DC Heroes United–Episode 7 Analysis

Well, at least “Broken Fate” part 2 feels like it could share the name. Still not sure why they’re bothering with this part 1/part 2 nonsense, though.

This one is somehow one of the most interesting and most disappointing episode at the same time. That’s because one of the unchosen paths in theory should be the right one for the characters but then does something so wrong that I have to give the writers flack for their mistake. I fear it might be the result of the inherent flaw of this project: there’s only so many events you can change to make it work because they can only change so much to create the episode. I haven’t played any of the Telltale games because I didn’t get the chance before the company folded in the middle of their Batman series. I think the games included a path that makes Thomas Wayne secretly evil all this time (and I hate that idea) but I don’t know if that’s universal to every path in the two episodes they managed to create. Someday I plan to watch a playthrough to see what the case is.

When we last left our heroes, they learned of a way to stop Circe by finding a staff Doctor Fate hid away called the Staff Of Shai. Combining it with the Fatebreaker will allow them to overcome Circe as she continues to tap the tower’s power. Circe thinks she can manipulate Lex like she did Barbara. Clark made some kind of peace with Lois for now (making that subplot so far useless to the story, at best showing us more about this version of Clark as a person but not much else). Black Canary’s leadership skills are rookie level unless you can blame Batman. What happens this episode? Let’s find out.

Okay, I’m confused. If one of the potential paths for this tale is Black Lex going as evil as most of his white counterparts (one version, Alexander Luthor, is actually good…meaning it must be hair loss that turns him to the dark side), we don’t see any evidence of it here. Is there a worry of turning the black guy villain? Nowadays I can’t trust that it isn’t as current thought patterns seem to create the very racism they claim to fight against, but that’s not the blog for that. It is one of the reasons I’ve focused on the race swap, though. If this is Lex Luthor we don’t see a lot of evidence in his personality. He’s more like Mister Terrific borrowing one of the Lex’s power suits. Instead, Cheetah just reads Black Lex’s mind to find out about the staff and what it can do with the Fatebreaker. So when do we see the potential of anything having a significant impact? Even the Clark/Lois thing seems to barely matter at this point. We’re at four/seven episodes in and this can’t go on forever. Black Lex even has doubts about using powers they don’t understand. Your average white Lex wouldn’t hesitate to get some more power for…the good of everyone, of course. Well, post-Crisis. Pre-Crisis was straight up openly evil as a mad scientist.

I like Black Canary’s comment on how Batman was never a child. On the one hand it’s played as a joke, but it’s almost dark humor when you realize how accurate she actually is and why. Meanwhile, Cyborg is still trying to convince Diana that Waller is not on the side of the angels unless it serves her goals.

And so we get to the first of the path choices mattering for the episode:

First off the more useless one as far as this episode. Whichever sidekick died says that Circe has to be stopped because they died, and their partner hero…looks on concerned. Will this go anywhere? Do I have to keep asking that every time? I’m also going to predict what the heroes will do if the Fatebreaker or the Staff Of Shai does give one of the Trinity the option to go back in time and change things.

• Batman returns to the alley: If so, are the only options really “kill Joe Chill” or “die in the Waynes’ place”? Because both suck. It’s either break his no-kill rule or die as an adult when he’s still a child. Either creates a sort of time paradox when Bruce is being asked to rewrite his own history.
• Wonder Woman returns to the past of Themyscira: First off we already have quite the history rewrite here. In the usual stories, it’s Hippolyta who chooses a Wonder Woman to travel to “man’s world” with Steve Trevor to be a force for change and improvement in the world. I thought they ditched the New 52 making the Amazons bad people who raped passing sailors and killed them all? Why is this Hippolyta evil? Either way, this shouldn’t even be an option. Maybe if she was questioning being there, and the choice was whether or not to take part in the trial that led to her being chosen as Wonder Woman, their ambassador of peace and love to the outside world, that would make sense.
• Superman returns to Krypton: WHY! This is not worse than the Wonder Woman choice but it is dumber. Superman may at best remember Krypton because pre-Crisis used “super memory” as an excuse to go full sci-fi and make Krypton important, while post-Crisis basically did the opposite. He was raised on Earth by Earth parents, some continuities essentially having him born on Earth thanks to an artificial womb. This is another choice that shouldn’t exist. At least Batman’s choice matters to his origin, backstory, and character. These just seem to be here so they can have the same journey as Bruce. And how exactly is Superman supposed to stop Krypton from exploding, thus never being sent to Earth and creating the same time paradox? Actually, I could stop at how is Superman supposed to stop Krypton from exploding? Even his powers have limits…especially under a red sun where he won’t have those powers! Sadly, this isn’t the last mistake this episode makes with Superman.

What will Superman tell Blue Beetle to do about Khaji trying to take over?

The presentation in the deleted section is odd for this one. We see the choice, then the next choice, and the two results rather than following all the way through the choice before going to the next one. Is this a necessary break for the production or did they plan on a commercial break and just worked with the break in the presentation? Anyway:

• Assert control over your alien side: In theory this is the right choice. Khaji Dah keeps grabbing the more lethal attack options and Jaime has to stop him. On the other hand it means he basically adds nothing but a distraction so Superman can punch her. A lot of dudes punching ladies in this show. Batman and Circe, now Superman and Cheetah. Interesting choice. Excuse the term “choice” here, but the characters do make their own choices without the audience.
• Give yourself over to the alien side: Wait, so does Minerva die in this version? You’d think so given how Jaime kept taking Khaji out of the guns and blades, but unless that huge blast took her to the afterlife I don’t know what the concern was. It ended the fight easier, and it showed that the scarab is better for a battle situation. On the other hand…
• Reject your alien side: WHAT THE HELL, KENT? Jaime was reaching Barbara through the Cheetah! He had a chance to win her over! That’s happened in continuity pre-52. Barbara even dated Snapper Carr, the League’s old IT guy, and she got to keep the powers and everything. You had a chance to add to your ranks. Also. YOU’RE #$%#$%^ SUPERMAN!!!!!! Turning a villain to a hero, showing her the best she can be, should totally be your thing! Instead, while Jaime is actually reaching her like both you and Diana were hoping to, and Black Lex tried earlier, you decide to sucker punch her? Again, THE HELL! Instead, he should have joined in, telling her that it wasn’t her powers that made Diana (remember, Barbara Minerva wanted to be like her) super but what she did with them, and using his own feelings of being an outsider to join Jaime in showing she can be a good person. So we’re allowed to get Black Lex to go against the Cracker Lexes and not turn evil, but Cheetah isn’t allowed to reform here? She’s not even in the same position as the other two, and she’s probably going to be LESS likely to be saved. They just didn’t want to write and animate more paths but with Cheetah now working with the heroes! If anything showcases the failure of this project, this path is pretty much exhibit A! The writers failed here!

Maybe the story should have stayed just a story about fate. The plot works for the concept but there are so many reasons this isn’t working as anything other than a story, so maybe they should have just made a story and forgot the game. Is that EveryHero Project thing even doing anything? So who will claim responsibility? What will they choose if I’m right about going to the past? And is there a path that leads to the bad ending? We’ll find out as this experiment, which I’m increasingly considering a failure, continues.