Originally aired January 18, 2007
Written and Directed by Steven S De Knight
Clark teams up with Oliver, Bart Allen, Arthur Curry, and Victor Stone to take down Level 33.1.
Tropes present in the episode:
- Actor Allusion: Bart's interaction with Lex is ironic as Michael Rosenbaum voiced the Flash in the DC Animated Universe. In the Justice League Unlimited episode, "The Great Brain Robbery", the Flash and Lex switched minds and Rosenbaum played the animated Lex in the Flash's body.
- Avengers Assemble: Clark, Oliver, Bart, A.C., and Victor, with an assist from Chloe, join together to take down Level 33.1.
- Big Bad: Lex Luthor.
- Big Eater: Bart, who can devour quite a lot of food due to his superpowers making him burn a lot of calories, much to Martha Kent's surprise.Bart: God, Mrs. K! Thank you so much, this is so good!Martha: Where do you put it all? You eat more than Clark, and he's twice your size.
- But Now I Must Go: Oliver, Bart, A.C., and Victor leave at the end of the episode.
- Call-Back: Lex and Oliver refer to the time they shot each other in the chest in the episode Rage.
- Bart continues to flirt with Chloe from Run, although this time she maintains that she already has a boyfriend. Clark tells him to knock it off just like last time.
- This is the first mention of Aunt Nell since Hypnotic.
- Clark mentions twice to Oliver that he needs to take care of a problem he caused, referring to the release of several Phantom Zone prisoners. Some of them were portrayed in the episodes Zod, Wither, Fallout, and Static.
- When Victor and AC walk out to reveal themselves in Oliver's clock tower, Victor says to Chloe, "I guess we're not that good at the whole secret part of this yet," to which she responds "Yeah, but you're great at getting caught by the villain". Both Victor and AC did indeed get caught by Lex and needed to be rescued by Clark in season 5's Cyborg and Aqua.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Averted. The team uses codenames.
- Oliver: Green Arrow
- Clark: Boy Scout
- Bart: Impulse
- Victor: Cyborg
- A.C.: Aquaman
- Chloe: Watchtower
- Hurricane of Puns: Everyone on the team uses clever fish metaphors for A.C, much to his annoyance.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Clark learns that Bart is being held captive inside the Level 33.1 facility, and he rushes off to save his friend, only to come across a room filled with Kryptonite and end up incapacitated, forcing Oliver and the others to come to the rescue.
- Mission Control: Chloe assumes this role for the heroes as "Watchtower."
- The Smurfette Principle: The list given under Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames has only one woman on the team: Watchtower. Later episodes would include the likes of Stargirl, Mera, Black Canary, and Kara on the team, but at this stage, the trope is played straight.
- Shout-Out: "Justice" is also a reference to the Justice League of DC Comics. Green Arrow's team is Smallville's version of the Justice League.
- When Clark and the League are walking away from the exploding facility, it is reminiscent of the opening sequence to the Justice League animated series.
- After being rescued by a super-speeding Impulse, Chloe remarks to Clark, "I thought you were the fastest man alive," traditionally used to describe the Flash.
- Oliver says that the team's next mission is on the island of Corto Maltese. Corto Maltese is named after a comic book character, created by Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt; the island has been occasionally referenced in DC Comics since The Dark Knight Returns in 1986.
- One of the satellite companies owned by Queen Industries was called JL International, which alludes to Justice League International, what the Justice League was known as for an extended nine year period (1987-1996) in its 50+ year history.
- Chloe's code name, "Watchtower," is the name of the JLA headquarters. Additionally, Chloe's basing in a clock tower and role as a computer-using coordinator for the team greatly resembles the comic book character Oracle. Clark's codename is "Boy Scout", a play on the comic tradition of referring to Superman as "The Big Blue Boy Scout".
- Despite using the codename "Impulse", Bart's costume is more of a real world version of the "Flash" costume than the costume Bart wore as Impulse. Aquaman, Cyborg and Green Arrow's costumes are modern day, real world version of the comic book characters.
- When Lex shows Lionel a blurred photograph of Bart, he describes Bart as having "the ability to move faster than a speeding bullet." This is a common description of Superman in the comics.
- Although Bart is Smallville's version of comics character The Flash, he is known here as "Impulse", another version of the Flash character, either due to legal difficulties with the name "Flash," or because Bart was originally known as Impulse in the comics.
- This episode is significant to fans of the comics because it is Smallville's version of the Justice League of America, a DC Comics superhero group that works together to fight crime. Green Arrow, Aquaman, The Flash and Superman are members in the comics. Impulse and Cyborg are members of the Teen Titans.
- Later, during the New 52 era of the team, Cyborg did get promoted to a founding member of the League, mirroring this show.
- Green Arrow gets nicknamed Robin Hood by Cyborg.
- Team Power Walk: Clark, Oliver, Bart, A.C., and Victor calmly and determinedly walk towards the camera as the Level 33.1 facility explodes behind them.
- Title Drop: In the final scene, when discussing a name for the team, Oliver notes it's going to have the word "justice" in it because that's what Lex is going to get from them.Clark: Impulse, Cyborg, Aquaman, Green Arrow. What do you guys call your team?Bart: I don't know. I've been thinking that we need something cool. We need something like-like—Oliver: I was thinking about something with the word "justice" in it. After all, that's what Lex is gonna get a big dose of.
- The title, "Justice" refers to Oliver and the others getting Justice for the inmates of Lex's 33.1 facility.
- Justice means the moral principle of determining whether something is just or not.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: A.C on the job as Aquaman. Lampshaded by Cyborg.Cyborg: Please, put a shirt on.
