Justice League Unlimited is often regarded as one of the best series ever created by the DC Animated Universe. Throughout its run, it kept fans’ interest at its peak, making them hooked on it and wanting more at the end of each episode. But even with such good reviews, fans had conflicting opinions over a few things, especially one that included the Green Lantern.
One of these few features of the story that caught fans in a whirlwind of mixed emotions was Green Lantern ending up choosing Vixen at one point. However, while fans may be worried about it because of what they saw onscreen, a lot of thought process was involved behind its helming, and the writer’s opinion on the same only further proves this!
This Justice League Unlimited Story isn’t Really What Fans Think it is!
Throughout the Justice League Unlimited storyline, fans greatly enjoyed Green Lantern and Hawkgirl’s romance. However, at one point, the pair apparently breaks up, and by the end of episode 11 of season 3 of the series, Ancient History, John Stewart seemingly ends up choosing Vixen over Shayera.
This brought about a lot of fan debate: Was this decision actually necessary? Why not just bring John and Shayera together instead? What thought went into molding their love story this way? Well, thankfully for fans, writer Matt Wayne has the response to all of that. And that response is one that the fans of the two superheroes would be happy to hear about.
During a backstage interview with Stu Hamilton shared by DC Animated, Wayne was asked about the same, and he had a pretty simple response at first:
“Did he really choose?”
He then elaborated on his statement, sharing that “the backstory was worked out months before… as a history that Hawkman believes, and that may not be true.” But that isn’t all: There’s more to this story than what meets the eye.
As Wayne continued to explain:
“I took the story credit on that one, because I wrote up the outline, but Dwayne scripted the Egypt flashback. This episode reflects a couple unresolved arguments among the producers that have no “canonical” answers. The Asbsorbacron (our misremembered spelling of the comics’ Absorbascon) may have been, as Shayera said, broken. The Law of Succinctness makes me think that the story works better if reincarnation doesn’t exist and nothing in the future is predestined, but it could be read either way. And there’s nothing final in GL’s admission.”
Thus, as the writer of the masterpiece himself expressed, John Stewart loves Shayera but he’s committed FOR NOW to Vixen. Which, needless to mention, is a good enough explanation for all of those fans who were seriously worried about this turn of events.
Matt Wayne’s Take on Continuing Green Lantern and Hawkgirl’s Story
During the same interview, Matt Wayne also shared how he himself would have helmed that piece and the romance between John and Shayera. He said:
“If I had to pick a way to have things work out, I’d have Shayera and John have a child many years down the road, amid plenty of sturm and drang and possibly a murder or heroic self-sacrifice. And then I’d reveal it in a Warhawk story as flashback. That he was untimely ripped from his mother’s egg-sac or something. A lot of that stuff isn’t interesting to see as it happens, but it’s great to drop as a flashback-bomb.”
Eventually, this part of Wayne’s story ended up turning out to be true as well, through the #7 and #8 issues of the Justice League Beyond digital comics by Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen, Eric Nguyen, and Saida Temofonte.
While this story saw Vixen getting a ring on her finger by John as she lay dying in her arms thanks to the Shadow Thief, it ended up concluding with him leaving the League and staying in Africa, with Hawkgirl right by his side.
Ultimately, their stay together was followed by the birth of Rex Stewart nine months down the line in Africa, thus somewhat making the plans that Matt Wayne had for him come to life in the best way possible.
You can stream Justice League Unlimited on Netflix.
