Season 2 Recap

The Secret Origins Podcast, Episode 12. Hello

and welcome to episode 12 of the secret origins

podcast I'm your host DFG and Mike and joining

me is lupus convoy who for some strange reason

he has flies attacking his roommates It's a funny

little thing Today we will be giving our final

thoughts on season 2 of Justice League I mean,

I know that eventually once we get down to episode

25, it's going to be like a big final thing on

the whole series. But honestly, I actually prefer

the seasons 3, 4, and 5 more than seasons 1 and

2. I like several episodes from both seasons

1 and season 2. I actually like a lot of episodes

in season 2, but I don't know. I think the...

The whole story arc thing and it's like I didn't

really catch season one and season two When they

were airing on Cartoon Network, but it it's kind

of like when Transformers did the five part or

face five phases of darkness Well, it's well

not just I'm trying to think is there I Was trying

to think of a show that used to do like fought

like four and five partners that was weekly and

not daily because Transformers was daily But

you know, it's like oh Part one wait no cliffhanger.

Holy crap. I have to wait a week to watch part

two, but I Don't know I need to also bring up

before we get into most of the recapping of season

two that this will be The very last episode that

you will see the secret origins original seven

Artwork that Stephen C Phillips has done for

us Because as of episode 13 we are going unlimited

so there will be a new a standard for artwork

as far as that. Even though a couple episodes,

I think three episodes I'm gonna be doing special

art for this first two years of Justice League.

I know I did one in episode five with Batman

and Superman hugging. And I did one for... Last

episode episode well actually the last two episodes

episodes 10 and 11 episode 10 has the Joker TV

Look from when he was holding the TV tape in

wild cards, and it's like 20 million jokers on

the TV screens And then this episode I can't

decide I'm torn between That GL image that you

had mentioned of him coming out of the shadows

with the with his eyes glowing I've got that

as art It's either gonna be that or it's gonna

be... Oh yeah, I grabbed one where Batman is

scowling at Flash for the that's not helping

bit. And that'll be this past two weeks ago.

That'll be the episode art for episode 11. But

for this one, for episode 12, we're just gonna

have the standard regular Seeker Origins podcast

art with the... red circle around the seven members.

So why don't we start with favorite episodes?

What are some of your favorite episodes from

season two, sir? A Better World, definitely.

You get to see the dichotomy of what could have

happened and what really... You could say this

really sets up for the next two seasons, three

seasons. The whole Justice League. I can agree

with you on that part, as far as that episode

goes, as far as Batman's resiliency. But other

than that, really? Only a dream? I mean, that

is such a - It's not eclipsed. Okay, it's not

as bad as that, and it's not as bad as That's

What Shall Not Be Named from Season 1, but still,

it's such a throwaway episode. It's such a throwaway

story. I, you know, I - You know, Batman stuff

is not - I will say, though, that it does have

a little credence to what we were talking about.

on the last episode about not being able to get

into Hawkeye's mind right exactly so it does

have some sort of continuity with it but it's

still I just don't like that episode even even

even with Batman you know going into the copy

shop give me a triple triple now and the whole

what is that song you're singing oh it's keeping

you out Yeah, and it's like you know that stuff

was awesome, but that episode that to Potter

in general I Probably will never watch that again

ever It's something I put in the background,

but yeah, yeah What other ones did you like?

Wild cards love wild cards that was definitely

one of the ones that are right up there cuz It

just shows how insane some of the characters

are especially the Joker But it's the last time

we're ever gonna see anyone from the Batman continuity

Well Yeah, I guess but that's Yeah, you're right.

That is the last appearance of the Joker until

the flashback and well, see that's the thing

though Hey, oh wait, you still haven't seen Batman

Beyond Return of the Joker. Have you? Not yet.

Oh you bastard Your job before we start unlimited

and whenever we're gonna start that in a couple

weeks your job between then and now Forget your

a hundred and seventy five million math problems

go to Best Buy Get Batman Beyond return on the

Joker the uncut version and watch that by the

time we record episode 13 you better have watched

that film I Will come up there I have your address

Changing the subject I was really big on comfort

and joy for some reason like it really showed

what they could do with one episode Yeah, I know

and it's kind of a setup for unlimited but still

they and I know that we needed that that that

Kind of a break in action and more of just a

very slow episode between that between wild cards

and star -crossed I get that but I don't know

I just I know that one never really Really hit

with me that much. I don't know call me a Grinch

I don't know and it's not even the fact that

it's a Christmas episode It has nothing to do

with that. It has to do with the fact that they

broke their own Style as far as the two -part

stories, which you know fine, whatever you're

gonna, you know mix something in there. That's

fine What if you're gonna do a holiday episode?

Can you really split it into two? Well, no, you

can't that's that that's the problem though No,

you can't, but still, I don't know. We also got

to see the Ultra -Humanite. Again, for the...

Yes! But we also got to see the development of

the relationship between Giel and Hawkerl, which

makes... Yeah, makes them in StarCross just go

to shit. But it does make that the last three

episodes StarCrossed, which is in a league of

its own, honestly. Oh yeah. But um, yeah, that's

those are my favorite ones. I mean, that's majority

of the season. I suppose Yeah, I liked we've

already talked about a better world and we've

already talked about wild cards we can touch

on star -crossed a little bit, but the the three

that I really liked the most the three two -parters

was Twilight the season opener cuz that just

You know season one they ended on savage time

which is kind of it was awesome but just the

way they ended it where oh okay it's just kind

of like it wasn't like a super epic ending like

starcross is but it was still good but opening

the season with twilight and having dark side

back and having the the big superman dark side

fight again and just kicking all kinds of ass

that was just an awesome awesome season opener

um tabula rasa one of the reasons why i like

that one is because just of the more characterization

of Lex that we see. And we'll see that again

in a better world as far as him maybe at the

end saying, oh, maybe I'll run for president,

which comes back in Unlimited. I really, really

enjoyed watching those and those are episodes,

Twilight and Tabula Rasa, those are episodes

along with Better World. Oh, I'll mention the

other one in a second. Along with Better World,

Filed Cards and StarCrafts that I could watch

any time. Hereafter was just awesome. Hereafter

was, even though it wasn't a direct adaptation

of the death of Superman, it was a nice way to

do it in Justice League style, I thought. and

technically he wasn't really dead but I mean

still you know when you when you end that first

part of Hereafter you think he's gone he's gone

you know the whole funeral bit and then of course

at the end of that two -parter I believe they

they cut to the barren world and show him lying

there with his eyes closed but I mean still even

if you didn't have that even if you didn't have

that little hint of oh here's Superman You know,

it's still a very powerful episode. Now, I have

never... I never got... At the time... Remind

me, when did Death of Superman happen? What year?

Find out. I was a kid then. Yeah, so was I. See,

that's the thing. I've never actually read that

comic book. The black version. Really? Yeah,

the 75th anniversary thing. I've never read it.

I've never owned it. I've never even seen it.

I mean, I've seen the cover for it and stuff,

but I've never had it. 1992. 1992. So I was 12

years old then. So yeah. Superman volume two

number 75 was January 1993. OK. But it started

in October of 1992. Yeah. See, basically what

I'm talking about is that I have seen specials

about it on TV. Basically, the big black book

is basically what it was. Now I know people have

told me that there is Death and Return of Superman

where it's both of those stories mixed, not mixed

together, but put together into one trade paperback.

I'd love to get that. Unfortunately, it probably

costs an arm and a leg. I wouldn't imagine so.

I don't know. Pretty powerful stuff back then.

Unfortunately, that was the comic that everybody

was trying to clamor for. Yeah, exactly. So there

was a ton of printings of it. So you could get

the individual things. Yeah. Fairly cheap. I

remember my stepdad was very much in the, oh

my god, this is going to be worth a lot. You're

going to get every single issue and covet them

and bag them and board them, and they're not

worth that much. It's like the Obama Obama issue

of spider -man where everyone went out to go

get that because the big you know Oh my god,

this is gonna be worth so much that The the market

was satiated with them. Wait, wait, wait, they

did an Obama. Yes. They did spider -man episode.

Oh my fucking god and it's it it was one of those

all those people that actually were readers of

Spiderman, they couldn't get an issue, because

everyone went out to go grab it. So, all the

issues sold out. And Jerry Seinfeld showing up

in a Superman short or something, but putting

a fucking President Obama in Spiderman, oh my

god. Why would you put Jerry Seinfeld in there?

Not in Spiderman, I said I don't mind Jerry in

a Superman bit, because Jerry's a Superman nut.

He did those American Express commercials a while

back with the animators for me. Yeah, but no,

I don't mind crap like that But putting the president

in in comic the real -life president comic books.

I don't like that at all No This kind of date

the characters too. I mean Well, yeah Let's see

and you know just the exclamation point on this

season and they pretty much set it up from Twilight

uh... to star -crossed about hot girls whole

whole backstory and stuff you know she lied to

john or john when she said uh... you know i was

a cop and blah blah blah and all this and all

that stuff she's been spying on them for five

years and that's just yikes definitely makes

you sit there and realize why people didn't want

her back Well, you know, I I actually prefer

her in unlimited She does have a lot of good

qualities in unlimited. I think Especially the

story that they took with her and GL Which even

though GL is currently dating somebody else but

Vixen I Like Vixen I Like her too, but still

it's it's supposed to I like her more in the

comics And yeah, I pretty much wrote down all

the favorites we just talked about with the exception

of some of the ones you talked about because

I pretty much said everything else episodes that

can die in a fire almost everything else other

than the good ones Eclipsed. Oh Yeah, we got

to talk about Eclipse before we move on. I know

we just finished talking about Stark Eclipsed,

oh my god. One of the forumites on over at PredaconEmpire

.com slash Nexus, Godspeed, which I believe he's

also a member on TFW, he wrote in the episode

10 thread, which he was supposed to write in

the episode 9 thread, about the ones that had

eclipsed in it, the episode 9 had eclipsed in

it, he's like, i don't know why you guys are

hitting on eclipse and you know that there is

a good at no dude that's not a good episode it's

not a good episode at all you can think that

i mean everyone's got different tastes well true

but i mean eclipsed the only good thing about

eclipse was the fact that bob the goon was a

voice in it but even that is kind of shaky at

best i'm not a huge fan of eclipse though I think

he's just a very lame character. That's my personal

belief. The special features, even before they

released the complete series set and basically

combined all the season sets, discs with it and

they added one additional disc, the bonus features

on these things are awesome. You've got three

commentaries by Bruce Timm and company, Bruce

Timm, James Tucker, Dwayne McDuffie, Paul Dini,

just all those guys. And a couple of the directors.

I believe Dan Reba was one of the directors and

he was on one of the commentaries. And also Joaquin

Santos, I believe is his name. So we have commentaries

on Twilight Part 2, A Better World Part 2, and

Star -Crossed Part 3. We have an advertisement

or a clip of the look -up -in -the -sky Superman

DVD that came out when they released the Superman

Ultimate DVD set when Superman returns was just

going out of theaters. And then you've got the

two special, the actual special features themselves.

You have Voices of Justice and Justice League

Declassified. Awesome features which Lupus never

watched. Oh, that boy. Sorry. Voices of Justice

is Phil Lamar, Jennifer Hale, Susan Eisenberg,

Maria Canales, Andrea Romano, George Newburn,

and I think somebody else. That might be all

of them, but I'm not sure. And they're talking

about voicing these superheroes and what kind

of voice do you put with them. And it's just

a very, very interesting special feature. And

then Justice League Declassified is the same

thing that we've seen on all the other DC anime

universe DVDs as far as Jason Hillhouse, hosting

Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, I think James Tucker and

might be Stan Berkowitz or Alan Burnett. I'm

not sure which one. It's one of those two. It

might even have been Glenn Murakami. I'll have

to go back and watch it. It's been a while since

I've watched it. It's been about a week or so

since I've watched it. And that basically talks

about, you know, the transition from season one

to season two, and what do you do differently?

How do you do it better? And they fully admit

that in season one, they made Superman a wimp.

So Superman wasn't gonna be a wimpy in season

two anymore. And that's just an awesome feature

as well. If this was the end of the Justice League

cartoon, because they said they weren't sure

if they were gonna get picked up for more, And

then Cartoon Network said, yeah, sure, you guys

can do more. But if this was the end and we wouldn't

be covering any more episodes, wow, did they

end this one with a bang. Yeah, they did. Because

you got the Watchtower blown up, it's gone. Hot

Girl is kicked out of the league. They don't

know if they're moving on or if they're rebuilding

or whatever, if they're just dissipating. And

oh my god, just awesome. Even if they were to

rebuild, it's a lot to rebuild. I mean, not just

putting another line item into the R &D budget,

but who do they bring in? Do they bring in Aquaman?

Do they bring in other characters? They're not

the only superheroes out there. No, they're not.

No, they're not. But John and Flash both say,

do we rebuild and where do we start? At the end

of that, and they just kinda leave you hanging

until Unlimited. And wow, I'm not really trying

to give away the next episodes as far as my opinions

of them, but damn, they kinda really just went

all out with Initiation, the first episode of

the third season. And you know, people always

call it Justice League for seasons one and two

and Justice League Unlimited for seasons three

through five. Am just for just because it's easier

for me. I consider the entire cartoon Justice

League Yes, I understand that it's called Justice

League unlimited and we will be calling it that

for a while But on an overall scope the way that

we are doing this podcast. We are doing season

by season We're not doing series one, which was

season one and two and then series two, which

is seasons three through five also in season

three and four Bruce Timmons said that that whole

season of Justice League Unlimited was meant

to be an anthology. If you get the single disc

Justice League Unlimited season 1 DVD, or not

single disc, but single season set, it does say

that it's Justice League Unlimited season 1 and

it's 26 episodes. Technically, that's season

3 and 4 put together. That's year 3 and year

4 put together into 26 episodes. So the way we're

going to do it is the way we've done it so far.

We're going to do all the episodes in season

3. We're going to end on Once and Future Thing

part 1 and 2. And then we're going to do a recap

for season 3 and then go into season 4 and so

on and so forth. So that's how we're breaking

it down just because I like breaking it down

that way. Um, but season 2 overall just great.

It was just awesome. They pretty much blew everything

out of the water, quite literally. Really set

up the Kobe desert. Yeah, true. Talk about ringing

the bell. What else? All the beds in the belfry.

Yeah, all the beds in the belfry. What else do

you want to say about season two? It really shows

what they're capable of doing with the story

and how they were they went from season one where

they were getting their their feeling season

two you'd really see they're they're blowing

things out and they're pushing it as to how far

they can go and they know what they can do story

wise as they've done with star crossed and from

there on we're not gonna see just one little

Little bit of information when we hit the next

season. It's going to be every episode is vital

to figure out what's going to happen at the end

Yes, yes it is There are some that are kind of

throwaways at least in my opinion, but we'll

get to that once we get to it I Think I think

that's about it. So we are going to play you

guys the Unlimited or not unlimited but the special

features that lupus never watched First up will

be Voices of Justice, and then it'll be Justice

League Declassified. Hopefully, Lupus will go

back and watch those, and he still needs to go

out and get Batman Beyond Return of the Joker,

the uncut version. So yeah, Lupus has tons of

homework for podcasting. When don't I have a

ton of homework? Well, school doesn't count in

my book. It's podcasting homework you have now.

So after the special features, we will come back

with the outro. We're here with the cast and

crew of Justice League. Why don't you guys introduce

yourselves? Jennifer Hale. I play Giganta and

Killer Frost. My name is George Newburn and I

play Superman. I'm Maria Canals and I play Hawk

Girl. I'm Phil Lamar and I do the voice of Green

Lantern. Hi, I'm Susan Eisenberg and I do the

voice of Wonder Woman. I'm Andrea Romano and

I'm the casting and voice director. One question

that I get asked a lot and probably you guys

too is like, what do you like about voice acting

versus on -camera acting? It's less ego, less

ego, less stress. That's my experience with it

too, is that there is less ego with the actors.

It's not about if you're tall enough or blonde

enough or skinny enough. It's really about whether

you can act the role and if you can have the

fun doing it. It seems that the actors are more

free to just enjoy and play. And it's a challenge

to make everything happen with just your voice.

You know, they can't see my face. I don't have

anything else around me to help me. There's no

set. And it's like, I want to make that little

nuance come out in my voice. It's exciting. It's

a challenge. I love it. No, I said rotate the

securing bolt counterclockwise, not clockwise.

That's what I did. Oh, no, you didn't. Now, I

don't know. It seems in my experience, because

we have a lot of guest stars on the show, and

you'd know this best, Andrea, but... It seems

like people with singing backgrounds or stage

backgrounds are the ones who adapt most quickly

to doing voice acting. Absolutely. It has to

do with, I think, the energy involved in stage

acting, too. It's because voice -over acting

is subtle, but it's not as subtle as on -camera

TV or on -camera film is. It's a little bit broader,

and so stage actors seem to have the presence

that is required for it. And singers, too. You're

right. They have the mic technique already, obviously.

That's part of it. And then that seems to translate

well into the voiceover field. Because this time,

I won't stop until you're just a greasy smear

on my fist. Let's go. As actors, do you treat

a superhero differently from another character?

You remind me. all the time. She's a warrior.

Oh yeah, that's right, I'm a warrior. And the

body language, like our body language when we're

behind the mics, I mean, I know with Wonder Woman

she's very regal, I mean, I remember that from

the audition, you know, there's just something,

she's had a certain background and she's been

raised a certain way. I'm not slumped behind

a microphone. I mean, even though I'm sitting,

I am always sitting up straight. There's just

a sense of who she is physically that I think

we all... are conscious of when we're doing it.

Then I guess you'll have to feed me. Don't be

afraid, little man. I won't bite. The next question

is, how did you decide on your voice for the

characters? And for me, seeing these guys with

gigantic chests just made me think, well, he's

got to have this enormous voice for this enormous

chest. Whose side are you really on? Don't you

know? Well, you know it's funny the thing about

that like Giganta she's huge, but she's all girl

I mean she'll kick your butt, but she's it's

her power comes from her like girl thing You

know and she's a warrior, but you know her bad

comes from that everything comes out of that.

It's that dress You wouldn't hit a girl would

you I would I started out sort of at one level,

they used to pitch me down, and I think as I

sort of got older during the series, my voice

got a little lower and I didn't have to reach

for the low part. But I definitely had to really

focus on Superman, because you're right, he's

drawn so gigantic. You see his bone structure

when he gets electrocuted a lot, which is all

the time. I'm sitting there looking at his vertebra

going, God, that's like the vertebra of an elephant.

He's huge. Any minute now, Brainiac will explode.

And guess what? You're going with him. Is there

a different energy when we have a special guest

star? Because we have a lot of really cool guest

stars. Do you guys feel like there's a different

energy in the room? Yeah. Yeah. It's very exciting

for me because I get to bring in actors that

I admire. That's more like it. But I'll bet you

folks at home are wondering who these wild cards

are. Though it pains me to admit it, I need your

help. My word is absolute. and must be accepted

by all. Ain't this great? The whole team together

again, all eight of us. I have to look at it

as who's gonna come in and have fun with us and

enjoy this process and not be freaked out by

the fact that they've never had to work without

the benefit of their physical, you know, being.

It's really about being able to translate to

voices. Well, I remember one episode, and I'm

trying to remember who all was here, but it was

just like everybody was speaking in, like, bass

tones. There was Clancy Brown, and I think Powers

Booth, and Carl was here, and Kevin Conroy was

here in the studio. And you too. Yeah, I was

doing my low voice. And I think Powers Booth...

Everyone was just like, well, what do you think?

To the point, yeah, you weren't even listening.

You were just feeling it through the floors.

Like, all right, was that a good take? Okay.

Anything I took was freely offered. Maybe you

should take better care of your stuff. What are

the advantages of recording as a group versus

individually? It's far better when the group

is together. I think everybody does feed off

of each other's energy. And I think that it's

important for you two to hear what happened in

the scene before. Even if you're not in it, how

your scene is then going to follow and what's

going to make sense. Take 157. I was bad cop.

You're always bad cop. Why play against type?

Anyway, we got a name out of her. That's another

thing that bothers me. Aquaman and Dr. Fate.

Fate's some sort of mystic, isn't he? That's

right. And only magic could have hurt me like

this. Guess I'm off the fence. Somebody asked,

what are recording sessions typically like? And,

I don't know, I'd say they're pretty much like

this, only with great big microphones in front

of our faces. Are we allowed to actually say?

Mayhem. It's a little bit like, um... Being a

teacher in an elementary school class, I find

that sometimes. The really silly part is the

rehearsal, because we rehearse the same day that

we record. And so you have about a 40 -minute

rehearsal where you go through, I read the stage

directions that are important to you guys to

know as far as how it will affect your lines

being read. And then that's when the silly stuff

really happens. That's where everybody sort of

gets out all the silly ad -libs and the wild

things that they do. And then when we get to

the actual record, then it's a little bit more

down to business. And let's get it done, because

we have a finite time get this done in. And so

then it gets a little bit more down to business.

But the more fun thing to watch is, in fact,

the rehearsal. What's the plan? Plan? We blow

that thing out of the sky. And another big part

of the recording is the action scenes. We do

a lot of it in ADR, but we also do it live. I

mean, a show like this has a lot of action. Guys,

give us your thoughts on the... the action scenes

and the grunts. I think that is a whole separate

day of animation. It's so physical. It's so much

fun. It has become one of my favorite things.

You didn't seem comfortable doing the action

sounds. But now you're great at it. What changed?

I just got comfortable with it. It's like I let

go of the inhibitions of it, of looking silly,

of being concerned, and just having fun. of really

feeling the punch, of really throwing the punch.

And now it's one of my favorite things. Oh crap.

Specificity is so key in it. Like when someone

says, okay, you get hit, well, where am I hit?

In the face, in the gut, in the arm, in the leg.

What am I hit with? Am I shot? Am I punched?

Am I stabbed? Am I kicked? What is it? Well,

if you enjoyed it, it's everything. Right. It's

everything. Electricity is his special thing.

Yeah, I just got my head crushed by gigantic

feet. What would that feel like? It's an extra,

your imagination has to be... Yeah, you have

to work it. I would never survive that crush.

So what would that sound like? Alright, now I

say to you, discuss Walla. We can't use four

words if we discuss Walla. Everybody discuss

Walla in three, two, one. The big old ball is

going to hit us. Let's talk about what walla

really is so that everybody understands what

it is. It really encompasses a large group of

things. It may be a crowd scene in a stadium

where everybody is just basically talking. It's

the sound that you would hear if you walked into

a sports stadium and what do you hear? You hear

all the crowd talking about whatever. People

joke sometimes that when they do walla they actually

say the word walla walla walla walla. That really

doesn't work. And so sometimes we'll have to

say here's what the words are that you might

be saying in this. And it's also we get very

silly during it I mean it's that one time where

we really just cut loose Yeah, we do because

it's the whole group and you bring people in

and you bring some of the writers And you know

Bruce will come in and you know and then it's

like really we're just playing fun It's all fun

if we can't have fun making cartoons for goodness

sakes. We're just in the wrong business. Yeah,

so pretty bad odds Yeah, they don't stand a chance.

What do you guys like best? about working on

Justice League. I like the cast. Good group.

And it's a great feeling when you hear Andrea

say, excellent, and you look up and you see Bruce

smiling. Plus being part of a show that has such

history, you know, being... Iconic character.

Being Superman, being Hawkeye Girl, being Wonder

Woman. The way popular culture is now, you know,

there's so much ambiguity, and the bad guys are

good, and the good guys are bad, and this is

one of the last places in pop culture where good

really is cool. That's a wrap. Just about. You

like it, Bruce? That is a wrap. Really nice,

you guys. You didn't think I'd come here without

reinforcements, did you? Wish I'd thought of

that. Oh wait, I did. Hey everybody, I'm Jason

Hill House and we're here to talk about season

2 of the Justice League with Butch Lukach director

James Tucker producer Bruce Tim producer Dwayne

McDuffie story editor What were some of the things

that you learned from season one that then applied

to season two that you think maybe smoothed out

a little bit? Well, you know, the thing with

season one is that it felt it was a decent show,

but it was very safe. It was very middle of the

road. It didn't really surprise you very much.

We were deliberately trying not to make the show

as dark as we had done with Batman and Batman

Beyond and even the Superman show to a degree.

We were trying to make a little bit more of an

all -ages show. It's juggling a lot of characters

and the archetypes that are real strong, but

the personalities have a tendency to blend in.

to win one another? Well, I'm trying to get Superman

out of the way when there's stories dealing with

Batman or Wonder Woman. Whereas, you know, Superman

could deal with pretty much everything. You didn't

want to bring in Kryptonite all the time, because

that was just an easy hook. I mean, a greater

problem was not so much just Superman, but just

how we staged action. The shows in the past basically

dealt with one single character, and you followed

that character through the action. Well, now

you have seven. We tended to chop up the action

in ways that weren't very dynamic. The problem

was, though, we You also have to, in between

fights, you have to go back and see what someone

else is doing, or you lose him in the story.

We finally figured it out, but it took a while

to get there. You alright? P .G. It seemed like

maybe you guys were having a little bit more

fun. We did kind of open the floodgates a little

bit with Twilight. I was pretty charged up after

we had done my rewrite on Twilight. I kind of

went, wow, OK, we can actually do the show that

we kind of see in our head, that James and I

kind of saw in our head. We kind of realized,

yeah, this is kind of, this is it. And so we

can kind of go this way. And we can push the

show in different directions. We're very passive

aggressive with our fans. Whenever we know they

want something. we don't give it to them so season

one we didn't give them the big super villain

brawl that they were expecting so secret society

is our version of that The plot gave us an excuse

to have them fight, but it also gave our characters

an excuse to talk about how they really feel

about each other. I mean, there's a mind control

element to it, but really the things that they're

saying about their relationships and how they

feel about each other, they all mean it. And

we got to see them in ways that we couldn't see

them otherwise. You don't care about me. What

are you talking about? I'd give my life for you.

So in terms of like the story, the characters

actually having something at stake. Right, we

just wanted to make things more personal for

everybody. Everything's gotta pay off sooner

or later. Man, I love this town! Dwayne, was

it your idea to send him to Vegas? I don't remember

if it was my idea to send him to Vegas. I know

the initial thought when we were plotting it,

we were all sitting around plotting it, was we

wanted to do something with a reality show. We

were kind of trying to figure out how to do,

you know, the Joker and something like that.

In real time. We wanted to do the episode in

real time as well. And that's what cracked it

for us. The fun for me was the Joker has trouble

with, you know, just Batman, let alone, you know,

Superman and Green Lantern and all these guys.

But the fun of it was he came up with a plot

that just The suspense is killing me! Of course

it's going to be the explosions that kill them.

Any final thoughts or anything that you take

away when you look back at season two? I'm pretty

proud of it. I think it was definitely a turning

point for us. We were so kind of not used to

failure. Because all the other shows we'd kind

of like, you know, kind of come out of the gate,

you know. scoring touchdowns and this one was

a real rough first season and so it was gratifying

to be able to turn it around and then feel good

about the show ourselves. Well with first season

we saw what we didn't want to do which made it

easier to figure out what we did want to do but

in some ways it was like turning around an ocean

liner to get there. It was a lot of hard work.

Because we had that yardstick of the earlier

shows it was just twice as hard to up the ante.

It's an interesting thing to look back at the

progression of this show. You really can see

the steps toward the direction that you ultimately

wound up with. And I think it's really interesting

to be able to go back and look at these things

season to season like that. You always have to

be the hero, don't you? Right back at you. It's

always good to get to come here and sit down

and talk with the guys and just find out about

what they were thinking, what they were making

the show, and to hear about the stories, where

they got the ideas for the stories and all that

kind of stuff. But another cool thing is you

get to actually look at some of the artwork.

Some of the backgrounds in particular are really

cool and you don't really get to see them on

the show because there's all the action and stuff

going on in front, but they're really beautiful.

Let's go check out some of the art right now.

Your so -called Justice League is in violation

of our martial law. They are to be considered

an enemy and dealt with on sight. What makes

a background work and especially what kind of

style do you do for this kind of show? Batman

and the Superman shows both had really, really

stylized backgrounds and we thought that for

Justice League being a little bit more fantasy

oriented show we should ground it in a little

bit more of a felt reality. we would try a little

bit more experimental or bizarre color schemes,

anything to kind of make the backgrounds pop

a little bit more. And this show winds up being

even more sci -fi than even Superman and its

later episode. It became a trick after a while

trying to come up with different looks for different

alien worlds because we went to lots of different

alien worlds and alien environments. And each

one of those had its own feel and we didn't want

them all to look like the same generic alien

world. I mean, for instance... Hereafter, it

takes place many, many thousands of years in

the future where our sun has gone red. The red

sun is tinting the moon pink. And then the sky,

you know, the landscape gets kind of purplish.

This is from Twilight. The big mandate about

the inside of Brainiac's head is we wanted to

have just immense scale. So we said, well, it'd

be really cool if while we're panning through

here we saw one of Brainiac's spaceships parked

there. So that kind of gives you an idea of how

big this place actually is. This is a sequence

inside the Brainiac head ship from Twilight and

the idea was we were supposed to pass by all

these panels that showed different worlds that

Brainiac had visited and destroyed. Well we didn't

want to design like a zillion different planets

so we basically took old backgrounds from Superman

the Animated series and even Batman Beyond. You

know, this is the world. It's from the Despero

show. It's Despero's home world. His world is

supposed to represent almost like a Middle Eastern

kind of world. And so we definitely had a little

bit of an Arabic feel to some of the cityscapes.

And this is from the Terror Beyond, and that's

supposed to be a quasi -mystical other dimension.

It's not supposed to be like a physical plane,

but of course it does have to have some kind

of physicality. because the characters do interact

in it. This is from StarCross. This background,

I think initially it didn't have all these cast

shadows all over it. That was something we added

actually while we were painting it. And I think

I said, you know, that spotlight is blasting

into the room. Why don't you carry those design

elements into the cast shadows into the design

as well so that it's a much more angular, busy,

and threatening environment. It's all about storytelling

with us. Thanks so much for your time today.

I appreciate it. I'm Jason Hillhouse with Bruce

Tim. Thanks for watching. I hope you guys liked

listening to the special feature audio that I

ripped out of the DVDs. Again, everybody, and

I will say this until we finish this podcast

with episode 25. Everyone, even if you've already

bought the individual season sets, everyone needs

to go out and buy this, this complete series.

Ah, cause hello, wait. Cause hello, tin, it's

a tin. The tin is very nice. Yes, the tin is

very nice and I hope I just didn't dent it with

my fingernail there. Scrape the paint. No! It's

not mint. shut up it's not meant uh... home i

am actually so very glad that we are done with

seasons one and two because now i can actually

put that dvd case back in the ten and i can just

focus on seasons three through five Somebody

said when I posted pictures when this was first

announced they they they posted pictures of the

box art on on TV shows on DVD and somebody I

posted them on the earth tube net forums and

again I have to give a great shout out to Mike

and James the world's finest podcast Because

they're just awesome But somebody asked me on

on the second disc they they show on the front

they show red tornado Dr. Fate and Aquaman and

then the back they show green arrow Adam John

John and and John or John and John Whatever and

somebody asked me why is why is red tornado on

a Justice League box? I was like well because

he's an unlimited But just overall is Dr. C.

Well, he's the Adam to yeah, well, they're all

in unlimited. That's the thing I find it very

strange that they for the second disc set booklet.

It's green and purple Wow, there's a Devastator

if I've ever seen one Huh oh so punny yes Okay,

what I find really interesting is when you're

looking at the Justice League unlimited booklet

inside Mm -hmm. It's got Hawkerl in her season

one season two outfit in the in the in the second

set Yep, if you in the the two -page spread Upper

left corner. Oh, yeah, you're right Well, maybe

they didn't and and in the back page. We'll see

the thing Does she go back into her outfit and

I just don't know about it? No, she doesn't but

this was probably this part that they have in

here This was probably Promotional art for the

original two seasons Because on most of this

it's only well outside of outside of the tube

no Well, yeah outside of the two page spread

showing some of the other heroes the original

seven are shown everywhere So I'm not really

sure let me look at the actual art. That's on

the disk here Oh girl The hell is she oh? They

put joker on this too I did not notice that at

first. I don't see how it goes. She's bad Batman.

She's bad Batman. Where the fuck is Batman going?

You are looking at the inside cover, so it's

left. Oh, okay, yeah. It's probably because this

was all promotion art for the original... I don't

know. By the way, she's in her regular uniform

on the special features disc, too. So I don't

know, maybe it was because they just figured,

OK, well, she has to have some sort of uniform

look. Like she has to be in some sort of super

suit or something. Well, not super suit, but

you get what I'm saying. Outfit. Yeah. That's

recognizable? Well, yeah, that's recognizable,

because the majority of Unlimited, when she does

come back, she just wears clothes. I mean, she

just wears like a t -shirt and jeans and those

boots that she wears. Oh my god. Of course, there

was that one episode in season five when she

was in a hot -ass dress. Holy crap. That dress

was awesome. Oh, girl. I would so fuck you. Anyway.

Wow. That's a lot. Yeah. Good thing we have that

explicit tag, huh? I guess so. Oh, crap. Um,

but yeah overall, um Very very awesome. I actually

can't believe we're already Into unlimited. I

mean it seems like we just started this show

yesterday and it's on but so fast What that's

what but we did the listeners just don't know

yeah, no, we didn't just start this show yesterday,

so It's been going on for a couple of months

Yeah, it's been going on for a couple months

now. Six months, we started in... Yeah, February.

February? Well, we recorded the original episode

zero, which technically wouldn't count, but episode

zero, we did record in January, but the actual

kickoff of actual review shows of episodes was

February 2nd, 2010. Which, I'm thinking, and

this is very... It's kind of up -topic, but giving

the listeners background information. Originally

I told you that the schedule would allow us to

go up to New Year's Eve of 2010. I'm thinking

of delaying episode 25 until February 2nd, 2011,

so it's actually one year that we've done this

show. Alright, so let's get to the outro, shall

we? Thank you for joining us here on the Secret

Origins podcast. There's always ways to get in

contact with us or leave feedback for the show.

Visit the website geekcastradio .com, join the

forums, productonempire .com slash nexus, leave

the show's feedback in iTunes, please do this,

and if you, I want to remind everybody, I'm saying

this in every of the outros now, if you are a

person who is listening to us from another country

and not in the United States, if you write us

an iTunes review, Take a screen cap and email

it to me, tfg1mike at gmail .com, and we will

read your review on air. Not that we have any

reviews for this show, unfortunately, but follow

us on Twitter. The show name there is Secret

Origins. Mine is tfg1mike. What is your Twitter,

sir? KaminitiStyle, C -A -M -I -N -I, T -I -S

-T -Y -L -E. Let me know if you guys are actually

listening. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Become a fan

on Facebook, search Geekcast Radio Network. We

hope you enjoyed this episode of the Secret Origins

Podcast and wish you'll join us next time when

we will be reviewing the first five episodes

of Justice League Season 3, which has now become

Justice League Unlimited. Those being Initiation,

for the man who has everything, Hawk and Dove,

Fearful Cemetery, not Cemetery, Cemetery, and

Kid Stuff. And, uh, yeah, Lupus is not gonna

like for the man who has everything, I can tell

you right now. Yeah, you're not. For the main

reason that the villain of that episode is Mongol.

But it's... I've got to like it on the basis

of Green Lantern lore. Green Lantern Lord has

nothing to do with the Green Lantern. It's a

Superman episode True, but uh, isn't there the

Black Mercy plant? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

It's important as it was Mongol unfortunately

For now I am TFG1 Mike with Lupus Convoy, thank

you for listening until next time The hell are

you laughing at? I almost did it again. Oh, you

almost said Kevin Eddy style? Yes. you