Last week on Justice League, the adopted Amazonian turned zealot, Aresia, had assembled a rogues gallery of criminals to help her carry out her plan for a female dominated Earth. Having already poisoned the male population of a major metropolitan area as well as Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern, Aresia and her female companions try to go global with their plan. Batman and, much later, J’onn J’onzz (those shape shifting genitals confused the virus for a while) both fall victim to the virus so it soon becomes Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl’s responsibility to stop Aresia.
With a plethora of villains, all seven Justice League members, a villain backstory and some interesting views into how superheroes pass the time, this started out as my favorite episode of the season. While the ending is still good and almost as strong as the first part, I was left with a very nagging thought after the show concluded.
If the villain wants to eliminate all men and the heroine (who grew up quite happy living on an island of only women) wants to stop her from doing that, isn’t it traditional to at some point explain why saving the lives of men is important? The obvious answer is sex, but Wonder Woman was made from clay, so there goes that old standby. We can change light bulbs, mow lawns, fix cars, lift heavy things, buy dinner, etc… Throw me a bone here so I can have some dignity at the end of the episode.
J’onn didn’t have to catch the virus which meant he could have stayed back at the tower working on a cure. Because most of us think of J’onn as a man, that would have been one way around the all “female power” theme. Instead the cure for the virus is found off camera and we are left to assume that Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl had to do that themselves as well (’cause all the lazy men were too busy sleeping.)
Overall it was an enjoyable episode and I applaud the writing staff for addressing a number of complaints I’d had with previous episodes. Next week we get cameos from other DC characters, sorta, as The Justice Society fails to work around some legal problems and has to show up in disguise. Tom Turbo. Sheesh.
