The Once and Future Thing Part One: Weird Western Tales
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| Justice League Unlimited episode | |
|---|---|
| |
| "The Once and Future Thing Part One: Weird Western Tales" | |
| Airdate: | January 22, 2005 |
| Production Number: | 12 |
| Airdate Order: | 12 |
| Animation Services by: | Dong Yang Animation |
| Written by: | Dwayne McDuffie |
| Directed by: | Dan Riba |
| Episode images (6) | |
"The Once and Future Thing Part One" is the twelfth episode of Justice League Unlimited. It first aired on January 22, 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Part I: Western Weird Tales
In the future Gotham City, Enid Clinton scolds her husband, David, about clogging up the garage with his collection of historical artifacts. Timidly, he tries to explain their importance: they are originals that he retrieved from their respective time periods, using a time machine he built. Enid's initial amazement turns to fury, and she delivers an even more blistering scolding, saying that he could have used the machine to make them rich and powerful instead. "You invent a time machine and can't think of anything useful to do with it?!" He shoots back, "I can think of one thing!" and activates his machine, disappearing into a time portal after exclaiming "I can use it to get away from you".
In the present day, Batman and John Stewart are lunching in the Watchtower's commissary. Though Shayera has rejoined the League, John denies any awkwardness, claiming he's moved on and is now seeing Vixen and he quickly accuses Batman of having an affair with Wonder Woman to which he calmly denies but admits Wonder Woman's good traits only for Wonder Woman to overhear him and seductively tells him to "keep digging". Shortly afterwards, an intruder alarm sounds. The three of them find David trying to steal one of Batman's utility belts. He escapes into a time portal, and they follow.
They arrive in the middle of the Oklahoma Territory in 1879. After turning the tables on a trio of highwaymen, they adopt cowboy clothes and ride into the nearest town, Elkhorn. Right away they see what is wrong: the new "sheriff," Tobias Manning and his thugs are equipped with radically advanced weapons. After losing a hand of poker, Manning throws his opponent in jail. The League go to break him out, and he introduces himself as Bartholomew Aloysius Lash, a.k.a. Bat Lash. His cell mate is David, who explains that Manning stole his time machine and has been using it to poach advanced technology from the future and make himself ruler of the town.
As they leave the jail, they are attacked by Manning's thugs, who are overcome by a sort of Wild West Justice League, to which Bart belongs: Jonah Hex, El Diablo, and Ohiyesa Smith, the former sheriff of Elkhorn.
Banding together, the new and old Leagues travel to Manning's headquarters in the desert; his men confront them with an arsenal of bizarre weapons, including robotic dinosaurs, main battle tanks, and android exoskeletons. They overcome his men, and Smith personally bests Manning in a knife fight.
Freed, David snatches the time belt away and disappears into another portal. Again, Batman, John, and Wonder Woman follow him. This time, they arrive in the future Gotham City and are immediately confronted by the Jokerz: Bonk, Chucko, Dee Dee, Ghoul, and Woof.
They are soon joined by that era's Justice League Unlimited: Batman, Static, and Warhawk. As they square off against the Jokerz, Warhawk catches sight of John and says, "Dad?"
[edit] Continuity
- John Stewart's disdain towards Time Traveling refers to his previous experience in the Justice League episode "The Savage Time."
- It is possible that Batman recognizes Jonah Hex's name, having heard his story from Ra's al Ghul in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Showdown."
- In "Showdown," which takes place in 1883, only four years after this one, Hex seems to have aged several decades. One possible reason for this is he continued his time-traveling adventures.
- Warhawk first appears in the Batman Beyond episode, "The Call." His parentage is not explained in that episode.
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Production Inconsistencies
- When Batman, Wonder Woman and John Stewart catch David Clinton stealing Batman's utility belt, he drops it on the ground beside him and escapes. When the Leaguers chase after him, the belt is no longer on the floor.
- In this episode, Bruce's eyes are blue, which is consistent with his Batman Beyond incarnation, but not with previous Justice League episodes, such as "Maid of Honor" in which they were black. Strangely enough, in "Part Two" the "old Bruce" has black eyes.
- When Bat Lash and Manning brawl in the saloon, there's a piano that appears and disappears, and Wonder Woman and Bruce also change positions between shots.
- Above the gate at the ranch, there is a cord hanging from a skull. Later on, the cord disappears.
- The gunman on the velociraptor shoots at Batman with a revolver, however in the next shot his gun shoots like an SMG.
- When Ohiyesa Smith confronts Manning, he tosses away his guns. After defeating him and takes the chrono-belt, the guns are back in his holsters.
- When John beams the futuristic tech upwards, the bubble is green but the beam is yellow.
[edit] Trivia
- The title is a pun on "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White.
- Clinton's checklist reads:
- M's Dress (probably Monica Lewinsky’s, as an in-joke to his own last name)
- Napoleon's Vest
- Washington's teeth
- Batman's Utility Belt
- "Weird Western Tales" was a DC Comics series that featured many of the DC Universe's western character's adventures.
- This episode features a Western-style rendition of the original Justice League theme.
- In the poker game, Manning' ace has the A index on the upper-right/lower-left, while Bat's aces have the indices on the upper-left/lower-right corners. This is how Bat knew that Manning was cheating.
- Jonah Hex's understanding of rayguns and his line, "I've lead an interesting life", are a nod to the 1980s comic series Hex in which the character was time-transported to a Road Warrior-esque post-apocaplytic future.
- Both episodes are thematically very similar to "The Savage Time", the finale of Justice League, Season One. In that episode, the League travels back in time to World War II, and finds history altered because of technology contributed from the future, and also finds itself assisted by a a host of DC Comics heroes created for that era.
- Likewise, in this episode, the Wild West Justice League is composed of heroes from DC Comics' series of comics taking place in that era: Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, El Diablo, and Sheriff Ohiyesa Smith.
- Tobias Manning is better known in the DC Comics universe as Terra-Man.
- Batman gives an obvious spoof of a famous Clint Eastwood line.
- The scene with Batman, Wonder Woman and John in the canteen lampoons a scene from the movie City Slickers when Billy Crystal's character is talking about Jack Palance's and says "He's crazy...he's a madman. We are being lead into the desert by a madman... he's behind me, isn't he?"
- The Pterodactyl in the Western is a reference to the classic 1969 B movie The Valley of Gwangi.
- Bat Lash's line "My pappy always said..." is taken from the series Maverick.
- This episode was featured as a bonus episode on the 2-disc DVD of Green Lantern: First Flight.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Uncredited Appearances
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[edit] Quotes
John Stewart: What's going on between you and Diana? |
Wonder Woman: These shoes are killing me. |
Bat Lash: Seems like a waste of a good-sized pot. How 'bout we split it and both walk away? |
David Clinton: He keeps me here to show him out how to work the stuff he can't figure out for himself. |
Wonder Woman: You're with us. |
Ohiyesa Smith: What have you learned? |
Batman: Go ahead... give me an excuse. |
Ohiyesa Smith: Tobias Manning's always been trouble. I've run him out of town before. Well, he came back, except this time he had... I don't know, magic powers. |
Batman: Six guns. Six of us. Nobody miss. |
| Previously produced episode: "Wake the Dead" | Episodes of Justice League Unlimited | Next produced episode: "The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped" |
| Previously aired episode: "Wake the Dead" | Next aired episode: "The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped" |
