Justice League Vs The Fatal Five (2019)
Story by Eric Carrasco
Screenplay by Eric Carrasco, Jim Krieg, Alan Burnett
Directed by Sam Liu
Original release: March 29th 2019
Running time: 77 minutes
This movie is considered the last entry of the DC Animated Universe (excluding cameos during Crisis On Infinite Earths), but it wasn’t meant to be.
It was originally set to use the art style of later DC animated adaptations, but to avoid confusion with the OTHER sets of DC animations that were based on the New 52 reboot, the decision was made to re-use the style and animation models of the original DCAU.
Leave it to DC to be utterly confusion about what continuity they’re using, no matter the medium.
The canonicity to the DCAU is disputed, but it’s mostly considered to be the last sequel to the Justice League Unlimited series (which had ended way back in 2006).
Mostly thanks to the fact that, excluding a later scene in Crisis, this was the last performance of Kevin Conroy as Batman until his death in 2022.
With that title and that poster you know the Legion has a presence in this, to the point that the very first scene has an Interlac screen flashing “Alert”.
We open with Star Boy being chased and shot by shadowy figures at Legion HQ.
I’m not very fond of the source this movie is using for him (more on that later), but I love that he’s wearing my absolute Legion costume ever.
Although it does lose something when he doesn’t have a beard.
He’s voiced by Elyes Gabel, who is a live action actor and only has this movie as credit for voice acting. You might remember that that was also the case for most previous Legion animations!
The other first Legionnaires showing up are Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5, both with new designs.
She’s fine, but poor Brainy has inherited his great-great-grandfather’s baldness.
We don’t get a good look at the shadowy attackers, but considering the title of the movie and the fact that one of them has a huge axe… take a guess.
Their target is the Time Bubble™, which for some reason is named Time Ship.
Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl don’t have a huge role, so they don’t get the same voice actors of their previous appearances.
Which is a bit weird for Brainiac 5, since I’m not sure Mat Czuchry would’ve been too hard to get… but I didn’t like his performance, and although he has almost nothing to work with, his voice by Noel Fisher is fine.
For Saturn Girl they didn’t ask Melissa Joan Hart to return; instead she’s voiced by Tara Strong, who in the same movie also voices Harley Queen and Poison Ivy. You might recognize her for having voiced nearly everyone you can think of.
Her redesign is interesting. It’s a bit too busy… I don’t like those huge shoulders… but for a one-off appearance it’s not bad. Interesting they went with that kind of earrings, typically whenever she does get earrings, they’re Saturn-shaped. I think it would have helped, as her Saturn symbol isn’t given much prominence.
As opposed to his disappointing appearance in Justice League Unlimited, THIS Brainiac 5 doesn’t waste time with subplots and immediately sabotages the Time-Bubble™ in case the Fatal Five manage to steal it.
The Fatal Five are about to break through the door, and while Star Boy is holding it with his powers Saturn Girl reminds him about his injections.
Speaking of the Fatal Five, we get out first look at three of them.
Persuader is terrible and Tharok adds nothing new, but I don’t mind this version of Mano!
He’s even given a much better symbol than his original one.
Saturn Girl has telekinetic powers in this (unless that’s a Brainiac 5 force field, but it doesn’t look like it). Not that Persuader cares.
For some reason Brainiac 5 doesn’t use any force field to protect himself (???), and the Fatal Five steal the Time-Bubble™.
Which is a problem because Brainy didn’t manage to finish reprogramming it.
So Star Boy tries to stop them by jumping into the time portal created by the ship.
I don’t think he’s even trying to use his powers to do this, since they don’t show him glowing like he does in other scenes when he uses them.
Making the time machine suddenly weight a hundred tons more might have done SOMETHING!
This takes them to the 21st century, and I’m guessing they’re calling this a “Time-Ship” because unlike the Time-Bubble™ it shows up in space.
Only NOW Star Boy remembers he has powers, so he makes Mano’s head weight so much he’s unable to pilot the ship… just in time for Brainiac 5’s program to finish installing.
This freezes the Fatal Almost Five inside the ship, which doesn’t kill anyone when landing because Superman.
George Newbern reprises his role as Superman after the Justice League, where he had replaced Tim Daly who voiced him in “Superman: The Animated Series”.
They’re both great in their performances, but I have a personal preference for Daly… although it might be because he had the chance to do both Superman and Clark, while Newbern doesn’t get a lot of scenes where he voices Clark.
Star Boy also made it to landing. I really didn’t like Elyse Gabel’s performance for him… even in scenes where he should be excited or distressed, he sounds half-asleep.
The script doesn’t help: did he forget the Flight Ring when he was FLYING IN SPACE?
Unfortunately the crash broke the McGuffin Goop he was carrying.
I might have forgiven the performance if Star Boy started sounding asleep after this point, since without the McGuffin Goop he’s losing his mind… but A) he was like that earlier B) it still makes his scenes lack emotional attachment.
I do like the idea of him just walking into a pharmacy to ask for 31st century medicine.
He figures out that the pharmacist is scared because she thinks he’s a supervillain.
I’d call this fanservice, but it seems to me that Star Boy has no butt.
Star Boy is already mentally unstable. The movie received SOME praise for tackling mental illness, but I don’t know… this doesn’t look particularly well-thought to me.
When the cops show up, Star Boy uses his powers to make their guns super-heavy and then just runs away. Still naked.
Only to run into Batman.
I’m sure most Gotham City criminals have had this as a nightmare.
I’m jumping ahead a bit because the next scenes focus on Jessica Cruz.
She’s voiced by Diana Guerrero, who also played Crazy Jane (in live action) in the Doom Patrol TV series.
Her deal is that she survived the death of her friends that were murdered by unknown assailants, and she has PTSD over it.
It’s tackled waaaay better than the Star Boy mental illness, and Guerrero brings a lot of warmth and emotional depth with her performance. I’ve never really cared about Jessica Cruz, but this is a terrific performance.
These are pretty good scenes, but the movie basically grinds to a halt to deal with them and the tonal shift is quite jarring.
It’s also a bit hypocritical because Jessica Cruz’s side of the story focuses on the fact that there are no quick fixes for mental trauma and you have to work on yourself to deal with them… but they’re in the same movie where in the future there’s a magical drug that cures mental illness.
I think this part of the story would have benefitted A LOT by being its own movie. Which could have been done, because Jessic Cruz is the current Green Lantern of Earth.
I mean, a movie about a Green Lantern having to fight some villain AND her mental trauma AND juggling JLA responsibilities? Wouldn’t that be great?
Wonder Woman is the other returning voice, as Susan Eisenberg also voiced her in Justice League.
Also introduced as a Justice League member in this movie is Miss Martian (voiced by Daniela Bobadilla), and she’s one of the reasons why the canonicity of this movie is questionable… because ALL members of her species except Martian Manhunter were supposed to have died before the Justice League series.
But I don’t have a problem with that… after all Superman was supposed to be the last survivor of Krypton until Supergirl showed up.
I haven’t read a ton of comics featuring her, but she’s a fun character. So naturally pairing her with Batman is perfect.
After they stop supervillain Bloodsport, Batman tries to go the “I don’t work with teens” route… and her only reply is to shapeshift into Robin.
We finally return to the Fatal Five plot, with Mister Terrific unable to figure out how to unlock the Time-Bubble™. He’s voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
It’s a good performance, and he has great chemistry with Superman. I really liked this scene, even if it implies that Pa Kent is dead by now.
Unfortunately, the only thing they manage to do is free the Fatal Almost Five from the ship.
Superman doesn’t have too much trouble dealing with them, until Persuader actually manages to cut him. FINALLY he manages to cut SOMEONE, even if it’s a PG-13 movie.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Star Boy, and Batman hasn’t been able to figure out his deal.
Also the whole movie keeps calling him Thomas Kallor (and not just in the 21st century, Saturn Girl did it too). I’ve ALWAYS seen him called Thom Kallor, so I assumed Thom is just a full name in the future… does any other appearance do this?
Star Boy is in Arkham Asylum now, and he’s befriended by Two-Face. Who interestingly enough is voiced by Bruce Timm himself.
Watching the Fatal Almost Five fight in the news triggers Star Boy’s instability, and he starts a riot.
Batman and Miss Martian deal with the other Arkham patients. Speaking of which, is Arkham the ONLY asylum in Gotham? At first I thought Batman took Star Boy there because he was a mentally unstable guy with powers, but SOMEHOW he didn’t believe the cops.
Yeah because FREAKING BATMAN has never deal with people with powers before.
Meanwhile Mano has a vision of Emerald Empress. She’s voiced by Sumalee Montano, who has extensive credits in voice acting both in games and animation (she also voiced the pharmacist in the earlier Star Boy scene).
And the two are lovers? Okay THAT was unexpected, in most stories she barely tolerates the rest of the Fatal Five and Mano in particular tends to be the one she cares about the least.
And she STILL gives him crap, because he hasn’t rescued her from her prison yet!
This might be the time where the Science Police is ACTUALLY COMPETENT at keeping the Fatal Five imprisoned since… checking my notes… probably Adventure Comics 352.
Except as we’ll see waaaay later, this is not the Science Police at all.
While Superman heals from the Persuader’s attack, Mister Terrific has figured out that the villains are from the future.
This is another reason why the canonicity of the movie is a bit questionable: while none of the members of the Justice League that already met the Fatal Five are currently in the team, you mean to tell me they didn’t say ANYTHING about their adventure???
Since Star Boy also claimed to be from the future, Batman is the one to put two and two together.
That makes sense. Wonder Woman connecting him mentioning “Limelight” to Green Lantern… not so much.
Batman also connects the fact that Star Boy repeatedly mentioned “21 bridges” to the only city in America that has that many AND has a resident Green Lantern.
Which I’m not entirely sure is correct, since I can only find references to Portland having TWELVE bridges.
But also, it sure is convenient that Star Boy keeps throwing around references to exact details to how the city was A THOUSAND YEARS IN HIS PAST.
Of course that insane deduction is correct, and the Fatal Almost Five show up in Portland to get Green Lantern’s attention via Plot Convenient News.
Plot Convenient News, it beats writing plot
Aaaand she’s defeated almost immediately.
Tharok has very few lines, but unfortunately they don’t give him the cool double voice he had in Justice League Unlimited. He’s voiced by voice actor veteran Peter Jessop.
Persuader gets even fewer lines, voiced by regular voice actor Matthew Yang King.
He also shoots Star Boy in the crotch when he shows up to help.
But Star Boy manages to hold back the Fatal Almost Five to allow him and Green Lantern to flee.
Which gives time to the rest of the Justice League to show up.
This is a WAY better representation of the Fatal Five’s threat than Justice League Unlimited episode, where they were basically defeated by Green Arrow alone.
Here they hold their own a decently powered roster, and they’re not even the full Fatal Five.
In particular, Persuader can go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman, and Mano disintegrates a building on them!!!
But the Justice League still manages to win the fight, and the Fatal Almost Five leave.
Star Boy demonstrates he has the power to reduce mass as well… something he tends not to have to avoid overshadowing Light Lass.
And that’s apparently VERY impressive to the Justice League, because this is their reaction!
I understand rookies like Green Lantern and Miss Martian, and to a lesser extent Mister Terrific (he was in Justice League Unlimited so he’s not exactly new at this)… but Superman and Wonder Woman have seen waaaaaay crazier stuff.
And the story grinds to a halt again, because Star Boy doesn’t talk.
The story TRIES to have an emotional connection between Green Lantern and Star Boy, but it’s feeling completely flat for me because A) he’s been annoying this entire time B) we know their situations have absolutely nothing in common.
To finally understand what the heck is going on, Miss Martian uses her powers to get into Star Boy’s mind… together with Green Lantern because she’s “a calming influence”, and Batman because he’s Batman.
Looks like in this version his love interest is Lightning Lass and not Dream Girl.
We’re shown a few new members. I’m considering the ones at the Legion Museum but not shown in other scenes to currently be reserves.
Tyroc and Mon-El are new additions.
We also have who I assume is an unusually humanoid Arm-Fall-Off Boy and an unusually black Matter-Eater Lad, plus Ferro Lad.
The one on the left is probably Invisible Kid given the logo, and the girl on the right… actually I’m not sure.
The only black Legionnaires they could get from this point are Kid Quantum II, XS, Computo or Catspaw; she doesn’t look like any of them.
The one with the SLIGHTEST resemblance is Computo, so I’m counting this as her.
But at least Night Girl gets in this time!!!
The one that has me stumped is this guy. Who is he supposed to be?
In a nice touch, the Legion Headquarters has its own area dedicated to the Justice League.
Miss Martian is happy to learn she WILL be a formal member (it’s not official yet).
Batman doesn’t like the future’s opinion of his chin.
There are SO MANY Green Lanterns of Earth that they have their special section.
Jon Stewart was of course the main GL from the series, Kyle Rayner debuted earlier in Superman: The Animated Series, Hal Jordan had a weird time-travel cameo, and I think Guy Gardner shows up in the comic book of the same continuity.
They also witness Star Boy’s memory of the fight between the Fatal Five and the Legion.
It’s a good fight, and the Fatal Five prove victorious.
Until Star Boy makes the Emerald Eye too heavy to fly (something I don’t think would normally work), Saturn Girl mind-blasts everyone, and Brainiac 5 brings up a gun that can KNOCK OUT VALIDUS.
Back to reality, the Fatal Almost Five want Green Lantern hostage in order to free Emerald Empress. And to prove they’re serious, they detonate multiple bombs.
To stop the bombings, Green Lantern agrees to surrender (without the Justice League’s knowledge) and takes the Fatal Almost Five to the 21st century Oa.
That’s where the Legion took Emerald Empress and Validus; the Corps doesn’t exist anymore in the 31st century.
Most of the Green Lantern Corps is conveniently off-planet, but Jessica can count on one of the few left behind: the dependable Kilowog.
Also my personal favorite Salakk, who unfortunately barely gets anything to do.
Aaaand they’re still defeated, with both Emerald Empress and Validus now free.
You know Jessica, I’m beginning to suspect you REALLY suck at this job.
Kilowog is also almost killed. And I say “almost” because Bruce Timm was asked about this and answered that Emerald Empress SOMEHOW missed all his vital organs.
Jessica gets so angry at this that she gets a decent fight scene, until Persuader CUTS HER RING.
This wasn’t really the best Legion plan ever.
After the Emerald Eye has been powered up, the team goes back to Earth to recover the Time-Bubble™ from the government facility where it’s been stored… and they’re brutally efficient.
They’re also among the very few supervillains who get access to a time machine and ACTUALLY MAKE USE OF IT.
Meanwhile we get a pretty good Superman vs Validus fight. It’s a pity these two never share a scene together in comics (unless it’s Superboy), because I’ve always wanted to see how a fight with the adult Superman would go considering Validus SHOULD be stronger.
Something else I’ve always wanted to see: Persuader in a swordfight!
Batman fights Mano, with one of the best out-of-context quotes ever.
Back on Oa, Jessica Cruz was crushed by tons of rubble. Which of course barely did anything to her, so she can WILL POWER THE RING BACK TOGETHER.
It’s a badass moment, but I’m not sure HOW the ring still has power considering the Emerald Eye absorbed all the energy from the Central Battery.
Meanwhile, after an impressive start, the JLA eventually falls after the Emerald Eye show up.
This is pretty bad because the Emerald Empress has ordered the eye to use its extra power to BLOW UP THE SUN… but thankfully Jessica Cruz shows up to stop them from leaving with the Time-Bubble™.
For whatever reason now she has that dumb thing over her eye… I was pleased when she didn’t have it for the rest of the movie, because that’s the one part from her look in the comic that I never thought fit her.
She’s also SOMEHOW suddenly powerful enough to take on the entire Fatal Five, destroying the Time-Bubble™ in the process.
She basically wipes the floor with them, and I don’t find it particularly earned. Sure, the Green Lanterns have always been “they can do whatever if they have enough willpower”, but this is ridiculous.
In the middle of the fight, Mano even accidentally MELTS THE FACE OF THE EMPRESS.
We have reached the final climax of the movie: Superman is chasing the Emerald Eye to stop it from blowing up the Sun, with Green Lantern and Star Boy following.
Too bad Superman fails.
This is way too much even for the inexplicably powerful Green Lantern, so it’s up to Star Boy: he’s going to make HIMSELF so heavy he’s going to hold the Sun together.
Yes, he SOMEHOW manages to get inside the Sun without being incinerated, SOMEHOW he’s not crushed by the pressure, and SOMEHOW the effect will continue after he dies.
Somehow.
At least it’s a pretty scene. I’m no expert on animation but it looks to me that a lot of the budget went into this climax.
Missed opportunity to have the tombstone have the 30th century birth date and the 21st century death date.
The Legion shows up at the funeral. They don’t have speaking lines (besides Brainiac 5 saying “it’s an honor” to Green Lantern) and, weirdly enough, Lightning Lass is not among them despite being Star Boy’s girlfriend.
But we can’t end on such a sour note, so Miss Martian is officially voted as a member of the Justice League.
Historical significance: 0/10
It’s the last adventure of the DCAU version of the Justice League, so they can’t influence much.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
It’s the other way around. Star Boy showing up crazy and amnesiac in the 21st century is from the JSA run from Geoff Johns. I can’t decide which of the two versions annoys me the most.
I don’t think the comics took anything from this movie, especially since there hasn’t been a ton of Legion since it came out.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
This could have been a decent Legion movie, a decent Green Lantern movie, or a decent Justice League movie from Miss Martian’s point of view.
By trying to make all three together, it’s a bit of an uneven mess.
The Miss Martian stuff has it the worst, being squeezed out by the other plots and not really resonating with them. Perhaps they wanted to do more movies in this continuity and focus on her? Otherwise it’s weird to give the most screentime next to Batman to a character that has just been introduced and isn’t important to the overarching story.
The Green Lantern plot is definitely among the highlights, as Guerrero brings an amazing performance as Jessica Cruz… but that’s also a bit of a problem, as her performance is way too good. She brings a very heavy emotional performance to a script that doesn’t give her a lot to work with.
Her resolution is underwhelming; I found her supposed connection with Star Boy to be very unconvincing. She’s an interesting character but the movie didn’t sell me on the idea that she’s THAT impressive as a Green Lantern.
The weakest point for me, ironically enough, is the Legion. Not the team itself… the fight scene in the flashback is great… but it’s Star Boy that falls COMPLETELY flat for me.
A lot of it is the performance. He’s barely awake for the most part, and even when he’s supposed to go crazy and unstable it’s unexplainably restrained.
Plus, like I mentioned, having a character who has a magic cure for his mental illness does no favor to Jessica Cruz having to work through her PTSD. Yeah it’s not exactly the same think, but I still found it jarring.
Star Boy’s part of the plot also barely holds. He just arrived in the 21st century but he IMMEDIATELY knows they’re after Jessica Cruz, but not any of the other Earth Lanterns that preceded her? What was the point of him insisting on the “21 bridges” stuff? What was the point of him always calling her Limelight?
The rest of the Justice League is unremarkable. Every returning voice actor brings his/her A-game of course, but they’re not given much.
While the Justice League itself is nothing to write home about, the Fatal Five more than earn their place on the title… even though it’s kind of weird that 3/5ths of the team don’t show up for 75% of the runtime. But everyone single one of the five is AWESOME in this!
Mano is surprisingly the breakout star; I’d say he’s even better than most of his comic book appearances. He truly overshadows both Tharok and Persuader; speaking of the latter, this was one of the most uninspired looks they could’ve come up for him.
If anyone ever doubts how these five consistently manage to fight off teams of 25+ superheroes at once, they should see THIS version.
Overall the movie is enjoyable and a MUCH better introduction to the Legion than the Justice League Unlimited episode… but a lot of stuff falls apart if you think about it for a minute.
We are Legion
I’m treating this as a legit sequel to Justice League Unlimited, even if it’s disputed.
I don’t know how to treat the Legionnaires shown in the Legion museum; they might include a mix of active and reserves. I’m counting as active those we see against the Fatal Five and the epilogue.
7 active members confirmed
-Saturn Girl
-Brainiac 5
-Chameleon Boy
-Shadow Lass (possibly Umbra)
-Dawnstar
-Tyroc
-Mon-El
14 from the Legion Museum (active or reserves)
-Ultra Boy
-Live Wire (possibly Lightning Lad)
-Bouncing Boy
-Colossal Boy
-Phantom Girl
-Wildfire
-Timber Wolf
-Lightning Lass
-Arms-Fall-Off Boy
-Matter-Eater Lad
-Invisible Kid
-Night Girl
-Computo (maybe)
-unknown (male, blue costume)
8 reserves (from previous episodes/stories)
-Cosmic Boy
-Blok
-Supergirl
-Dream Girl
-Triplicate Girl (possibly Duo Damsel)
-Kid Quantum
-Andromeda
-Laurel Kent
3 deceased members
-Ferro Lad
-Andrew Nolan
-Star Boy
2 honorary members
-Green Lantern (John Stewart)
-Green Arrow
34 people have been members
I think that the Legionnaire who you are identifying as Computo looks more like Shrinking Violet in her 80’s look. If we can accept that Matter-Eater Lad has been race-swapped, no reason Vi couldn’t have been. (If that’s even black skin rather than a shade effect).
Your unknown Legionnaire looks to me like Cosmic Boy, in a costume most closely resembling his “threeboot” getup.
Does Star Boy ever refer to himself as “Thomas”, or is it just Batman’s 20th/21st-century assumption that “Tom” (how he no doubt heard it) is short for Thomas? (Especially given that it’s Batman’s father’s name.) In any case, I’m pretty certain that Thom being short for Thomas was never mentioned or suggested in the comics.
Saturn Girl calls him Thomas more than once.
The unknown isn’t Cosmic Boy, who is in another scene with the look he had in the Superman cartoon.
Correction: I went back to rewatch that scene at the museum, and the one I saw was Lightning Lad. My bad.
So yes the Unknown Legionnaire COULD be Cosmic Boy. Another possibility is that this is Invisible Kid I, and the other one is Invisible Kid II.
Do you review the legion of superheroes cartoon?
I eventually will. There’s a couple of other adaptations I’m going to cover before them.
I don’t think it makes a difference in this continuity, but in the comics and in Young Justice Miss Martian is actually a white Martian.
GL rings used to have (and perhaps still have) a part of their charge that was only available for use at life-endangering situations. We saw that at least once (1986’s GLC #206). Maybe Jessica tapped into that and somehow the circunstances made her willpower particularly strong for a short time?
I want to say that the unidentified leggionaire is Cosmic Boy (he had a blue costume in the Threeboot), but the hair color is wrong.
“-unknown (male, blue costume)”
Dev-Em, maybe? But, per others, Cosmic Boy probably makes more sense.
According to the audio commentary, this scene was very poorly miscolored, so I think the unknown legionnaire might be a miscolored Karate Kid (specifically in the show design.) Also, the girl next to Invisible Kid is just Triplicate Girl again (you can see her logo on the chest on a wider screen version) and Violet’s head is below her there too.
Also, fun fact about the movie: in an interview with the YouTube channel Watchtower Database (who cover a lot of DCAU inconsistencies), Eric Carrasco said that he planned to write a prequel comic for the movie that would explain that Miss Martian was actually a Saturnian (as in Jemm, son of Saturn) and that John and the rest of the Corps were fighting in the Rann-Thanagar war from the comics.