Justice League Unlimited episode
"Question Authority"
Airdate:	June 25, 2005 (USA)
Production Number:	22
Airdate Order:	22
Animation Services by:	Dong Woo Animation Co., LTD.
Written by:	Dwayne McDuffie
Directed by:	Dan Riba
Episode images (10)

"Question Authority" is the ninth episode of the second season of Justice League Unlimited. It originally aired on June 25, 2005. It begins the four-part finale of the Cadmus story arc that concludes the season.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Continuity 3 Background information 3.1 Home video releases 3.2 Production notes 3.3 Trivia 4 Cast 4.1 Uncredited appearances 5 Quotes 6 Footnotes

Plot Edit

The rogue New God Mantis is rampaging through Metropolis. He proves a handful for the combined powers of Superman and Captain Atom, but Superman manages to open a boom tube and send him hurtling back to Apokolips. No sooner has the dust settled than Lois Lane arrives and reminds Superman that they have a date. As Superman flies away with her, Captain Atom is surprised to be hailed by General Eiling, in full dress uniform. Eiling informs him that his commission in the U.S. Air Force has been reinstated, and it is time for Atom to make a choice.

Over a picnic, Lois gently tells Superman that the Justice League's recent heavy-handed behavior is making some people nervous, and that people haven't forgotten the time when Superman was under Darkseid's control.

With Huntress's help, The Question steals a series of high-security files from a government terminal, hoping that it will finally provide proof of a link between Lex Luthor and Project Cadmus.

Inside Cadmus, Luthor is examined by Professor Hamilton and is shocked to be told that his Kryptonite-induced cancer has disappeared entirely, as if it was never there. Amanda Waller arrives and informs them of the theft.

In his apartment, Question cracks the files and begins to review them. He happens upon footage of the Justice Lord Superman assassinating President Luthor in the Justice Lords' alternate dimension.^[1] After days of poring over the data, he becomes unhinged, believing that the same thing is fated to happen in their world: Luthor will become President, Flash will be killed, and Superman will attack the government in retaliation – except that, according to Cadmus simulations, the resulting war between all the metahumans of the Justice League and humans will destroy the world.

Question confronts Superman, who assures him that he would never do what the Justice Lord Superman did, even if Luthor does become President. Question is unconvinced, and decides that the only way to prevent Armageddon is to kill Luthor before he takes office. He goes to Luthor's office to do so, but Luthor swats him away with a display of inhuman strength that surprises both of them –and confesses that his entire presidential campaign is nothing but a bluff, “a small part of a much grander scheme”. Question is taken to Cadmus and tortured by Dr. Moon for details on the files he stole. Question rants about various conspiracy theories during the interrogation, but he doesn't give up any important information.

After Question disappears, Huntress kidnaps Jimmy Olsen and uses his special watch to call Superman, alone. Telling Superman about the tape (which she assumes is a fake) they track Question's communicator to a garbage dump. Huntress fears the worst, but Superman points out that they dumped his comm, not his body. They conclude that Question has been taken by Cadmus. Superman initially refuses to help her, insisting that the League cannot act without legal grounds. But when Huntress points out that Cadmus is interrogating Question under the government's authority, Superman decides that they'll act "off the book".

The pair smashes into Cadmus and Superman easily defeats their soldiers. As Huntress searches, Superman looks through a wall and sees Professor Hamilton, realizing his role in the conspiracy. He confronts Hamilton, who doesn't deny what he's done, insisting that the world needs protection from Superman and his kind. Superman leaves in anger. But after Superman leaves, Hamilton sags, as though exhausted, with a concerned look on his face.

Together, he and Huntress break into the cell where Question is being tortured. As they are leaving, they are stopped by Captain Atom, who says that he is now taking orders from the government and his job is to stop them.

Continuity Edit

• Both Lois Lane and Emil Hamilton refer to the events of Superman: The Animated Series, "Legacy".
• Lois likewise refers to the embarrassing confrontation between Superman and Captain Marvel in Justice League Unlimited, "Clash".
• Question is still searching for a link between Luthor and Cadmus, after being tasked to do so by Batman in "The Doomsday Sanction".
• Luthor's Kryptonite poisoning, first diagnosed in Justice League, "Injustice For All", is finally cured.
• The footage which Question and Huntress watch is a re-animated version of the opening scene of Justice League, "A Better World".
• Question refers to Superman attempting to lobotomize Doomsday with his heat vision, in "The Doomsday Sanction", as his Justice Lord counterpart did in Justice League, "A Better World".
• Huntress uses the special signal watch that Superman gave to Jimmy Olsen in Superman: The Animated Series, "Superman's Pal".
• Superman reminds Huntress that she was fired from the Justice League in the earlier episode "Double Date".
• Dr. Moon tortures Question by showing him visions of the future he so fears; the vision of President Luthor killing Flash with a shotgun is mirrored in a later episode. It is plausible, though never confirmed, that this is what occurred in the alternate universe prior to the events of "A Better World".
• Superman realizes that Hamilton was responsible for cloning Supergirl, as already revealed to the audience in "Fearful Symmetry".

Background information Edit

Home video releases Edit

• Justice League Unlimited - Season One (DVD)
• Justice League - The Complete Series (DVD)
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Blu-ray only)

Production notes Edit

• Question's interrogation scene was purported to be carried out by Dr. Hugo Strange, expert psychologist. According to Dwayne McDuffie, Strange's cameo in "The Doomsday Sanction" was a set up for this scene, but due to the Bat-embargo he could no longer be used and was replaced by Dr. Moon.^[2]
• In "Critters" audio commentary, Bruce Timm expressed some regret for not including Farmer Brown as a member of Cadmus, instead of Doctor Moon. It's unclear, however, whether he said that in jest, seeing as Farmer Brown had no expertise in psychology.
• Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that the video that the Huntress assumed to be fake was the alternate universe White House security tape given by the Justice Lord Batman to Superman, who passed it on to the League's universe's President.[1]
• In the DVD special feature "Cadmus: Exposed," Bruce Timm humorously observed that Question's attempt to kill Luthor was likely the first time in animation history where a hero outright planned to murder a villain in cold blood.

Trivia Edit

• This episode reveals that the DCAU version of Captain Atom is named Nathaniel Adams. He was named Allen Adam in the original Charlton Comics version, and Nathaniel Adam in the DC Comics version.
• In DC Comics, General Eiling is the original antagonist of Captain Atom. First, he framed then-Captain Nathaniel Adam for murder, which led to Adam's court martial, disgrace, and imprisonment. Then, Eiling blackmailed Adam into participating in the military experiment that transformed him into living energy and shunted him twenty years into the future. During the years of Adam's absence, Eiling even married Adam's wife and raised Adam's children as his own. Even after Adam returned and became Captain Atom, Eiling was his commanding officer for years, and constantly made life difficult for the quantum-powered hero.
• The Cadmus data files names contain at least three nods to the comics:
  • "Zarathustra" may be a reference to the codename to the British government program that created Miracleman.
  • "Multiverse" is a DC Comics continuity construct.
  • "Flashpoint - 23" may refer the next episode, which is the 23rd episode of Justice League Unlimited.
    • The number 23 also has significance to the Illuminati group that Question mentions.
• Superman and Captain Atom defeat Mantis in the "Plastino Street Station", an homage to Al Plastino, the Silver Age Superman comic artist.
• The Question quotes the Law of Identity when talking to Luthor.
• The Question claims that his distaste for Luthor as a human being is "Brobdingnagian". This adjective refers to the fictional land of giants from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". The adjective has come to describe anything of colossal size.
• The Question mentions the Illuminati, a secret society subject of many conspiracy theories. Probably not merely by coincidence, some elements of the DCAU version of Cadmus bear a resemblance to the way the Illuminati is traditionally portrayed in fiction as an alliance between big business and a shadowy branch of the government.
• Dr. Hamilton compares Superman's betrayal with that of Lucifer, who in the Christian tradition was the first and most loved among the angels, until he betrayed God and was cast out of heaven.
• The "magic bullet" mentioned by Question refers to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, specifically to the single bullet theory which hypothesizes the existence of as another assassin besides Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Question's theory about fluoride ties in with his "Got Flouride?" poster seen in "Fearful Symmetry" and "Double Date".

Cast Edit

Actor	Role
George Newbern	Superman
Jeffrey Combs	The Question
Amy Acker	Huntress
Clancy Brown	Lex Luthor
Chris Cox	Captain Atom Aztek (uncredited)
Dana Delany	Lois Lane
Robert Foxworth	Emil Hamilton
CCH Pounder	Amanda Waller
J.K. Simmons	Wade Eiling Mantis (uncredited)

Uncredited appearances Edit

• Crimson Fox
• Shining Knight
• Steel
• Dr. Moon
• Jimmy Olsen
• Flash (Justice Lord)
• Lex Luthor (Justice Lords' universe)

Quotes Edit

Superman: What do you think? Lois Lane: A picnic? I suppose your high school sweetheart loved this kind of cornball stuff.

Lois: I've been worried about you. Superman: It's a dangerous job, Lois, but you know I can take care of myself. Lois: There's more than one way to get hurt. You remember what happened to your reputation when you were under Darkseid's control. Superman: That was years ago. Lois: People haven't forgetten. Not everybody. Superman: I know.

Huntress: You get what you came for? Question: I believe so. If there's a link between Luthor and Cadmus, I'll find it here. Huntress: Which leaves the rest of our evening tantalizingly free. Question: There are three terabytes of data here. I'll be busy for days... (Huntress snatches the hard drive away and glares) Question: Uh... dinner and a movie? Huntress: It's a start.

Question: Oh, no, no, no! It's all connected. Not alternate reality. Time loop. Luthor becomes president, Flash is killed, Superman kills Luthor in retaliation, superhumans arms race, armageddon, end of the world, inevitable. Is the future immutable? Can destiny be changed? Will they allow it?

The Question: I know what you told everyone. The Justice Lords — a parallel universe version of the Justice League — came to our world to rid it of crime, just as they did on their own world. With Lex Luthor's help, our Justice League managed to route them before they could impose their totalitarian will on our populace. I also know what you didn't tell anyone, outside of the original seven members of the Justice League. On that other Earth, so very much like our own, a Superman, so very much like you, killed the President. Superman: Question, no one can know about this. The Question: Or what? You'll incinerate me too? Superman: I'd never do anything like that. The Question: Wouldn't you? Didn't you recently try to lobotomize Doomsday with your heat vision, just as the Justice Lord did? Superman: That's different! The Question: It's the same. A heavily armed Watchtower with an army of pro-active heroes, Luthor running for President — if it's not quite the same, it soon will be. Have you seen Amanda Waller's computer simulations? Superman: Batman told me about them. The Question: Did he tell you all the models predict that a war between the Justice League and the government will devastate the planet? Superman: We would never fight the government! The Question: Not even if Luthor was the government?

Question: Everything that exists has a specific nature. Each entity exists as something in particular and has certain characteristics that are part of what it is. "A" is "A". And no matter what reality he calls home, Luthor is Luthor.

Lex Luthor: That's right, conspiracy buff. I spent $75 million on a fake presidential campaign. All just to tick Superman off.

Dr. Moon: I can stop you from seeing the visions at any time. Just tell us what you've learned. Question: Topically-applied fluoride doesn't prevent tooth decay. It does render teeth detectable by spy satellites. Dr. Moon: Tell me what you know. Question: The plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister! Dr. Moon: Tell me what you know. Question: There was a magic bullet! It was forged by Illuminati mystics to prevent us from learning the truth!

Superman: Do you know what they are? Emil Hamilton: Power brokers, politicians, criminals and black ops mercenaries with one thing in common, besides. They're humanity's last hope against your kind. Superman: What are you talking about? Humanity doesn't need protection from us. Emil Hamilton: I used to believe that. I thought you were a guardian angel, come to answer our prayers... But Lucifer was an angel too, wasn't he? Superman: Professor... Emil Hamilton: You forget, I've been on the receiving end of your wrath, when you brought Supergirl to S.T.A.R. Labs for medical treatment! I know what you're capable of! Superman: That's what this is about? One little scare and you betray us? You stole Kara's DNA! Violated her trust! My trust! Emil Hamilton: The chicken, or the egg, Superman?

Footnotes Edit

Previous episode: "Clash"

Cadmus Story Arc

Next episode: "Flashpoint"

Previously produced episode: "Hunter's Moon"	Episodes of Justice League Unlimited	Next produced episode: "Flashpoint"
Previously aired episode: "Hunter's Moon"		Next aired episode: "Flashpoint"