce (Gerken).

• Speaking of Cheetah’s tail, look, I know that Justice League is an all-ages show, and the creative team had to take care not to overly sexualize the female characters, including the technically-nude-the-whole-time Cheetah. Unfortunately, this led to some awkward tail placements on her posterior for some shots.

• Experiencing another seizure, Luthor asks Humanite if there’s any way he can “buy more time,” to which he replies that it may be possible … for a price, of course. Cute.

• Despite his mercenary tactics, the Ultra-Humanite seems genuinely concerned over Luthor’s condition in this scene. In fact, based on his appearances both here and in “Comfort and Joy,” I find Humanite’s status as a supervillain somewhat baffling, as he comes off more as a sympathetic eccentric rather than the predator from the comics who murders people and animals so he can transplant his brain into them. I’m starting to see why he was phased out in favor of the more traditionally villainous Gorilla Grodd.

• I know that the Copperhead interrogation scene was meant to show how Batman’s intimidation tactics are sorely needed, but it had the consequence of making Superman and the Flash come across as thoroughly useless. Which is a shame, considering how both Superman (in the STAS episode “Where There’s Smoke”) and the Flash (in the upcoming “Secret Society”) are both perfectly capable of successfully leaning on a perp for information.

• To add insult to injury, Copperhead would undergo a shift in the Second Season, transforming him into a more comedic, easily shakable villain, as seen in “Only a Dream” and the JLU episode “Kid Stuff.” Even “New Supes” could have broken this Copperhead.

• The joke of “boy scout” Superman attempting to interrogate someone would be revisited in the 2017 Justice League Action short “Good Cop, Bat Cop.”

• Seriously, what is Batman’s appeal when it comes to cat-themed femme fatales? Even Joker, in the next scene, recognizes that something may happen when he says Cheetah’s “been down there too long.”

• When Luthor sends the Ultra-Humanite to relieve Cheetah from Batman watch duty, he mutters, “It’s your funeral.” He may have meant that literally, as guard duty would eat into his time needed to help Luthor with his illness.

• It is during this stint of guard duty that Batman successfully turns the Ultra-Humanite into an asset.

• After several attempts, Luthor is successfully able to bypass the security measures and unlock Batman’s utility belt, allowing him to find the key fob that would allow his forces to access the Justice League’s Watchtower.

• This particular moment is of great interest to the Joker who, while he has frequently relieved the Dark Knight of his utility belt (such as in the BTAS episodes “Be a Clown” and “Trial,” for example), I don’t believe he’s actually been able to get inside one before.

• Note how there appears to be two distinct shapes of Batarang. Perhaps one is explosive, while the other is not? Also, no grapple gun?

• The Joker’s line about Luthor looking for “Bat-Car Keys” or “Bat-Breath Mints” is a reference to the Adam West Batman television series (1966-1968), where the Caped Crusader had an array of gadgets with a “bat-” prefix added.

• Using the Justice League’s access fob, Luthor sends Star Sapphire, the Shade, and Solomon Grundy to plant a bomb in the Watchtower in an attempt to destroy the whole team at once.

• When the Ultra-Humanite hears the Joker inform Batman of Luthor’s master plan, he walks away in apparent disgust. Considering how he just struck a deal with the Dark Knight for “double what Luthor was paying,” some would find it odd that he would just leave him at the mercy of the Joker like that. Please bear in mind that 1) Humanite now needed to call the Justice League to warn them and 2) he knew that the Joker wouldn’t actually harm Batman until after the bomb detonated (and Joker would want some time to build the suspense).

• The scene with the Justice League running around the Watchtower looking for the bomb was laughable. The Flash should have been able to search the entire space station within fractions of a second.

• After Luthor’s plan failed, the Injustice Gang showed incredible restraint after his tantrum, walking away rather than just killing him outright. Perhaps they would prefer he die slowly from the cancer instead of quickly at their hands.

• I love the look on the Joker’s face when Grundy stops him from harming Batman. Despite knocking him out with gas in Part One, the undead zombie is the Injustice Gang member Joker is least likely to intimidate or physically harm. Plus, we get a scene with Mark Hamill taking to Mark Hamill.

• Man, how skilled is Batman for spitting water in the right place to short out the telepathy blocker? Man, how shoddy was Luthor’s craftsmanship for Batman to be able to do that?

• Borrowing heavily from Iron Man’s Silver Age origin, the Ultra-Humanite creates a chest plate for Luthor that, when worn, slows the spread of his cancer and keeps him alive. While no arc reactor, it does fit snugly under his soon-to-debut power armor, solidifying Luthor’s claim to being the DCAU’s Tony Stark.

• When Luthor confidently announces that there is a traitor in their midst, the look on the Ultra-Humanite’s face nearly gave him away. Meanwhile, note how the Cheetah’s face is neutral until Luthor plays the security footage.

• Man, the creative team certainly decided to linger on this scene, didn’t they? I wonder how much content this generated on DeviantArt when it first premiered.

• Among the notable reactions to the footage are the Ultra-Humanite (above left), who regards Cheetah with a look that can only be interpreted as pity. Meanwhile, Star Sapphire (above right), ever the Zamaron queen, is looking at her like, “You kissed a man? Gross.”

• Attempting to escape via the elevator, Cheetah runs into the Joker, who uses his taser-strength joy buzzer to incapacitate her.

• Before shocking her, the Joker says, “Hello, kitty,” obviously referencing the classic Sanrio character.

• Originally slated to die in this episode, the Cheetah survived through an animation error. In a June 19, 2004 message board post on Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone), Bruce Timm revealed the following:

[I]t was a mistake, she was supposed to be dead (the implication being that [Solomon] Grundy “did a [Lennie]” on her [i.e. petted her to death, like Lennie Small in John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel Of Mice and Men]. Well, my Co-Producer James Tucker kept saying we should bring her back, I kept sayin’ “No, she’s dead, she has ceased to be, she is an ex-cheetah,” and—lo and behold—someone pointed out that she was in the paddy wagon—all in one piece, apparently still breathing—at the end of [“Injustice for All”].  D’oh! So, James got his wish:  she’ll be back for JLU.  Don’t know how she got away from Grundy, though. (b.t., “DCAU”)

• Since I’m not reposting the above right photo again, I may as well mention here that, in addition to Cheetah, Copperhead is shown in the police van as well, despite having already been detained at Stryker’s Island Penitentiary. Furthermore, the van features no benches for them to sit on, meaning that the Injustice Gang members all appear to be leaning against the walls with bent legs.

• Considering how Batman toyed with her emotions and nearly got her killed, it’s a shame that there was never a follow-up episode where the Cheetah tried to get revenge against him.  Bonus points if it involved 1) Wonder Woman and 2) splicing.

• Attempting to free Batman by phasing into the basement level, the Ultra-Humanite knocks J’onn J’onzz unconscious. We may initially wonder why Humanite would attack J’onn after being paid off by Batman, but then we see that Luthor is watching on the surveillance cameras.

• And then a fight scene happens! While the Justice League fares better this time, remember that it is largely five against four.

• To take on the Flash, the Joker pulls out his exploding marbles, last seen in the the STAS episode “World’s Finest.”

• Following his defeat of Solomon Gundy, Superman is ambushed by Lex Luthor, wearing his power suit of cybernetic armor that originated in Action Comics #544 (June 1983). Capable of allowing Luthor to fight Superman blow for blow, he has worn variations of this armor in comic book storylines since.

• The following is Cartoon Network’s profile for Lex Luthor: “[d]riven mad by kryptonite poisoning, Luthor has turned his limitless genius and vast personal fortune to one goal:  destroying Superman and the Justice League” (qtd. in Allstetter, “Justice League Characters”).

• When planning Luthor’s arc for “Injustice for All,” the creative team obviously pulled story beats from Marvel Comics’ Iron Man (seen above as a subject of Bruce Timm’s artwork), both in terms of the war suit and the chest plate that now keeps him alive despite his condition.

• While it was never revealed whether it was Lex Luthor or the Ultra-Humanite who built the war suit, I suspect that it was Luthor, considering how we have already seen the prototype: the LexCorp Police Battle Suit, first seen in STAS episode “Prototype.” While its creator, John Henry Irons, quit LexCorp soon after, he would later design his own updated armored suit, becoming the superhero Steel.

• Assuming Luthor’s war suit is a later model of the Police Battle Suit, hopefully either he or his scientists have solved the aggression and dependency issues that the prototype’s wearer, Sgt. Corey Mills, experienced. If not, it could also go a long way in explaining how Luthor has been “driven mad,” as the above Cartoon Network profile mentions.

• The fact that the Ultra-Humanite is able to incapacitate Luthor in a similar manner to how Luthor himself incapacitated Sgt. Mills is further evidence of the model lineage. In both cases, the armored man is literally “stabbed” in the back.

• Following the Ultra-Humanite’s betrayal, Lex Luthor turns to him and asks, “Et tu, Humanite?,” which is a play on “Et tu, Brutè?,” or “Even you, Brutus?” (3.1.85). This is, of course, a pivotal line from William Shakespeare’s classic 1599 play Julius Caesar, spoken during a scene in which the Roman emperor was betrayed by Brutus, whom Caesar considered a friend and ally.

• Man, somebody enjoyed storyboarding the Joker’s expressions here! With the rest of the Injustice Gang in custody, the Joker decides to sneak downstairs to kill Batman. Unfortunately for him, the Dark Knight has already freed himself and makes short work of him once he arrives.

• Before the Joker passes out, he tells Batman that “you’re despicable,” complete with an audible lisp, which is a reference to Daffy Duck’s classic catch phrase to Bugs Bunny. In their respective ways, both are examples of duos with long-running rivalries.

• As the Ultra-Humanite is arrested, Batman reveals that he will honor their agreement, which we will soon learn will take the form of a generous donation to public television. As for those who question whether Batman would pay off a mercenary, he will … provided the money is distributed to a noble cause on the mercenary’s behalf. An example of this can be found in JLA #12 (November 1997), where Batman bribed Mirror Master to betray Lex Luthor in exchange for a contribution to the orphanage where he grew up.

• Back in prison, Lex Luthor’s chest plate now has the unfortunate side effect of allowing him to live longer to hear more of the Ultra-Humanite’s opera.

• At the end of the episode, the Ultra-Humanite is, once again, watching what I presume to be Madama Butterfly.  As the program ends, a voiceover says, “This program was made possible by a grant from the Ultra-Humanite and viewers like you.”  Due to the aforementioned delay in this episode’s airing, Part One of “Injustice for All” aired on September 6, 2002, which is one day shy of the tenth anniversary of the premiere of “The Cat and the Claw,” the first episode of Batman:  The Animated Series to air.  Considering the timing, plus the fact that this episode heavily featured Batman and the Joker, I’d like to think that this line was meant as a thank you to the fan base that had kept this incarnation of Batman (and the DCAU) alive for what was, at the time, a decade.

• In addition to Deadshot—who appeared in the previous episode, “The Enemy Below”—the supervillains that made up the Injustice Gang would go on to become the first recurring cast of the series.  Though largely used as filler for crowd scenes, a few of them, most notably Lex Luthor and Solomon Grundy, would go on to make memorable contributions to both Justice League and JLU.

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Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, DC Comics, Nintendo Co., Ltd.; Midway Games, Robert Downey, Jr.; The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Studios, Marvel Comics, and Hanna-Barbera Productions. YouTube videos courtesy of the Ocarina, Watchtower Database, and DC Kids channels.