[9.0/10] I don’t even know where to start with this one. There’s so much rich material here, in terms of plotting, in terms of theme, and in terms of character. But what strikes me most of all is probably the fact that I love this episode despite the fact that it arguably bites off more than it can chew.
To be frank, there’s enough good material here that this probably should have been a full blown two-hour movie instead of just a two-part episode. The Freedom vs. Security debate has a million interesting wrinkles to it, especially when you throw superpowered quasi-gods into the mix. “A Better World” does its best to note the different facets of that debate, resolve a Justice League-on-Justice League fight, and explore the hard moral choices that a hero has to make all within forty-five minutes as well as it can. That’s just a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time.
And yet, I really like the wisps we get. There’s something particularly compelling about the Batman-on-Batman material. Not only is it incredibly cool to see one Dark Knight fight the other, each knowing that they know all the other’s moves and strategies. But the show uses it as a microcosm for the larger argument the episode is having with itself. Justice League Batman values working from the shadows, the additive justice of stopping crime one case at a time and preserving people’s freedoms. Justice Lord Batman thinks certain liberties are worth sacrificing for safety, for taking bold public steps that would have prevented his own parents from being killed. There's a fair argument that the choices each version of Batman makes are not that far from one another, different shades and flavors of seizing power and trying to prevent a tragedy.
I think that’s my favorite observation within the episode’s themes -- that what the Justice League does is not that far removed from what the Justice Lords do. There’s always a risk with deconstructions like this one -- where you risk breaking your own show. In order for Justice League to continue on Cartoon Network, our heroes probably have to remain flawed but righteous; they probably can’t kill people, and we probably can’t spend too much time thinking about the ways in which their well-meaning actions might just be reinforcing a flawed social order.
But “A Better World” does a good job of acknowledging these contradictions without letting them destroy the roots of the series. We see Justice Lord Batman evincing a broken windows theory of policing. We see supervillains neutralized from causing any more harm, but also stripped of their humanity and selves rather than rehabilitated. Most of all, we have Justice League Batman getting through to his authoritarian counterpart with little more than a silent nod and an appeal to what their parents would think of the world their son has created. It’s a complex bundle of ideas, and while the show couldn't possibly do them all justice in the time allotted (no pun intended), it does a good job of noting them with economy and letting the story and the world continue.
That’s the other thing I find so impressive about “A Better World” -- how much I like it despite the fact that I don’t necessarily agree with where it lands. I understand the necessity of psychologically justifying our heroes’ valor that just so happens to comport with network standards and practices. But surely there’s some middle ground between never fully disposing of blatantly craven supervillains who regularly imperil vast swaths of people vs. descending into full blown superhero fascism. You can infer that killing Lex was just the first step of a downward spiral, but it’s a slippery slope that feels a bit implausible and presents a false dichotomy.
But it’s just a good story. There’s a certain cool factor here. It’s pretty damn awesome to see every member of the Justice League fight their mirror universe counterparts. It’s striking to see Batman’s rogues gallery reduced to vacant automatons. There’s a nice call and response that comes from the Justice League pulling the same “lure and trap in an electric box” ploy on the Justice Lords that the Justice Lords pull on them, particularly when the difference is that our Green Lantern can’t bring himself to truly harm Hawkgirl. As convenient as the means of subduing the Justice Lords turns out to be (hello, ATLA fans!), even that’s set up in the prior episode, showing how well built this one is.
I also love how much this hinges on Flash as the “conscience” of the group, and the thing that connects the two groups. There’s a real cleverness to him thwarting Justice Lord Batman by faking a flatline of his heart rate, playing on the Justice Lord’s emotions. Nothing signifies Justice Lord Superman’s turn to the dark side better than his apparent willingness to kill Flash, symbolically destroying the consequence he broke so many of his own principles to try to prevent. As I said in my last review, there’s a personal element to all of this, which helps ground a fantastical and heady story in something eminently human.
That humanity is on display in our Superman too. The show acknowledges that all of the choices available are imperfect. Superman stops the Justice Lords, but to do so, he has to bait Luthor with a full pardon, using his depowering ray to deprive the Lords of their ability to hold the rest of the world in line. It’s a different compromise than the one Justice Lord Supes made, but given our Lex’s closing remarks about an interest in politics, suggests that this story, and the moral consequences of these choices, aren’t over. This isn’t a clean victory. There were costs and potential unforeseen problems that will emerge. That’s appropriate for tackling such complicated ethical and personal questions.
“A Better World” still ends a little too neatly and conveniently for my tastes, with the very existence of a universal de-powering ray almost breaking the show. And yet, I’m not sure there’s a much better way to end things that doesn’t still end up seeming a little too easy. What it does until that moment is grapple with some of the most essential and difficult questions for any superhero story, wrap it in a compelling sci-fi concept and narrative, and ground both of them in something personal. The episode, propelled by those forces, is easily one of the series’s high water marks, and realizes so much of the potential this universe, and its not-so-pure characters, have always had.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-08-23T19:21:41Z
[9.0/10] I don’t even know where to start with this one. There’s so much rich material here, in terms of plotting, in terms of theme, and in terms of character. But what strikes me most of all is probably the fact that I love this episode despite the fact that it arguably bites off more than it can chew.
To be frank, there’s enough good material here that this probably should have been a full blown two-hour movie instead of just a two-part episode. The Freedom vs. Security debate has a million interesting wrinkles to it, especially when you throw superpowered quasi-gods into the mix. “A Better World” does its best to note the different facets of that debate, resolve a Justice League-on-Justice League fight, and explore the hard moral choices that a hero has to make all within forty-five minutes as well as it can. That’s just a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time.
And yet, I really like the wisps we get. There’s something particularly compelling about the Batman-on-Batman material. Not only is it incredibly cool to see one Dark Knight fight the other, each knowing that they know all the other’s moves and strategies. But the show uses it as a microcosm for the larger argument the episode is having with itself. Justice League Batman values working from the shadows, the additive justice of stopping crime one case at a time and preserving people’s freedoms. Justice Lord Batman thinks certain liberties are worth sacrificing for safety, for taking bold public steps that would have prevented his own parents from being killed. There's a fair argument that the choices each version of Batman makes are not that far from one another, different shades and flavors of seizing power and trying to prevent a tragedy.
I think that’s my favorite observation within the episode’s themes -- that what the Justice League does is not that far removed from what the Justice Lords do. There’s always a risk with deconstructions like this one -- where you risk breaking your own show. In order for Justice League to continue on Cartoon Network, our heroes probably have to remain flawed but righteous; they probably can’t kill people, and we probably can’t spend too much time thinking about the ways in which their well-meaning actions might just be reinforcing a flawed social order.
But “A Better World” does a good job of acknowledging these contradictions without letting them destroy the roots of the series. We see Justice Lord Batman evincing a broken windows theory of policing. We see supervillains neutralized from causing any more harm, but also stripped of their humanity and selves rather than rehabilitated. Most of all, we have Justice League Batman getting through to his authoritarian counterpart with little more than a silent nod and an appeal to what their parents would think of the world their son has created. It’s a complex bundle of ideas, and while the show couldn't possibly do them all justice in the time allotted (no pun intended), it does a good job of noting them with economy and letting the story and the world continue.
That’s the other thing I find so impressive about “A Better World” -- how much I like it despite the fact that I don’t necessarily agree with where it lands. I understand the necessity of psychologically justifying our heroes’ valor that just so happens to comport with network standards and practices. But surely there’s some middle ground between never fully disposing of blatantly craven supervillains who regularly imperil vast swaths of people vs. descending into full blown superhero fascism. You can infer that killing Lex was just the first step of a downward spiral, but it’s a slippery slope that feels a bit implausible and presents a false dichotomy.
But it’s just a good story. There’s a certain cool factor here. It’s pretty damn awesome to see every member of the Justice League fight their mirror universe counterparts. It’s striking to see Batman’s rogues gallery reduced to vacant automatons. There’s a nice call and response that comes from the Justice League pulling the same “lure and trap in an electric box” ploy on the Justice Lords that the Justice Lords pull on them, particularly when the difference is that our Green Lantern can’t bring himself to truly harm Hawkgirl. As convenient as the means of subduing the Justice Lords turns out to be (hello, ATLA fans!), even that’s set up in the prior episode, showing how well built this one is.
I also love how much this hinges on Flash as the “conscience” of the group, and the thing that connects the two groups. There’s a real cleverness to him thwarting Justice Lord Batman by faking a flatline of his heart rate, playing on the Justice Lord’s emotions. Nothing signifies Justice Lord Superman’s turn to the dark side better than his apparent willingness to kill Flash, symbolically destroying the consequence he broke so many of his own principles to try to prevent. As I said in my last review, there’s a personal element to all of this, which helps ground a fantastical and heady story in something eminently human.
That humanity is on display in our Superman too. The show acknowledges that all of the choices available are imperfect. Superman stops the Justice Lords, but to do so, he has to bait Luthor with a full pardon, using his depowering ray to deprive the Lords of their ability to hold the rest of the world in line. It’s a different compromise than the one Justice Lord Supes made, but given our Lex’s closing remarks about an interest in politics, suggests that this story, and the moral consequences of these choices, aren’t over. This isn’t a clean victory. There were costs and potential unforeseen problems that will emerge. That’s appropriate for tackling such complicated ethical and personal questions.
“A Better World” still ends a little too neatly and conveniently for my tastes, with the very existence of a universal de-powering ray almost breaking the show. And yet, I’m not sure there’s a much better way to end things that doesn’t still end up seeming a little too easy. What it does until that moment is grapple with some of the most essential and difficult questions for any superhero story, wrap it in a compelling sci-fi concept and narrative, and ground both of them in something personal. The episode, propelled by those forces, is easily one of the series’s high water marks, and realizes so much of the potential this universe, and its not-so-pure characters, have always had.