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Justice League
"The Enemy Below" Part I
Air Date: December 3, 2001
Written by: Kevin Hopps
Directed by: Dan Riba
Guest Voice: Scott Rummell (Aquaman), Michael Rosenbaum (Deadshot)
It’s official. We have Aquaman, and he doesn’t suck. He’s the king, baby. That means he has a badass navy and a really hot wife. Well, she’s hot for a cartoon. Not that I’m into that sort of thing, you know.
It all starts with water. Doesn’t it always? Anyway, Aquaman and his people are tired of surface dwellers using polluting the oceans with chemicals and warfare. To make matters worse, Aquaman’s got one of our nuclear subs. Exactly why he keeps the submarine is a mystery to me. I mean, he has that badass navy I mentioned above. Regardless of the why, it’s still a bad thing. Tensions are mounting and Aquaman has to choose. He can wipe the surface dwellers off the face of the Earth, or he can swallow his pride and try to make nice. Fearing for his son’s future he chooses peace.
For a guy whose main power is that he can communicate with fish, he needs to work on his people skills. He goes to the world assembly and gives his terms for peace. Which basically means the oceans are off limits to everyone save his own people. This would, of course, destroy the global economy, but that’s not A-Man’s problem. Things don’t improve when assassin-for-hire Deadshot, making his animated debut, tries to make the fish-man go splat.
There are several things about this episode I loved. Aquaman’s attitude. It fit 100%. Green Lantern’s distrust of Aquaman. This guy’s an intergalactic police man. He stands up for justice regardless of what they look like, but if they breath water they must be trouble. There’s just a hint of bigotry in the way he treats Aquaman. It’s unusual to see that in an American cartoon. It’s texture, and I like it. The Flash and Hawkgirl take a backseat for this story, giving Batman and Wonder Woman some face time. Having Michael Rosenbaum voice Deadshot was kinda odd. I recognized the voice instantly, but since the Flash wasn’t involved in the story it wasn’t so bad.
I’m glad they’re still using the 5 members per story concept. It keeps the interaction simple. Plus the story doesn’t get bogged down by too many people in shiny spandex. Still, when they were chasing Deadshot I kept wondering where the Flash was. He’d have caught the guy in no time. Of course, that would have sounded funny if they actually spoke, but oh well.
It’s definitely a good sign when the viewer, namely me, wants to find out what happens next. I give "The Enemy Below":
Episode Rating: 9 out of 10
Steven “drenball” Dougherty likes fish. Especially with tartar sauce and ketchup.
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