Summary: When a mysterious woman named Aresia hires a faction of Luthor's Injustice Gang and leads them on a series of daring heists, the Justice League investigates. However, these are more than simple robberies, as Aresia unleashes a gender-sensitive plague that decimates the male half of the population. With their teammates slowly dying, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl must continue their inquiry, which leads them to the shores of Themyscira, as well as to one of Hippolyta's darkest secrets.
JL Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, J’onn J’onzz, Hawkgirl
IG Roll Call: Aresia, Copperhead, Star Sapphire, Solomon Grundy, The Shade, Tsukuri
Featured
Character:
Wonder Woman
Villain: Aresia
Supporting Villains: The Injustice Gang
Cartoon
Network on "Fury":
“When a renegade Amazon named Aresia
takes over Lex Luthor’s old gang, the Justice League comes together to stop
her jewel-stealing rampage. But
Aresia is up to more than larceny, as she unleashes a plague that affects half
the population—the male half. With
the men of the Justice League falling victim, it is up to Wonder Woman and
Hawkgirl to stop her from destroying ‘Man’s World'" (courtesy of Toon
Zone).
Rich Fogel on
"Fury" #1:
“[It] features some villains who were first introduced in an episode
called 'Injustice For All.' However,
because of the vagaries of network programming, this episode is airing first.
Luckily this shouldn’t be a big problem because all our viewers need to
know is that Solomon Grundy, Copperhead, Shade, and Star Sapphire are the
remnants of a gang that was once recruited by Lex Luthor to fight the Justice
League. Now, they are following a mysterious villainess called Aresia
who has her own agenda and it’s going to take the entire League to overcome
them.
“Stan Berkowitz and Dwayne
McDuffie wrote a dark and disturbing script with lots of twists along the way,
director Butch Lukic personally storyboarded the tragic flashback sequence, and
Kris Carter composed another brilliant, brooding score" (courtesy of [website
name removed]).
Bruce Timm on "Fury" (circa 2002): “[It’s] not exactly a Hawkgirl spotlight show…though she does play a major part in it. It’s actually a Hawkgirl / Wonder Woman team-up episode, kinda like a female 'Brave and the Bold,' or a deadly serious 'Girl’s Nite Out.' More than that I’m not sayin!’" (courtesy of Toon Zone).
Bruce Timm on “Fury” (circa 2005): “When we first started to talk about the show, one of the things we talked about was how to contrast Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, because they’re both fairly fierce warrior women. So what makes them different from each other? This was our chance to explore the difference between the two. So what’s the difference between them?
“Stan Berkowitz said, ‘Well, Wonder Woman is a virgin.’ So what does that mean? What it means is that Wonder Woman has lived her entire life on an island with no men; [she] literally has no idea how to deal with men [while] Hawkgirl has been around for a while. At that point we hadn’t delved into [Hawkgirl’s] background, but clearly she came from a society where there were men and she’s okay with it. She doesn’t have any militant issues about men; she actually thinks of herself as one of the boys. So that was a good opportunity to explore that aspect of their dynamic" (courtesy of RetroVision CD-ROM Magazine).
Stan Berkowitz on “Fury”: “In most stories it wouldn’t make much of a difference [regarding a character who’s sexually active and one who’s a virgin], but in this particular story all of the men were going to die. So you have one of them, Hawkgirl, who is, in a way, about to have something major taken away from her life. And Wonder Woman, it doesn’t matter to her. She was raised in an all-woman society, so it doesn’t seem like that much of a loss to her. The only way it begins to seem like a loss is that her colleagues might die—her brothers-in-arms—but for Hawkgirl, it’s a lot more personal, a lot more important.
“The other thing that was enjoyable about it is that we were doing a story in which all of the men were becoming ill or dying, so when we recorded the show, by the end of the recording session, there [were] only women in the booth. We were all struck by that" (courtesy of RetroVision CD-ROM Magazine).
Rich Fogel on the villains of “Fury” (circa 2005): “We actually floated using a number of different female villain characters in this episode. At one point, we were talking about Katana. It ended up being easier to create a character rather than draw one from the comics. [Also], it wasn’t specified why the other females [Star Sapphire and Tsukuri] wanted to help [destroy the male population]. [The Injustice Gang] were helping out to begin with because they thought Aresia was going to help them get rich, but Tsukuri, who [was] more her sidekick, was in love with her and would follow her anywhere" (courtesy of ToyFare Magazine).
Rich Fogel on "Fury" #2: “The voice recording session was memorable because of the way it mirrored the arc of the episode. By the halfway point of the session, most of the male members of our cast had completed their parts and were excused, leaving us with a room full of women to resolve the story. Normally our show is very testosterone-driven—so this felt really weird—but it worked out great, and all of our actresses did a wonderful job. Susan Sullivan was once again outstanding as Hippolyta, [and] Diana definitely has to reassess some of her Amazon beliefs by the time this one is over" (courtesy of Toon Zone).
Dwayne McDuffie on Batman versus the Injustice Gang: “The thing I remember most from [‘Injustice for All’ and ‘Fury’] is that Batman, all by himself, pretty much beats up the Injustice Gang. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you. He catches them breaking into some place and he kind of beats up the whole team, but I’m a little skeptical. I love Batman, but he should have taken a whupping there, I think" (courtesy of RetroVision CD-ROM Magazine).
Images
Commentary
"Who wants to live in a world without men?"
"They can't possibly be that essential to your life."
"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, Princess."
An exchange between Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman from "Fury"
Commentary coming soon!
Image courtesy of Toon Zone.