Re: Justice League Q

Spoilers for the JL episode "Hereafter" follow
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> "Linden Walker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> 
> > That said I do have some questions. Basically, I have never read a
> > comic book and my knowledge of these characters come completely from
> > TV and movies. Because of that I'm not really familiar with some of
> > the characters especially the villians. Does anyone know of a good
> > source of refrence material for backgrounds of these characters?
> > Either a book, or website would be fine.

There are various websites with information on the characters from the
comics, but be advised that the history on the JL cartoon evidently
differs in several significant ways from the books.  To find cartoon-specific
info, I'd start at www.tvtome.com.

> > I'm not quite sure of the history of Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl.

The cartoon version of Martian Manhunter's origin was shown in the 
first episode of the cartoon.  Basically, he was the last survivor of
the destruction of the Martian race, awoken along with the menace
responsible for destroying that race by a human space mission to Mars.  
He came to Earth to help us avoid the Martians' fate at the hands of
the same menace, and stuck around when Superman suggested the seven
of them form a permanent team.

In the comic books he was accidentally teleported from Mars by a human
scientist and spent years living among us in secret until the appearance
of costumed superheroes, especially the alien Superman, prompted him
to go public.  

The comic book version is more powerful, too. Besides the shapeshifting,
density changing, flight, and telepathy, he can also turn invisible and
shoot heat beams from his eyes.  


> > For example, I remember it being Hawkman.

In the comics there are both, and there have been several versions of
the characters going back to the Golden Age of comics in the 1940s, but
basically Hawkgirl is Hawkman's wife.  However, it's been established
in the cartoon that Hawkgirl is alone on Earth; she was accidentally
teleported from her home planet of Thanagar and nobody knows where
Thanagar is, not even the Green Lanterns or their masters the Guardians.
So if there is a Hawkman, he's back on Thanagar.

> > Also since when can Wonder Woman fly? What happened to the invisible
> > jet?

There was a major event in DC comics in the mid-1980s called Crisis on
Infinite Earths that reordered time and history; as a result,
several characters' pasts changed, including those of Superman
(who was now never Superboy, for instance; he didn't even have all his
powers until he was older than that) and Wonder Woman.  This version
of Wonder Woman received the power of flight along with the "speed of Hermes"
she always had, which is logical given that Captain "Shazam!" Marvel's
flight has been explained as a side effect of his "speed of Mercury".  

> > Why isn't Aquaman in the JL?

It doesn't really fit his characterization in the cartoon; he's too busy
governing Atlantis to worry about protecting surface dwellers and 
such. :)

> > Also, what happened to the lame ass, fish
> > talking Aquaman of my youth? How did he become this angry, bad ass
> > loner?

He was Namorized.  But his characterization in the comics has always been
somewhat lonerish, although it's gotten more pronounced lately.
As to the rest, basically the creators decided that they agreed with you
about him being "lame ass" and decided to redesign him.  He
lost the orange shirt and grew his hair out; he literally lost his hand
and had it replaced with some nifty Atlantean-technology morphing hook
thing.  In the comics at least, he can still telepathically communicate with
fish, and has been shown to have more general telepathic abilities which
J'onn has helped him with.  Don't know if we've seen any telepathy on
the JL cartoon.

> > Is Robin not in it because he is dead? I remmber a big deal in the
> > media about them killng him off?

Nope.  JL takes place in the same cartoon universe as "Batman: The
Animated Series", in which Robin is alive and well.  

There have been three Robins.  The first one, Dick Grayson, grew up
to become a superhero in his own right instead of just a sidekick.
He goes by Nightwing these days.  

The second Robin in the comics was Jason Todd, who was killed by the
Joker; that's the big media deal you read about.    I don't know
if Jason Todd ever existed in the animated series.

The current Robin in both the comics and the animated series is
Tim Drake.  He's just not part of the League; heck, Batman isn't
even a full-time member.  He just helps them out.

> > Some of the villians I do know, Brainiac, Toyman etc... are completely
> > different than I remember them.

Brainiac was also changed by the Crisis; I don't know what's up with the
TV Toyman, other than he's the same one we saw in the Superman animated
series.

> > I also don't know these other villians they've been using. I'm just
> > curious who they match up with historically? 

I don't know who this Livewire is, although in the comics
"Livewire" is the new name of the Legionnaire formerly known as
"Lightning Lad".  Other than that they are all from the comics;
mostly as Superman foes, although Weather Wizard was originally
a Flash villain.  What they all, including Livewire, have in
common is that they all showed up in the Superman
animated series, whence the grudges we saw in "Hereafter".

Kalibak - the big guy voiced by Michael Dorn who went toe-to-toe
with Lobo - is from Apokolips, the same planet as Darkseid ; he
also showed up in the first JL episode of this season, "Twilight".

Metallo is a super-strong cyborg powered by Kryptonite, which is why
the other Leaguers wanted to get him out of the way before Superman
arrived on the scene.

The Weather Wizard is a guy with a device (his Weather Wand) which
lets him control the weather.  What more do you need? :)

Other villains this ep: Star Sapphire (the brunette with the purple
version of Green Lantern's power); in the comics she was the girlfriend
of a different Green Lantern, with a split personality disorder.
She didn't know about her Star Sapphire identity.

The sniper is an assassin known as Deadshot.

The woman with the fire powers is Volcana.

And the guy with the silly snake costume is Copperhead.

Star Sapphire and Copperhead were in the Injustice League led by
Luthor last year.  Volcana was featured in a prison break earlier
this season in the episode "Only a Dream" featuring Doctor Destiny.

Lobo was originally created as a joke.  He's the last survivor of the
planet Czarnia - because he personally wiped out the rest of the Czarnians.
He's super-strong, really good with chains (his weapon of choice),
has a nifty space-bike, and is effectively immortal.  As indicated in
the episode, he's an interstellar bounty hunter by trade; he and Superman
have clashed many times.

Vandal Savage was a Cro-magnon named Vandar Adg who received immortality
and enhanced intelligence from a meteor.  He has repeatedly tried to
take over the world.  He showed up in the JL cartoon last year having
taken over the world by going back in time, taking Hitler's place, and
winning WW2.  That's, incidentally, how Superman recognized the time
machine - he'd seen Vandal Savage's design before.