When we last saw our heroes, Green Lantern, Flash, Hawk Girl and Martian Manhunter had been pushed into an alternate Earth where their comic book heroes were real.
Until they can find a way home, they team up with the Justice Guild in order to battle the evil Injustice Guild. This Earth is a throwback to the simpler times and moral values of the Golden Age of Comics. The Streak sums this point up best when he responds to the news that the Injustice Guild has just robbed the city mint by saying, “only they would commit such a heinous act, and on a Sunday.”
However, as wholesome and goody two shoes as this episode starts out, there is a deeper mystery at large. By the end of the episode that mystery has been solved and frankly this is the most violent and gross battle we’ve seen to date. The main villain is so different from anything we’ve seen in previous episodes and a complete opposite of the other campy villains of the Injustice Guild that I was actually shocked.
When the season started my biggest complaint about the overall storylines was that they were too predictable. The saving grace was that the writing team was telling these stories very well, but that they’d also add a little twist at the end that you may have not seen coming. “Legends” returns to that format and sets the mark for it. Anytime you start out Adam West and end up Tim Burton, you know it’s good.
I mentioned last week that the Justice Guild was originally meant to be the Justice Society of America DC shot the idea down. Here with more on why DC did that is my sidekick Derek McCaw.
Gee whillikers, Michael, thanks. It seems that with the current incarnation of the JSA being one of DC’s top-selling books, the powers that be grew a little uncomfortable with the over-the-top wholesomeness of the JSA’s portrayal in this episode.
Both homage and, obviously, parody of the Golden Age (I’d like to think they weren’t this hokey), this bore so little resemblance to the JSA book that Paul Levitz at DC asked series producer Bruce Timm to change the characters. Timm graciously did so, though there are still obvious parallels, not the least of which is the idea that Justice League members read about the Justice Guild adventures in comic books. In the very first appearance of the Silver Age Flash, he was shown to have been a big fan of Flash Comics from the forties.
And jinkies, no new episodes for a month!
