Long before the Watchtower was overpopulated with 900 (exaggerated) characters running around it, and long before they added the name “unlimited” (which pretty much describes the number of characters they’ve added to the new episodes, Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter and Superman were known as “The Justice League”.
Collecting the first 26 episodes on 4 discs “Justice League season one” more than delivers as a boxed set, but leaves much to be desired as a show. Now don’t get me wrong, when it was first announced that the same team that had delivered shows like “Batman TAS”, “Superman TAS” and “Batman Beyond” were now gearing up to bring us DC’s creme of the crop in an all new show, I was excited to say the least.
Now being a die-hard Superman fan that I am, of course my biggest problem with the show was the fact that they made Superman such a wimp. Now the first episode didn’t bother me so much because I could understand that they might’ve felt the need to power him down a bit in order to stress the need for these other heroes to join the fight. Setting the first episode aside, the other instances where Superman was less than super really got to me. In episodes like "The Savage Time" Supes was taken down by being SHOT....I mean come on, am I really supposed to buy that the same guy that can stop a bullet with his teeth is now suddenly dropped by being electrocuted or shot with a laser gun??
It wasn’t just Superman being a wimp that bothered me, but the apparent powering down of other heroes like Flash who had to struggle to keep up with a CAR in episodes like "Brave and The Bold". Hello! isn’t this the same guy that circle the Earth multiple times in a matter of seconds?? things like this just did not sit well with me. I could’ve let it slide if it was one or two instances, but we’re talking an entire season worth of this stuff here....I was not happy.
Now on a good note “Justice League season one” does do a nice job of collecting all 26 episodes into 4 discs loaded with some pretty interesting special features. Each disc has it’s own set of features ranging from commentary on specific episodes, to interviews with Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Glen Murakami, Rich Fogel and Dan Riba as they discuss how the show came about, and the design process for the show and all of it’s characters...as well as admitting to the fact that they UNINTENTIONALLY made Superman a wuss. The special features are nice, and the interviews are fun to watch, but the best part of the set is the unaired “Justice League: The First Mission” promo that the creators came up using a combination of stock footage from other shows and some new animation to help pitch the show (it was never used as they were able to sell the show thru a phone conversation).
All-in-all “Justice League season one” is worth the $32.99 price tag if not for the features alone. If you’re like me then you’re eagerly awaiting the release of season two when Superman REALLY got to show what he was made of by taking on Braniac single handedly, and nearly killing Darkseid in a fight that will have every geek waking their parents up with their screams of excitement.