TV Talk: Justice League - "War World"

Next up for the month is the Thanos/Darkseid rip-off himself: Mongul. Well, I think he is a Thanos/Darkseid rip-off. He was created by Len Wein and Jim Starlin, so maybe he’s an homage? Anyway, Mongul first appeared in DC Comics Present #27 (1980).  He was a former ruler who was ousted form his planet. He eventually became the ruler of an artificial planet called War World. He’s gone up against Superman and the Green Lantern Corps. While he helped Hank Henshaw destroy Coast City in “Reign of the Supermen,” he’s probably best remembered for the Alan Moore story, “For the Man Who Has Everything.”

The character has been featured in stuff like Young Justice and Justice League. “For The Man Who Has Everything” was even adapted into an episode for Justice League Unlimited. Instead of another comic, I’m going to talk about Mongul’s first appearance on Justice League. “War World” was a two-parter (episodes 12 and 13) and it was loosely based off on Superman’s gladiator days during the storyline, “Exile.”

Superman and the Martian Manhunter have an accident during a routine mission in space. While they’re knocked out, slave traders capture them and take them to War World. The slaver thinks Superman will be a prime candidate for Mongul’s gladiator sports. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl, who was monitoring them at the Watchtower, and Green Lantern go to the site of the accident to see what happened and where the two aliens went. When Superman and J’onn wake up on War World, they try to escape but only J’onn makes it out. Superman ends up getting thrown into the ring with the reigning champion, Draaga, and kicks his butt.

Come on, Shayara! You know you like cozying up to the brother.

Mongul wants Superman to end Draaga’s life but Superman refuses to. Mongul sends his robotic guards to attack him but he only stops when J’onn (disguised as a peasant) gets the crowd to root for Superman. Later, the gladiators try to give Superman a way to escape, but he won’t leave until he finds J’onn. Instead, a knocked out Draaga is the one who’s given a way off planet. He ain’t too happy about it since Superman messed with his honor. He does find a way to make it back to War World when Hawkgirl and Green Lantern find him on another world.

Back on War World, Mongul decides to face Superman himself. He also tells Superman to throw the fight or he’ll use a death ray to destroy Draaga’s homeworld. While Superman fights Mongul, J’onn somehow finds the death ray and tries to disable it. It ultimately takes the arrival of Hawkgirl and GL to destroy it. Draaga makes his way to the arena and is able to get his revenge on Mongul for all that he’s done. After he defeats Mongul, he wants Superman to rule War World. Superman instead hands the job to Draaga. When all is said and done, the League returns home.

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This was a fine episode. It wasn’t particularly good but it wasn’t bad either. Season One of JL was decent at best and this is one of the okay episodes. There were things I liked about it. It got to showcase Superman for a bit. Superman tended to get his butt kicked a lot in this season to the point that the creators had to fix it for the second season. Here, he does get some nice licks in against Mongul and is heroic as ever. I liked seeing GL and Hawkgirl pal around space together. I wonder if the writers knew where they were going to take these characters in the future.

Mongul was a nice villain. He was the ruler of planet and he showed it. Heck, he tried to blow up another planet for good measure. He was also voiced well by Eric Roberts. The fight scenes were fine for the most part. The fight between Superman and Draaga was nice and seeing Superman take on Mongul was cool. The League’s fight at the death ray was also pretty cool. I always liked Hawkgirl swinging that mace around.

While I do like the episode, there are things that didn’t completely work. J’onn is mostly useless for the episode. For whatever reason, he can’t fully use his powers on Warworld. He does get to do a bit in part 2 and that was nice at least. There’s also the fact that Superman does feel a little weak at points. It also can get pretty dull at times. I can kind of see why they later got rid of the two-parter format with JLU Overall, it’s not the worst of the show but it’s far from the best too. At least Mongul was alright.

J'onn: Could I do more than play second fiddle?

Writers: Nope.

J'onn: Nooooo.

Mongul isn’t one of my favorite villains but he has his moments. His acts from “For The Man Who Has Everything” were pretty nuts. Also, he did help destroy Coast City. I guess he just feels a bit derivative of other monarch threats like Darkseid and Thanos. I wonder who’d win in a three-way battle but I already know that result: Gray boy. Well, I’d say I’m done, but I got two more things left to do. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.