Justice League Unlimited – Episodes – Season 2, Episode 4 – Task Force X

Five incarcerated super villains are offered suspended sentences if they can survive an impossible mission: steal a deadly weapon from the
Justice League’s satellite headquarters.

Review by Bird Boy
Media by James Harvey and Bird Boy

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern
Carl Lumbly as J’onn J’onzz
Michael Rosenbaum as Deadshot
Adam Baldwin as Rick Flagg
Juliet Landau as Plastique
Donal Gibson as Captain Boomerang
Alan Rachins as Clock King
CCH Pounder as Amanda Waller
Chris Cox as Captain Atom
Jamie Alcroft as Vance

Fans who read everything they can on Justice League Unlimited knew months ago that acclaimed comic writer Darwyn Cooke did the teleplay for “Task
Force X.” When it was described by Cooke, he stated it was “told from a villain’s perspective.” If that isn’t enough to get you excited for this, then perhaps it’s nonstop action and an actual character death will taste better to you.

Starting out immediately, we get to see Michael Rosenbaum’s wonderful
Deadshot heading to the electric chair, only to be saved by Rick Flagg, leader of Task Force X. What transpires after this is a series of tense moments that are only heightened by the appearances of powerful Justice
League members. What’s particularly odd, is, by the end, after only twenty-minutes with this team, you’re rooting for them to take down the good guys. Considering it’s been the other way around for over a season, it was a great show of the strength of the episodes writing.

Great character interaction all around in this episode; a stalwart leader persona from Flagg is present throughout and plays off of Captain
Boomerang’s worrisome attitude well; Deadshot and Plastique give off great chemistry with each other up until the moment Deadshot fires a shot through the middle of one of Plastique’s bombs, causing it to go off and kill her in the process. Didn’t expect it? Many didn’t; it was a great surprise that hopefully many didn’t have spoiled for themselves prior to airing.

A great roll of the “event coordinator” was The Clock King. His obsession with time precision is put into full effect here and the monotone voice from
Batman: The Animated Series returns and sounds just like the original.
Usually after returning to a character after years of absence, most voice actors sounds just a tish off; Alan Rachins, luckily, does not.

Animation and fights in this episode were a sight to behold. Everything was fluid, a very low-use of CGI and the fights had excellent staging, particularly the one with Atom Smasher and Annihilator. A few nice cameos by heroes we hadn’t seen that much of previously make the episode all the more enjoyable. Some hate the cameos, but I love them; they add a sense that the
League is so big, you’ll never know who everyone is. At least to those who aren’t big followers of the comics.

This episode gave us a nice taste of things to come with Cadmus once again coming in at the end. The two-season long arc of the Government vs. the
Justice League is coming to a head and with the Annihilator on their side,
Cadmus may just have the upper hand. That is unless, of course, Dove doesn’t come in with his “Stop the hate!” attitude.