Virginia Madsen in Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited (JLU) is Virginia Madsen’s third dip of the toe into the DC Animated Universe, and her second in the realm of the Justice League specifically having previously played Dr Sarah Corwin in the Justice Leagues The Brave and The Bold episode a few years previously.

JLU is of course a part of the same animated universe, it’s a continuation of it – And it’s one that over its run managed to keep the high standards as the rest of the shows that came before it. Blending a good mix of action, character development and damn good storytelling JLU widens the scope and the mix of the heroes and brings even the most secondary character into the limelight.
Virginia Madsen would this time lend her voice to Roulette AKA Veronica Sinclair, a cunning and manipulative villain who runs an underground fighting ring called Meta-Brawl. She pits super-powered villains and heroes against each other for entertainment, capitalising on their abilities to attract Gotham’s elite. Roulette’s lack of actual superpowers is offset by her ability to manipulate others and organise elaborate and more often than not, dangerous events.

Roulette appears twice in the Justice League Unlimited, the first time is in the second or fourth season episode, depending on which version you have – Either way, the episode is called “The Cat and The Canary”.

Roulette has managed to snag Wildcat to fight in her Meta-Brawl event, he’s feeling a bit redundant these days as he doesn’t actually have any superpowers to speak of and feels he can’t keep up with the other “Supers”.
His former protege, Black Canary, finds out about all of this and gets naturally concerned. She drags Green Arrow with her to convince Wildcat that he doesn’t need to do this, or anything, to prove himself. But, before anyone can get a grasp on it all Roulette has set up a fight between Wildcat and Green Arrow.

Obviously, this was never going to end well for Roulette. But, it’s fun to see it play out anyway.

The next time we see Roulette is in the third season (or fifth season) episode, “Grudge Match”.

In Virginia Madsen’s second episode Roulette is back (obviously) with a new, and what she thinks is an improved version of her Meta-Brawl. This time she’s calling it Glamour Slam and just has women doing the fighting. She takes her idea to Lex Luthor and he agrees to let her use some of his mind control technology he’s acquired from Grodd to get some of the Justice League heroines into the ring against their will. Black Canary, Vixen and even Wonder Woman herself all get thrown into the brutal battles for others’ entertainment.It eventually comes down to Huntress to notice something isn’t right with Black Canary and sets about rescuing her from the clutches of Roulette’s mind control.

And, well – Yeah – This goes about as well for Roulette as the first time we saw her.

These pesky villains, do they never learn?Virginia Madsen plays Roulette with an obvious relish. You can tell how much she enjoys these kinds of roles and just has fun with them. For some reason I always imagine her sat in her recording booth with a huge grin on her face as she hams it up.