DCAU

As odd as it sounds, sometimes the makers of the cartoon couldn't get the rights to certain characters. It's why, for instance, Wonder Girl never showed up in Teen Titans. Not that that's necessarily the case with Power Girl/Galatea, just that it might be.

Possibly the case with Power Girl/Galatea was the same as with Hawkman in "Starcrossed"—they didn't want the recognizably named character to be a villain. Hawkman—a heroic Hawkman—did show up later in Justice League Unlimited.

It's pretty clear, though, that Galatea is meant to visually evoke Power Girl, for those in the audience who know who Power Girl is.

Edited by Robbery on Apr 8th 2024 at 9:16:26 AM

As for the use of kryptonie I think the adaptation that use it the most was indeed smallvilele who for four season seen to have kryptonie very much everywhere.

I recall that in the Silver Age, the giant mutant ape Titano had kryptonite vision for no discernible reason. The explanation for his mutating into a giant ape held together in a 60's comic book sf sort of way, but his having kryptonite vision made no sense whatsoever.

*2. Not helped by the fact that almost all of the villains were much weaker than Clark, so they had to have kryptonite to justify the length of the episode.

Watchtower Database asking the important questions...

Are DCAU Green Lanterns weak to the color Yellow?

Answer? Mostly yes, but writers didn't want to have to say a phrase as ridiculous as "Green Lanterns are weak to Yellow" and so never stated it.

(Its important to note that this was before later additions to the Green Lantern mythos in the comics expanding on the emotional color spectrum. Back then, it really was just being weak to Yellow).

In the comments I made a joke in response to the videos' original title, and then another joke about the list of things John is weak to, that they said much later in the video: Have you noticed most of Shayera's shirts and all of her uniform tops are yellow?

There were various attempts at some kind of explanation over the years. I think, originally, it was that there was a flaw in the matrix (or something) of the Central Power Battery that made the rings useless against the color yellow, and the Guardians found if they removed that flaw that the Battery ceased to work at all. I think another explanation was that the Guardians built in the weakness because they didn't want GL's to become too powerful. The Guardians themselves were living power batteries, and I don't remember if it was ever said anywhere whether their own powers were useless against the color yellow or not.

The Alan Scott Green Lantern meanwhile had a different weakness than the Oa-based Green Lanterns. His powers didn't work against wood.

It was once joked that you could kill any Green Lantern with a No. 2 pencil.

Hell, since paper is processed wood, you could kill them with Post-It Notes.

Edited by M84 on Apr 28th 2024 at 9:49:31 PM

So at the very least, April O'Neil (TMNT 1987) couldn't be harmed by an amateur Green Lantern.

That said, btw, since TMNT 1987 did crossover with the 2012 version, which had a comic crossover with BTAS. So yeah kind of part of the DCAU multiverse.😁

I never got the impression Lanterns in DCAU were outright intended to be weak to yellow.

IIRC, what the animators did was occasioanlly when something got the better of John they would color it yellow as an in-joke (for instance, that's what they did with the Tapioca pudding in the bodyswap episode), but they didn't intend for him to literally be weak to yellow stuff.

There's some developer commentary somewhere where they talk about it.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Apr 29th 2024 at 9:36:54 AM

When did they start giving the “yellow is the color of fear” explanation?

Interestingly, I think John Broome might have unofficially suggested that first all the way back in the '60's. I read an interview with Gil Kane once where he mentioned it.

My guess would be it was officially mentioned by Geoff Johns after he instituted his whole "Emotional Spectrum" bit.

I believe it was the Green Lantern Rebirth series where Parallax was revealed to be a fear entity that possessed Hal, the same run that influenced both the movie and First Flight. Beforehand a Green Lantern Ring, Sinestro and Star Sapphire's powers were just similar in design and not part of a universal Background Magic Field, and so we saw numerous ring wielding groups with emotion-based powers to contrast each other.

All this was happening very late in Justice League's production, and there was a limited focus on Green Lantern villains in general.

Edited by EmeraldSource on Apr 30th 2024 at 12:10:53 PM

I mean, Grundy was the main GL villain they used.

Yes, Grundy was originally a Green Lantern villain.

Grundy has long been a Rogues' Gallery Transplant, he was an Alan Scott enemy whose adventures were more like The Shadow or The Phantom so when the Green Lanterns became a cosmic-level premise Grundy moved towards the likes of Batman. In Justice League the Manhunters were dealt with early on and Sinestro had a cameo as part of the final season Legion of Doom, as a result Despero is the closest John Stewart got to a GL Arch-Enemy.

Edited by EmeraldSource on Apr 30th 2024 at 1:25:08 AM

To be fair, by the end of it Grundy effectively became a Shayera (and John) rogue. The aforementioned video even referenced that "Old Yeller" scene; "yeller" (yellow) being being the dog's fur cover for which it got its name.

Incidentally, John's interest in Old Yeller isn't just a one time mention. Flash discovers it in his apartment during Hearts & Mind, Shayera and Vixen bring it up when chatting at the end of Hunter's Moon.

Huh! How did you notice that? Good catch!

1. Nice of you to think I have a life to keep me occupied to invest in the hobby more than I should.😁

Kidding, just the benefit of rewatches when I would record JL/JLU on VHS, them later checking the DV Ds out. Speaking of a minor detail...

2. Static Shock episode "Power Play". Yet another situation where a Jason Marsden (Richie) character had substance abuse problems.

Happened in the early 90s and this was the result:

So, I just realized that the DCAU uses the “Evil Superman” cliche 4 times. (Brave New Metropolis, Legacy, A Better World, and Eclipsed).

In two of them he’s under mind control (Legacy and Eclipsed), and in one of the other two he is redeemed (Brave New Metropolis)

Brave New Metropolis is injustice, if it were well written.

Half the Cadmus arc touches on evil Superman, with "Dark Heart" and "Clash" having him shockingly casual about the use of destructive force and "Doomsday Sanction" has him attempt a Justice Lord Superman trick on Doomsday. Part of the point of the arc is that mainline Superman is not that far off from becoming a tyrant for the greater good.

Edited by EmeraldSource on May 6th 2024 at 9:36:15 AM

Eh. While it's a pretty dark thing to say, against Doomsday tier threats if you can skip out on the mass destructive slugfest you probably should.

Injustice (2 more than 1) is way too bleak for its own good.

Cadmus in this universe was a direct consequence of both “Legacy” and “A Better World”.