Tagged: Justice League

Review: ‘Superman: The Complete Animated Series’ on DVD

Review: ‘Superman: The Complete Animated Series’ on DVD

Once Batman the Animated Series became a huge success, a follow-up featuring the Man of Steel seemed inevitable. That it took until 1996, four years later, was the only crime in the process. The equally successful adaptation from the comics lasted four seasons and 54 episodes, helping set the stage for the bets adaptation yet: Justice League/JL Unlimited.

On Tuesday, Warner Home Video releases a seven-disc Superman: The Complete Animated Series
. Much like the just-released complete JLU series, this merely takes the existing season set discs and repackages them in a nice foil box along with a bonus seventh disc. The companion booklet, therefore, makes the same numbering error by not reflecting the actual discs.

All the love and attention lavished on the Dark Knight was poured into this show, which was brighter and shinier, the villains larger in scope and giving the animators a chance to bust loose. Superman works great in animation and after the lackluster efforts from Filmation, Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears, this one clearly shows the potential fulfilled.

As usual, the voice casting is fairly top-notch with Tim Daly alternating nicely between Superman and Clark Kent, sparring playfully with Dana Delany’s Lois Lane. Clancy Brown is wonderfully malevolent as Luthor and his ever-present menace is well handled, matching the reboot version launched a decade earlier.

The series winks at the fans in many, many ways which shows the love and affection they hold for the source material and their core audience. The largest change they made to the mythos was inserting Brainiac into Kal-El’s origins and it just doesn’t work for me. In fact, the use of Brainiac here may be a weak spot throughout the series, only paying off at the conclusion of the Project Cadmus arc in JLU season one.

Yes, the continuity links between the series also rewards fans and allows the production team the opportunity to plant seeds or wrap up threads they could do otherwise. It’s a shame, therefore, that the Superman appearances in Static Shock are not included here.

Wisely, the series got pretty cosmic pretty quickly and the first season ends with the introduction of Darkseid.  By bringing in the Fourth World characters, the show takes on a scope befitting the World’s Greatest Super-Hero and giving him a host of new opponents that would truly tax him. The seventh disc has some trailers but the highlight is “The Despot Darkseid: A Villain Worthy of Superman” which gathers the producers to reflect on how this really opened things up for them. The 17 minute discussion is filled with tributes to creator Jack Kirby and shows how important he became to the series.

Darkseid wasn’t the only threat and the Man of Steel’s rogues ‘ galleries is nicely introduced one at a time and then recur, varying the tone of the show. And was there any villain better suited to animation than Mr. Mxyzptlk, whose arrival always meant a nice change of pace episode was in the offing.

The stories hold up nicely, the animation fluid and the affection for the hero that started it all is clear in every frame.

Review: ‘Justice League the Complete Series’

Review: ‘Justice League the Complete Series’

For those who only knew the Justice League of America as the Super Friends must have been in for a rude awakening when they sat to watch the Justice League
animated series with their kids. From 2001 through 2006, the Cartoon Network offered up what has since gone on to be recognized as the greatest comics adaptation of all time.

Super-heroes moving from the printed page to animated film have had a checkered path from Filmation’s 1966 [[[Superman]]] through Ruby-Spears’ 1988 effort with the Man of Steel. In between, there were some highlights such as 1968’s [[[Spider-Man]]] and some really low moments including the 1977 [[[Batman]]] show. The problem is that super-heroes need conflict in which to use their powers and abilities. With every passing year, parents fretted over the amount of violence their children were expose to, coupled with concerns over the kids imitating the exploits in real life and causing themselves harm.

Any super-hero in the 1970s and early 1980s found that they could no longer duke it out with villains and their powers were used instead to stop natural disasters or rescue the proverbial kitten stuck in a tree. Some shows rose above the restrictions and proved entertaining but largely they were weak and short-lived.

That all changed thanks to Tim Burton. His 1989 Batman feature film reminded audiences what was good about comic books and their heroes. It forced everyone to re-examine comic book adaptations and prompted Warner Bros. to try a new Batman animated series. In the hands of producers Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, they rewrote the rule book and produced an amazing series.

That in turn gave us Superman so it was logical to follow with the Justice League. Along with James Tucker, Dan Riba, Dwayne McDuffie and others, the JLA never looked better. Now, all 91 episodes are collected for the first time in a two volume tin boxed set and it’s a joy to behold.

Warner Home Video essentially took the season sets and repackaged them for Justice League: The Complete Series
, so the discs are broken down by season and disc number while the accompanying booklets count the discs from 1-14, so you have to carefully count discs to find a favorite episode. One nice aspect is that all the original extras are therefore included so there’s a rich amount of material to sift through. Unique to this set, on sale Tuesday, is a 15th disc containing “Unlimited Reserve: Exploring the Depths of the DC Universe”, a 16 minute chat with the producers discussing the joys of adapting the comics for a new generation of fans.

The nicest thing about the show, as either [[[Justice League]]] or [[[Justice League Unlimited]]], is the fidelity it paid to the source material. Yes, they altered a great many things, but nothing felt gratuitously done. The heroes and villains looked and acted appropriately plus the comic book conventions of sub-plots and continuity carried over nicely. There was a strong emphasis on characterization, for all the players. As a result, many JLAers had nice arcs, notably [[[Wonder Woman]]] who went from rookie hero to a true Amazon Princess. Hawkgirl’s seeming betrayal and subsequent redemption played well, too.

There far more hits than misses and no doubt everyone has a favorite story or arc. The eight-episode arc of the League versus Cadmus holds up very well and shows many sides to the issue of, ahem, “[[[Who Watches the Watchmen?]]]”  During this, the Question quickly becomes a major player and wonderfully used. Similarly, the League’s rejection of the Huntress or Captain Marvel’s resignation show that not everyone is cut out to be a hero or a team player. All the characters have distinct personalities, which was most welcome.

The show is crammed full of super-heroes drawn from throughout the entire DC Universe from Spy Smasher to Aztek. Just about everyone is superbly voiced from the familiar Kevin Conroy as Batman to Jeffrey Coombs as The Question. Guest voices are also welcome, with some sly winks from the producers such as Jodi Benson’s Aquagirl or The Wonder Years’ Fred Savage and Jason Hervey as Hawk and Dove.

This is most definitely worth owning or finding under your Christmas tree this season.

George Tuska, 1916 – 2009

George Tuska, 1916 – 2009

Pioneer comic book and newspaper strip artist George Tuska
died yesterday at the age of 93.

It’s hard to imagine an artist with a greater pedigree.
Beginning in 1939, George worked on such features as The Avengers, Black
Terror, Buck Rogers, Captain America, Captain Marvel (both Fawcett and Marvel), Challengers of the Unknown,
Doc Savage, Green Lantern, The Hulk, Iron Man, Justice League of America
(a.k.a. “The World’s Greatest Superheroes” newspaper stip), Luke Cage, Planet
of the Apes, Scorchy Smith, Sub-Mariner, Superboy, Superman, T.H.U.N.D.E.R.
Agents, Teen Titans, Uncle Sam… and that merely scratches the surface.

George was a gentle man who once had taken the
extraordinary step of punching out well-known wiseass cartoonist Bob Powell
while working in the Eisner-Iger shop. Will Eisner said Powell, as brilliant an
artist as anybody in that hallowed shop, absolutely deserved it. The stuff of
legend.

On a personal note, George was drawing the Buck Rogers
newspaper strip during its final years, from 1959 to 1967. During that last
year, I was an unpaid intern at the National Newspaper Syndicate and was
allowed to contribute story concepts and ideas. As a 16 year-old, I was amazed
and thrilled to be working anywhere near
George Tuska.

Review: ‘Superman/Batman: Public Enemies’

Review: ‘Superman/Batman: Public Enemies’

For the last 25-30 years, writers and artists have been having a wonderful time contrasting the differences between Superman and Batman. Prior to that, they were both happy-go-lucky super-heroes, brothers-in-arms with nary a problem twixt them. The team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness really explored the dichotomy between the icons in[[[ Superman/Batman]]], the modern day version of [[[World’s Finest Comics]]]. Their opening story arc, “Public Enemies”, was a major turning point in the DCU, bringing down the curtain on one set of stories and kick starting threads that played out across the line for several years.

Any storyline that involved, could not possibly be well-adapted to an animated feature considering the lack of context most viewers would need to have. As a result, [[[Superman/Batman: Public Enemies]]] the direct-to-DVD release from Warner Premier, now on sale, had to make some modifications. Unfortunately, they were not all for the better.

On the plus side, there are some nice bits between [[[Superman]]] and Power Girl who is the only other character in the story to possess a personality. The story moves at a nice clip and showcases both heroes fairly well, It’s a true pleasure to have Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy voicing the major heroes with Clancy Brown back as the icy Lex Luthor. The animators also do a fine job taking McGuiness’ pumped up style and bringing it alive.

A major plus is that this continues a line of animated features based on today’s DC Comics, demonstrating that good characterization, good storytelling and mature themes can be presented in an entertaining manner for fans of all ages. Yes it’s violent and yes the attempts to destroy, kill and maim the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel aren’t positive themes, but good continues to triumph over evil, working up a sweat to do so.

WIth Luthor as president, it changes the playing field in the struggle between Lex and Superman. Suddenly, as Commander in Chief, he possesses even greater resources to call upon and even uses the Oval Office to sway public opinion. A kryptonite meteor coming to Earth? Must be affecting Superman so he can no longer be trusted. The changed dynamic means battling Luthor has to change, too, and that’s where the comic story works better than the film, which keeps things on the all-out-action level.

Loeb erred in many of the selections he made among the heroes and villains cobbled together to oppose the World’s Finest duo. For example, everyone knows Major Force is a murdering sociopath and the team should have rejected working alongside him. Starfire, an alien princess, and Katana are not American citizens and shouldn’t have answered President Luthor’s call. Similarly, when Captain Marvel shows up to duke it out, Superman brings up the wisdom of Solomon which should have counseled the good Captain to avoid this political mess. The animators also picked an overly broad collection of villains to arrive, controlled by Gorilla Grodd. They all got stopped way too easily, diminishing the threat any one of them possessed.

The movie feels big because of the cast and I wish there were more strong voices such as CCH Pounder’s Amanda Waller. It was probably a mistake for Alison Mack to be Power Girl because I kept thinking Chloe Sullivan.

The biggest oops was not having the Superman and Batman Families come to the heroes’ aid, demonstrating their contrasting styles. I’d have much preferred keeping it, ahem, all in the family, in lieu of the mindless slugfests at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Finally, there’s the notion that this genius Japanese kid was the only one on Earth able to construct a rocket able to stop the mammoth kryptonite meteor. Let’s see, there are various magicians, three [[[Green Lanterns]]], and so on. And in the film’s case, once the meteor is blown up, there’s nary a mention of what became of the now tiny chunks of kryptonite that were now hurtling towards Earth and other planets in the solar system. At least a line of dialogue should have covered that. At 67 minutes, there was definitely room to smooth over the story points.

Overall, though, this is a strong offering and fun to watch.

The extras on the Standard edition and the DVD include the usual assortment of trailers for other DCU videos, including the next one, [[[Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths]]], coming in 2010. The Blackest Night featurette also appears. “A Test of Minds: Superman and Batman” dos a nice job exploring the comic book relationship between the heroes while “Dinner with DC: With Special Guest Kevin Conroy” features the voice actor Voice Director Andrea Romano, Executive Producer Bruce Timm and DC’s overseer Gregory Noveck chatting the animation crew about adapting the film. Two Batman-featured episodes from Timm’s Superman: The Animated Series round out the disc. You have until September 30, 2010 to take advantage of the digital copy download, with no disc to aid you.

The DCAU Justice League returns in ‘Crisis on Two Earths’: UPDATED

The DCAU Justice League returns in ‘Crisis on Two Earths’: UPDATED

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that the next direct-to-DVD DC Comics movie after the upcoming Superman/Batman: Public Enemies will be a new release titled Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, tentatively coming Spring 2010.

As you can glean from the title, it takes place on two different planet Earths: one protected by the Justice League, and one ruled over by the evil Crime Syndicate. When a heroic version of Lex Luthor steps over from that parallel Earth to ask the Justice League for help, a superhero fight breaks out. That last part is merely conjecture, but we’d put good money on it.

What we do know for sure is that Dwayne McDuffie, who masterminded the original Justice League cartoon and its Unlimited followup, will be writing the script, and that it’ll feature an all-star voice cast, including Gina Torres (Firefly) as Wonder Woman’s doppelganger Super Woman and James Woods (Ghosts of Mississippi, those episodes of Family Guy) as Good Lex Luthor.

The AICN article has the press release and full details, so go check it out.

UPDATE 9/17: Andrew Laubacher writes in comments:

Based on the image in the AICN article, this is NOT the DCAU Justice
League. Hal Jordan is Green Lantern and Wonder Woman is wearing the
costume from Lauren Montgomery’s WONDER WOMAN animated movie. If you
have some evidence for your assertion, please, give it up.

Well, everybody’s officially locked down for comments while promoting the current release of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. However, someone close to the production confirmed that this is not strict JLU continuity.

On the other hand, since this is dealing with alternate earths, things could be up for grabs– and in fifteen years or so, we’re going to need a “Crisis On Animated Earths” to reconcile this, New Frontier, Challenge of the Super Friends, Swamp Thing, WildC.A.T.S., Krypto the Superdog, and the Superman/Aquaman Hour.

50 comics facts about the Class of 2013

50 comics facts about the Class of 2013

Every year, Beloit College puts together a list of facts regarding the mindset of the class entering college this Fall—the Class of 2013. Their list, as always, is well worth a read, but this is ComicMix, and we’re here to talk about comics, by gum.

So as we get ready to send them off to college, we wondered: what constitutes the comics status quo for them? What’s normal to these kids born in 1991 (he asks, knowing that being born in 1986 puts him in largely the same boat)? So glad you asked.

  1. The guy who did the above strip had already ended his daily strip and retired by the time these freshmen started reading newspapers.
  2. There has never been a Miracleman (or Marvelman) comic published in their lifetime.
  3. They have no idea who Don Thompson or Carol Kalish were.
  4. Gambit has always been on the X-Men.
  5. Spider-Man was always married to Mary Jane… until One More Day.
  6. There wasn’t a DC multiverse until the end of Infinite Crisis.
  7. Wally West was always the Flash, and his first sidekick was Impulse.
  8. Adam West has never been Batman—he’s best known as the mayor on Family Guy.
  9. Wolverine never wore a brown costume, and has always had a solo book.
  10. Barbara Gordon has always been in a wheelchair.
  11. Sandman has always been that pale-skinned goth guy with the hair.
  12. Batman has had three Robins: Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne.
  13. Lex Luthor has always been a businessman.
  14. Image Comics has always existed.
  15. So has Wizard Magazine.
  16. New Mutants was a short-lived series from 2003-2004, until the recent relaunch.
  17. Hank McCoy’s always been blue and furry.
  18. Elektra has always been dead.
  19. Frank Miller is the guy who did Sin City, and he never worked with Klaus Janson.
  20. There’s never been a character named “Streaky the Supercat.”
  21. The only composite Batman-Superman was a giant robot.
  22. The original Dove has always been dead.
  23. Thanos has always been searching for the Infinity Gems, so he can impress Death.
  24. Death has always been a goth chick.
  25. Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes has always been War Machine.
  26. S.H.I.E.L.D. has always stood for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate.
  27. Kyle Rayner has always been a Green Lantern.
  28. Starman has always worn goggles and a leather jacket.
  29. John Romita. Jr. has always been known as a regular penciller for Amazing Spider-Man. John Romita, Sr. never was.
  30. Ghost Rider was Danny Ketch.
  31. Jean-Luc Picard was the first captain of the Enterprise.
  32. Cerebus the Aardvark was always a classic.
  33. Grendel has always been a Dark Horse title, except for that DC crossover.
  34. Cassie Sandsmark was the first Wonder Girl.
  35. Roy Harper was only known as Arsenal up until the current volume of Justice League of America.
  36. There’s never been a First or Eclipse Comics. Comico only did some of those soft-core Elementals books.
  37. There were originally four Justice League titles on the stands.
  38. The original Teen Titans were comprised of a de-aged Atom (Ray Palmer), Risk, Argent, Captain Marvel, Jr., Omen, Prysm, Fringe, Arsenal, and Joto.
  39. Julia Carpenter was the original Spider-Woman.
  40. The two Avengers teams were the East Coast and West Coast branches. None of this New, Mighty, Dark, Pet, and Caramel Covered.
  41. There’s always been a comic called Love and Rockets.
  42. The superhero cartoons of choice were Darkwing Duck and Fox’s X-Men. For live action, it was all about the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
  43. Kraven the Hunter has always been dead.
  44. Northstar has always been out of the closet.
  45. Kevin Conroy has always been the animated voice of Batman.
  46. Jim Shooter was the guy behind Valiant, then Defiant, and then he wrote the Legion for a while. Wait, he was at Marvel, too?
  47. Phoenix is Rachel Summers, not Jean Grey.
  48. Karate Kid was Ralph Macchio, and Ralph Macchio was the guy editing X-Men.
  49. There have always been Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novels.
  50. Disney never had a major successful comic book franchise.

What’s yours?

(Alan Kistler and Glenn Hauman contributed to this list.)

Review: ‘Super Friends: The Lost Episodes’ on DVD

Review: ‘Super Friends: The Lost Episodes’ on DVD

In 1973, as most super-hero series faded from Saturday morning memory, ABC introduced the Justice League of America under the more kid friendly name [[[Super Friends]]]. Until 1986 the series evolved but continued to be a network fixture with one series break, absent the 1984-1984 season.  It was at that point production company Hanna-Barbera had enough episodes stockpiled that they could offer them as a syndicated package that could be stripped, that is, run five days a week. ABC dropped the series that fateful season as opposed to being in theoretical competition with itself. H-B, though, continued to produce 24 more shorts, or eight half-hours worth of programming which aired on schedule in Australia and was later sprinkled in the [[[Superman/Batman Adventures]]], which ran on USA starting in 1995.

Now, for the first time, Warner Home Video has collected these “lost” episodes on a two-disc set, coming this Tuesday.

They could have saved themselves the trouble. At its geekiest, Super Friends put DC’s greatest heroes on display for a wider audience and kids could thrill to seeing their favorites in action. With every passing year, the format was altered so heroes and villains came and went, the concept varied and the sidekicks changed. Wendy and Marvin gave way to Zan and Jayna, aliens with their own powers. In both cases, they were added on for audience identification purposes and moronic comic relief.

By 1983, though, children’s animated fare had been bowdlerized by nervous networks and advertisers, afraid children would be incited to commit hazardous acts of violence if the adventures grew too action-packed. As a result, the heroes and villains couldn’t make much contact with one another, limiting much of the storytelling options. Apparently, internal logic, the laws of physics and characterization were also verboten.

The 24 shorts presented here display shoddy animation, poor voice casting, and horrific writing. It should be pointed out that in 1981 we got [[[Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends]]], which did a far better job in the writing department; raising the bar H-B seemed disinterested in reaching.

The wonderful Alex Toth designs for the heroes never extended to the villains or the aliens du jour so they looked silly and largely unmenacing. The H-B created ethnic heroes had powers that didn’t match their names or personalities and were a poor fit (and really, was Black Vulcan that much better a hero than Black Lightning?). At their best, these stories mixed and matched the heroes allowing no more than a few to work together in any one story. At their worst, we had Flash racing through space with nothing for his feet to touch or a spacesuit to provide him with oxygen (his protective aura works only so far). Superman seemed to find kryptonite to weaken him wherever he went and in one instance he traveled back in time and rescued his Superboy self without once explaining how that could work. Perhaps the dumbest move was when the entire JLA had a meeting and entrusted the Hall of Justice’s security to the teens.

The Legion of Doom make token appearances here and are thoroughly inept, standing around, practically begging to be captured. One adventured used Mr. Myxzptlk which was diverting but no other enemies from the comics were used, which was a real shame since many could have been substituted for the poorly conceived threats. A number of stories involved youngsters and teens showing just how stupid they could be and acting anything but like youngsters and teens.

Perhaps the best thing about the discs are the two downloadable issues of the far superior Super Friends comics. You get the first issue, from E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon plus the 7-page story by ENB and the late, great Toth.

#SDCC: DC Universe — now with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents!

#SDCC: DC Universe — now with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents!

While they had nothing quite as surprising to announce as the Marvelman announcement yesterday, the DC Universe panel at SDCC had some interesting tidbits come out of it. The highlights, as per CBR’s liveblog:

  • DC has finally acquired the rights to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. This has been a long time project for Dan DiDio.
  • Geoff Johns will be writing a Flash ongoing after Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night: Flash conclude.
  • Sterling Gates, of Supergirl fame, will be writing a Kid Flash ongoing series to accompany Johns’ main title.
  • James Robinson starts his Justice League of America run with issue 38, a Blackest Night tie-in. His line-up will include Mon-El in a new, Superman-inspired costume, Dick Grayson/Batman, and Donna Troy.
  • An upcoming issue of Booster Gold will guest-star G4 TV personality Blair Butler.
  • Deathstroke will become the leader of the Titans later this year(?!).

A Wonder Woman letter-writing campaign, unfettered love for Metapmorpho, and more at CBR.

#SDCC: ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ with… Dr. Horrible?

#SDCC: ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ with… Dr. Horrible?

This is the worst part about covering SDCC while not actually being there: you can get a pretty good sense of what a panel was like from a liveblog, but there’s just no replacement for seeing a singing, dancing Dark Knight, especially when Neil Patrick Harris is involved.

Diedrich Bader, the voice of Batman, returned to Comic-Con alongside John DiMaggio (Futurama), the voice of Aquaman, and executive producer Sam Register (Teen Titans), producer James Tucker (Justice League Unlimited), producer and story editor Michael Jelenic (The Batman) and voice director Andrea Romano (everything DC has animated in the last twenty years), to screen the upcoming “Mayhem of the Music Meister” episode‚ featuring the voice of Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) as the Music Meister, and take questions afterwards. ComicVine gets props for managing to stop watching the spectacle long enough to liveblog. Some highlights from the panel:

  • Bat-Mite Masks were distributed to attendees before the panel started.
  • G.I. Robot, Detective Chimp, Vixen, Captain Marvel (plus the Marvel Family), Firestorm, the Metal Men, the Doom Patrol, and Starro are all making appearances in upcoming episodes.
  • “Outrageous!” came about as Aquaman’s catchphrase accidentally–John DiMaggio just channels his inner outrageousness.
  • “Black Manta, Clock King and Gorilla Grodd appear.  There’s Aquaman! 
    Along with Green Arrow and Black Canary.  Why is Black Manta suddenly
    singing?  Now Aquaman is.  They can’t help themselves!  Gorilla Grodd
    singing and dancing?  You HAVE to see this!” – from the liveblog
  • Twitter user @the_real_winson says that when NPH’s character first appears, the crowd couldn’t stop cheering.
  • The episode got a standing ovation!
  • During the Q&A afterwards, the child who asked about the Batmobile at last year’s SDCC asked today what Batman’s favorite gadget was–and got an answer in Batman’s voice. It’s the Batarang, by the way. 
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths, BatB-style? “Only if we get to do it as a musical,” DiMaggio said.

More reactions (and possible spoilers) at ComicVine.

The Point Growing Up Comic!

The Point Growing Up Comic!

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