Bruce Timm attained legendary status when he dabbled in DC mythos and came up with some of the best animated shows in the franchise’s history. Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Justice League serve as a reminder of his great acumen. Much like the great creators of his time, his work was also influenced by several real-life events. And it showed in Justice League.
Justice League was airing at a time when tensions were high between the US Government and Iraq. And a few episodes of the DC show seemed heavily inspired by what was happening. While the issue was controversial to begin with, the Justice League managed to steer away from them delivering a beautiful message.
What was Bruce Timm’s message? Let’s find out!
Justice League‘s political influences
The political tensions between the US and Iraq had an adverse effect all over the world. The 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the globe, and people looked at everyone with suspicion. A lot of Western media was influenced by it, and the vestiges of that fear also entered the Justice League. On being asked about the same in an interview with The World’s Finest, Bruce Timm said:
“It’s not so much that we were deliberately trying to inject “political commentary” into the show; it’s just that we’re constantly on the look-out for story hooks or springboards, and we just happened to find some juicy ones in current events. In the case of “A Better World,” the story became much more timely AFTER the story had been written; months later, while the show was in post-production, it was right around the time Mr. Bush was rattling his saber at Iraq, just before the U.S. actually invaded.”
He added:
“Not that it was really all that similar to whatever President Luthor was seemingly up to in “ABW,” but as we were putting that show together, we seemed to find haunting echoes of Lex in Mr. Bush’s stubborn insistence on going to war with Iraq, against the better judgment of the U.N., etc. It was eerie. Also, Justice Lord Superman’s lockdown on Lois’ freedom of speech had interesting parallels with what was going on in the world post-9-11, where, for instance, anyone who publicly disagreed with the President was labeled “unpatriotic.” But it’s not an overtly political episode, for all of that. Its “message” is pretty basic: “Democracy isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the alternative.”
“A Better World” was a reflection of our own society. And Timm was trying to give a message to the world, together with another Justice League episode.
“Hate is bad, love is good.”
Timm’s Justice League always stressed on a single objective: towards the end, good will always triumph. Justice League gave its viewers hope to hold on to, and taught essential life and moral lessons through its plethora of heroes. Timm recalled:
“Hearts And Minds” is, admittedly, fairly heavily influenced by real-world events, specifically recent events in the Middle East. For example, there is an overt echo of the Taliban in the scene where Despero’s acolytes are ready to murder a citizen for possessing books. But even there, we were very careful to make sure that the show wouldn’t come off as a slam against Muslims. Islam, as I understand it, is actually a very tolerant religion, as organized religions go. However, religious EXTREMISTS, of ANY denomination or faith, who use their faith as an excuse to hate and demonize those who disagree with them, or are different from them, can be very scary. So, again, the messages (there are two) of the story are very basic, and hard to argue with: one, “beware of false prophets” and two, “hate is bad, love is good.”
Timm’s message is one of humanity, where he emphasizes the importance of love over hate. Justice League portrayed all those emotions perfectly, establishing that humanity lies above extremist and religious beliefs.
Justice League can be streamed on Max.
