Justice League Unlimited

(The dating of this is a bit screwed up. I started this post (along with a couple of others) a few days ago, and it counts them as being posted when I started them, rather then when I clicked submit. This was actually posted about noon on Monday, Sydney time, so roughly 2am GMT)

Have you ever seen the cartoon "Justice League" and it's follow up "Justice League Unlimited" (from which I stole part of the URL for this blog)?

It's rather obvious I have and despite the fact I was in my 20's when I saw it I firmly believe I was part of the ideal audience for the show. But I'm not here to discuss the positives and negatives of that style of children's cartoon (though that's an idea for another blog post). Let's talk about super-powers, since the Justice League in the original two seasons is a remarkably potent cross section of the variety of super-powers available to characters, and did a pretty good job of reconciling the differences in their respective 'power levels'.

I just spent 30 minutes writing up a rather dry comparison of the powers and personalities of the characters involved, but then I realised I could summarise it in the following manner.

Superman: Boring and always getting knocked the F out so he didn't win everything with his super-everything.

Batman: Mysterious and always winning the day by being so awesome the writers had an erection as they wrote down what he did.

Wonder Woman: Yet another super-strengther. I'm trying to think of more to write, but she really didn't have that much happening. The 'Fish out of water' was sporadic at best, the 'angry warrior woman' was overshadowed by Hawkgirl doing the same thing. Probably the most obvious thing about her is she wanted to jump Batman, but who doesn't?

Green Lantern: Had potential to be utterly cool, but the fact he used his "ring of make anything" to make straight lines and flat walls sort of ruined that for me. Oh, bonus points for the fact he seems to SLEEP WITH EVERYTHING.

Hawk Girl: Angry woman with wings and a mace. Seriously, that's all she seemed to bring to the party. Flying (oh no, no one else can do that) and a mace (why, that'd almost be as good as punching someone with super strength, wouldn't it?)

Martian Manhunter: Is anyone else majorly disappointed with his telepathic abilities? He was supposedly awesome with them, but every time he tried to use them they seemed to screw up. He basically just acted as a dues ex machina. "Oh no! We need to find out where something is! Quick, give the manhunter a henchman to read and let's go."

Flash: Awesome. Pure undiluted awesome. If Chuck Norris' urine became sentient, solid, man-shaped and super-powered it would be both creepy and it STILL wouldn't hold a candle to the Flash.

This is what this entire post has been building up to. My mancrush on the Flash from the Justice League cartoons. Initially he felt underpowered, it was really confusing how he was even meant to be able to keep up with Batman, the unpowered one in the group. But the bastard kept coming up with awesome ways to use his powers, and then every now and then just pulled something out of the hat that was so amazing he won the prize for "being F-ing amazing".

A while back in this blog I wrote something about superpowers. At least I think I did, I can't find it know and I'll be arsed if I'm going to actually LOOK for it. In it I defined what my ideal powers would be, and I have to say after consideration I'm changing all my answers to "Super speed", based on what I've seen the Flash do with it.

But, probably most awesome, is the character's personality. He wasn't perfectly planning everything like the Batman (also known as, being so clinical it's difficult to tell if there is a personality) or goody-goody justice like Superman. He was more level-headed then angry warrior women, and more impulsive then Ex-marine Green Lantern. All in all, a perfect combination for a good quality personality. Oh, and unlike the martian he actually HAS a personality. He's brash, but capable of thinking when he needs to (he just often choses not to), plus he's idealistic enough to be cool without going into the realm of unrealistic. And, best of all, he makes mistakes and isn't perfect in all ways except lack of knowledge about our culture.

Executive Summary: Flash is better then the entire rest of the justice league, and anyone who says otherwise is OBVIOUSLY someone with a different opinion.

And therefore useless.