A Better World - Part 1
Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman fight their way into the White House. Superman heads for the Oval Office while his teammates are stuck dealing with the guards. Superman confronts President Luthor who threatens to press the button if Superman doesn't back off. He taunts Superman until the Man of Steel can't take it and turns his heat vision on the President of the United States. Batman and Wonder Woman make it the Oval Office and stare aghast at the sight before them.
Two years pass. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl all have new uniforms and things have changed. Flash is dead. The world is in indefinite lockdown. Ordinary people who are protesting because elections have been canceled are scared of the heroes.
Batman summons the other to his cave. He has found something, a parallel dimension where the heroes still dress like they once did. They call themselves the Justice League in this other dimension, not the Justice Lords. Flash and Luthor are still alive in the world they see on Batman's screen. Batman has found a way to this other dimension. He presses a button and a portal opens.
The Justice League are in the middle of a battle with Luthor who is in his power armor. He manages to wreck quite a bit of damage before they finally subdue him and turn him over to the police. Martian Manhunter of the Justice Lords appear before them after Luthor has been taken away. He tells them that something is wrong that affects both dimensions and convinces them to cross over the divide. They trust him but it is a trap.
The Justice League arrive in the Justice Lords world but they are quickly subdued. The Justice Lords go through the barrier and take the League's place. They have to deal with Doomsday who arrives on Earth about the same time as them. They don't have much luck. It comes down to an all out brawl between Superman and Doomsday. It looks like Doomsday is going to win when Superman uses his heat vision to lobotomize him.
Luthor now in jail sees the whole thing on TV. He knows they aren't really the Justice League
Thoughts
The first half of this episode are focused on the heroes who are eventually revealed to be the Justice Lords. It isn't until Batman shows them what he has found that it becomes explicitly clear that this is not the same group of heroes as in all the previous episodes. I wish that I could say that I didn't know that was coming the first time I saw this two-parter.
I love the new costumes that the Justice Lords adopt. I think Batman and Wonder Woman's are my favorites. They aren't too dissimilar from the originals. Superman's is the weirdest in my mind. What was he thinking choosing to wear that thing?
Since when did the Justice Lords' Batman know how to create portals to other dimensions? Since when did the Justice League's Batman become so gullible as to walk through that portal? I was a bit surprised to see the League hand Luthor over to the police while he was still wearing his power armor. I was equally surprised to see the Justice Lords turn over the lobotomized Doomsday to the police. I'm sure the police in the DCAU are capable but those moments seemed like a bit of a stretch.
This is a fun one. In one sense it is a one off story but in another it most definitely is not as the concept of the Justice Lords becomes fodder for the Project Cadmus story in JLU.
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