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Justice League
"The Enemy Below" Part II
Air Date: December 10, 2001
Written by: Kevin Hopps
Directed by: Dan Riba
Guest Voice: Scott Rummell (Aquaman)
I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that tonight was a decent episode of Justice League. The bad news is that it'll be the last episode of JL for about a couple of months. Cartoon Network's schedule indicates that they'll be playing the first eight episodes until early February at least. I know what you're thinking. What do you mean "eight episodes"? This is only the fifth review. I know. The first review, though, covered the first three episodes. Cartoon Network made the bright move of playing all three at once so that you wouldn't have to wait three weeks to see the main cast.
Anyway, back to this week's episode. Tonight's ep left me asking one question. Where's the fish telepathy? Aquaman can talk to fish right? Not this one. Either he can't, or he just didn't think of doing it. This left me with mixed feelings. If you ask me, the producers were trying to stay away from that ability, which is a good thing. On the other hand, it's a staple of the character's mythos. Something I missed.
Speaking of things missing and hands, Aquaman loses his. In the comics, his hand was chewed off by some piranha. Not in this universe. No sir. He cut the thing off himself to save his son's life. Now that is cool. That puts him up there with people like Hannibal Lecter. At least in the "Willing to Lose Bodily Appendages" Department. That political uprising has just become all the more personal when Aquaman's brother Orm threatens Aquaman's son.
That's not the only thing I found really cool. It seems the Atlanteans are so paranoid about a possible attack from the surface that they've built a device that'll melt the polar icecaps and flood the world. Ignoring the fact that it's highly unlikely that the world would actually flood in such a scenario, I found the notion of Aquaman having such a device built to be really cool, but that's just my opinion.
Now here's what I did not like. I'm really not digging that opening sequence. Each time they play it I feel like pounding nails through my genitals... but I digress. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter are probably three of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe. However, they seem to struggle a bit too much with each and every foe they face. It seems their power levels are inconsistent to me. I can ignore this most of the time, but when they get taken down by the Atlantean Fleet I was completely taken out of the story. It gets worse. The bad guys put funny head gear onto the Justice Leaguers and somehow this prevents them from fighting back. Yeah. Whatever.
It's not that I'm losing faith in this show. Hardly, the emotional payoffs are starting to weaken that's all. I give "The Enemy Below Part II":
Episode Rating: 8 out of 10
Steven “drenball” Dougherty wishes he could understand what fish are saying. Maybe they know where Jimmy Hoffa is.
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