Justice League (animation)/WMG

See also: WMG/DCAU

Future Bruce did remember time traveling.
Bruce can tell when someone is lying. He said it anyway because he remembered himself saying it, even though he knew he was lying. After all, Temporal Paradoxes hurt.
 * Makes so much frickin' sense. He's the Dangerously Genre Savvy trope, after all.
 * Of course, that means that when Past Bruce grew up into Future Bruce, he knew that the Watch Tower would be destroyed and Terry and Static would be killed during the battle with Chronos, yet did nothing to stop it. Anyways, I think it was pretty clear that Chronos severly messed up the timeline (ancient monuments appearing in Gotham, Wonder Woman disapearing,John Stewart breifly becoming Hal Jordan)so that probly explains why he had no memories of meeting his future self.
 * There's a difference between 'did nothing to stop it' and 'failed completely to stop it'. Just because you know something's coming doesn't mean you can make a difference at all. For all we know the only reason Terry, Static and War Hawk are alive is because Bruce did everything he could.

"Justice Lord" Batman knew exactly what was going to happen when he opened that portal.
His colleagues were interfering with his vision of the world -- they were either too hard on people, or not hard enough. Maybe he thought that they needed to be pre-empted because they were too unstable and too powerful. Either way, Justice Lord Batman decided that the power they brought to the table wasn't worth having them around; and so, he opened the portal to the Justice League world, which resulted in a chain of events which left his "teammates" permanently de-powered and stranded in another universe, leaving him free to remake his world as he saw fit.
 * Look how shaken up he became when the Flash "died." His conscience snapped then, and he knew having a another Justice League team kick their butts would save the world. On the flip side, since he's the only Badass Normal remaining, he could become a new dictator easily. Yikes.
 * A Brave New Gotham perhaps?
 * At the very least, Justice Lord Batman had seemed to be trying to check the worst abuses of the other Lords. Note that his Rogues Gallery is lobotomized in an institution; every other villain appears to be dead.
 * And that follows his rules. So why did the main Batman even care? Lobotomizing =/= killing.
 * Not sure about that. It's quite possible that Justice Lord Superman had been the one doing the lobotomising. To be confident he could do it to Doomsday during a fight, heâ€™d probably need to be well practised in it; and the location and size of the scars on the people in Arkham looked quite similar to the position and size of the holes Justice Lord Superman put in Doomsdayâ€™s head.
 * Justice Lord Superman had been practicing on his own Rogues Gallery, which is why they're no longer around. It probably led to excuses of "Whoops, I accidentally boiled her brains with my heat vision" on one and "Uh-oh, I accidentally burned the top of his skull off" for another one...
 * He could have done it with everyone else's, too. Except Hades, because the dude is a God and was probably controlling the whole thing.
 * Hades being a god probably wouldn't stop Justice Lords Superman. However, since Hades is already in what is effectively Hell, Superman probably wouldn't bother.

In the final season, the Martian Manhunter was replaced by the duplicate Luthiac/Brainithor made of him.
We never saw the fight that played out between them, and he was a shapeshifter.
 * Man, that is a Chekhov's Gun! Too bad they never got the chance to fire that one.
 * They would have if they had had another season. This, and more alternate universes.
 * MM's done this trick in "Secret Society" by imitating their shapeshifter to infiltrate and rescue his captured comrades. What a great way to spin lack of screen time, though.
 * This could go further back, since it was an Out of Character moment....
 * Probably not. Flash beat his own duplicate, Wonder Woman and Superman traded, as did Green Lantern and Hawk Girl. It's implied that Batman and Manhunter did the same. Besides, even if J'onn did lose, beating Brainithor probably would've destroyed it anyway.
 * There were no implications that Batman and J'onn did the same for any amount of time and we even see Batman destroy his copy!

Martian Manhunter was replaced by Justice Lord Martian Manhunter
In "A Better World," which introduced the Justice Lords, Lord Martian Manhunter and the real one have a battle of the shapeshifters in the climax, which ended when Luthor took away the loser's powers. Only Lord Manhunter wasn't the loser.

Several episodes later, J'onn finds himself posing as the Society's shapeshifter; he goads Grodd to kill the league, not because he's playing the part of an actor who's Seen It a Million Times, but because he wants revenge for his team. When this fails, he bides his time until the events of Unlimited Season one, where he sees his rivals going down the same path his league did and begins to realize he has grown distant from humanity. This theory is helped by the fact that he acknowledges Flash's plan of "keep me alive to prevent the end of the world" with a Dude Not Funny tone.
 * When he suggested that Grodd kill the Justice League, he said "Let me..." before being cut off.
 * So you could say seeing the League start down the Lords' path resulted in him Becoming the Mask?
 * Corollary WMG: the real Martian Manhunter died shortly after being depowered. His species might need at least a subtle level of shapeshifting in order to survive on Earth. And that's how the Lord Manhunter wasn't found out right away: you'd think the real J'onn would do something to alert his friends to the switch.

Superman was jealous of Captain Marvel.
In "Clash", since Captain Marvel showed up, Superman was acting all uppity. He was too strict with his criticism of Captain Marvel (even Batman thought so) and was obsessed with disarming the bomb before anyone could come to any conclusions regarding its nature, instead of just trying to save the people and letting it blow up Lex's city, thus revealing him as a supervillain all along and saving face in case it didn't blow up.

But Captain Marvel came in and acted like The Minnesota Fats - defeating Parasite in one punch, and acting on what he preached about forgiveness and such, which turned him into a media darling. Supes himself had to deal with lots of media criticism. So, Superman's behavior in the episode had less to do with Lex and more with his jealousy of Captain Marvel.
 * Not so much a WMG as "what was blatantly shown onscreen". And now, look up and watch the Kids Superpower Hour opening. If you're the type of person that gets jealous of him now, you need help. Seriosuly.

In the episode "Clash", Prof. Hamilton hacked into Superman's earpiece communicator
J'onn didn't need to patch him through to tell Superman about the Kryptonite theft at STAR Labs. Cadmus (bah-buh-buhhhhh!) did it for him.

Thanagar was screwed even without Hawkgirl's Becoming the Mask.
During the occupation of Earth and the construction of the hyperspace bypass generator, the entire Gordanian fleet was already bearing down on Thanagar (as mentioned by the High Command in "Starcrossed, Part I"). After the generator was destroyed, Hro Talek was recalled to Thanagar; then he found the Gordanians had already conquered it (as revealed in "Hunter's Moon").

Had the bypass generator been successfully activated, Hro Talek would no doubt have attacked and conquered the Gordanian homeworld--while, on the other side of the galaxy, the Gordanians attacked Thanagar. The Thanagarians were probably hoping that attacking the Gordanian homeworld would cause the Gordanian fleet to be recalled; but it seems more likely that this news would just make the Gordanians strike Thanagar harder in retaliation. After all, Hro Talek spoke of them committing "unspeakable atrocities"--and since Talek himself approved the destruction of a planet with six billion inhabitants, the mind boggles to imagine what he would consider atrocious.

Clearly, by the time Hro Talek's fleet reached Earth, the fall of Thanagar was inevitable. For all her mistakes, Hawkgirl was not responsible for the fate of her homeworld or her fiancé.


 * Just a nitpick-- Talak would only consider actions against his own people as atrocities. Since he didn't give a rat's crap about any species but his own, he would not think of killing any number of mere Earthlings as atrocious. So the actions of the Gordanians, while probably despicable, could have been far less than what Talak tried to do to Earth and still be "worse" from his point of view.

John and Shayera never get back together.
Saw this theory elsewhere: Shayera and John just plain never get back together. He stays with Mari; she ends up with whatshisname, the Hawkman guy. They have a son. John ends up adopting this son when both parents die at a young age. Hence the last name being Stewart and the son calling John his father.
 * Except his first name was Rex, the same as John's old friend from the Marines (who later became Metamorpho).
 * Maybe they died quickly after the child's birth, and didn't even have time to name it. John adopted him and chose to name him Rex. Or the kid was dying or something, and they needed a compound that didn't exist on Earth to save him (we don't know much about Thanagarian biology); Rex created it, saving the child's life, and the grateful parents named boy after him.
 * You don't have to be "together" to conceive a child...you just need one night.
 * Only if you're supernaturally(un)lucky.
 * Alternatively, because of the weird time-stuff that was going on, they were in a timeline where John would have been Warhawk's dad; after Chronos' manipulations were canceled out, the resultant timeline is one where Warhawk isn't Rex Stewart.
 * According to Batman Beyond, which set up the intro to the Justice League, Warhawk seems to be exactly the same as his JLU appearance...except that his exposed chin has a lighter skin tone.
 * Different colorists were used on the various DCAU series.
 * Word of God says John will be with Vixen for a while but ultimately end up with Shayera at some point down the line.
 * Or have a threesome with both
 * Adding to this though, the Batman Beyond future is only one possible future, and its one that grows less likely as the Justice League cartoon continues. I mean think about it: does the Batman we see at the end of the Justice League (the one who's lightened up according to Superman, even if he was semi-kidding) seem much like the "going to get old and miserable and sleep with my ex-sidekick/adopted son's girlfriend while I'm on my way down" Bruce that we see in Batman Beyond? Not especially. It's still entirely possible that in the particular timeline that the Justice League is leading up to, Shayera and John will not get back together, even though they did in the timeline leading up to Batman Beyond. The idea of multiple futures certainly isn't new in comics.
 * Unless, of course, the events of "Return of the Joker" happen after the end of JLU... That could totally lead to the Bruce in Batman Beyond!

Flash doesn't just run really fast - he's subconsciously controlling time.
At least, for himself and anyone physically connected to him. When you think about it, this is exactly what Super Speed is. Time, after all, is a funny thing, and every single individual possesses their own sense of it. That's why we can operate as individuals on a four dimensional level after all, right?

Maybe Flash is subconsciously manipulating his own connection to the Timestream. Flash can go as fast as he wants - and the faster he goes, the slower the rest of the world seems by comparison. This could be what other versions of the Flash mean when they say "I'm not going fast - everything else is going slow." Maybe the Flash (and therefore all Speedsters) can manipulate their own personal "bubble of time" to utilise what to us(and him) just looks like Superspeed. Speedsters could be unique in that their brainwave patterns allow them/have been altered to allow them to think subconsciously on a quantum level - it's already established that Wally's a forensic scientist, so he's certainly got a good brain in his head, but then maybe it's got nothing to do with conscious intellect. Speedsters don't just run fast - they change time to suit their needs, literally warping the universal space directly around them.
 * This could also explain the Big Eater thing - he can't speed up his own personal time-space without also speeding up his metabolism.
 * This could also, by extension, explain why Flash could defeat Brainthor when the rest of the league failed. If Brainthor was really that intelligent and powerful, only something capable of manipulating processing speeds at that level could stop him.
 * Just one problem: it would mean that he had to run around the world several times in succession, in what to him would have seemed in real time. In subjective time that would take months at minimum.
 * It wouldn't really matter how long it took in subjective time, though. He'd be bored, but it would get the job done.
 * How would he even build up momentum in that case? If the guy's going on some ridiculous year-long marathon around the world, he's not going to be sprinting the whole way, building up speed the entire time. He'd just end up jogging, resting, sleeping, finding food, etc. and basically just going way slower than his top speed.
 * Alternative to this theory (which doesn't discredit the original, but messes with it a lot): Just because he's Warping Space Time around himself doesn't necessarily mean he sees everything in subjective time. That would suggest that he's projecting his ability across the entire universe which is a lot more surprising than the idea that he's just controllng the bubble of time around himself. He doesn't age even when his heartbeat is going a million times a subjective minute, so obviously he can control his own body's developmental rate, and separate his biological functions from his internal physics. So in other words, it's only his OWN time he's controlling, and he's subconsciouly disconnecting from the logical progression of time in the universe. Maybe the Timey Wimey Ball ultimately doesn't make any logical sense in our understanding of logic (that's why Time paradoxes occur in fiction, right?)
 * DC Canon elsewhere suggests that it's the Timestream controlling the Flashes, sort of. Using superspeed at sufficiently high speeds sufficiently often will land you into speedster Instrumentality in the comics. "Live fast, disappear young..."
 * Doesn't explain how he's able to run up vertical surfaces........
 * Same reason he doesn't go flying off into the sky after cresting a hill, despite moving much faster than 9.8 meters per second. His power also clearly manipulates gravity to some degree.
 * Magnets, pure and simple.
 * Not entirely Jossed, but rather highly unlikely given the a) existence of the Speed Force (which Flash specifically mentions -- 'it's some kind of force... a speed force' -- to Shayera while he's disappearing), which we know due to the comic book is responsible for regulating all the impossible physics of Flash's powers; and b) comic book canon's existence of Professor Zoom and Inertia, who specifically have speedster powers based on temporal manipulation. They have super speed in the exact way that the Original WMG suggests. Not saying it's totally jossed, just highly unlikely.

The Question is partially right.
There used to be a conspiracy which directed world affairs. But that was before aliens, superintelligent gorillas and winged horses entered the picture. Some time after the world went completely insane, the conspiracy scaled back its ambitions and is now only trying to control certain things at certain times.
 * Alternately, the Question is right about everything. Illuminati mystics, Boy Bands causing global warming, and spy satellites tracking fluoridation are pedestrian compared to many things we see for a fact (humanity almost wound up getting turned into apes!). As for that conspiracy... did you ever notice how Cadmus didn't feel the need to spend any resources in counterintelligence against other countries?
 * It's worth noting that, in the comics, The Illuminati do exist and were founded by Vandal Savage.
 * And this is why he goes to such great lengths to seem like a crackpot: so that none of the ones he's right about come after him.
 * Well, technically, from some angles, he was right about Flash, so... if he's been right before...

Superman disabling the nuclear weapons saved Flash's life
The Justice Lords universe apparently still has nuclear weapons. Given that history had already diverged by the time the Justice Lords observed the Justice League, it's likely that this had some influence. Perhaps the lure of nuclear weapons was what prompted the Justice Lords' Luthor to run for President.
 * This would suggest that The Lords Supers and the League Supes had variations in their makeup and personality to begin with - that they were never exactly the same person, because they made different choices.
 * That would apply to anyone who was born after the divergence -- that's one thing butterflies of doom do. It would just be more obvious in some people than in others.
 * Um, the only problem is that there are still nuclear weapons in the primary universe. The first episode that leaps to mind is The Doomsday Sanction. Apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to make more nukes.
 * Of course that was Cadmus. They aren't exactly official.
 * Actually their were several episodes well before this showed that, at very least the United States, had nuclear weapons rebuilt, most likely to ward of future alien invasions. The "Brave and the Bold" had Grodd shooting off five in an attempt to destroy Gorilla City.
 * Cadmus is official, if secret. More to the point, though, that wasn't a regular nuke. It was a special Kryptonite warhead.
 * As I recall Lex Luthor personally killed Flash. With a shotgun to the face. Or something like that.

The Light of Pytar is actually evil.
It first gave power to Despero in an attempt to conquer the galaxy through blatant force, thinking nothing could stop it, and it was, for a time, right. But when it knew it was threatened, it weakened Despero to the point where Green Lantern could fight him on even terms, and then took away Despero's power altogether. It then contacted J'onn, and though it was able to hypnotize him just as easily as anyone else, everybody else was fooled by it because J'onn is a telepath. It then turned the soldiers who previously worked for it into trees in an attempt to cover for itself. However, though it also imprisoned Despero, it did not seem to be angry, giving him a vision of "paradise". Then, it covered THE ENTIRE PLANET with itself, choking off all of the planet's ecosystems. Right now in the DCAU, it is waiting for the original heroes and people who witnessed it to die off, so that it can try the same ploy again that it tried in the episode "Hearts and Minds". Why not? According to those ancient inscriptions, it has been trying for centuries now.

Brainiac 5 is biologically descended from Lex Luthor.
At some point between Brainiac's infecting Luthor and the events of "Divided We Fall," Luthor sired an illegitimate child, who also hosted a piece of Brainiac. From there, Brainiac's technology lengthened his hosts' lifetimes, or simply found new ways to pass itself on, but the original Brainiac's bond with Lex Luthor accounts for Brainiac 5's explanation that Brainiac found a way to pass its coding on genetically.
 * Maybe he is descended from the child that Tala and "Luthor" may have created during "The Great brain Robbery... After all, it "wasn't restful" when she and "Luthor" were doing.
 * Heh heh heh, that's why this post was removed... Also to give another reason to support this theory - Braniac 5 posesses 12th level of intellect, and according to the last episode of Justice League - Lex does as well. Remeber that only 12th lever of intellect can pass through the Source wall and stay sane. Which he did =)
 * Which means that Braniac 5 also capable of having organic sex, with Supergirl... A possible Shout Out to old comics where she dated Luthor.
 * And a shout out to old comics where she dated Brainiac 5.
 * In "Clash", a building is named after Lena Luthor, who in this universe could be his mother, sister, (ex-)wife, or some other relative. It's possible Brainiac 5 isn't Lex's direct descendant.

Granny Goodness is a transvestite.
Come on, his/her voice. It's Ed Asner, FFS! And he doesn't even make the slightest effort to sound female!
 * Yes, that's the joke.
 * Alternatively, three packs a day. For the last few centuries.

The Question is the Scarecrow from Batman the Animated Series.
They're both voiced by Jeffrey Combs. Both of them are intelligent, and under their masks, are men with red hair and are rather thin and not very heavyset. Due to the bat embargo, we've never seen any of them in the same place at once. The Question is therefore the Scarecrow, having concocted himself a new identity after his fear gas wiped his mind and left him a paranoid lunatic trying to find answers for himself... which led to him becoming a paranoid lunatic that looked for answers to ALL questions, turning his obsession with fear to his own lack of identity and understanding of the world... thus explaining why he wears a faceless, identity-less mask.
 * Yeah... And Ferris Boyle is also the Joker, and Clayface is also Jax-Ur, and Thomas Wayne is also Batman, and Giganta is also Killer Frost, and.......

Dora Smithy, Sister-In-Law to Mr. Freeze in Gotham Girls, is Killer Frost in Justice League
At the end of Gotham Girls, Dora goes through a similar cold-based accident as her brother in law, something that's never followed up on. However, she has the same voice actress and of the cold-based Killer Frost shown in Justice League. Suddenly, an ending that's never followed up on, and a villain that never gets an origin story gets tied up rather nicely.
 * The thawing process which freed her drove her insane, she mostly likely killed the people who were thawing her out. She becomes more insane after seeing her reflection (a la Joker in the Tim Burton movie and Two-Face). Blaming Gotham for what happened to her, she becoming a supervillain her. Ironically, she originally donned the suit to rid the city of men and other supervillains in a twisted form of revenge for the suffering her sister endured in the first place.

There is an in-universe explanation for the Bat-Embargo
While they were on the JLA Earth, The Justice Lords took a little time to go to Arkham and lobotomize all the inmates except Joker, who was already catatonic due to his encounter with Ace. This is why no Bat-villains showed up in Luthor/Grodd's legion.
 * Also at some point during the second season the Joker kidnaps Robin and the prolouge of Batman Beyond Return of the Joker occurs. This leads Dick and Babs to give up their costumed identies, leaving Bruce the only active member of the Bat-Family.
 * Except Dick didn't give up his costumed identity, at the most all he did was change suits as Barbra herself states that Nightwing is still operating as of Batman Beyond.
 * Most likely Dick got just completely fed up with Bruce's methods, as well as Barbara insistence on taking his side of things constantly and just cut both of them off.

Speaking of Nightwing, He's a member of the JLU
But he's only a part-timer like Batman himself, which is why he doesn't get involved when he sees Black Canary and Huntress entering Bludhaven.

After the Season 2 Justice League Unlimited finale Brainiac was never in Luthor's head
Consider the set-up for Season 3. Luthor has escaped from prison. The Legion of Doom just so happens to know where he is so they can rescue him Just in Time. And, it just so happens that Grodd has the only thing that could possibly be convince the incredibly anti-social Luthor to join the team. Here's the theory- all that stuff about Brainiac was implanted into Luthor's brain psychically by Grodd as leverage to get his help. When Luthor takes over the Legion halfway through the season, Grodd has to keep the illusion up or else Luthor, realizing the deception, would kill him. Note that Luthor only "loses" Brainiac's presence after he shoots Grodd out the airlock.
 * Likely!

The Question visits this WMG article reguarly
He needs new material for his conspiracy theory string board. Oh, incidentally, Question, what is the true purpose of an aglet?
 * Wouldn't surprise me if the Question created WMG solely for that purpose. For all we know he could have planned TV Tropes from the start with a little help from Xanatos.
 * The bigger question for Question is - how is Huntress in bed? She is daughter of Batman after all...
 * Not in this continuity.

Batman taught Superman all that stuff he did while powerless.
Superman realized that he had to be prepared just in case he were to lose his powers like he had before. So, he went to Batman to be better prepared. Batman showed him basic survial tips as well as self first aid. He might have even taught Superman how to hotwire a car.
 * According to Superman / Batman - same goes for Batman, who was taught how to use his powers by Superman.
 * And also according to another comic, Batman taught Superman how to act when he is depowered. Superman even mentioned it while running through sewers that he learned it from Batman.
 * He's also recieved coaching from Robin for a time when he had to impersonate Batman

All of the Justice League noncombattants are Wayne Enterprizes employees
Self explanatory, Batman selected the most trustworthy members of his company to work in the Watch tower
 * Doubtful. That'd be a dead giveaway to his identity, wouldn't it?
 * Who in turn where hired by Justice League, due to them being able to operate said tower. After all they're also a good selected bunch of badasses, as we can see during Cadmus attack on the tower.
 * Maybe not all, but SOME of them is quite possible.

Aglet is the name of a sealed Cosmic Horror that gains power every time its name is said
And when it's said enough times, the world is doomed
 * Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet Aglet, oh, and Telga.
 * You fool. You've doomed us all.

Darkseid and Lex Luthor Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence thanks to the Anti-Life equation.
When they return, the DCAU will experience their version of Final Crisis. And Lex Luthor will take on the role of Libra.

Darkseid was the one manipulating Luthor at the beginning of JLU Season 2.
Darkseid's conciousness had found its way to Luthor, and it had manifested itself as Brainiac. Throughout the season he continued to manipulate Luthor until "Alive", when Luthor was finally able to bring him back to life.

Joker is the Big Bad of JLU all along.
If you think about it, he is not in the series. Even so, he manipulates events from behind the shadows.

Snapper Carr has superpowers.
Snapper Carr, that news reporter voiced by James Marsden, secretly has the powers of omniscience and teleportation, which is how he manages to be immediately on top of every single breaking news story in the entire world. Seriously, how else could he even do that? He probably considered joining the League, but decided to champion them from afar so as not to let that Journalism degree he worked so hard for go to waste.
 * Well, in the comics he did have teleportation powers at least at one point. Whether that's still canon after the various reboots since...

Nightwing isn't a part-timer like Batman, he's a reservist like Speedy.
They are BFF and often get together over coffee, because it's nice to have a friend who knows exactly what it's like to grow up the youthful ward and witty sidekick of a Badass Normal Crimefighter with Cash who inspires lots of mentor rage. The reason Nightwing never deigned to appear in Batman Beyond? He was with Speedy in Bludhaven, watching Terry on the news and teasing him about the day Green Arrow Beyond showed up.

JLU takes place after the flashback in Batman Beyond Return of the Joker.
That explains why Joker didn't show his face for this series.
 * That also explains why Batman's ears are not long, though, they still are in the original Justice League....

Prof. Hamilton became the supervillain Ruin.
He was devastated after learning Galatea was electrocuted to death. This has taken his hatred for Superman and Supergirl (and other superheroes in general) Up to Eleven.

Solomon Grundy is the father of Ghoulia Yelps.
I mean, he's the only real candidate. Monster High is specifically noted as being attended by the children of FAMOUS monsters, and Grundy is the only really "famous" zombie. Virtually every zombie movie ever made has them occuring strictly in packs with no real identities. I mean, there's also that one Marvel character, but compared to Grundy, he's almost unknown.

There are 33 flavors
The 33rd is hidden in an illimuminati underground bunker in Siberia so we CAN'T LEARN THE TRUTH.

The anti-life equation is on earth.
The Question is unwittingly piecing it together with his unified conspiracy theory and the League sends him on missions to keep him occupied so he never finishes it.

Only the beginning of Batman's heart desire was shown.
Batman was under the plant's influence for a much shorter time period. Sort of like how Superman's initial stage of his heart's desire showed him married to Lois. Batman's illusion would have gone on to show him growing up with his parents instead of being an orphan had he remained under the plant's thrall.

Superman for a second let go of his limits when beating Mongrol.
In that scene, Superman had just had the perfect son, the perfect wife, the perfect LIFE, shown to him and taken from him. That monster forced him to see a fake world that was perfect in every way, one he had years of very happy memories implanted into his skull, just to see it all explode and die. Wonder Woman actually hurt herself punching him, yet with only a handful of punches Superman put a giant dent in his face. For the briefest of seconds, he forgot the world was cardboard and really did want to kill.

Grodd uses a very stubble form of mind control to actually get women to love him
He finds woman that respects either his power an/or his intelligence, and makes them think about more and more of the positive qualities while slowly eroding the species barrier most people have. By the time he actually puts his plans to use, the women actually do love him, and thus are far more loyal.

The man who became Dr. Destiny is in prison for murder.
John Dee panicked and killed a police officer when the Justice League raided the warehouse where he was guarding the illegal goods. This is why the parole board declines to release and his wife ultimately leaves him, she was already close to the edge when she found out he wasn't getting out any time soon. They couldn't say this on the show, of course, and it makes his transition in a wife-murderer a little more believable.

The Justice Lord's killed most of the other heroes
Who is the greatest threat to the dictatorship set up by Earth's greatest heroes? Earth's other heroes. We don't see any others in the tower, even though they now have at least a hundred normal humans working with them. While some may have been able to be convinced of their aims (Supergirl might be convinced by what ever her cousin does, a lot of them don't. Aquaman would see them as a threat to his kingdom, Question would think it is some kind of conspiracy, Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, Shining Knight, Hawk, Static Shock, and so many others would just see it as a perversion of all that heroes are supposed to stand for. Superman did say he did do a lot of things he never thought he would do, and killing another super hero that was a dear friend (Flash in that case) didn't seam to phase him.