"Flood!"

There is something remarkable about Bruce Timm's team on Justice League Unlimited. They understand the depths of the source material they have to work with, and at the same time they made it very clear that their Batman, Superman, and all the rest is in their own universe... that takes nothing away from the full D.C. Universe (or any variation we've seen). This is something different. Something seperate. But it never forgets where it came from.

Tonight's episode, "Ultimatum," embodied this. The source material for what they did came straight out of Keith Giffen's work in the (non-Legion) parts of the D.C. Universe during the late eighties and early nineties, out of the Roger Stern era Superman titles (post-Byrne)... and out of the Super Friends.

And it was glorious. It was entirely consistent, within itself, but it remembered where it came from. Right down to the moralizing at the end of any given Super Friends adventure. ("He's certainly... earnest," Aquaman says. "How about Corny, Superman snaps back. Clearly put out and a little jealous, no less.)

There were tiny touches, in architecture, in echoes of the Legion of Doom, in the names, in throwaway references... and in the final standoff at the end.

It was, to quote X-Play (and many others), a total nerdgasm. And any doubts I had for this repurposing of Justice League are now well and truly gone. These guys know what they're doing.

And how dare they make Aquaman that cool?