Hi! Welcome to my episode-by-episode recap of, and reaction to Justice League. There will be no spoilers beyond the current episode. As is my custom with recaps, I will give you a short summary recap followed by a long and unnecessarily helpfully detailed version. My reaction will follow at the end if you just want to scroll past all of the recap.
If you want to see my prior Justice League episode reviews, click HERE:
THE QUICK AND CLEAN SUMMARY:
Small time crook John Dee volunteers for an experimental treatment while in prison. While the authorities are distracted by a mass prison break led by Volcana, Luminus, Copperhead, Solomon Grundy and Firefly, John Dee overdoses on the treatment and becomes the dream-controlling Doctor Destiny. Destiny takes telepathic control of most of the League in their sleep and puts them in nightmares where Flash can’t stop running, nobody knows Green Lantern due to his status as a member of the Justice League, Superman being unable to control his powers which led to the deaths of the people he knows, and Hawkgirl is buried alive. The League members become trapped in their dreams and unable to wake up. This leaves only Batman and Martian Manhunter left. Martian Manhunter tries to force them awake, while Batman, resisting sleep goes to confront Doctor Destiny.
THE EXTRA DUSTY RECAP:
The episode opens with John Dee, a small time criminal, dreaming about becoming a super villain and single-handedly overpowering the Justice League. He wakes up and after being told by a security guard that unlike the other prisoners he has a real future, Dee agrees and says that he has a date with destiny.
Dee is given an experimental treatment and asked to identify cards which are facing the doctor treating him. As he succeeds in identifying the cards, despite not seeing them, Dee is surprised that the drug he has been given works. The doctor tells him the effects are temporary, but Dee is excited anyway and wants to continue working with him. They are interrupted by a guard arriving to tell Dee that his parole was rejected.
In the next scene, we see Dee talking to his girlfriend on a phone, as she visits him. After he tells her that his parole was denied, but that he is working on something new, she replies that she has found someone else. He is dejected and shouts at her, but she leaves.
Sometime later, a prison break sequence is occurring. Volcana, Luminus, Copperhead, Solomon Grundy and Firefly lead the escape. While they do this, Dee goes to the doctor who experimented on him earlier. He incapacitates the doctor and then takes all of the available drug he had earlier – overdosing on it.
On the Justice League Watchtower, Batman informs Flash and Hawkgirl about the prison break. Martian Manhunter leaves with them to deal with it.
At the prison, guards force their way into the doctor’s office and find him unconscious and Dee in the chair overdosing on the drugs. Both are taken to the infirmary.
Volcana and Firefly are attacking the guards when the Justice League arrives. GL engages them first. Volcana begins to overwhelm GL until Batman arrives. Once distracted by Batman, GL puts them in a prison using his ring. When Volcana tries to free herself, she uses up all the air inside her prison and passes out.
Batman returns two of the five escaped inmates, and we learn that he has not slept in three days while he talks to the Warden. Then we learn that Dee has escaped the infirmary. When Batman, GL, and the Warden get to the infirmary, they find everyone – patients and guards alike – catatonic.
We see Dee’s now ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend, and Dee watching them from a distance.
Batman tells GL that he is staying in the infirmary to investigate just after Superman informs them where they have located the other three escapees. When GL tells him that Dee could not have done this, and that he’s a nobody, Batman replies with his knowledge of Homer.
Batman: Ever read The Odyssey? After Odysseus was caught by the Cyclops, he told that his name was “Nobody.” So when he poked his eye out, and its friends asked who did it, all the cyclops could say was “Nobody.”
GL: Point taken.
John Dee’s ex wakes up abruptly while in bed with her new boyfriend. As she retrieves a glass of water, she runs into Dee.
Dee: Trouble sleeping? Maybe it’s your conscience. Oh, I forgot, you don’t have one.
She runs to try to wake her boyfriend up, but he doesn’t wake. Dee tells her he did nothing to him, then monologues about how she is finally seeing the true him. He calls himself Dr. Destiny and transforms his appearance. He has a skull face and wears a long cloak with a hood.
Dee: And now that I’m a doctor, I think I’ll perform some surgery.
She screams as he lunges at her. We see a second later that she is lying in bed, dreaming a nightmare. Her boyfriend is awake but cannot wake her. Dee watches them both from outside the window.
The Justice League fights the other three escapees at a warehouse. Hawkgirl is trapped by Luminus but is rescued by Superman. Grundy meanwhile is on a rampage while Copperhead seems to regret being near him and the attention he is drawing to them. Eventually they both retreat but run into MM. While He fights with Grundy, Copperhead flees but is tracked down by Flash. Their fight is joined by Luminus, who has to fight them both and is losing. Superman and Hawkgirl join them. Hawkgirl gets her revenge and knocks Luminus out.
MM and Superman fight Grundy, who is holding his own until Superman throws him a LONG distance. We find Copperhead on Hawkgirl’s back, high in the air. He threatens to bite her, and she points out that if he does, he’ll fall 40 stories. GL then arrives and warns him that if he does anything to her, he won’t make it to the ground. Hawkgirl knocks him off of her back, and flies after him as he falls. GL catches him.
GL: [to Hawkgirl] Good bluff.
Hawkgirl: Who was bluffing?
We see Dee’s girlfriend, screaming and writing, but now at a hospital. She is injected with something to calm her. Batman and MM arrive at her bedside, and MM tries to read her mind.
Hawkgirl and Flash talk on the Watchtower. Both are tired. Flash gets her some caffeine but she falls asleep before he returns with it.
MM tells Batman about Dr. Destiny and his ex. He explains that she cannot wake up because she is trapped in a delusional state. MM tells Batman that he is going back into her mind to see if he can bring her out and he warns Batman that Dee wants them, too.
Batman: Us, why? I never even heard of him before today.
The episode ends as we see Justice League members going to sleep and as we hear Dr. Destiny laughing quietly in the background.
to be continued
REACTION:
This is another villain origin story, and it’s pretty good. Destiny’s motivation is being noticed, feared, etc., and that motivation is ramped up to a mania after his failed life to that point, his recent breakup, and his unexpected power-up. The first thing we learn about him is that he’s dreaming about defeating the Justice League. So what happens if you give an aspiring supervillain the tools to act out the fantasy?
It’s not clear where Wonder Woman is during this episode. Maybe she’s on assignment elsewhere.
This is the type of villain a writer is forced to come up with when trying to come up with someone who might pose a challenge to The Justice League. You either have to find a way to imagine someone even more powerful than they are, or you have to comb through their various abilities and find a chink in the armor. This is one of those potential areas where a bad guy might find a crack.
I liked the introduction / reintroduction to some of the other bad guys in the prison break sequence. You get a sense for their abilities and they are defeated without removing the sense of threat that they pose. That’s good writing to not let them be beaten too easily.
All in all, another good story starer. I’m looking forward to Part 2.
