1x23 The Savage Time (2)

[6.6/10] An underwhelming ending to an underwhelming duology. I can appreciate the show going for a King Kong homage here, but it’s pretty strained, and I just struggle to care about most of it.

The emotional throughline is supposed to be a “grass is always greener” type bit between Green Lantern and Metamorpho. John is considering “the road not taken” when he sees Mason’s wealth and romance, and Mason admires John’s ability to be out there saving lives. In the end, each appreciates their own station a little more, which is something.

But the twist is that as Metamorpho, Mason does get to save lives. I’ll admit that I didn’t really care about the giant goo monster plaguing downtown. The fact that he’s got half of Stagg’s mind and maybe even a psychic connection to the evil businessman just muddied the waters, and that’s before you get into the strained King Kong bits. Still, however convenient it is, I did appreciate Mason sacrificing himself (or at least near-sacrificing himself) by using his transforming powers to turn into the antidote for the goo monster. It’s a good use of his abilities.

That said, as in the prior episode, everything just happens so quickly here. We go from Metamorpho fighting the Justice League (which was the action highlight of the piece -- especially his kryptonite arm and twisting stand-off with Martian Manhunter), to him confronting Stagg, to him fighting the goo monster, to all of the lessons learned. Mason still isn’t a terribly interesting character, and the archetypes for him and his counterpart feel pretty stock and rote.

On the whole, there’s some good efforts to pay homage to a classic film and find the humanity in Mason despite his transformation here, but the results just fall a bit short.

[7.2/10] This is one of those Justice League episodes where there’s a lot going on. I liked a lot of it, despite some cheese, but other parts I continue to be kind of uncomfortable with.

Let’s lean into that to start. I can appreciate the show doling out exactly what happened with Vandal Savage here. The idea that this future self sent him a laptop with enough schematics and info about the future to attain power in the 1950s is a solid sci-fi premise. There’s even something interesting about him declaring J’onn the ubermensch. But again, it’s uncomfortable, to say the least, to suggest that Martian Manhunter is being rotured by Josef Mengele. The show tries to elide the ickiness of its use of Nazis by having other characters refer to Hitler as “a lunatic,” but it’s weird.

What’s odd is that I’ve seen plenty of other reimagined WWII stories, and they didn’t really bother me. Captain America: The First Avenger plays with similar ideas and didn’t feel this queasy. 2017’s Wonder Woman toys around with World War I and doesn’t come off bad for it. So I’m not sure why this feels different. It may be because this is so directly engaged with the actual war and the real Third Reich brain trust, in a way that seems diminishing to what really happened. It’s hard to put your finger on.

Still, I mainly liked the other parts of the story. I like the moral push and pull between Hawkgirl and Flash. Wally is aghast that Hawkgirl left behind Green Lantern, despite that fact that he’s their friend. Hawkgirl points to the casualties from the battle and remarks that those lives are worth just as much as John’s and can’t be deprioritized just because they know someone better. It’s a refreshingly “greater good” type of perspective you don’t normally see in these sorts of stories.

Likewise, it’s nice to see Diana and Steve Trevor getting to team up a little bit more. The show doesn’t perfectly sell their insta-love, but they have a good dynamic together, which helps. The quest to find a codebreaker doesn’t do much for me, but the two having to work together and taking moments to enjoy one another’s company does.

The cheesiest part of this is probably Superman and Hawkgirl teaming up with the Blackhawks, an international resistance force made up of representatives from Axis-occupied countries. The aerial battle that Superman and Hawkgirl help them out with is a visual highlight, but their plains and uniforms look downright goofy, and the idea of them having a secret island headquarters veers into the hokey for me. I have to imagine this is an homage/adaptation from the wartime comics, and while I’m sure it’s nice for purists, it plays as a bit too cheesy for me.

Still, my favorite storyline in the whole thing is a similar bit, where a depowered John Stewart ends up with a group of regular G.I.s behind enemy lines. I imagine that the members of “Easy Company” are also pulled from the original comics. Seeing John prove himself, even without the use of his ring, is a nice beat for him, and the group dynamic leads to some natural and interesting conflict.

Overall, there’s still a bit too much going on here, even for a three-parter, and some of it verges into uncomfortable territory for me, but there’s at least some enjoyable, individual parts to this installment.