A Mentally Shattered Megalomaniac
Episode 2 of The Guardians of Justice begins with the world mourning the loss of Marvelous Man. It’s been 36 hours since the suicide but the world is acting like the heroes predicted – with all out chaos gripping the streets. The autopsy of Marvelous Man’s body seems to hint that this was an actual suicide, with the autopsy not indicating anything out of the ordinary. The bullet that killed Marvelous Man was created by Lockwood Industries. Logan Lockwood hated Marvelous Man and was well-known for this too. They’re the ones who created the bullet and they spent 1.2 billion to create the “Godkiller” bullet. In order to get to the bottom of this, Hawk sets out to interrogate Logan himself. With Logan tied up and prime for questioning, Logan coughs up that someone broke into his armory where he stored the bullet several days before Marvelous Man’s death. The footage goes static around the time of the break-in, leading Hawk to begin looking deeper into this. So naturally, he decides to interview/ interrogate each of the Guardians at his base, the Hawk’s Nest. Hawk confirms that they’ll continue to meet until the investigation is over, with this masked vigilante eager to make sure they stick to their new mission briefings and keep the world safe from the never-ending threats. Speed isn’t exactly happy with Hawk taking charge, and she’ll quick to point this out too. Interestingly though, more information about Marvelous Man is drip-fed here, including news that he was seeing a therapist called Dr Ravencroft. Given how many Batman references there have been this episode, it’s only natural to wonder who the next Robin is right? Well, that comes in the form of a kid called Little Wing, who’s the sole survivor of a massacre that Hawk was too late to stop. Hawk decides to bring him along to see the good doctor, desperate to get some answers. According to Ravencroft, Marvelous Man mentioned something called the “Mellow Devil” but Hawk is not satisfied. He demands the book the doctor is about to publish be pulled from publication, which he eventually does and goes into hiding soon after. And hiding leads to him being killed. Another character that’s part of this superhero shindig is Red Talon aka. Mick Mason. He used to work with Hawk but is now working for the president as a ruthless assassin. With Red Talon refusing to help with the investigation, Hawk turns his attention to the Cortex, a handy tool for neuro-syncing. So naturally, Hawk hooks himself up to the machine, narrowing down the list of suspects on the planet that could break into Lockwood. That list brings up 2 names. Motion Blur… and The Speed.
The Episode Review
Guardians of Justice returns with another episode, this tine leaning into the numerous references and nods to Batman and the Justice League – and not even being subtle about it either. There are a litany of characters introduced here and I’m struggling to see their relevance in this plot other than to be nods toward DC’s illustrious catalogue of characters. They really don’t add very much to this story at all, which is quickly turning into a murder mystery. However, the aesthetic is good and the blend of animation and live-action works pretty well. The ending certainly leaves things wide open for where the next episode may go.
