Best Moments (Show)
Flash Defeats Lex Luthor and Discovers The Speed Force, Justice League Unlimited
It's safe to say that the 2005 season of Justice League Unlimited should be considered one huge moment that is considered one of the best storylines in the 13-year history of the DC Animated Universe. That's from "On Broken Wings," the first episode of Batman: The Animated Series to the present and containing classics like "Heart of Ice," "Christmas With The Joker," "Apokolips . . . Now!", and many other gems. Toonami itself had a lot of choice moments on the block, including the moment when Naruto unleashed the demon within for the first time ever, the battle between Trigon and the Teen Titans, and, of course, Goku becoming one with the Dragon marking the end of a great animated franchise.
The best moment of Toonami in 2005 combined elements of all three of those moments when a hero, regarded as a mischief maker to his peers like Naruto, unleashed an incredible power, taking on an otherworldly threat like Trigon, and, eventually, becoming one with this strange power, like Goku.
The Flash never really got respect from the Justice League (both the animated team and the writer/producers of the series) and was treated mostly as comic relief. In a pantheon of god-like beings, he is the most human, even more so than the only non-powered member of the seven initial Justice League members, Batman. He is the fastest on the team, and yet, The Flash could, on occasion, be a little dim. Wally has a sense of fun and serves as a moral compas for the team. In the parallel world of the Justice Lords, The Flash's death at the hands of Lex Luthor was the catalyst that sent the heroes over the top and beginning a new violent era. When the real world began to parallel that universe, all of the League, particularly Superman and Batman, worried that the events would spark the end of the world and the Justice League.
The Cadmus Project, financed partially by Lex Luthor, was determined to rid the world of its dependence on metahumans like the Justice League after the Thangalorian invasion (chronicled in "Starcrossed") and the earlier incident when Superman was brainwashed by Darkseid (chronicled on the last episode of Superman). After Lex Luthor used the League's Watchtower to destroy a major US city, The Flash was one of the first heroes on the scene. When Lex Luthor revealed himself to be under the control of the omnipotent Brainiac, The Flash and the original members of the Justice League took on the madman. "Luthorniac" concocted dopplegangers of the League to take on their counterparts. The League used a strategy to attack the counterparts that aren't them because, like the Titans, they knew they couldn't beat themselves but could beat each other.
With a second plan under his sleeves, "Luthorniac" planned to destroy the Earth, but one man stood in his way, and he wasn't wearing a red cape. The Flash focused his energy to take down the villian, but he didn't have enough. Then, all of a sudden, The Flash taps into a newer energy force, the Speed Force, which caused The Flash to pummel and depower Brainiac's hold on Lex Luthor. He succeeded, but it was too much for the hero, as he became one with the Speed Force and ultimately disappearing from the universe. A smug Lex Luthor was pleased with himself, since he felt that the death of The Flash at his hands was going to be the catalyst of the end of the Justice League. Superman, tempted to kill Lex Luthor, just let him suffer.
The Flash was pulled back into the real world and became aware that he not only saved the world, but he also has a power that was perhaps too powerful for him to fully handle. But dammit if he isn't going to try.
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