Superman on Television

Justice League Action: Episode Reviews

Season 1 - Episodes 45: "Race Against Crime"

Originally Aired: November 18, 2017 (U.S.)

Written by Jeremy Adams
Directed by Doug Murphy

CAST:
Kevin Conroy as Batman (voice)
Jason J. Lewis as Superman (voice)
Charlie Schlatter as The Flash (voice)
James Woods as Lex Luthor (voice)
Rachel Kimsey as Wonder Woman (voice)
Tara Strong as Lois Lane (voice)
Josh Keaton as Green Lantern (voice)
Andy Richter as Chronos (voice)

Rating - 4 (out of 5): The Justice League is fighting Lex Luthor in downtown Metropolis. Seems Lex has got himself a new suit, one that gives him super speed and control over time. After freezing the League in its tracks and turning Cyborg into a gray haired old man Luthor enters STAR Labs feeling triumphant. Cut back an hour earlier, Metropolis is getting ready for a huge charity event. Superman racing The Flash! While Green Lantern, Firestorm and Cyborg provide fireworks Lois Lane reports for the Daily Planet newspaper. After interviewing The Flash and Superman (with Lois obviously biased has to who she prefer to win) the racers take their mark and with Green Lantern shooting off his giant green starting gun they're off! Lois explains that the heroes are wearing tracking devices so they can track their whereabouts and speed. But there seems to be another signal interfering with the devices. Back at Luthor's lab the villain Chronos is using the tracking device to cipher speed from The Flash through the Speed Force. The energy of the Speed Force is being downloaded into a purple armored suit so Luthor through the suit can control speed and time. Luthor betrays Chronos with a blaster before aging the villain into an old man. Once Luthor dons the suit he can feel the power of the Speed Force and takes off to follow our racing heroes. When he runs up to them at super speed Flash realizes that Luthor is somehow using the Speed Force. He creates a wall which Flash recognizes from the Force but before he can warn Superman the Man of Steel hits the wall blacking out. After warning Flash and the League to beware his wrath! Luthor once again takes off. He arrives in Metropolis takes out some guards and prepares to enter STAR Labs when the League starts to attack and we're back to where we started. Will Superman and Flash be able to stop Luthor and his diabolical plan?

This is a very breezy episode. A lot of heroes, though they're mostly there to throw some punches at Luthor as Superman and Flash take the lead. The idea of Superman and The Flash racing is a very old one starting sometime in the Silver and Bronze Age. As I remember The Flash won at least one of the races, possibly two. As one of the biggest Superman fans ever I always felt it was appropriate that The Flash won! Yes, I said The Flash should be the winner. I say this because while Superman is one of the fastest beings in the DC Universe speed is Flash's super power. He's honed his skills as a speedster. With the introduction of the Speed Force his speed is almost limitless. So I've always felt that he would have the edge over Superman. But just an edge! The whole plot, if you can call it that, basically just revolves around the heroes stopping Luthor from taking over the world, but it's a lot of fun getting there.

Superman and The Flash arrive in Metropolis and find a giant purple wall blocking STAR Labs. Using his X-Ray vision Superman sees that Luthor has frozen all the lab workers in time and is in a lab using his tech to corrupt all the world's satellites for one devious plan or another. Flash tries to vibrate through the wall but is unable to. With that Batman appears with the aged Chronos and tells them that Flash's tracking device was rigged. Batman has reworked the device so Flash can siphon off Superman's speed giving The Flash extra power so he can vibrate through the wall. Once inside STAR Labs Flash stops Luthor from taking control of the satellites using his speed. Superman joins him and decides before taking Luthor to prison they'll continue their race taking a screaming, scared Luthor for the ride.

A light fun episode. Nice use of the Speed Force though the show does play a little fast and loose with the concept. Still it was nice to see it here. Superman and Flash make a fun team, with assistance from Batman of course. They never did tell us who won the race but I suppose that was left open to our own imaginations.

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