TSOP – Episode 17

Secret Origins Podcast Episode 17 Hello and welcome

to episode 17 of the Secret Origins podcast.

We have been going unlimited. I am your host,

DFJ1Mike, and joining me is Lupus Condoy. Hello,

sir. Hello again, sir. How are you? I'm still

alive. Yay. Today we will be starting season

four of Justice League with the first four episodes.

So what's been going on with you, sir? The week

from hell. Everyone who's in college knows about

midterms. Shudder. Let's not go back to that

dark, dark, black place. So how about you, sir?

It's been going good. It's kind of iffy. It varies

from day to day. I've mainly just been watching

a lot of TV, obviously podcasting. Obviously

not for this show, but been doing a lot of other

stuff. We're up to episode 25 of Beast Unleashed

podcast. We're up to episode 76 coming up this

week for Tooncast. Just usual stuff, I guess.

Let's see. What else do we want to say in the

intro? It's been a while. I am insanely jealous

of all our listeners that are going to be participating

in NaNoWriMo this year. I unfortunately will

not be able to because of school commitments,

but it doesn't mean I won't be pining to put

words to paper or pixels to screen. For those

that don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's National

Novel Writing Month, and the challenge is to

write a complete 50 ,000 -word novel from November

1st to November 30th. While it seems like it

could be easy, no. Yeah, you have to have all

your stuff. You have to have all your ducks in

a row. And realize that you're going to get nothing

done on Black Friday and Turkey Day and the day

before Thanksgiving. It adds up quick. Yes, it

does. Yes, it does. But other than that, I don't

think I have anything else to say. All right.

We are going to get into some episodes then.

Kind of late for a charity drop -off, isn't it

boys? First up today for Season 4 of Justice

League is the Cat and the Canary. And for the

plot, we have Black Canary is on a stakeout in

Radio's Wildcat to see why he isn't there to

help, as they had arranged. He is in a meta -brawl

fight, but does not let Black Canary know. He

only says that he'll be there shortly. Not willing

to wait, Black Canary engages the criminals.

And with her fighting ability in the Canary Cry,

easily defeats them. After the fight, a portable

television can be heard broadcasting the results

of the Metabrawl fight with Wildcat as the winner.

Black Canary is clearly stunned. Later, Green

Arrow is in training in a weight room in the

Watchtower when the Black Canary invites him

to spar with her. In the conversation before

and during the spar, Black Canary is flirting

with Green Arrow. She also hauls him into thinking

that she is not a good fighter and tricks him

into helping her with something outside of the

league business. On a motorcycle ride, Black

Canary tells Green Arrow that she is trying to

get Wildcat out of Metabrawl fights. As they

try to talk Wildcat out of it, he hears nothing

of it, saying he is tired of being treated as

a has -been and all cooped up in the watchtower.

His next fight with Atomic Skull is interrupted

by Green Arrow and Black Canary who try to stop

the fighting. Other supervillains step in and

with Wildcat are set to defeat the heroes. Black

Canary then proposes a different Metabrawl to

Roulette where she fights Wildcat. Roulette agrees,

calls off the villains, and announces the new

fight. Excuse me. In the dressing room, Black

Canary tells Green Owl that she plans to beat

Wildcat to force him to quit Metabrawl. Green

Arrow activates a sleep gas arrow in front of

her, knocks her out, and then tells Roulette

that he'll be fighting Wildcat. Green Arrow is

clearly overmatched and getting beat in the ring.

And he keeps goading Wildcat. Finally, Wildcat

delivers a strong blow and seemingly kills Green

Arrow. Watching from outside the cage, Black

Canary is horrified, while Roulette is thinking

of how much the fights will bring in now that

they've become death matches. Wildcat, however,

is still in shock over the death that he caused

and announces that he is out for good. After

the arena has cleared out, Black Canary is seen

later kneeling over the body of Green Arrow when

he revives and tells her he used a stun arrow

on himself to help him seem dead. She figures

out his plan to startle Wildcat enough for him

to remember the power and force he has. and that

he shouldn't misplace it. Wildcat stands over,

admits that it worked. Black Canary then uses

her Canary Cry to destroy the Metabrawl Stadium.

Back in the Watchtower, Green Arrow and Black

Canary run with Wildcat as he prepares to sit

down with John Jones to help him sort out his

need to be in Metabrawl. Green Arrow then invites

Black Canary for some coffee. Okay, uh, thoughts?

Okay, um, I love Dinah, and that she's a hell

of a fighter. And with Sonic Scream. I can definitely

see why she is such a core member later on in

the comics. Right. You know, basically controlling

the League at one point and being part of the

Birds of Prey. Ollie, he's just awesome. He reminds

me a bit of my dad, actually. Really? For some

strange reason, yeah. Maybe it's just the way

that he talks. Maybe it's the go -to. roulette

as we said off air for some reason her character

design looks really really familiar to me uh

i don't know um but i think the tattoo looked

really bad um a nice little touch is that they

kind of gave wildcat cauliflower ears yeah um

which was kind of interesting like i didn't at

first the first two times i saw this i was like

not catching that on the third, I'm like, oh,

he's got battle damage. Prominent battle damage.

Okay. The whole changing sequence when GA's like,

well, there's no place to change. And Canary's

like, well, there's right here. Did you drop

something? And the entire time, I'm thinking,

well, does the GLA just not have a good retirement

plan? Really? Is that why he... Wildcat's really

upset. I don't know. When Canary says to Wildcat,

you have to decide which side you're on. And

then he steps out of the way of the villains.

I didn't see that coming. Yeah, I didn't see

that coming either. That was, wow. And this is

one of a handful of times we see Atomic Skull

throughout the rest of the series. Yeah, I was

surprised this is the first time he shows up.

Let's see. We see Green Arrow get his ass kicked.

Yep. And then, oh my god, you killed Ollie. You

bastard! And the twist at the end where they

have Jon Jones help him get over the whole Metabrawl

situation. That's why you keep a telepath. However,

There was an old, no, a two -year -old comic,

I think, the JSA, where it had Wildcat calling

somebody on the phone in the hot tub saying,

and what are you doing, Selina? So now John will

know about that. Can't keep a secret with those

Teletats, can you? I think that's all I've got

for this semester. This semester? God, this episode.

Wow. You know where my brain is, folks. Yeah,

yeah. We pretty much have the exact same note,

except my first note was, oh, Black Canary, she's

hot. That was like when we first saw her. Actually,

yeah, it was like when we first saw her, when

she was getting ready to spar with Ollie the

first time. She was taking off the jacket. Yeah.

Ollie's jealous and they haven't even been out

on one date yet. I mean, I could see if they

were, you know, like two or three weeks into

a relationship and getting jealous, but haven't

even been on a first date yet and he's already

getting jealous and he doesn't even understand

the situation. But can you blame him? I mean,

come on. It's Dinah. I know, I know. He doesn't

want to share that. The music in this episode

was just amazing. It was just so awesome. It

was a nice touch. Yes, it was. One thing we do

need to mention that Dennis Farino voiced Wildcat.

I thought it sounded familiar. Yep. Which, coincidentally,

he is also doing the narration for Unsolved Mysteries

now. Really? Yep. I didn't think they were still

doing that episode, that, uh, that show. Yup.

It's on, I think it's on, um, man, I think it's

any or discovery. It is one of those any discovery

or true TV. It's one of those stations. Um, and

like you said, I mean, GA just got his ass whooped.

And then, of course, the ending that I had was

at least Wildcat learned his lesson. The thing

about the whole telepath thing was... I wonder

if Jaune is the therapeutic person for the entire

league. Wouldn't you want somebody that's a little

bit more human? Wouldn't you want somebody who's

a little bit more objective? Objective, yes,

but there might be some things that he'd be like,

well, my wife used to do that to me all the time.

Quit bitching. I just think Bishi's wall. I think

it kind of makes sense for him to be the therapist

because obviously you can't keep any secrets

from him. What I'm really wondering is how many

hours of therapy has Batman logged? None. Well,

I mean... That'll come in later. Oh, yeah. I

thought a nice little twist on the end was when

Ollie and Dinah are flirting and he says, Great,

let's go out for coffee. You're buying. And she

looks so upset by that at first. Like, what?

I'm buying? Never mind, he just dumped $2 ,000

on tickets for this thing. Yeah, exactly. But,

you know, he only gets a million and a half after

that sale. Yeah, that's true. Still, it's a million

and a half more than we have. Unfortunately.

I wish I... Even if I did play the lottery, I

know I would never win, but I wish I would. If

I won the lottery, custom Guy Gardner figures.

Oh, God. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have to

throw them into every episode. Are you seriously

telling me that if you won the lottery, that's

all you would spend the money on is custom Guy

Gardner figures? Well, not all of it, but that

would probably be one of my first priorities.

Wow. Just so I could ship them to you. Yeah,

and then I would make a YouTube video with them

burning in the backyard. So there'd be money

wasted, technically. But I'd live on in YouTube

infamy. We have any other notes for Cat and Canary?

I think we've blown through them all. I'm really

surprised about how old they made him look, though.

Wildcat, you mean? Yeah, because in the current

JSA, he's... More distinguished. Kind of got

the Reed Richards dual color hair thing going

on. You got to remember, this episode was made

like five, six years ago. The comic came out

like recently. I know, but that's what I'm saying.

Recon. Or retcon, rather. Retcon, yeah. It was

like, recon? What recon? There's no recon mission.

I like seeing the Canary Cry animated. I mean,

the only other time that I've really seen Black

Canary was on the Birds of Prey series where

Lori Loughlin starred as Black Canary. And that

was a nice effect there. But here, just seeing

an animation is nice. And I like how she says

that she can't use it in the closed -in arena

with everybody around because it would kill everybody.

Ah, behold the power of acoustics. Well, you

know, it is pretty loud. It's almost as... It

is louder than Night Scream's Sonic Scream, so

that's always good. The question I have to ask

from a biological standpoint, not how she generates

it, but how she can generate it without making

herself go deaf. Does she have earplugs? She

could have earplugs, yeah. Maybe she went to

Princess Audrey and got some diamonds. I don't

know. Oh, sorry. The science geek in me came

out for a moment. Anyway, shall we? Yeah, I think

we're going to move on here. So we're going to

move on to the next episode. Who are you? The

world's greatest escape artist or the world's

greatest idiot? For crying out loud, Scott, not

even you can get out of this trap. That's what

I like about you, Oberon. Your incurable optimism.

Stop distracting him and get the canister. I

hate to admit this, but Oberon has a point. Don't

worry, darling. They don't call me Mr. Miracle

for nothing. First rule of show business, never

believe your own publicity. Craziest stunt you

ever pulled. That's why we're rehearsing. Kid's

got an answer for everything. Let's hope the

train's running late today. Leave it to Skyfree

to find the newest wrinkles. You sure have given

me a few. O ye of little faith. Scott, I thought

you were dead. You inseparable showboat. I thought

you were dead. When are you and Oberon going

to learn that? Hey, where is Oberon? Up next,

we have the Ties That Bind, a .k .a. Miracles

Happen. Oh, Christ, kill me now. Yes, folks,

it's that bad of an episode. Scott Free, a .k

.a. Mr. Miracle, is rehearsing his latest escaped

act with the aid of his wife, Big Barda, and

his mentor, Oberon. It involves shackling his

hands and feet, encasing him in a full -body

sarcophagus, encasing the sarcophagus in a block

of ice, and then dropping a train car on himself.

Scott escapes, of course, but as soon as the

dust settles, Oberon is nowhere to be found.

Granny Goodness appears and says she is holding

Oberon hostage. Granny goodness returns, ladies

and gentlemen. Because let's face it, folks,

we're talking about Oberon. He's a midget. He

could be confused with a really ugly child. Or

Gizmo. Ugh. She explains the dark side's disappearance.

Apocalypse has descended into a power struggle

between herself. Sorry, himself. And Vermin Wunderbar.

Wunderbar. has gained the advantage by capturing

Kalabak, Darkseid's son, whom Vunderbar plans

to brainwash and use to legitimize his claim

to the throne. Now Granny wants Kalabak for the

same end. She needs Scott to rescue Kalabak from

the X -Pit, Apocalypse's impenetrable prison.

Scott escapes from the pit as a boy and remains

the only person ever to do so. So I guess it's

not that impenetrable. Yeah. Scott and Barda

approach the Justice League for help, specifically

Superman's help, but Jaune refuses to aid them.

The League cannot assist Granny in gaining control

of Apocalypse, as she would eventually threaten

Earth. It's to their advantage to keep her and

Wunderbar fighting. Barda storms out, followed

by Scott. Flash protests, but Jaune waves him

down, saying Flash needs to look at the big picture.

Despite this, Flash sneaks away and catches up

to... to Scott and Barda and offers to aid them.

Barda is skeptical, to say the least, saying

that he's useless without Superman's strength

and speed. But when Flash shows them how fast

he is, Scott realizes that he would be an asset.

The trio boom tubes to Apocalypse and, with relative

ease, enter the pit. Scott halts, seeing that

the layout to the place has been completely changed

since he escaped, meaning his plans are now useless.

Despite this, Barda and Flash insist on accompanying

him. As they make their way through, Scott remembers

his many escapes as a child, and the subsequent

tortures by Granny and punishment, before he

finally made it out fully. Granny tried time

and again to break his spirit, but failed. While

Scott and Barda engage the pit guards, Flash

hurriedly searches the prison and releases Kalabak,

but that's the easy part. They make their way

out, evading the pit's many deathtraps with their

combined talents. When they are within striking

distance of the exit, Vunderbar starts a self

-destruct countdown, then flees. The prison goes

up with an explosion, apparently taking all inside

with it. However, as Granny prompts the ruins

of the pit, a boom tube opens and Scott, Barda,

Flash, and Kalabak emerge. Granny congratulates

Scott on the success, then sweetly informs him

that Oberon was going to be taught a lesson anyway.

Then Kalabak morphs into Jaune, who swiftly reads

Granny's mind and uses his telepathy to guide

Flash to Oberon's cell with Darkseid's Old Palace.

Okay, first of all, I don't get... When did they

have... It doesn't even show you how they had

time to go for the switch. Hey, it takes a while

for Granny to show up. I mean, she's got a walker

and all. Go ahead. This allowed Flash to save

him just before Granny's death trap kills him.

Barda is all for killing Granny, but Jean reminds

her that it is to their advantage to keep her

and Wunderbar fighting. Barda contents herself

with a good right cross to Granny's jaw, and

the party leaves Apocalypse. Back at the Watchtower,

Flash confronts Jean, and before the latter can

speak, defends his actions. He may have disobeyed

Jean's orders. but everything had worked out.

They boomed from the X -Pit to Earth, stashed

Cal back, and switched him with Jaune, then boomed

back and managed to save Oberon. Jaune, smiling,

says he wasn't about to scold Flash, only challenged

him to a game of brawling bots. Okay, sir, I

know you have very strong opinions about this.

Go! This episode, I know everybody loves Jack

Kirby. Most people love Jack Kirby. Most people

love the new gods and the fourth world stuff.

I absolutely know nothing about it. So this was

an episode that really didn't have any meaning

to me at all. A couple of the jokes and stuff

are cool and all, but overall this episode, probably

if we were giving it a grade, I would give it

like a zero or a one. Seriously, it just didn't

resonate with me whatsoever. I did like seeing

Granny Goodness return. That was kind of cool.

And one of the jokes that I did like, couldn't

your boob tube have gotten us any closer? It's

boom tube. It was awesome. That was a nice line.

I do have to say, with the scene where Scott

was quote -unquote making miracles with the lasers

flying all around and stuff, that was kind of

cool. It was an episode that I think that, frankly,

just shouldn't have been made. Wow. Well, at

least you're very secure in how you feel about

it. I would give this episode a 5. Really? Out

of 10. Why? Okay, I can defend my position on

this because we needed to see what was going

on with Apocalypse. It's nice to know that the

big baddie, he's still gone. What's happening

behind what we see, you know? Okay, yes, Jack

Kirby. Okay, that's great. I am not a huge fan

of... The character designs that we've seen.

I mean, Mr. Miracle's costume just looks absolutely

gaudy. And this is coming from somebody that

runs around Paragon City in rainbow -colored

tights. I mean, it's pretty nasty looking. And

Big Barda's not much of a difference. If you

want something that's really good with dealing

with this character and the new gods and all

this, go check out Batman Superman Apocalypse.

That was an awesome DVD, Blu -ray, direct DC

animation. And it portrayed Barda a lot better

than this, oh, I'd be a strong woman. Oh, I'm

in love with Mr. Miracle. Oh, I'd be a strong

woman. It just, it also did a lot better for

the character designs. Yeah. Well, it's nice

to see Granny Goodness again because it's Granny

Goodness. She's awesome. And it's Ed Asner. You

know what? I didn't know who Ed Asner was doing

the voice until I saw Apocalypse. And I'm sitting

there with my other half and we're watching it

and suddenly it's like, is that a man or a woman?

Well, I'm pretty sure Granny Goodness is a woman,

I think. I'm not sure about the voice actor.

Oh, wait, that's Ed Asner. Holy crap. So I love

the Granny. I am very convinced that Mr. Miracle

is just a teleporter. Yeah, probably. Okay, another

great thing about this episode, the PIV. Jeremy

Piven's back, even if it's only for a little

bit. Which voice? Or which character? Elongated

Man. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you were. I've been doing this longer than

anybody, and I still don't get respect. Yeah.

Yeah, that wasn't funny. Okay, so. On top of

that, we get a lot of WALL -E. Yeah. We haven't

had a whole lot in comparison since the beginning

of Season 3. So it's nice to finally get some

more WALL -E -centric episodes. But, okay, so

there's some more little picks. Okay, so I'm

pretty convinced that Mr. Vundabar, which I could

swear his first name was Vermin. It is. No, vermin

like the mice. It is. Are you serious? I think

so. I thought it was villain. It's vermin. Oh

god, it's vermin. It really is. Yeah, I told

you. I'm sorry folks, the spelling confused me.

I was convinced that this was really out of character

for Jean. Like, I understand the whole detachment

and okay, I understand that things are need to

be kept up with that status quo of them infighting.

At the end of the episode, though, we didn't

see that maintained because Vunderbar just blew

up one of his base of operations. Well, I mean,

it's implied that the fight will continue. I

mean, it's not, you know, they're both, both

of the camps, both Vunderbar's and Granny Goodness's

camps are hurting, obviously, but, I mean, it's

still implied that the war will go on. Yeah,

so I was a little thrown that Mr. Miracle is

the stepbrother of Kalabak. That's kind of weird.

Yeah, I'm a little convinced. Oh, no, no, no.

Okay, wait, wait, wait. Let me remember this

right. Highfather and Darkseid switched sons.

Yes. So Kalabak was Highfather's son. Biological

son. Right. So, technically, Scott is the stepbrother

to Kalabak. So, obviously, Highfather has something

to do with Scott. Are we sure? Or is it Highfather's

mistress? We need a flowchart, folks. It's something.

I was going to say, because there's no way Scott

would be a stepbrother to Orion, because Orion

was Darkseid's son. Orion was the adopted son

of Darkseid. Not biologically. Confused? So am

I. No, I have to go back and watch Twilight.

No, not those fucking stupid movies, but the

episode from Justice League Season 2. It's sad

that I thought that first before the horrible

Stephanie Myers. Yeah. I'll go back and watch

Twilight after we finish the recording, but I

think what happened was Highfather and Darkseid

each had a son. They swapped it. And they swapped

them. Right. So Kelabak is actually Highfather's

child, and Orion is actually Darkseid's child.

I don't know. I don't know if they're adopted.

I don't know if they found some hot siren somewhere

with Cersei. I don't know. But the way I understand...

Wow, Cersei gets all around a lot, doesn't she?

The way I... Omnite in the pit of eternal torment.

Exactly. The way I understand it is that they

are their biological children. I could be wrong.

I don't know. Anyway, so speaking of really screwed

up children, back to Kalabak. So when Vermin

Vunderbar says my last... my last resort, and

hands up, cake! And I thought that was hilarious,

and then what was better was the fact that Kalabak

spits towards it, and I go, that's right, Kalabak

knows the cake is a lie. I think it's headphones,

which I'm sure were blasting either Yanni or

Justin Bieber. Either way, not a way I'd want

to go. Okay, so Oberon and Granny. They could

be married. Why not? They sound like it. Yeah.

So, three superheroes. Okay, mind you, the Flash

is pretty up there, but the other two, they're

pretty lame. They take out all those soldiers

of Apocalypse. Why are we worried about them

except for Darkseid? Yeah. Really? Well, you

know, the whole point of... From Twilight to

now, after Twilight, Darkseid's gone. They didn't

want to just bring him back. You can only use

Darkseid so much. He had already been used in

Superman the Animated Series multiple times.

They used him in Justice League a couple of times.

They didn't use him really, really big, but because

of the whole Superman the Animated Series line

of Apocalypse and Darkseid. inner gang and all

that stuff in Superman the Animated Series, when

they blew him up in Twilight, they wanted him

to stay gone because that way they could bring

in other villains and whatever else. So, yeah.

What else? Yay for Calback's voice, which we've

said before. Michael Dorn. Yep. I'm going to

blow up the entire complex. Awesome. This is

my type of villain. He makes sure that people

can't escape. He's smart. Okay, so here's the

big surprise. Really? Mr. Miracle, if you escaped,

do you really think they're going to keep the

layout the same? So that everyone else can follow

out the same way that you escaped? Really? Really?

But he adjusts to it, so... But still. Oh, they've

changed everything. Are you fucking kidding me?

You didn't think that was going to happen? Really?

God, you're fucking dumb. It's not just the outfit.

You really are just that fucking dumb. And that's

all I've got for this wretched episode. So we

are going to be moving on. Oh, thank God that's

over. Did Cadmus create you? John? I can't read

his mind. His brain's been altered to resist

me. You don't owe anything to them. They manipulated

you and then tried to kill you. So I keep hearing.

From who? All you need to know is that I will

get free. And I will kill you. If that's your

final word. I only use this as a last resort.

It's going to send you to another dimension.

You won't be hurt, but you also won't hurt anyone

else again. You wish you killed me. You'll do

anything to avoid monitor duty. Sent him off

to the Phantom Zone, didn't you? He left us no

choice. Spoken like a true justice lord. What?

Come on. Passing judgment like gods, with our

super -powered army and our orbiting death ray.

Cadmus is right to be scared. The human race

wouldn't stand a chance. We'd never go there.

It isn't in our nature, and nothing can change

that. Nothing? What if Luthor does become president,

like he did in their world? What would stop you

from doing what that Superman did? There's always

that kryptonite you carry around. You don't get

to joke! Not today. I just took a bullet for

you. Up next is the Doomsday Sanction. As she

prepares to leave her high security home for

work, Amanda Waller watches a news report that

Lex Luthor has announced his candidacy for the

U .S. presidency. Standing in the shower, she

is shocked to find Batman standing outside having

entered the house. without tripping the alarms.

He confronts her about the secret work she is

doing against the Justice League, and she retorts

that she is operating under the government's

authority in response to the Justice Lords incident.

Her department was ordered to prepare defenses

against the Justice League should it ever go

rogue. The way she sees it, and her cohorts are

the people the only ones protecting against...

She records the people's only protection against

the metahumans. Batman warns her against attacking

his comrades and leaves. Waller receives his

threat without a blink, but when she grabs the

phone to trigger the alarms, she is surprised

to find her hand shaking. Aboard the Watchtower,

Batman explains the Cadmus agenda at a closed

meeting of the seven founding members. Superman

says that there is no funding for Cadmus, secret

or otherwise, in the federal budget, and speculates

that Luthor is possibly the source of its funding.

Well, duh. At the same time, Waller holds a summit

meeting of Cadmus' department heads. After various

progress reports, she turns to Dr. Milo, whose

work with splicing animals has failed to produce

any results. Milo shakily tries to defend himself,

but Waller orders his department terminated,

and he is reassigned to a lower -ranking position.

In bitterness, Milo steals into the chamber where

the Doomsday Weapon is being held. Prisoner,

amazingly, he is almost completely recovered

from being lobotomized by the Justice Lord Superman.

Milo explains to Doomsday that his existence

is a lie. He is a flawed clone of Superman created

by Emile Hamilton and conditioned by Hamilton,

Waller, and Hugo Strange to hate Superman. It

was them, not Superman, who tormented Doomsday,

and it is them whom he should take revenge on.

Doomsday appears to accept this and agrees to

solve both their problems if Milo releases him.

Milo does, and Doomsday quote -unquote solves

Milo's problems by killing him before returning

to his ingrained agenda, killing Superman. Wow,

that scene was really dark. So Superman is engaged

with a League team assisting in evacuation from

the smelt line of San Bacaro. Yeah, yes, San

Bacaro. The volcano of which is in danger of

erupting. While Wonder Woman and Flash conduct

the evacuation at the harbor, Superman plans

to bore holes through the mountain's sides, venting

the lava to prevent more dangerous eruption.

Before he can begin, Doomsday arrives, and attacks

in their battle threatens to bring the volcano

down. Hearing the news of Doomsday's escape,

Waller angrily orders General Eiling to contain

the mess. and sanction doomsday. She doesn't

care how. Eiling takes her order as an invitation

to fire a nuclear missile with a kryptonite warhead

at San Baguero. Jean detects the missile launch

from the watchtower. Batman immediately calls

Waller on the special hotline to her office connected

only to the White House, giving her another shock,

and tells her to abort the missile. Waller plays

it cool, but Batman can tell she didn't know

Eiling's plan. Jaune reports that Captain Atom

is too far away to reach the missile, and Batman

leaps to action. Rushing down to the Javelin

Bay, he performs an emergency launch into space,

hurtles his ship down through the atmosphere,

despite Jaune's warning that he is risking burn

-up. Waller confronts Eiling, ordering him to

abort the missile. Eiling tells her that it is

already past the point of no return. Jaune calls

Wonder Woman, warning her to evacuate the island

immediately. She tells Flash to go with the last

ships, and that she is going back for Superman.

As Batman's javelin trails the missile, he fires

a pair of rockets, but the missile has magnetic

repulsor field. There is only one way to stop

it now, and Batman doesn't hesitate. He charges

the javelin with its own magnetic field and clamps

onto the missile, managing to steer it off course.

As the javelin and missile overshoot the island

and fly out to sea, Batman ejects. The ship crashes

into the ocean and there is a colossal explosion,

followed by a tidal wave that swamps Batman's

escape pod. John calls him on the radio, but

there is no response. On the island, Superman

has taken savage beating from Doomsday and is

desperate enough that he tries the unthinkable,

burning into Doomsday's brain with his heat vision.

But this doesn't exactly work, and Superman changes

tactics, grabbing Doomsday and hurling him into

the volcano's... Maw? What the hell? The seismic

upset caused by the landing causes the eruption

that Superman was trying to avoid. The island,

through mercifully uninhabited, is destroyed.

Aboard the Watchtower, five of the seven founders

hold a tribunal for Doomsday, imprisoned in a

block of cooled magma. Like Milo, Superman tries

to tell Doomsday that he has been used by Cadmus

and asks Doomsday to reveal what he knows. Doomsday

retorts that he will escape one day and will

go right back to trying to kill Superman. Feeling

that they have no choice, Superman uses a Phantom

Zone projector to send Doomsday into the penal

dimension. Batman is recuperating in the infirmary,

injured but not severely after his crash. He

expresses disgust at Superman's decision, saying

that such arbitrary action is exactly what Cadmus

has reason to fear. He asks, Superman point blank,

what would happen if Luthor does become president?

But Superman assures him that the League would

never cross that line. As Superman leaves him,

Bruce is left in the darkness seeing another

one of Luthor's campaign commercials. On the

news, he silently deliberates what would happen

if the League did cross that line. Okay, well,

I'm going to go first on this one. You know,

something's up when the Maunders go out and then...

Get dressed. It's time we talked. Oh, man. I

didn't know where... When I first saw this episode,

I did not know where this episode was going.

In the beginning. Oh, wow. I really enjoyed the

round table effect. That was very cool. Watching

between the two camps. That little spindle thing.

That was nice. We finally get a Doomsday backstory.

Yay! Kind of. At least within this own universe

here. J. Jonah Jameson is General Eiling. Very

awesome. It works with the mustache. J .K. Simmons

voiced Eiling. That was very cool. Batman loves

attempting suicide. He's a martyr, really. I

knew as soon as John said Captain Adam was...

Too far away, and that there was no time. I knew

what he was going to do. And it's always with

radiation. Yep. He wants to go bald. Yeah, really.

I really enjoyed the flame slash fire effects

after Doomsday is thrown into the volcano. That

was a nice, cool effect. And this is one of the

only times that... Batman really, really gets

angry at Superman. He's like, you don't get to

joke. Not today. I just took a bullet for you.

That was a very intense line. It was. And then,

of course, at the end, oh, President Luther.

You know it's going to happen. Spent $75 million

on a fake campaign. Oh, wait, that's later. Anyway.

so what did you think of doomsday sanction oh

god okay um walker in the morning almost seems

like a normal normal person yeah waller yeah

um again you see luther for president um bats

has the best entrance ever well yeah every edit

He knows how to make an entrance. Yep. And we

see that even Waller has the nerves when it comes

to bats. Oh, yeah. I love that. Let's put a pin

on that, Deary, and we'll come back to that,

Wally. You just got to keep me alive. Yeah. If

bats... says that someone is wound a bit too

tight. That's coming from Batman. What does that

say exactly? Alright, they're talking about the

question because at one point he says he put

the question on it and if someone can find answers,

the question can. And they're all like, oh man,

and I think Flash is like, oh man, not that kook.

And Batman's like, I admit he's wound a little

too tight, but he can get the job done. I mean...

I don't know too much about the question. I believe

Steve Ditko created him. I think I'm correct

in that, but again, I'm not a comic guru here.

The question technically is Batman without all

the gadgets and with more conspiracy theories.

That pretty much wraps him up. Oh, the current

one isn't too bad. Well, I'm not saying that

they're bad. I mean, I love the question later

on. So, I mean, he's a really cool character,

especially in this, because it's something you

don't normally see. And it's one thing later

that we'll get to. Like, some of these characters

that I've never really heard, like, before seeing

this series, never knew who the question was,

never knew who Shining Knight or Vigilante were.

And it's like, you know, it's not just Batman

anymore that is the only one that doesn't have

any powers. Nope. Which was the whole issue with

Wildcat. Yeah. Overcompensation. Tala seems pretty

cool. She doesn't seem exactly human, but...

Tala? She's not human. I don't think she is.

You know who voices her? No. Juliet Landau. That

sounds familiar. Enlighten me. You would have

to ask me that. Crap, I can't believe you asked

me that. We'll come back to it. Yeah, we'll come

back to that. We'll put a pin in that for another

time. Okay, so I really do respect Waller's character.

However, who fires somebody and doesn't have

security walk them out? Oh, I know it. Really?

Yeah. Really? If he's got free range of the base,

no. Especially when he comes across as not exactly

being the most mentally there person. Okay, so

different origin for Doomsday than I know, but

hey, why not make it streamlined for the TV show?

So how exactly is Superman breathing in that

underground volcano? I'm not with you there.

Again, that's me being science geek. They do

have a contingency plan if Doomsday goes rogue.

Galatea. Yeah, that's true. I bet they didn't

think of that. Let's see. Batman's Ride? Oh,

yeah. That specific black javelin? Yeah. That's

pretty damn sweet. Let's see what else. Interestingly

enough, when they're in the Liberation Room with

Doomsday, there's no spot for Hawkgirl. Yeah.

There's a spot for... Batman would know Hawkgirl.

Well, didn't they say five of the seven members

are there? They were. But there were still two

missing with the original seven. And there was

only spots for six. Oh. Hmm. There was only six

seats. Dun, dun, dun. Hmm. So, when that... Diana

comes down to swoop and save Superman. Even she

looks pissed off. Like, come on. You can dig

through a volcano and you're really just going

to sit there as the lava washes over you. And

you look so defeated. Seriously? You're just

going to stop worrying about gravity and start

floating away. Why does she need to come save

her ass? Stop being a pantsy, Supes. You don't

happen to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer at all,

do you? I have. Drusilla. is Juliette Landau.

Oh, okay. She is also the daughter of the Academy

Award winning actor Martin Landau and Golden

Globe nominated actress Barbara Bain, stars of

Mission Impossible. Awesome. Yeah. I knew I recognized

her from somewhere. Okay, so the last thing I

have is at the end when we're seeing Bruce being

all pissed off. And he's staring at the thing

with Luther. You have to wonder, going through

his mind, does he believe that Cadmus is right?

Being the one person out of the core seven from

all the other episodes. All right. Without any

powers, does he believe that they are right?

And at that juncture, it harkens back to the

story arc in JLA of the Tower of Babel. where

he had contingency plans on how to take out every

member of the Justice League. I think... If you

look at Batman in the DCAU, just in the cartoons,

from Batman the Animated Series to Batman Beyond

Justice League, he was in a few episodes of Superman

because they crossed over. If you look at him

in just this cartoon continuity, his whole mantra

is... whatever it takes to get the job done.

So I think, and this is just my own personal

opinion, I think that he would draw a line somewhere.

I don't know if he would necessarily side with

the government because he does have a loyalty,

even though, quote -unquote, according to him,

he is a part -timer. He does have a loyalty to

the Justice League. Clark is his friend. Diana

is his friend slash love interest. I honestly

don't know where his loyalty would lie. I'm not

really sure if it came down to it as far as the

league going rogue. I don't know if he would

side with the government. I'm not sure. But one

of the things that really did pop up, though,

was when he and Waller are screaming at each

other, in essence. Yeah. He says the League wouldn't

go rogue, etc., etc. If you do anything, the

League would stop you. He doesn't say I would

stop you. Right. He says the League. Well, you've

got to think. Within this cartoon universe, Batman

doesn't kill. Not directly. And Batman doesn't

kill in general. He doesn't do guns. And we'll

come to that gun situation later, a few episodes

down the line in this podcast lifespan. But so

whether – I don't know. Even though he said the

league will stop you, whether that means imprisoning

the Cadmus people as far as like the top tier

people like Waller and Emil and all that. I don't

know what he means. I mean, I know his whole

mantra is whatever it takes to get the job done,

get it done correctly, but... I just thought

it was very interesting that instead of saying,

I'll stop you, it's like he's actually really

accepted being part of... The League. Yep. Yeah.

Well, I mean, the other thing is, throughout

this whole, ever since we've gone Unlimited,

we've seen him constantly at the Watchtower.

Just in background shots. Not even episodes that

he's really in, as far as him being a main character

in that. Initiation, even though he was in most

of that, but at the very end, I remember I made

a note about it when we did that episode. He's

just walking along the Watchtower and is like,

wow, really? You're not in the Batcave doing

your stuff? It's like, what the hell, man? Oh.

Sorry, all along the Watchtower. Yeah. Dave Matthews

band version. Yeah, there you go. But you know

why he's at the Watchtower so much? Everyone

knows where the Batcave is. No, not everyone.

It just seems like suddenly, bam, somebody's

at the Batcave. Bam, somebody's at the Batcave.

Not everyone. We got anything else for this one?

That's all I got for this one. All right, we

are going to move on. Yeah, we're moving on here.

You know, this might not be the best place to

talk. Our friends up in the sky have very good

ears and eyes. Not a problem, convict. The previous

tenant had to leave in a hurry, but he was pretty

good about security. Floyd Lawton, a .k .a. Deadshot.

Meet Task Force X. George Harkness, a .k .a.

Captain Boomerang, expert thief and inventor.

Temple Fugate, the Clock King, planner, tactician,

expert with locks and systems infiltration. And

Betty Sensu -C, current alias Plastique, explosives

expert. Hmm, I know. I've seen the pictures.

And that's all you're gonna see, killer. Enough

of this now. Let's get Stacker to the business

at hand, eh? Agreed. Time is of the essence.

It's a blue fortress crawling with superheroes.

Even if we do get in, what chance do we have?

That's what I like. Listen to me. We've got one

advantage. This tower is so big and there's so

much staff on it, no one's going to notice us.

Three, two, one. And finally tonight we have

Task Force X. A Belle Reve correctional, Floyd

Lawton, is being led to his execution, apparently

unconcerned. Wow. Before entering the chamber,

his guards are intercepted by a tall man bearing

release papers. The warden is appalled. Lawton,

a .k .a. Deadshot, has murdered the death penalty

many times over, but he has no choice after examining

the papers. On the drive away from the prison,

Floyd's savior introduces himself as U .S. Colonel

Rick Flagg, and that Deadshot is being recruited

for a top -secret mission, which he can either

accept or go right back to his execution. The

mission is a simple break -in and theft from

the Watchtower. At headquarters, Lawton is introduced

to the rest of Task Force X. Explosive expert

Bet Sansushi, a .k .a. Plastique, Inventor George

Harkness, a .k .a. Captain Boomerang, and planning

expert Temple Fugate, a .k .a. The Clock King.

All of them, with the exception of Flag, are

likewise criminals being offered amnesty in exchange

for their services. The plan largely fugates

calls for Task Force X to infiltrate the Watchtower

disguised as members of the support staff, at

a time when only three major obstacles are aboard.

Green Lantern. Captain Adam and Jean Jones. Flag

warns the other members that there is to be no

unnecessary killing. The first phase goes off

perfectly. The squad members ambush a group of

four Watchtower staffers before they are teleported

up. Once in, Deadshot plus Deke head over to

the lower levels and into the generator room

while Flag and Boomerang make their way to the

high security storage. Plastique sets off a bomb

on the reactor to cause a diversion for Boomerang

breaking through the vault. There, Flag takes

control of the package, the Annihilator. Jaune

orders the watchtower evacuated. Green Lantern

assists with the evacuation while Captain Atom

flies down to contain the reactor explosion.

Once there, he reports to Jaune the explosion

was not an accident. Jed, Shot, and Plastique

spread up to join Flag and Boomerang, and together

they and the Annihilator make their way to the

bridge. Along the way, they are stopped by Shining

Knight, Vigilante, and Atom Smasher, but manage

to defeat them with the Annihilator's help. Reaching

the bridge, they are confronted by Jeanne. Plastique

creates a diversion by holding a bomb above the

throat of an unconscious Atom Smasher, and Jeanne

reluctantly allows the others to mount the transporter

platform. But if Plastique runs to join them,

Captain Atom arrives and tackles her, and one

of her bombs goes flying. Deadshot explodes it

and... with a shot from his pistol, and the Confusion

3 of Task Force X and the Annihilator transport

away. Plastique is left behind, severely wounded.

Sean checks the transporter console, which has

been sabotaged, and blows up before he can trace

the coordinates. Flagg returns the armor over

to Waller and Talia. Before leaving, Waller commends

Flagg, telling him his father would be proud

of him. Deadshot bids everyone a cheerful goodbye,

but Flagg decks him with a punch and informs

him that he is... Join Task Force X for five

years before you can go free. Aboard the Watchtower,

Sean has realized that Vance, a member of the

bridge crew, passed the inside information to

Task Force X that allowed their operation to

succeed. He is tempted to use his telepathy to

wipe Vance's mind clean, but Lantern tells him

that would be pointless. Vance has already passed

on along everything he knows. When Sean objects

that they can't just trust him... with any further

information, Lantern grimly reminds him that

they can't trust any of their staff. Your thoughts,

sir? Now, I saw this episode after I saw... I

re -watched this after I had seen Justice League

New Frontier. So, first note, obviously, Colonel

Flagg, yay! Because I remember Colonel Flagg

being in... New Frontier, the DVD New Frontier.

Is this the same flag or is it his father? I'm

not sure, actually. Could have been his father,

actually, now that I think about it. But still,

same name. Rick Flagg Jr., Rick Flagg Sr., so.

They could have different middle names. Yeah,

true. Deadshot, yay. What's the target? JLA,

or JLU headquarters. The way that he delivered

the line, it's like, he's just like, matter of

fact, Justice League headquarters. It's like,

what? Yeah, really. And we haven't seen this

guy since Batman the Animated Series. Yay, Clock

King! I thought that's where I saw him before.

Yep. It's very interesting to see the Justice

League and the Watchtower described from an outsider's

point of view. Yeah. Because they're coming into

this thing like, oh, holy shit, what are we doing

here? We're a bit over our heads. Yeah, yeah.

Hey, hey, no using lightspeed bars as a cover.

What the hell? Oh, wow. Evacuate the tower. Yikes.

Because that was a bad explosion right there.

And, of course, and I think that Carl Lumbly

delivered this line fairly well. He's gotten

better delivering lines as Jean, but I think

this one really, really, ask yourselves, is being

in here with me what you truly desire? I guess

there is a severe disadvantage of being a huge

army of superheroes. I mean, really, seriously.

You've got a lot of angry people. Well, not even

a lot of angry people, but, I mean, they have

all these staff members now, and if anybody can

just replace four of them, you know, it's...

First of all, how? Now that I think about it,

now that I've said that, how the hell... Did

Jaune or GL or any of them not see these people

in the field? Hello, they look down on the earth

at all times. I don't know. Maybe the guy that

informed them was doing monitor duty on that

specific area. Maybe. Maybe that's why they knew

where to go. That could be it. And like you said

in the synopsis, there's no recall in that location.

They've thought of everything. And then, of course,

GL at the end, Jean, we can't trust anyone now.

Seriously, who does the security on these groups?

I don't know, really. It's just like, wow. There's

no security whatsoever. So what do you got for

thoughts or notes? Okay. Basically, this is the

Sinister Six. Or Secret Six. Controlled by Waller.

Six members. Four more convicts. Working for

Amnesty. Yep. So. It would have been awesome

if they had Bane and Catman and the whole team.

Problem is, the whole bad embargo at the time.

Yeah. But, I mean, Catman? Catman? Right? They

had already used him. Oh. Remember? In Legends,

way back in original JL. Season 2, I think. Yeah.

But still, Ragdoll would have been cool. Of course,

how exactly would you get him in? I don't know.

But let's see. We got to see Digger Harkness,

who I love that character for some reason. Not

just because he was in Green Lantern at Blackest

Night, but way back when we had the... What was

it? It wasn't Identity Crisis, was it? It might

have been Identity Crisis, where he is really

looked down on by the rest of the villainous

community, and he gets one last job, and that's

to assassinate Robin's father, and in the process

dies. But I really liked him ever since that,

and he is one of the Flash rogues. So it was

nice to see him. Okay, so villain flirting? Kind

of creepy. Kind of creepy. Well, it was... You

mean between Plastique and Deadshot? Yeah. It

was just like, come on, killer. Come on, killer.

I'm like, really, you've got to come up with

another nickname. Really. We see Jaune's darker

side. We're seeing a lot of that with the whole

Cadmus story arc. Like... lots of characters

and what they are capable of doing. And we are

seeing that they're getting slowly pushed to

that, that same point that the, uh, justice Lords

were right. Um, what else? Um, John totally kicked

us up to the point where the, uh, the annihilator

kind of ripped him literally in half. Yeah, I

was really shocked at that effect. I didn't think

they'd do it. I thought they were going to make

him turn into a snake or something, or a thing,

a silly putty. No, he gets literally ripped in

half. Reforms, but still. Yeah, that was a little

extreme, I think. But, I mean, it's nice that

they did that, I guess. It's a nice effect. But

it's just like... Oh, holy shit. No, they didn't.

Yeah, they did. Wow, that was lame even for me.

Oh, boy. Well, sir, do you have anything else

to say about these four episodes? Not really.

I don't know. Task Force X, like I said, is a

nice... outside look at how the league is. It's

a nice villain perspective, but... And Doomsday

Sanction has a few nice things about it, but

the other ones really... I... I don't care for

Miracles Happen or Ties That Bind or whatever

the hell it's called. Cat and Canary is okay

because it introduces, like... Dinah and Ollie

as far as them just starting their relationship.

But, I mean, honestly, most of these episodes,

I would probably give them, on a scale of 10,

most of them. Well, I know ties that bind would

get a zero for me. Cat and Canary would probably

get a five. Doomsday Sanction would probably

get a 7, and this would probably get an 8, just

because, like I said, it is that whole outside

looking in type of story. It's the whole Switch

story. And I mean, really, if you look at it,

it really has nothing to do with the heroes whatsoever.

I mean, yeah, the heroes are there, but the main,

the A story of the plot of the episode focuses

on the villain team, which I think was really

cool. It was nice, and The more that we get these

Cadmus episode story arcs, the more we can definitely

see why... We can see their perspective. Yeah.

And it's nice to see that they're not just, you

know, faceless villains. Yeah, yeah. So I think

that's it. You're going to hear some audio, and

we're going to go to the outro. Don't you understand?

We can't trust him. No, we can't trust anyone

now. So, thank God this episode of Secret Orchis

Podcast is finally over. We can actually move

on to bigger and better episodes. Holy crap.

Diana -centric episode? Yes. Yes. A bunch of

them, actually. Not a bunch of Diana -centric

episodes, but a bunch of really, really good

ones are coming up. Thank you for joining us

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Mike with... Lupus Convoy. Thank you for listening.

Until next time.