2014 Holiday Surprise Special!

(Apologies for the lateness of this post. It’s been a busy week with Christmas and all.)

Holiday greetings, citizens! Well, this is going to be my final review for the year. Like I said last week, I had been planning on reviewing the Teen Titans animated series for this week, but I unfortunately did not have an opportunity to re-watch any of the episodes. I could have just written about it from memory, but there were some episodes that I wanted to re-watch before talking about them. So instead, a good friend and I watched something I’d never seen before, specifically for me to review it. So, let’s take a look at Young Justice season one!

Young Justice was an animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from November of 2010 to March of 2013. It was critically acclaimed and well received by viewers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t popular with the right demographic. Because the network wanted to see good sales figures for toys and other merchandise, the series was targeted at teenage boys. The show turned out to be popular with both boys and girls however, which lead to it’s doom. Sooo… do girls not have an interest in toys? I’m pretty sure I always see aisles dedicated to “girls” toys whenever I find myself at a place that sells toys. This just baffles me. If the show is popular with girls and boys alike, aren’t you going to be able to sell more merchandise?

Anyway, let's get down to the important stuff, starting with the characters!

Robin (Dick Grayson)

Ah, Dick Grayson, probably the most portrayed and famous of the Robins, and also the one I’m most familiar with. This is actually a really different interpretation of the character than what I’ve seen before though. He’s the youngest member of the team at only thirteen, and his immaturity shows through. At the beginning of season one, Robin sort of has a problem with keeping still as well as communicating with his teammates. He also has an odd obsession with picking apart words, taking prefixes off of them and using the base word, like turning overwhelmed into whelmed and disaster into aster. Oddly enough, whelmed and aster are indeed words, but Dick doesn’t quite use them properly. However, Robin does mature as the series goes on, most notably after the episode “Failsafe.” In it, after Aqualad is taken out, Robin steps into the role of team leader and learns about the burden of leadership. He becomes much more serious, but still manages to retain some of his youthful innocence. An interesting point is that while Robin is a skilled fighter on the team, his talents seem to focus more on utilizing tech, especially hacking into enemy computers. It’s nice to see that side of him more than focusing on his combat skills.

Speedy/Red Arrow (Roy Harper)

Roy starts off as the sidekick of Green Arrow, but in the very first episode, he gets fed up with being treated like a child and goes off on his own, becoming the hero Red Arrow. Personally, I think that is a stupid name, but Roy’s judgment has never been the best in the comics. Anyway, he’s really more of a recurring character than one of the stars, not actually being a part of the team. He does get a fair amount of screen time, however, and he seems to be more or less a stock “lone wolf” character. He does show that he cares for the team, being concerned when it’s learned that someone has been giving valuable information on the team to the villains. In the season finale, it is revealed that Red Arrow is not the real Roy Harper, but a clone created by Cadmus to serve as a mole within the Justice League.

Kid Flash (Wally West)

Interestingly, Wally served as the Flash in Justice League, so this is the second time we’ve seen a take on this character. Personality wise, they’re more or less the same, being very light-hearted, optimistic and comedic. However, in an odd twist, this version is an even bigger flirt than the JL version. Which is kinda weird since he’s only fifteen (later sixteen). He is constantly hitting on Miss Martian, as well as just about every other female character save for Artemis. So of course he and Artemis are the ones with the real chemistry. Kind of a cliché, but I think it’s handled better than some of the other confrontation-based flirtations I’ve seen. What is less clichéd is that we actually get to see that Wally’s a pretty solid scientist. His expertise is more in the mechanical side of things than Robin, so there’s no overlap or tension between the two of them for having the same role. Speaking of Robin, the two are actually best friends, with Wally being the only one who knows Robin’s secret identity and past.

Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm)

Aqualad is a character I’m not very familiar with. The only real exposure I had to him before this was the bit parts he had in the Teen Titans animated series. But that works out, because this is a reinvention of the character. Even though very little of the show takes place in or near water, he manages to be possibly the biggest badass on the team. He has super strength and durability of course, and he’s also a waterbender, taking with him a backpack like thing of water, and using it to shape various weapons. He also does some other neat things with water, like dousing an area and making water platforms. Though, for all of his badassery, he’s something of a stock “leader” character, being very serious, confident and commanding. He’s not a killjoy though, which is nice considering how immature his teammates can be at times. But the most interesting stuff we see from him is dealing with the burden of command, but even that comes off kind of flat and is only seen in a couple of instances.

Superboy (Connor Kent)

A fast-aged clone of Superman created by Cadmus, Superboy is the team’s powerhouse. He’s short-tempered and rebellious, which causes a lot of friction between him and some of the more mature characters. He’s also arrogant, thinking that because he’s the strongest, he can deal with everything on his own. All of this does change to varying degrees throughout the course of the season though. He becomes more patient and learns to take orders better, and he also develops a relationship with Miss Martian. Superboy also has some issues with his “father,” Superman. Superman is pretty distant with him, avoiding the team specifically because Superboy makes him uncomfortable. Superboy though really wants to live up to the example that Superman has set and make him proud. But because Superman doesn’t acknowledge him much, Superboy gets frustrated when people compare them. He later learns that his lack of flight and heat vision is because his kryptonian DNA was spliced with human DNA, specifically Lex Luthor’s.

Miss Martian (M'gann M'orzz/Megan Morse)

Miss Martian I’m kind of at a loss for on what to say. She’s a character I had only ever heard of before the series, so I had no expectations about her. She’s introduced to the team as the niece of the Martian Manhunter. She’s able to do some minor shapeshifting, which allows her to take on a human guise and goes by Megan Morse. Her human persona is based off of a character of the same name from a sitcom. She also adopted the show’s catchphrase, “Hello, Megan,” and uses it all the time much to my annoyance. We later learn that she is not in fact the Manhunter’s niece, but a white martian in disguise. She assumed the form of a green martian because she was afraid that the team would not accept her otherwise, since white martians are persecuted on Mars. Even after growing close to the team, she doesn’t think they’d accept her, and she does some serious psychic damage to a villain who threatens to blow her secret. I’m not much of a fan of hers, honestly, but I don’t dislike her either. She’s just kinda there.

Artemis (Artemis Crock)

Artemis is yet another reinvention of an existing character. In the comics she goes by the name of Tigress, and is a villain. In this series however, she’s a hero trying to overcome her upbringing. She’s the daughter of the villains Sportsmaster and Huntress, the latter of the two being an ex-villain who was in prison during a good chunk of Artemis’ childhood. She’s also the sister of Cheshire, who is a recurring villain in the series along with Sportsmaster. Artemis seems to be defying the whole “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” aphorism, which is good to see. It’s not easy for her though, with her father and sister trying to turn her, and Roy Harper’s constant distrustful statements towards her. I kind of like her, but she's not my favorite. That might just be because she's an archer though, and I have issues with archers.

Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara)

Zatanna is a character that I’m only sort of familiar with, but would like to see more of because I like magic-using heroes. The daughter of the superhero Zatara, she makes an appearance or two as a friend of the team before officially joining. Her abilities are quite diverse, but she’s somewhat inexperienced. Her father is initially against her joining the team, worried that she’s not old enough or experienced enough for that life. However, she does end up joining after her father takes up the mantle of Doctor Fate.

Dr. Fate/Nabu

Doctor Fate is yet another character I’d like to know more about. But not this version. This version is… kind of an asshole. Well, it’s not Doctor Fate that’s the asshole. For this version of Doctor Fate, the wearer of the helmet becomes possessed by Nabu. Three times in the series, somebody dons the helmet, and each time, Nabu is against allowing the person to remove it, allowing them to go back to being normal. The first two times the original Doctor Fate, Kent Nelson, intervenes and convinces Nabu to relent. However, after the third time, Nabu is fed up with this and decides to keep the wearer, Zatanna this time. Her father is able to strike a deal with Nabu though, offering himself up in place of his daughter.

Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson)

Captain Marvel (or Shazam, as he’s now legally supposed to be called in the comics and other media) is also a character I was exposed to before via Justice League Unlimited. He’s a bit different in this version, and acting much more like the ten-year-old that he is. He’s not a member of the team, but he is close to them and makes several appearances.

The writing for the show is excellent. Every episode is well paced and doesn’t feel like a single moment is being wasted. The characters are relatable and realistic, though there are some times when it’s heavy on the teen angst, but they’re teenagers, what do you expect? One of my only complaints is with some of the humor. It seems like about half the jokes are dead on arrival, a problem that’s much more prevalent in the first several episodes. It does have some funny moments though, which is good because it helps to keep the serious from being too serious. Speaking of the serious tone, I was actually really surprised by just how serious it was. I had heard very little about the show prior to watching it, beyond “it’s good, watch it.” So when I saw just how dark and serious the show was, I was a bit taken aback. Not in a bad way, mind you. I thought that it was excellent that a series that was aimed at a younger audience would be like this. It addresses real issues through allegory rather than being direct, and never tries to dumb itself down. It’s rather fitting, considering that the team in the beginning was adamant about not being treated like kids, and the show has no intention of treating the audience as such.

Every episode it seems it peppered with references to other parts of the DCU, especially the Teen Titans comics. Tons of Titans members show up in the series, including the original Aqualad (Garth), Mal Duncan, Bumblebee, and Beast Boy/Changleing, and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. But those aren’t the only appearances of other characters. The first villain that the team truly faces is Mister Twister, the very same villain who was the first opponent for a proto form of the Teen Titans back in The Brave and the Bold #54. Various other characters get re-purposed for the show as well. Amanda Waller, instead of being in charge of the Suicide Squad or a part of Checkmate, serves as the warden of Belle Reve Penitentiary. Jason Bard, a Batman supporting character, also make an appearance, though as a soldier instead of a cop. There are a lot more, probably ones I didn’t even pick up on, but if you enjoy that sort of thing, you’ll get a kick out of the series.

Finally, let’s talk about the artwork. It’s great, of a much higher quality than is generally seen in cartoons these days. Everything is nice and fluid, especially action sequences. The character designs are more or less directly from the comics, but there are a few where they change things up. The previously mentioned Mister Twister is a good example. Here’s what he looked like in the comics:

And in Young Justice:

Aqualad, being a reinvention of the character, also had a new character design.

It’s reminiscent of other Aqualads, but still unique.

Well, that's all I've got to say, really. I haven't gotten to look at the second season yet, but I've heard some negative things about it. Still, I will eventually take a look at it, maybe even give my thoughts. For now though, I wish you all a wonderful holiday!

Man of Steel

(Two apologies before I begin today. First, this is gonna be a long one, so hold onto your butts. Second, no images today, as I was having a lot of issues getting screen shots.)

Greetings, citizens! Today it’s Thanksgiving in the U.S. a day where everyone is supposed to give thanks for the joys in their life. Well, today I’m thankful that I never have to watch this movie again.

I’ve been wanting to do a review of Man of Steel for awhile now. Hell, this was actually the first piece of non-comic media that I wanted to do a review for, back when I was deciding to do this blog. Why did I put it off for so long? Well, given that I have a strong negative opinion of this movie, and just about all the positive reviews for stuff I’ve done have been Marvel, I didn’t want it to seem like I just don’t like DC. While I still prefer Marvel, I do really like a lot of DC’s characters, and have been sampling a bunch of titles of theirs the past few weeks, with a lot of success. So, expect to see some DC positive attention paid to DC in the future. Until then though, let’s talk about the cinematic abomination that is Man of Steel.

Work on Man of Steel began in 2008, when Warner Bros. started looking into doing another Superman movie, the idea eventually turning into a reboot of the franchise. They took pitches from some of the biggest name writers that they had access to, including Geoff Johns, Mark Millar, and Grant Morrison. Eventually though, they decided on the story that we ended up with, created by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer.

I’m not quite sure what went wrong with the film though. Nolan and Goyer did excellent work with the Dark Knight trilogy. Director Zack Snyder’s movies haven’t exactly been fantastic, but they were visually quite interesting. What happened? Did these guys just have their talent sucked from their bodies during production? Did someone at Marvel make a deal with Mephisto? I’ve got no idea. I was hoping to listen to commentary from the makers of the movie, but unfortunately the copy I rented had no special features on it.

But, enough background. May as well get this over with.

The movie begins with Kal El’s birth, followed by Jor El telling the ruling council of Krypton that the planet is going to be destroyed. Unlike in the comics where Krypton was destroyed by Brainiac, this Krypton is going to die because the Kryptonians harvested the planet’s core in order to solve their energy crisis. So, we’re not even 5 minutes into the movie, and I’m already baffled by utter stupidity. What sort of morons harvest a planet’s core for energy, especially when they are presented with alternatives? Jor El points out one during the scene, saying that there are habitable planets within reach. They’ve clearly known about the problem for awhile, since coring a planet must take some time, so why did they not try finding a new world to inhabit? Or harvest another planet’s core? Was there no oversight committee for this immensely stupid plan?

I am assuming that this is supposed to serve as an allegory for our own energy problems, and how we’re being short sighted and stuff. Except that we actually do have people trying to find other uses, and our planet won’t freaking implode if we don’t. So, it’s either heavy-handed and poorly executed allegory, or it’s intense levels of idiocy. Either way it makes for a bad plot point.

But before we can dwell too long on how Kryptonians have moroned themselves towards an apocalypse, we get introduced to our villain, general Zod. Zod rightfully thinks that the council have been nothing but a bunch of worthless morons and attempts a coup. He asks Jor El to help him save his people, but Jor El thinks that Zod would pick and choose which bloodlines live. Yeah, apparently Kryptonians in this version don’t birth children and just clone them, which is another stupid plot point. Doesn’t cloning take more energy than birthing children would? Doesn’t it also mean that as a species, they’re going to be stagnant?

Anyway, Jor El escapes and Zod’s forces give chase. Jor El manages to steal the codex, which contains the genetic makeup of every Kryptonian, and also drives the plot forward for the rest of the movie. He takes it back to his home, where he and his wife prep the ship to take Kal to Earth, but not before imbuing him with the codex, somehow. Here’s two more baffling plot points; why is the ship not big enough for Kal’s parents, and why did Jor El turn Kal into the codex? We never get any kind of explanation either of these. From my understanding of the comics, Krypton’s destruction came on much more suddenly, so Jor El only had enough time to construct a small vessel. But he clearly had a lot of time in this, so why not make it big enough for him and his wife?

Back with the “plot” Zod comes in, demands the codex, and he and Jor El fight. In spite of Zod being a highly trained and skilled warrior, he’s beaten pretty handily by a scientist. I’d complain more about the fight, but it’s probably the best one in the whole movie. However, Jor El gets distracted by the majesty of sending his son off to live by himself on a world where he’ll be an outsider, and Zod stabs him. For some reason, Jor El isn’t angry or upset by being stabbed, merely mildly surprised.

Zod orders his forces to shoot the ship down, but in an ironic twist, the council’s forces shoot down the ship that was to do the shooting. We see Zod and his lackeys get sentenced to spend some time in the Phantom Zone, and then Krypton explodes.

We briefly see Kal’s ship landing, but who cares about that? We need to see some Deadliest Catch! It’s now 33 years later, and Kal (henceforth referred to as either Clark or Supes) is working on a fishing boat. The boat gets contacted about an oil rig that’s going to explode and they head there. By the time they arrive though, the Coast Guard is telling them that the rig’s gonna blow and that the men still there are dead. Clark figures there’s still something he can do though, and goes off to save the day, which he does. However he gets blasted into the water, and we see our first Jesus shot, because who doesn’t love heavy-handed symbolism?

This is where the plot decides to slow way the hell down, and also stop progressing in a linear fashion. We start jumping back and forth between the present and Clark’s past. The only noteworthy thing about his past is in how his adoptive father tells him to use his power. Or rather, how he tells him to not use it. Yep, Jonathan Kent tells Clark to not help people, because that might bring attention to him. This is a change that I’ve heard a lot of people complain about, and rightfully so. Jonathan and Martha Kent are supposed to serve as the foundation upon which Clark built his morals, which is why he chooses to be Superman. In this though, he chooses to good because… it’s encoded in his DNA? We don’t know. I mean, yeah people can choose to do good for any number of reasons, but we never get any kind of inclination as to why Clark does. Hell, he got bullied a lot as a kid, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had become a villain.

Oh, also, Jonathan dies in a tornado. Clark could’ve helped, but Jon told him not to.

In the present time, Clark hears about some sort of weird investigation going on in the arctic, so he decides to see what that is. Of course a reporter from the Daily Planet is sent to do a story on this, even though it seems like the government is trying to keep it a secret. Who is this reporter? Why, none other than Lois Lane of course. At night, while she’s taking photos (in spite of the -40 degree temperature and lack of light), she spots Clark going for the site and follows him. Turns out that the thing that the government is investigating is a Kryptonian ship that’s twenty thousand years old. Clark finds his way onto the ship and inserts the AI thing from his ship into it. So wait, Kryptonian technology didn’t advance for twenty thousand years? Looks like I was right about their stagnation. A defense robot shoots Lois, but Clark destroys it and cauterizes her wound with his heat vision. The ship then activates, and we see Lois dropped off on a glacier or something. She then starts investigating who Clark is, while Clark talks to a hologram of Jor El.

So Clark learns about his heritage, and also gets his suit. Apparently, it’s not an S on his chest, but the Kryptonian symbol for hope, because that’s totally plausible and not contrived. Lois gets a bunch of accounts of Clark and goes to his dad’s grave. Conveniently, after getting his costume and learning about his heritage, he goes to his dad’s grave.  They talk, and Lois decides to abandon the story she wrote accusing him of being an alien. Too bad she already had it published online though.

Anyway, Clark goes to see his mom and while there, Zod hacks into Earth’s communication systems and broadcasts a message, asking for Clark to be turned over to him. The military takes Lois into custody, in order to try and find Clark. Clark uses the power of plot convenience to know all of this, and also know exactly which military base to go to.  He has a dull, meaningless conversation with Lois before agreeing to be turned over to Zod.

Zod sends a ship to pick up Clark, but they also demand Lois to be taken as well. Why? Well, you see, they uh… Obviously they uh… Why the hell do they want Lois? Do they know about her article? If they do, why do they care? Because she’s close to Clark? So is his mom, but they don’t bother to demand her either. Other than for the sake of the plot, what is the reason for grabbing Lois? Ugh, this movie makes my brain sad. So Clark and Lois are brought onto the ship, but not before Clark hands off the codex to Lois, because of course they won’t search her, since they’re not highly trained soldiers or anything. Clark meets Zod, but then collapses because he’s not accustomed to Kryptonian atmosphere. That would make sense, if he’d collapsed right after getting onto the ship, instead of having to wait to be brought to the bridge.

So while Clark’s unconscious, Zod and him have a conversation in Clark’s mindscape or something. How are they doing this? When we see Clark wake up, he’s not hooked up to anything, and we haven’t seen Kryptonians displaying any kind of psychic powers? Maybe it’s just part of Clark’s plot convenience related powers. We get a bunch of plot exposition about how Zod got here (which I’m skipping because it’s pointless). Anyway, Zod wants the codex so they can start cloning Kryptonians, and he’s going to use a terraforming thing called a world engine to turn Earth into a new Krypton, wiping out all life on Earth in the process.

So Supes is captured, and they throw Lois into a holding cell. Conveniently though, the cell has a port for her to stick the codex in, and she does so despite not knowing what the hell the thing is. Hologram Jor El appears and seems to know exactly where he is and what’s going on. Oh, and he can control the ship’s systems, because why would the ship have any sort of safety protocols for preventing unauthorized AI’s access to vital systems? That’d be intelligent, and Kryptonians have failed to demonstrate basic common sense. Holo Jor El brings the ship back into Earth’s atmosphere, thus re-energizing Supes, and allowing him and Lois to affect an escape. And here we have Jesus imagery #2, because subtlety is lame.

Lois and Supes get back to Earth okay, but Zod’s gone to the Kent farm to find the codex. He doesn’t find it, and is about to do some terrible stuff to Clark’s mom, but Clark flies in and saves the day, pummeling Zod into town. However, Zod’s flunkies grab him before Supes can beat on him some more, so instead we have a fight scene between Zod’s two lieutenants. I’m sure they have names, but considering that’s about all they have, I’m not bothering to try and find out what they are.

And here we have one of my major complaints. At it’s heart, this is supposed to be an actiony movie. I can forgive plot holes and bad acting if I just want a dumb action movie (I usually don’t, but that’s not the point). The problem is that I expect the action to be good, and this shit is… well, shit. The effects have a unique visual style, and by unique I mean bad. The movements all look like they’d be more at home in a fighting game, than as the focal piece of a summer blockbuster by a huge film studio about one of the most iconic characters in the world. I don’t quite know how to describe it, it’s like none of the textures quite match up to the ones of the actual things we see on screen. The movements also feel just too fluid. I’ve not seen effects so bad that they took me out of an action scene like this since Blade 2.

They fight, the military gets involved but accomplish nothing, more fighting, dear lord this is tedious. The Kryptonians retreat, because one of them gets knocked unconscious by a missile, and the military commander guy declares that Clark’s not a bad guy. Clark goes back to check on his mom, but we’re saved from actually having an emotional moment by Lois advancing the plot some more. She says she knows how to beat them, because apparently Holo Jor El told her how to.

Before we can find out though, we cut back to Zod and his people, who have learned that the codex is in fact within Clark all along. The genetic code of a billion Kryptonians is within Clark’s cells. I’m not a biologist, but I don’t think that DNA works that way. I could be wrong, but considering all of the other bullshit that this movie includes, I’m willing to trust my knowledge of biology over the filmmakers. So, since they don’t need Supes alive, they launch the world engine and start terraforming the planet. One part of it goes to the Indian Ocean, the other goes to Metropolis for the sake of plot convenience.

Conveniently, Lois and Clark arrive at the military base right after this and cobble together a plan to use Clark’s old ship to send Zod and his people back to the Phantom Zone. While they begin enacting the plan, Zod goes to get that old scout ship that was found in the artic, since that has the cloning chamber that they’ll need. Supes goes after the part of the world engine in the ocean, and has to fight a bunch of microbots in a much less believable fashion than Big Hero 6. He manages to blow it up though, which means that Lois and the military can blow up the other part. Um, why did Supes have to do his one first? And why is Lois there? She’s a freaking civilian! It’s not like she has some kind of expertise that’s required for this mission, her job is to put the damn command key or whatever it’s called into the ship! And she screws it up! One of the other “characters” ends up doing it, and the plane carrying the ship crashes into the other part of the world engine. But not before Lois conveniently falls off of the plane to her safety. And somehow she’s managing to fall even though the wormhole to the Phantom Zone is sucking up debris from the ground.

Zod showed up in the scout ship during that scene, not that it amounted to anything. Supes just knocked the ship to the ground, destroying the cloning chambers. Supes saves Lois, they almost celebrate, and then we see Zod’s still alive. Now it’s time for the great big superhero/supervillain battle! I’d be excited, if it weren’t as horribly disappointing as the last Kryptonian fight. Skipping to the end, Zod and Supes are in a train station or something, and Zod decides to try and heat vision some civilians to death. Why there are still people around, even though Metropolis has been getting obliterated for what must have been at least an hour, I have no idea, but they’re there. Supes is of course grappling with Zod, trying to save the people, but he can’t quite keep Zod’s death gaze from them. So he snaps Zod’s neck.

Eyup. Superman kills Zod.

This was another major complaint about the movie I heard, and I am in full agreement. This is a betrayal of the character’s core. Superman does not kill people. Especially not when there are simple alternatives! Fly upwards you idiot! Cover Zod’s eyes with your hand! Punch him in the dick! Any of those would’ve been better than snapping his neck! I don’t know what the hell they would do with him after, but I’m sure they could pull something out of their asses. Why not, they already pulled more than two hours worth of shitty film out, why stop there?

After that, we see Supes bring down a drone and tell one of the military guys to stop trying to find out who he is. Even though it should be really freaking easy to do so. Lois managed it without much difficulty, and she didn’t have half the resources that the government does. The film ends with Clark starting his job at the Daily Planet.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again; this film is drivel. The plot has more holes than a sieve, and suffers from the random ass flashbacks peppered throughout the middle. I didn’t even get into half of the ones I spotted, because I didn’t want this review to be ten thousand words long. The acting is almost non-existent, and most of the characters exist solely to deliver plot exposition. The visuals are just god-awful, with effects that are less believable than any I’ve seen in a comic film within the last decade. When a giant, green rage monster looks more believable than two human looking people fighting, you’re doing something terribly wrong. Beyond that though, the film suffers from a serious lack of color. It’s not as bad as I remembered it, but it’s still bad, with the only bright patches being natural elements, and Superman himself. All of these visual problems are accentuated by the lousy cinematography at play. It feels so inconsistent, one moment it’s going for shakey-cam style crap, the next a more traditional sort of style. The film tries to convey a sense of allegory, but the lack of subtlety or finesse with the execution just makes it come off as dumb and preachy, telling the audience what we should think, instead of letting us think for ourselves. Ironic considering how that was one of the reasons Jor El wanted to have an actual son. Finally, as an adaptation, this is just pure crap. It is completely devoid of the spirit of the character, instead focusing on trying to make things “realistic.” There is no sense of fun or hope to be found within, and I find it laughable that they wanted to make it seem as if there was. This film has squashed any enthusiasm I may have had for the planned DC cinematic universe. Unless I hear overwhelmingly positive reviews of Dawn of Justice, I have no intention of seeing that.

Next week, I’ll be looking at another adaptation, though a far better one than this. Until then, take care! And for those celebrating it, have a happy Thanksgiving!

Justice League, the Animated Series

Hello once more, citizens! Once again, I apologize for the lateness (and length) of this review. But as promised, here is my review of the Justice League animated series!

I’ve never read too many comics from DC, so most of my exposure to the characters has been from the animated universe. But the DC animated stuff and I have had a mixed relationship. I loved Bruce Timm’s Batman, but I never watched the Superman series that aired alongside it. I loved Teen Titans, but I didn’t actually watch the Justice League or Justice League Unlimited until a few years after they ended. I saw an episode or two, but none of my friends were really all that into superheroes then. However, one of my friends loaned me his DVDs of the entire series, and I began kicking myself for not watching the show sooner.

Justice League ran from 2001 to 2004, before undergoing some pretty major changes and being retitled to Justice League Unlimited. It featured Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter.

Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, was voiced by the wonderful Kevin Conroy, who provided the voice for the Batman series that had run prior to Justice League. Batman was of course going to be part of the series, since the success of his own series helped get support for this project, and he and Superman had already done crossovers with each other, so this was the next logical step. Like most of the characters, this is where most of my experience with the character comes from. The way he’s portrayed in this however does differ from that of some people’s idea, in that he is NOT prepared for every conceivable thing (as well as several inconceivable ones). Oh sure, he’s prepared for a whole hell of a lot, but he does get taken surprise once or twice, and he does need the League’s help with some things. However, he’s also very stubborn, and not entirely sold on the idea of having backup. There’s instances where he sort of rolls his eyes at the whole thing, and he never officially joins, which is odd considering how he’s financing them and still takes turns on monitor duty.

Superman, aka Clark Kent, initially had the same voice actor as in his own animated series, but due to a conflict with another project, had to be replaced by George Newbern. I actually didn’t even notice the change until looking up info for this post. Newbern apparently impressed the folks at DC, since he’s continued doing work as Superman since then. Like I said before, I never watched the Superman animated series, so I didn’t really have much exposure to the character beforehand. The only other things I’d seen with Superman were some animated shorts produced in the early 1940’s, and the Super Friends, which I thankfully can barely remember. When I initially watched the series, I honestly didn’t think much of Superman. He just seemed like too much of a caricature rather than a character. However, more recently, I’ve been talking with people about Superman, and have actually been thinking about Superman as something more, and I’ve really warmed up to him. In re-watching the series for this review, I realized that he had a lot more depth than I’d given him credit for. You can actually see him struggling with moral questions at points, as well as trying to work with the League. It may have been his idea to form it, but he’s not used to working so closely with others so often, and there’s actually moments where he displays arrogance, but then humility. It actually makes me really want to check out some of the better Superman stories out there.

Wonder Woman, aka Diana, was voiced by Susan Eisenberg. Wonder Woman is one of those characters that I’m really interested in, but know entirely too little about. Her inclusion in the League was more or less a given, since she is one of DC’s most iconic characters, as well as a long standing member of the League. Like Superman, this is the depiction I’m most familiar with, and I’m rather fond of it. In the series, she has only just left her home in Themyscira, so she has to adjust to the world of man, doing so gradually over the course of the series. She has her super strength and durability, as well as the ability to fly (something she doesn’t always have in the comics, for some reason), and she possesses her indestructible bracers and magic tiara, though I only recall her using it once. I guess Sailor Moon patented that move at some point. She also has a lasso, though it’s never shown to actually be the lasso of truth, though it is incredibly strong. She also doesn’t have the invisible plane, which is just fine because I always felt that it was a silly idea anyway. Interestingly, she and Batman sort of have a thing in the series, in contrast to just about everything else which pairs her with Superman.

The Flash in this is depicted as Wally West, instead of Barry Allen who many consider to be the more iconic one. I’m guessing that they did this in order to reflect the current state of affairs in the comics at the time, since Barry Allen was dead at the time. From what I’ve been able to find, this Wally West is pretty different from the one in the comics, and has more in common with Plastic Man, being the comic relief of the group. I don’t get why they would do that, instead of just using Plastic Man. Sure, Plastic Man isn’t as iconic as the Flash, but come on, you’ve got Hawk Girl and a lesser known Green Lantern, why not just have Plastic Man? Anyway, I’m honestly kind of put off by this version of the Flash. I get that they felt they needed some comic relief, but he really just comes off as more dumb and irritating than funny.

Green Lantern, aka John Stewart, was voiced by the very talented Phil LaMarr. I had never actually heard of John Stewart before this series. I’d heard of Hal Jordan (who was the Green Lantern in several episodes of Super Friends) and Kyle Rayner, but I had thought that they were the only Green Lanterns. Oh man was I wrong. I’ve heard some mixed things about John Stewart, but I actually really liked him in this. He’s apparently from my home town of Detroit, which is always nifty. He’s very gruff most of the time, which makes sense given that he’s a former Marine, making me think he went from the Marine Corp to the Green Lantern Corp. However, he does have a softer side. He’s good friends with Wally, and also develops a relationship with Hawkgirl, and is a fan of Golden Age comics and Old Yeller.

Martian Manhunter, aka J’onn J’onzz, was voiced by Carl Lumbly. MM is a character I’d never even heard of before the series, which seems sort of lame considering much less interesting characters seem to get more exposure. He’s got some nifty powers including telepathy, shape-shifting and the ability to become intangible. His telepathy seems like more of a detriment than an asset though, since I’ve seen it knock him into unconsciousness more times than I’ve seen it help the team. He’s pretty stoic, though there are a few moments where he gets emotionally, as well as a few humorous lines made all the better by the deadpan delivery. Beyond that, I’m not really sure what to say about him, except that reminds me a bit of the Marvel character, The Vision.

Hawk Girl, aka Shayera Hol, is voiced by María Canals, and is yet another character I wasn’t familiar with prior to the series. Her inclusion seems kind of strange, since it’s not like she’s an iconic member of the League. It feels like the main reason they added her was to add another woman to the team, which it needed. I’m honestly not a fan of Hawkgirl as she’s presented in the series. It feels like 60% of her screen time was charging in recklessly only to get knocked down with one hit, 35% was needless antagonism, and the other 5% was her actually contributing to the team. I’m sure she wasn’t as ornery and useless as I’m making her out to be, but that’s what stands out in my memories most, even after re-watching the series for this.

The series also has a bunch of recurring characters. I could go on for thousands of words about all of them, so I’ll limit myself to the ones who stand out the most.

Lex Luthor, Superman’s arch nemesis, was voiced by the incredibly talented Clancy Brown. This is easily my favorite version of Luthor I’ve ever been exposed to. It shows the business savvy side of him, his mad-scientist side, and his criminal mastermind side in more or less equal measure. He’s cold, ruthless, manipulative, cunning and calculating. He’s only in a few episodes, but he leaves a greater impression than most of the other villains.

Aquaman, king of Atlantis, was voiced by Scott Rummell. Most people tend to make fun of Aquaman, and I think that most of that stems from his portrayal on the Super Friends. In every other depiction I’ve seen of Aquaman, he’s something of a badass, and this version is no different. First off, he’s sporting a rather Nordic look, with the long blonde hair and full beard, which immediately gives him points. He’s able to go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman no problem, which gives him even more points. Most badass of all, however, is when he loses his hand. He gets trapped over a volcanic vent, along with his son. His son begins to fall into the vent, and the only way he can get loose is to cut off his hand using his abnormally sharp belt buckle. He then gets an enormous hook grafted onto his arm, and proceeds to kick the ass of the guy who tried to kill him. In his second appearance, he takes on the forces of an elder god (who is clearly supposed to be Cthulhu, but for some reason they don’t call him that in spite of the fact that Cthulhu is within the public domain.). This is another case where the series has made me want to check out the character in the comics.

Last up is Vandal Savage, voiced by Phil Morris. Vandal Savage is yet another character I was unfamiliar with prior to watching the series, but I think I like him more than any of the others. Vandal Savage, for those unfamiliar with the character, is a caveman who was given immortality, enhanced intelligence and enhanced strength by sleeping next to a meteors work like that, right? I’m not sure what it is about him that I like so much, since he doesn’t seem to offer too much. I think it’s because I like the idea of a villain who plays the long game so well, even if his plans in the series are kind of poorly thought out. He also makes as many appearances as Luthor, including in one of my favorite episode arcs.

One of the things I really liked about the series was the format. With the exception of one episode, all of the stories took two to three episodes to tell. It gave them more room to let things develop as well as have some good action. However, I was disappointed in there not being any sort of overarching plotline. There was a sense of continuity, with things building on previously established ones, but I feel it would’ve been nice if each season had been building to a major conflict at the end with a foe that had eluded them throughout. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both of the season finales, but I just wish they’d been part of a larger story. All that said, here are some of my favorite episodes.

Injustice for All: These episodes the first appearance of Luthor, who discovers he’s dying of a rare disorder brought on by long term exposure to kryptonite. He decides to attempt to take down the Justice League, blaming Superman for his illness. He gathers together a bunch of villains including Solomon Grundy, Shade, and Ultra-Humanite, dubbing them the Injustice Gang. The Joker also joins the group, though on his own initiative, but he proves his usefulness by aiding in the capture of Batman. Humanite devises a technological thingamajig to keep Luthor alive, but the Injustice Gang ends up defeated. This is the first time we got to see the League squaring off against a group of villains, and we end up getting some really good fight scenes, made all the better by the variety of powers and tactics on display. We also get to see Batman manipulating most of the members of the Gang like they’re all his puppets.

Legends: While attempting to stop a giant robot from destroying Metropolis, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Hawkgirl are sent to an alternate dimension. This alternate dimension has a group of heroes called the Justice Guild of America, whose members are homages to Golden Age superheroes. This amazes Green Lantern, because they were all characters of comics that he read when he was younger, and they had a noticeable influence on him. However, you can’t have superheroes without supervillains, and the ones in this city cause trouble while the League is around. Throughout the two episodes, MM keeps getting psychic flashes of something being not quite right, and Hawkgirl finds a bunch of graves marked as belonging to the Guild. Once the villains are defeated, it’s revealed that almost everything is just an illusion created by the Guild’s mascot, a boy named Ray. The city was apparently bombed, and the fallout mutated Ray, giving him incredible powers. The League tries to fight him, but they don’t have any luck. The Guild briefly discuss if they should try and stop Ray, since doing so will mean their deaths. However, being heroes, they decide to sacrifice themselves. The world is restored to the grim reality, but the few survivors (who were minor characters within the episodes) tell the League they were glad to be freed. The League manages to return home thanks to an interdimensional portal one of the Guild members had been working on before the city got nuked.

The Savage Time: This one is the three-part first season finale. The League, excluding Batman, are returning from a mission in space, when they see a blinding light coming from the Earth. When the light fades, they find the Watchtower missing, and J’onn can’t sense it or Batman. They land, and find that Metropolis has been redecorated in their absence, finding giant posters of a ruggedly bearded man everywhere. Turns out that Metropolis is under the rule of some terrible dictator, and our heroes meet up with a resistance group, led by Batman. However, he’s not the Batman they know and like, since his outfit is different and he doesn’t have any problem using guns. They learn that apparently, the Axis won WW2 thanks to the brilliant inventions of the Führer, Vandal Savage. They deduce that Savage went back in time and did something that allowed the Axis to win and assumed control of Germany. They find his time travel device and go back themselves. Yep, it’s the Justice League fighting Nazis, which is just all kinds of awesome. I don’t care if it’s been done before, and I don’t care about the weird way time travel seems to work in this instance. Nazi punching will never get old to me. The League actually gets split up, with most of the heroes joining up with some Golden Age heroes from DC’s roster. Green Lantern finds himself in the company of Easy Company, but without any power left in his ring, forcing him to rely on his Marine training. Wonder Woman finds herself with Steve Trevor, and they are involved in some espionage shenanigans. Hawkgirl, Superman and the Flash join up with The Blackhawks, and they’re involved in some good ol’ fashion dogfighting and bombing. Martian Manhunter, meanwhile, gets captured but escapes easily and gathers some good intelligence on Savage and his plans. Oh, and he discovers a frozen Hitler. Eventually, the League manages to reunite and stop Savage’s plan of an invasion of the United States. There are a lot of problems with this plan, as well as some other stuff, but I’m not going to get into it. The day is saved, Nazis are punched, and Vandal Savage is assumed dead because they don’t know he’s immortal yet.

A Better World: We start of with Superman killing the president of the United States, Lex Luthor. We then see that Superman and everyone else has apparently taken over the U.S. (loosely, since there’s still a president and such) and act as dictators. And then we learn this is a parallel universe, making things much less bizarre. However the “heroes” of this universe, known as the Justice Lords, discover the primary universe and decide to “help” them. By help, I of course mean “capture them, hold them in the Lords’ universe, and install their little tyrannical government in the League’s universe.” We learn that the reason the Lords turned to the dark side is because their version of the Flash was killed. The Flash is able to free the others, save for Hawkgirl who is in a hospital. Batman stays behind to find the dimensional portal, while the others go to get Hawkgirl. Batman ends up battling his evil counterpart, culminating in a philosophical debate about ends justifying means. Normal Batman surrenders, and him and Dark Batman go to apprehend the other League members. However, this was all a ruse on Normal Batman’s part, and he manages to convince Dark Batman that he and the other Lords have been in the wrong with all of this. Dark Batman then helps the League return to their universe to stop the Lords. The League has a brief discussion on how to accomplish this, since the Lords have proved they’re more ruthless than the League and just as powerful. Superman works out a deal with Lex Luthor, exchanging a full pardon for a power-draining ray, allowing the Lords to be easily taken into custody.

Wild Cards: The main reason I like these episodes is because of the Royal Flush Gang. Each member is voiced by one of the voice actors from Teen Titans, and supposedly the character models were even based on the voice actors. Otherwise, the episode’s not bad, but not great, I just like that little Easter Egg.

And that, citizens, is my review of Justice League. I’ll be doing Justice League Unlimited at the end of the month, but don’t expect quite the same sort of review for that. For one thing, there will hopefully be pictures! I had some issues watching these episodes, and my Mac doesn’t seem to want to take screen shots. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get these issues resolved prior to the review.

Check back on Thursday for your usual update!