[5.8/10] This is easily one of the weakest Justice League episodes we’ve had in a while. None of the elements here really worked for me. The whole “old-timer who worries he’s becoming obsolete” bit is a cliché. The femme fatale routine with Black Canary and Green Arrow is pretty hackneyed. And the meta-brawl fights that are both secret while also being attended by high society types strains credulity.
I’ve talked about this before in these reviews, but I continue to be tired with how many of the female characters in the DCAU have to be male gaze-y sexpots. Black Canary is a pretty bad offender on that front, and while the episode does give her some shading with her care for Wildcat as the guy who trained her, it spends more time scanning her form and having her exchange innuendos with Green Arrow.
Ollie’s pretty much a waste here too. His attraction to Black Canary luring him into the middle of this didn’t do much for me, and his plan to show Wildcat that he could go too far and kill someone seems oddly miscalibrated to Wildcat’s concerns. The Meta-Brawl boss is a non-character who only exists to make unconvincing arguments about Wildcat being a regular non-superpowered hero. It’s all just kind of a waste.
The one positive here is that some of the animation is quite nice. In the fight scenes in particular, there’s a real fluidity and realism to some of the movements that stands out and helps in a pugilism-heavy episode. Otherwise, this is one you could probably skip but for its introduction of Black Canary and her powers (and a little more shading for Ollie, I suppose).
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-09-30T19:07:20Z
[5.8/10] This is easily one of the weakest Justice League episodes we’ve had in a while. None of the elements here really worked for me. The whole “old-timer who worries he’s becoming obsolete” bit is a cliché. The femme fatale routine with Black Canary and Green Arrow is pretty hackneyed. And the meta-brawl fights that are both secret while also being attended by high society types strains credulity.
I’ve talked about this before in these reviews, but I continue to be tired with how many of the female characters in the DCAU have to be male gaze-y sexpots. Black Canary is a pretty bad offender on that front, and while the episode does give her some shading with her care for Wildcat as the guy who trained her, it spends more time scanning her form and having her exchange innuendos with Green Arrow.
Ollie’s pretty much a waste here too. His attraction to Black Canary luring him into the middle of this didn’t do much for me, and his plan to show Wildcat that he could go too far and kill someone seems oddly miscalibrated to Wildcat’s concerns. The Meta-Brawl boss is a non-character who only exists to make unconvincing arguments about Wildcat being a regular non-superpowered hero. It’s all just kind of a waste.
The one positive here is that some of the animation is quite nice. In the fight scenes in particular, there’s a real fluidity and realism to some of the movements that stands out and helps in a pugilism-heavy episode. Otherwise, this is one you could probably skip but for its introduction of Black Canary and her powers (and a little more shading for Ollie, I suppose).