Brikar

"Justice League Unlimited" Season One
Starring: Kevin Conroy, George Newbern, Susan Eisenberg

EPISODES
After the lukewarm first and second seasons of Cartoon Network's "Justice League", the latest of the animated DC shows, I didn't really have too much hope for the first season of "Justice League Unlimited" as I nabbed the DVD set. The first batch of episodes didn't help much, proving to be just as uneven as the previous seasons - every good episode was balanced out with an equally lame one. This time, however, it was worse: the main JL members are shunted aside in favor of episodes featuring C-list DC characters like Booster Gold that are barely interesting when they're on the sidelines, let alone the main focus of an episode.

As a result, nearly the first half of the season is expendable, save a few gems like "For The Man Who Has Everything", where Batman and Wonder Woman must rescue Superman from a perfect dream world constructed by Mongul, or episodes that slowly introduce the Cadmus arc.

Cadmus is, to put it flatly, the absolute saving grace of this DVD set. Without it, I have no doubt that we'd simply have been treated to a string of mediocre episodes about all the lame superheroes nobody really wants to see. Instead, the second half of the season ramps up faster and faster with twists and turns and battles that make the previous seasons look small by comparison. The final disc doesn't let up, and the finale episode doesn't disappoint, either.

And then, things quiet down with the emotional "Epilogue", which serves more as a series finale for "Batman Beyond" than as a season finale for JLU, though there are connections to be made. It's a nice wrap-up for both stories, and I feel like it should have been a two-parter to really dig into the concepts it presents (Is Terry McGuinness actually Bruce Wayne's son? Does the world NEED Batman?)

VIDEO
Presented, like the previous season, in Anamorphic Widescreen, JLU features some really slick animation - better than the previous seasons, either because of a budget increase or new animation studio or even just that they finally figured out what they were doing, JLU looks great. Colors are bold, blacks are deep, and since it's digitally animated, there won't be any dirt or problems with the film.

AUDIO
Oh, if only these sets had really rockin' 5.1 Surround mixes... Alas, we must make do with 2.0. Though there's no action coming from the back speakers, everything is crystal clear and there's a decent amount of bass to give the action scenes a good kick.

GRADE:
Episodes: B+
Video: A
Audio: C
Overall: B

__________________
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