“Justice League Action” Episode Review – S01E12 “Repulse!”

Superman Homepage reviewer Thomas Dreyfuss reviews episodes from the “Justice League Action” Animated Series, airing on Cartoon Network.

Check out his review of the 12th episode of Season 1 in which Superman has been infected by the “Repulse”, who was revealed as Lex Luthor, and has now become the new Repulse. As Wonder Woman and Hawkman try to find a way to save him, Superman must remove those nanobots from his body by sending them into a black hole before he gets pulled into it as well.

Originally Aired: December 18, 2016 (U.K.), March 11, 2017 (U.S.)

Written by Jeremy Adams
Directed by Curt Geda

CAST:
Jason J. Lewis as Superman (voice)
Rachel Kimsey as Wonder Woman (voice)
Troy Baker as Hawkman (voice)
James Woods as Lex Luthor (voice)

Rating – 4 (out of 5): In the realm of speculative fiction, there’s two kinds of fictional romances. The kind envisions solely by the original authors and the kind set by fans (i.e, Shippers). In the case of Superman and Wonder Woman, that power couple’s existence falls between both categories as fans became content creators working for DC Comics. Prior to the their romance during the New 52 comic book era, Superman Homepage catalogued a Visual History of Superman and Wonder Woman’s Romance in both official canon and non canon stories.

Now while many fans love this pairing, a different subset loathe it. Prior to this episode offiicially airing in the states, the shippers spoiled it across all the social media platforms while the haters found this episode to be “sexist” and even made claims that the whole affair is “incest”. But after watching “Repulse!”, I can tell you that’s a bunch of greatly exaggerated nonsense as I’ve found the episode kind of sweet.

Clark Kent and Diana Prince feel ignored by their respective human companions so they go on a dinner date and really connect with each other. But their dinner date is cut short when a new villain named Repulse attacks Metropolis prompting Superman, Wonder Woman, and Hawkman to stop him. After the battle, Superman reveals Repulse to be Lex Luthor but once Superman starts manifesting Repulse’s dangerous force field and becomes a threat to everyone around him. Using her magic lasso, Wonder Woman gets the truth from Luthor that this was his true plan all along and coerces the mad genius to undo his machinations.

There’s only four characters in this episode, but the interplay between the Man of Steel and the Princess of the Amazons is really good. Lex Luthor makes his JLA debut and while James Woods delivers a great performance of the bald megalomanic, Luthor’s out of control nanobots proved to be more interesting than Luthor himself. Hawkman’s presence is once again is overshadowed by Superman but at least his line “Ugh, super PDA’S the worst” was very funny and fitting. But yes, the chemistry between Superman and Wonder Woman in this episode is undeniably on point. Jason J. Lewis plays Superman as truly modest to be with Wonder Woman while Rachel Kimsey as Wonder Woman wears the figurative pants in their relationship. It’s cruel that they kept teasing a kiss that never happens in this episode but I’m sold on the Superman/Wonder Woman dynamic and I look forward to see where they take that relationship.

So yeah, that’s it. That’s the episode shippers spoiled for me with dozens of pictures of Wonder Woman almost kissing Superman. That’s the episode a bunch of jaded morons thought was an abomination. All of this over a bunch of harmless flirtation. Sheesh.

Check out the “Justice League Action – Episode Reviews” Contents page.