A deep-sea oil well is attacked by a swarm of lava creatures. The Justice League is having a difficult time of it, until another group of superheroes arrives. The combined efforts of the League and the "Ultimen" stop the lava creatures, saving the crew and preventing a major oil spill. During the battle one of the Ultimen, Wind Dragon, suddenly manifests a new power as the winds he creates become freezing cold.
Afterwards, Wind Dragon gives a speech about environmental responsibility that even Superman finds annoyingly saccharine. The Ultimen then return to their headquarters, and their manager Maxwell Lord gives an interview praising them and making thinly veiled attacks on the Justice League.
Another of the Ultimen, Long Shadow, wants the two teams to be on better terms and seems to be developing a bit of a crush on Wonder Woman. He helps the Amazon defeat Giganta and Bizarro as they attempt to break Gorilla Grodd out of prison then talks with her about his interest in joining the League someday; however, he's held back by loyalty to his existing team, who are not interested in a merger.
Lord orders the Ultimen to stay in the infirmary for observation while Wind Dragon's sudden power change is investigated. Long Shadow then develops a new power of his own — super hearing, enabling him to eavesdrop on a conversation between Lord, Dr. Hamilton, and Amanda Waller. He learns the Ultimen are suffering from cellular degeneration, have at most a few months to live, and are considered "expendable".
The Ultimen leave the infirmary and find a lab with cloning tanks containing duplicates of themselves — their replacements. Horrified and angered by this discovery, most of the Ultimen begin smashing everything in sight, ignoring Long Shadow's protests that they're endangering innocent people.
The League arrives to get the situation under control and manage to overcome and capture the Ultimen. Most of them are taken into police custody; however, Long Shadow remains free, since all he did was try to stop the others and protect civilians from the rampage.
Before the Ultimen can be taken to prison Waller arrives with a group of soldiers, declaring that she's taking it from there. The arrested Ultimen are handed over to her; however, the League refuses to turn over Long Shadow. After a tense confrontation, Waller accepts this and leaves.
The episode ends with Long Shadow on board the Watchtower, to spend whatever time he has left with the Justice League.
This episode includes examples of:
- Awful Truth: The Ultimen are clones with short life-expectancies, and their handlers consider them both expendable and replaceable. The revelation thoroughly breaks them.
- Bitch Slap: After Downpour tries to drown Aquaman and launches a few futile punches after the latter points out the stupidity of the first move, the Atlantean ends the fight by pimp slapping Downpour.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Ultimen aren't going to live for much longer, but Cadmus assures that they'll live out their remaining days in comfort, while Wonder Woman welcomes Longshadow into the Justice League, allowing him to live out his dream for however long he has left.
- Curbstomp Battle: Downpour vs. Aquaman. One has water powers, the other is at his best in water. Worst possible matchup — for the one with water powers, that is.(Downpour hits Aquaman with a torrent of water, but the latter stands unaffected)
Aquaman: King of the Seas, remember? (Downpour recklessly punches at Aquaman, who continues to stand unaffected before flooring him with a slap for his troubles) - Dug Too Deep: Aquaman complains that the lava creatures' attack was the fault of the drill operators for carelessly drilling into magma without considering the dangers. How dare they assume that the mantle isn't filled with giant lava monsters?
- Just Following Orders: Lord's defense of his actions. The Ultimen are not impressed and only spare him because he's not worth the effort of killing.
- Love Makes You Stupid: Bizarro isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer on his best day, but he's so enamored with Giganta that he's willing to help her break her actual boyfriend, Gorilla Grodd, out of jail. He's thrown for a loop when Wonder Woman points out the flaw in his logic.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Ultimen are based on the original characters created for the Super Friends show:
Downpour & Shifter: Zan & Jayna (the Wonder Twins)
Juice: Black Vulcan
Long Shadow: Apache Chief
Wind Dragon: Samurai- Also, the Ultimen headquarters resembles the Hall of Justice, and the Justice League members seen in the episode (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman) are the same ones who appear in most of the earlier seasons of Super Friends (except for the presence of both Batman and Robin in the latter).
- The villains seen in the episode are Giganta and Bizarro as well as the mention of Grodd, all of whom were regular villains on Super Friends.
- Some of the quips made by Batman were a bit more in line with the classic Silver Age interpretation of the character.Batman: Light's out, old chum.
- There's a couple times where members of the Ultimen suddenly develop a new power exactly when it turns out to be really handy to have that power. The writers for Super Friends were often accused of getting the characters out of difficult situations by one of the heroes using a power they'd never demonstrated before that nonetheless was exactly what they needed to get out of a particular fix.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Long Shadow's sudden super hearing cues him in on the dark secret behind the Ultimen's creation. More generally, the sudden shifts in powers may be another part of the Super Friends mythology gag — on that show, the writers and animators were rather slipshod about keeping track of which hero had what power. Here, however, it also serves as a plot point, as the sudden shifting of Wind Dragon's powers is the first clue for the Ultimen's handlers that their clone cells are breaking down.
- Not Worth Killing: Juice seems ready to kill Lord for using them, but Long Shadow argues he isn't important enough for them to bother."No; he's nothing. We want the big fish."
- Oh, Crap!: Even the eminently stoic Batman is shaken by the realisation that Amanda Waller knows his secret identity.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: When the Ultimen arrive to help the League out against the lava monsters, Aquaman's reaction is "Not them again." Implying this hasn't been the first time the Ultimen annoyed the crap out of the Leaguers.
- Shooting Superman: Downpour makes the questionable decision of trying to drown Aquaman. It works exactly as well as you'd expect.
- Slime Ball: The League is understandably unhappy with Lord's cheap shots and consider him to be a cynical money-grubbing hack.Superman: I can't listen to any more of this. This guy's dripping more oil than that platform ever did.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The Ultimen discover they were created recently with false memories of a normal life. Understandably, they don't take it very well.
- Tragic Villain: The Ultimen, save Long Shadow, are just well-meaning kids who wanted to be heroes, but the reveal of their true nature breaks them, and their desire for revenge pits them against the Justice League. Wind Dragon in particular is talked down when he realises that he's come dangerously close to killing his idol, Superman.
- Vertical Power Play: Giganta teases Long Shadow for being a "tiny" compared to her Giant Woman. He then sizeshifts to be even larger than her.Giganta: Oh, poop.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: Waller warns Batman against investigating her activities and addresses him as "rich boy", implying she knows his secret identity.
- Wham Line: Waller addressing Batman as "rich boy"; she knows his secret identity.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The Ultimen's bodies are breaking down, dooming them to die — perhaps in days, perhaps in months, but certainly not very far in the future.
