Headscratchers / Justice League S 1 E 16 And 17 Fury

• Not really something that gets on my nerves a great deal, but...how come the allergen affects J'onn? I mean, I know it's targeted at males, but he's an alien. For that matter, so's Superman. Though since it was never really explained how it works, it could work on even alien males, and I'm probably mildly confused for nothing. Ah, well.
  • Given that Aresia made it using Earth-based germ warfare knowledge, it should just be targeting the Y chromosome. Since both Kryptonians and Martians are two-gender species, it stands to reason they might have similar genetic structures, at least where Hollywood Science is concerned.
    • Of course most two-gendered species on planet Earth don't have X-Y chromosome distinction, either...A Wizard Did It.
  • Also, the fact that one of the ingredients is apparently gemstone dust suggests there may be a magical element involved.
    • Maybe the magical element of it curses anyone who identifies themselves with the male gender? Of course, this includes females who identify with being male, but "any female who identifies with the male mindset is an abnormality that must be remedied".
    • If you're crazy enough to try and kill every man on the planet, yes, identify-as-male-females need to go too.
    • You guys are all over-thinking this. The scientific definition of a male refers to organisms with the physiological sex which produces sperm. The scientific definition of a female refers to the physiological sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova (egg cells). We know that Kryptonians and Martians reproduce in a similar way to humans - its a very simple definition a magical virus would be able to make.
    • Your "scientific definition of male" only applies to Earth organisms. There is no reason to assume an alien species would work the same way, even if their biology seems superficially similar. And for the record, we don't actually know if Kryptonians and Martians reproduce in a similar way to humans. Did we ever see a Kryptonian or a Martian couple conceive an offspring and give birth? For all we know, Kryptonians could reproduce through airborne spores and Martians could reproduce by budding.
    • Airborne spores? So, Superman could accidentally knock up Supergirl just by sneezing at her?
    • You're over simplifying, you could compare fish reproduction to a cloud of genetic material but no one says they just accidentally shoot off the stuff at random.
    • There is no reason to assume they wouldn't work the same way either.
• Did Star Sapphire and Tsukuri temporarily take leave of their senses? At least Aresia had suffered a great deal, didn't realize just how interconnected the world is and had been apparently brought up on a strong anti-male message, those two had no excuse. Did they not notice the large numbers of planes, cars, trucks and trains crashing in the first few minutes of the plan? Did they not stop to realize that they could reasonably expect a total collapse of society, especially in regions with far fewer women trained in business, politics, engineering, farming, criminal justice and medicine? That's not even getting into the blatantly obvious problem of how exactly humanity was supposed to survive another generation.
  • You got me. Maybe Aresia promised to teach them how to make babies in a more literal fashion the way Hippolyta made Wonder Woman. Assuming Aresia did the research on human interconnectedness, but since Wonder Woman implicitly didn't know exactly what made the continued existence of men so important, she probably didn't either, so if then, SS and Tsuruki have no excuse.
  • Perhaps the "allergen" she released didn't affect frozen sperm, so she was figuring that society could be rebuilt after a generation, with men treated as chattel? Yes, there would surely be incredible suffering even among their own gender, but Aresia is a Knight Templar, and the other two are most likely sociopaths.
  • Not sure about Tsukuri, but isn't Star Sapphire an alien? Doesn't she have pretty much the same powers as GL? Presumably if she wants to be around men again she could just go to another planet.
    • According to promo materials and Word of God, the Star Sapphire in the series is Carol Ferris, so she's about as much an alien as Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, and Hal Jordan: In other words, her powers came from aliens, but she herself isn't not one.
  • Maybe they just hate men too and don't care what happens to society as long as men are completely wiped out? Or maybe they are just happy to commit Gendercide For the Evulz.
  • What I want to know is, if Sapphire really wanted to go along with a plan that would wipe out Hal Jordan, then just what is her gem's power being fueled by?
  • Ignoring that there's no Hal Jordan in the DCAU (reality warping in "The Once And Future Thing" aside), this episode aired before the Retcon in the comics which made Star Sapphire's powers the result of a ring that was powered by Love as the Green Lantern rings are powered by Willpower. The short version is that Carol Ferris became possessed by an alien crystal containing the personality of a man-hating alien queen. Presumably the DCAU version of Star Sapphire would also be in favor of a plan that kills as many men as possible.
• Just been thinking about this and wondered if anyone had a different opinion: Suppose Aresia actually did succeed in wiping out all male life on the planet. Then what? Does she suppose she'll educate all women in her skewed version of Amazon culture? Does she think Hera will bless all females with eternal life, eliminating the need to give birth ever again?
  • Given that she was willing to literally murder half the human race, she's obviously very unhinged. It's entirely possible that she had absolutely no plan for what would happen after all the men were wiped out.
  • It's the DC Universe, they have magic at their disposal. Sure, Dr. Fate must have been a victim too, but they still have Inza and Zatanna. They can surely find a magical way to produce new babies. Solved that problem, the only-women society can work, all areas of human society have female presence, so after the transition everything should go back to normal. Yes, all areas of human society can work without men if needed... except one. Some centuries pass, Earth becomes the Amazon world, with men being just an old myth... and the crew of a delivery business and a pompous general crash into the planet, and the voice soon spreads out that they can be used for "snu snu".
    • "all areas of human society can work without men if needed."
  • To the person who said the all woman society could work, this troper disagrees. The DCAU universe isn't as well off as the main comic continuity. Not to mention, it would have only been a mater of time before the women who aren't complete feminazis took Aresia out. Wonder Woman, Shayera, Zatanna, Vixen, Barda, etc. All extremely powerful females who wouldn't take too kindly to Aresia's views, she wouldn't even be living long in such a world. Also, I wouldn't put it past a female magic user to go back in time and stop it from ever even happening, by just the barest moment.
    • Not to mention that "work" is a highly subjective term. Could the human race survive if all the men died out and the women of Earth used magic and comic book superscience to reproduce artificially? Maybe. But it wouldn't be pretty. While the above troper is technically correct that all areas of society have a female presence, the ratio of men-to-women in certain professions is still very one-sided. The United States is among the most progressive countries in the world in terms of gender roles, yet there are still many vital professions that are very male-dominated. Farming, engineering, medicine, and so on are all heavily male-dominated professions. If all those male farmers, engineers, and doctors died out overnight the world would be plunged into chaos as the few women who work in those fields today struggle to pick up the slack. It would take many years for enough women to be trained to replace those dead men, and in the mean time the world would suffer an extreme shortage of farmers, engineers, doctors, and other vital skilled professionals we rely on to maintain a functioning society. Millions upon millions of innocent women would die of cold and hunger alone in the aftermath of Aresia's gendercide.
  • Insanity aside, her only knowledge of men comes from a childhood in a war-torn country and a brief encounter with some pirates, plus whatever misandrist propaganda Hippolyta fed her. She lives in a society of immortals in a pop-culture version of ancient Greek culture who forbid outsiders or even knowledge of the outside world. It's a safe bet she has no idea how the outside world works, and probably just assumed that once she killed all males things would immediately improve and the women of the world would thank her.
  • Star Sapphire and Tsukuri may simply have not thought it through. Sapphire has a magic gem that makes whatever she wants and has still resorted to petty crime. Tsukuri...maybe she's good at killing things but not too smart or insightful otherwise? No, they're both aliens who will leave Earth after getting whatever Aresia's paying them, that's it.
• Forget all that other stuff; what I really wanna know is how Batman who, may I remind you, is only human managed to resist the effects of the male plague for as long as he did! That disease took down Superman in seconds and the rest of the male members of the Justice League not long after. How in hell did Batman, then, not succumb to the effects of the plague until later on, after he saved that little boy and the bus driver who had collapsed at the wheel?
  • Batman's got several villains whose MOs include variations on the theme of poison gas. He's probably either built up significant resistance to toxins in general, regularly gives himself some kind of antitoxin cocktail, or both.
  • Because he's Batman and is The Determinator. You can see that he was already aware that he was infected just before he saw that the bus was out of control and no doubt had enough Heroic Willpower to stop the bus before succumbing to the plague. And the resistance to toxins probably helped him resist showing symptoms for a time.
  • In the case of Superman, his invulnerability has probably left his body with little reference for defense against a toxin or disease that can actually affect him - whereas Batman has actually been sick before and his body has conditioned itself to fight back, in addition to the antitoxin cocktail. Superman's physiology was basiocally screaming, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" while Batman's was going, "Uh oh, something new."
  • Also, Superman took a concentrated dose right in the face. By the time Batman returned to Gotham, the allergen would have been much more dispersed. This might at least partially explain the slower onset.
  • Most importantly when it was initially released Batman was in the Batwing which presumably is airtight and has a filtration system while Superman got a direct dose and GL and Flash were in open air. Once Batman landed, he contracted it.