Even before their “official” team takes over the book, James Robinson and Mark Bagley are having some fun with the remnants of the previous team in this Blackest Night crossover. The rag-tag team, including Vixen, Gypsy, Dr. Light,Zatanna, Red Tornado, and Plastic Man, stand in the broken husk of the Hall of Justice, where the Black Lantern corpses of many of their enemies have recently arisen. It’s not just the enemies they’ll need to deal with — Gypsy and Vixen find themselves facing their late teammate Vibe, Zatanna confronts the soulless corpse of her own father, and Dr. Light seeks out the villain whose name she has been trying to redeem for years.

As always, Robinson’s grasp of character is impeccable. He puts these heroes through real Hell, and they’ve started from a pretty nasty place to begin with. The duel between Zatanna and Zatara is epic, exciting stuff. Zee already had to watch her own father’s soul destroyed in the Reign in Hell series — fighting his body, battling him spell for spell… it’s wonderful. We also get some really good stuff here with Dr. Light. In fact, Robinson in general has become quite the champion of that character, both here and in Superman.

Bagley isn’t just one of the top artists in the business because he’s consistent. He’s also good. The women especially look good here, and the slowly-melting Plastic Man looks like he’s in major agony. Bad for Plas, of course, but it’s impressive in the terms of the artwork.

This story tales place after Robinson’s Cry For Justice miniseries which — as of this writing — still has two issues to go. But between that title and this one, I’m more than satisfied that the book is going to be in very good hands.

Rating: 8/10

It’s uncommon for television shows to maintain a high quality level for their entire run.  You either have the classic example of shows which start weak and round into shape once either the cast or creative team are tweaked (such as The Batman, where its horrible first few seasons were somewhat redeemed by Alan Burnett coming on-board and salvaging something in its later years) or, more commonly, a show will tail off as things move along. Looking back on this first season, what strikes me is that it certainly wasn’t as good as later seasons would be, but there were some good episodes that rose above the more mediocre ones.

Grades Revisited:

Looking back, I graded all the episodes just on pure feel after watching them a couple of times. While this produced one major artifact – Knight of Shadows got an A-, largely due to its placement in the middle of a relatively weak stretch of episodes, while Injustice for All only got a B+, likely since I’d watched World’s Finest immediately beforehand – I think I’d agree with most of the grades in retrospect. It’s unsurprising that the episode which felt most like a second-season episode, Enemy Below, tied for the highest grade of the season, as it’s one of the few to do an effective job of balancing the more silver-age feel that the producers were going for with the darker, more intense storytelling that would become a key part of the later parts of the series.

Although this season wasn’t directly effected by the infamous ban on Batman villains appearing on the show, it did feel like a way of building up bad guys for use later, which while not beneficial from an immediate quality standpoint certainly led to stronger episodes down the line. Vandal Savage, in particular, wasn’t much in his episode, but he’d return for two very strong shows in the second season, and Grodd would be a focal point of the final JLU season. Even Mongul, he of the reviled “War World”, would appear in an excellent episode down the line, although very little of the credit for that one would go to the production team.

Also, one of the real issues with the first season was finding a way to keep stories feeling “full” for their entire length. Certain stories – Paradise Lost comes immediately to mind – would probably have been good or even great had a bit more care been given to adding more plot into the running time. There also seemed to have been a bit of gun-shyness when it cames to characterising the newer team members, instead focusing on much more of a straightforward superhero show. That would drastically change in the second season, as the setup contained here was magnified tenfold.

Basically, this season felt very much like a 60s Justice League story for the most part – a lot of action, but not where you’d turn to if you wanted to learn anything about the lead characters.

That does change.

Distribution:

• A-minus: Two (Enemy Below, Knight in Shadows)
• B-plus: One (Injustice for All)
• B: Two (Savage Time, Brave and the Bold)
• B-Minus: One (In Blackest Knight)
• C-plus: Two (Legends, Secret Origins)
• C: One (Fury)
• C-minus: Two (Paradise Lost, Metamorphosis)
• D: One (War World)

We didn’t have minus grades in law school, so I don’t know what the season’s GPA would be, although my guess would be a C+.

Best Line of the Season: “Flash – stop heckling the supervillain!”

Moment of the Season: Has to be Aquaman’s self-amputation.

Best Debuting Character: Grodd was very well-realised even in his first episode, and unsurprisingly he’d turn into one of the biggest returning villains.

Justice League MVP: Although Batman was probably stronger, and though I didn’t like her two specifically-focused episodes, I thought Wonder Woman really got fleshed out by the time the season ended.

Weakest Leaguer: Hawkgirl got virtually no focus this season, mainly playing the part of “hit-things-with-mace-while-screaming-Lass” and delivering the infrequent funny line. It’s the animation equivalent of someone check-raising in Poker.

Neatest “in retrospect” point: Hawkgirl’s wings being revealed as organic, which meant she was Thanagarian.

Well, that’s it for now. There’s a bunch of stuff I want to get through before Season Two proper starts, so look for a weekend piece on The New Frontier and Legacy following early next week. Tomorrow, however, I need to set up the most obscure of the Justice League’s episodes… appearances.

The Justice League are on the loose…tracking down the bad guys from the Injustice League

Written by Stan Berkowitz
Directed by Butch Lukic and Dan Riba
Original Airdate: November 9, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: Returning from a mission, the League finds itself on a dramatically changed Earth, ruled by a tyrannical dictator named Vandal Savage. A chance encounter with an alternate Batman leads the League to go back in time to where things went wrong – World War II, where the Nazis, armed with frightening new technology, are in the process of changing history.

Arc Notes: Start of the Vandal Savage trilogy, some slight development of the Hawkgirl / GL relationship, first appearance of Blackhawk Island.

Debuting Characters: Vandal Savage, Steve Trevor, the Blackhawks, Sgt. Rock, Easy Company, The Unknown Soldier, and someone who is very likely Cassandra Cain makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her cameo. Plus, the only Justice League appearances of Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, and Tim Drake.

Featured Characters: Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.

Other Team Members: Everyone but Batman.

Background:

As we’ve talked about throughout these pieces, a lot of DC’s (and a couple of key Marvel) characters originated prior to World War II, and much of their early popularity was attributable to their role as morale boosters for the troops. However, several more characters appeared during the war itself, styled as much more directly fighting the Axis powers. While most of these characters were popular, they were a little too limited in their purview to really hang on after Hitler had stopped complaining about TO signing with the Bills.

This episode features two of the more prominent WWII properties under DC’s umbrella. The one that has more relevance in the modern era is Blackhawk and his squadron of not-egotistically-named-at-all Blackhawks, which, as presented, are a squadron of elite pilots who have suffered at the hands of the Nazis and operate as a mercenary squadron of sorts out of their hidden headquarters on Blackhawk Island. The members shown in this episode represent a small portion of the overall squadron in the comics, and their series actually lasted a really long time post-WWII, even if it never was as popular as in its heyday. Of course, the Blackhawks had some amusing experiments through the years in an attempt to keep them relevant; one of the funniest (immortalised in Waid, Augustyn and Kitson’s brilliant JLA: Year One) was when, to keep up with the times, the Blackhawks turned into superheroes:

No, I’m not sure what they were thinking either.

The Blackhawks’ most recent high-profile appearance was in Cooke’s The New Frontier, which I might wind up taking a look at during the upcoming break between seasons, while the sole surviving member of the squadron, Zinda “Lady Blackhawk” Blake was Barbara Gordon’s pilot in Birds of Prey.

The other major characters to appear in this episode are Sgt. Rock and EZ Company, who represent WWII-era characters created after the war – 1959 in Rock’s case. The best way to think of them are DC’s equivalents to Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos, a team of military heroes that straddles the line between ordinary men and the more gimmick-laden mystery men of the era. Rock eventually grew so popular that he had a series renamed after him, and virtually every DC story set in or around WWII (unlike Nick Fury, part of Rock’s history is that he was killed with the last bullet fired of the war) includes an appearance by Rock and his crew.

This episode was on the books for a long time as the season finale, as the WWII and time travel aspects of it immediately sprung to the creators’ minds as a suitably epic way to wrap up the first season of Justice League. However, Bruce Timm had been dissatisfied with elements of the first season, and this story in particular, as he explains:

… what happened with “Savage Time” was that there were a lot of things going on at that time internally. We were really rushing to finish the season, and there were some problems with the first draft and the second draft structurally. That was a very difficult show to beat out properly, because there was a lot happening. We had three or four major plot threads that had to pay off by themselves and then also had to dovetail into the main plot. That ate up the time we had for rewrites. So the final draft of the script was not quite as polished as I would have liked….

Bruce Timm, Modern Masters, p. 76

The story itself didn’t avoid delays, as it wound up airing much closer to the debut of the second season than the end of the first, although the first couple of parts aired on Cartoon Network Australia soon after Metamorphosis. If memory serves, Cartoon Network justified the delay by claiming they were holding off on airing it until Veteran’s Day.

We’ll talk about Vandal Savage next time he shows up, since he’s much more of a presence in that one.

Thoughts on the Episode:

First of all, the most important thing is to note the major screwup of this episode: American troops didn’t fight in Caen during WWII – Canadian and British forces secured the city in the aftermath of D-Day. The timeline’s slightly different and all that, but, geez.

We’ve already seen the classic sci-fi alternate universe storyline, so realistically it was only a matter of time until a time travel episode made air. While this certainly wouldn’t be the last episode to deal with time, it does greatly benefit from both a longer run-time and a more focused setting than some later efforts. Time travel is always a tricky concept to deal with (even Doctor Who, the granddaddy of time travel SF, runs into issues), but the idea is handled pretty well in this story. It’s actually hurt more by the viewer’s knowledge of Vandal Savage in retrospect than anything else; at first, this seems merely like a scientist going back in time and changing the past to his benefit, which is actually a throwback to a story referenced in All-Star Squadron and roughly a million other works of science fiction.

Of course, the issue in stories like these is that most of the Justice League can handle themselves against modern weaponry, so the vast majority of enemy forces they encounter aren’t really an issue. This is handled in a clever way by the story: two of the most powerful three team members, J’onn and Diana, are written out of the main fighting relatively early on in the storyline, and GL’s ring quickly runs out of charge. As a result, even though Superman is still his normal self, the League’s resources are diminished to the point where it’s not a joke to imagine WWII-era technology giving them trouble, even before it gets augmented.

The usual problem with three-part episodes rears its head here – for the most part, they’re stories which are too long for two parts, but don’t have quite enough for a full three (that gets avoided in the final three-part episode of the series, though). Here, most of the time does get shunted to characterisation, which is a positive; Green Lantern’s military training allows him to fit right in with Easy Company, even if John gives up a little bit when compared to Batman as a leading man in this type of storyline.

The real subplot winner is Wonder Woman, as her meeting with Steve Trevor both is a little bit of a payoff for her season-long journey to understanding the worldview of women outside Paradise Island as well as giving her a chance to show off just how powerful she really is (the bit at the start of part three is Superman-level in scope, something Diana doesn’t really get to show off that often). Steve Trevor’s not quite enough of a charmer to think that Diana would fall for him at first sight like we’re supposed to believe, but I’d rather have that aspect of the character underplayed lest he turn into a WWII equivalent of Flash. Diana’s visit to the veteran’s home at the end is actually really poignant, and while it doesn’t have the sheer tearjerker value that the second season finale would bring, it’s a nice ending.

The showpieces in this story, however, are the action scenes, and for the most part they’re top notch. The Blackhawk attack on Savage’s engine factory is pretty clunky, but the scenes in and around Caen and especially the final air battle are great. As noted in the commentary track, someone in the animation studio really must have had a thing for planes, because all of the aerial combat shots are very well done. Again, you sort of have to put plot considerations aside and go with the fact that this story is a tribute to the war comics that would show superheroes tearing through Nazis without meeting much resistance – these aren’t supposed to be even or even fair fights. What’s really great is that the writers managed to even give Flash – who’d normally be next-to-useless in a fight over open water – something to do. While the battle between Savage and John isn’t decisive in any way, it does give him enough of a comeback that, when Hawkgirl comes back to rescue him, you don’t feel as though he’s running away from a superior opponent.

While this story isn’t amongst the best of the seasons, I do agree with Timm’s assessment that it’s an effective bridge into the much higher-quality second season. And after the stinker that was Metamorphosis, it’s a good pallette cleanser before the really serious stuff starts up again.

If anyone makes any jokes about frozen Hitler as a palette cleanser, you’re banned.

Grade: B. The action’s great, but the secondary leaguers get a little lost.

Random Thoughts:

• The introduction with the alternate-universe Batman is cut a little short, but it does have one very nice easter egg buried in it:
  Yup, it’s the Dixon-era Bat-family, with Dick, Barbara, Tim and Cassie Cain. I know some people think the dark haired girl is the Clayface fragment, but… c’mon, seriously, now. This would be the last appearance of every character save Nightwing, who makes a brief cameo in the final season of JLU.
• Flash’s place as the most compassionate member of the League is cemented in this episode, with his questioning of Hawkgirl’s decision to leave GL to the mercy of the Nazis and immediately dashing back into combat, then refusing to accept Hawkgirl’s defence of her actions later.
• The bit with Superman bursting into flames while battling the German air force is a shoutout to the original Human Torch, who fought the Nazis in the 40s alongside Captain America and the other Invaders.
• Does John Stewart have bad luck in season finales or what? Fried by Savage here, then getting the stuffing knocked out of him in Starcrossed, then the whole time paradox incedent.
• Neat technical bit from the commentary – the backgrounds on this episode are too bright because of a difference in calibration between the computers that scanned the painted backdrops in North America and the computers that outputted them at the animation studio in Korea.
• Okay, I can’t decide if there’s one Savage or two in the present time. He lived his normal life until 2002, went back in time to 1944 – where his prior self already lived – and went down with the transport. The catch, of course, is that he’s immortal, so either he’s buried at the bottom of the ocean and can’t escape, allowing his original self to appear later, or time just corrected itself. Me, I’m going with the latter. Or I wrote this too late in the day and totally forgot about the scene where Savage explains exactly what he did and instead got mixed up with The Time Warrior and other similar stories.
• Although the time portal was supposedly unstable, so how the heck did Savage know where the laptop was going to land? Screw it, I’m just writing this entire mess off to time travel making my head hurt.
• While we’re at it, Savage’s time machine design would show up again in his final appearance.
• I doubt it was intentional, but the fact that this episode ended with Superman hugging Batman and the second season premiere saw them placed at odds with each other right off the mark is a nice contrast.

Line of the Episode: “Kill me? You’re welcome to try.” Vandal Savage, hinting at his true nature.

Flash Line of the Episode: “Bats, you’re starting to scare me.” Starting?

Next time: PHEW! One whole season down. So I’m going to do a wrap-up post, then sit down and watch “Legacy” for the first time in about 10 years. Maybe New Frontier after that.

Next Justice League: Season Two kicks off in style, as Darkseid and the New Gods return for “Twilight”, as the series as a whole gets a LOT darker.

By James Robinson (writer), Mark Bagley (artist)

The Story: The JLA arrive at their headquarters only to find it empty and destroyed in this Blackest Night tie-in.  As they move deeper into unknown danger, they’re confronted not only with former teammates from past incarnations of the team, but a former loved one and a hated adversary as well.

What’s Good: Once they get passed the obligatory Black Lantern info dump at the beginning of this issue, Bagley and Robinson execute an effective opener to the Justice League’s arrival at the Hall of Justice that balances the right amounts of mysterious and foreboding.  Robinson uses this issue to basically write a JLA Haunted House story, and it works well in that respect.  This handling of the story also helps raise the creepy factor, which hasn’t always been high in some of the other Blackest Night crossovers.  Extra credit goes to the writer for a somewhat disturbing reveal towards the end of the story involving a… well, let’s say salt lick and not ruin it for you.

Bagley works a fair amount of magic here with what he’s given.  His double-page spread of the team entering the destroyed and vacant Hall stands out.  He also pencils the heck out of two action sequences in the book.  In the first, he visualizes Red Tornado’s powers in a dynamic and striking way.  The second involves a clever use of Dr. Light’s light-blast that, after a second to consider it, seems fairly obvious considering his murky makeover.  Credit should also be given to colorist Pete Pantazis for this great twist on his power.

What’s Not So Good: You know, you can put them in cool black costumes and transform them into heart-consuming zombies, but that doesn’t make the Justice League Detroit anything more than, well, the Justice League Detroit.  Therein lies the main problem with this issue of JL of A.  I mean, when your principal villain is Vibe, you’re maybe going to have some problems convincing the readers that they should be filled with fear.  Robinson tries his best to give a certain amount of weight to not only the Black Lanterns, but our intrepid heroes as well, but he doesn’t quite pull it off. The script never elevates this installment of Blackest Night above any of the other countless tie-ins out there, and that failure coupled with the C or D-List status of the main characters firmly places this issue ever closer to the bottom of the comic stack.

Nitpicker alert! Um, is Red Tornado mentally deficient?  Isn’t he an android?  Shouldn’t androids be smarter and better than humans or something?  Because this is about the fiftieth time that this guy’s body has been destroyed and it’s insane to me that he’s not better prepared by now.  Yeah, okay, Vibe has the ability to emit shockwaves in concentrated bursts and getting hit with those would suck if you were made of machinery.  However, I’d still be kicking myself at getting my ass handed to me by Vibe of all people.  Gypsy lasted longer than you, man!  Gypsy!  Let this be a lesson to you.  Really.

Conclusion: It’s an improvement from last issue, but the lack of appealing leads and the presence of dull villains continues to bring JLA down.  I look forward to the day that the potential of a Robinson/Bagley Justice League title becomes more than just potential.

Grade: C

-Joe Lopez

You might have enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris’ show-stopping performance as Music Meister on Batman: The Brave and the Bold a couple of weeks ago:

For those of us well-acquainted with the DC Animated Universe, this particular villain may look familiar. That’s because he also makes an appearance as Music Master in Justice League’s two-parter “Legends”:

Gotta love the orange hair, bow tie and buck teeth in both appearances.

But did you know Neil Patrick Harris also guest starred in that same Justice League episode?

That’s right! And he lent his voice to which lucky character…

A) Captain Cold, B) Ray Thompson, C) Green Guardsman, or D) Black Siren?

Click below to find out!

And the answer is…

*drumroll*

Ray Thompson!

Ray Thompson, honorary Justice Guild member and seemingly innocent sidekick…but if you want to know his true intentions you’ll have to watch the episode

"Holy Hijackers, Catman!"

That’s all for now, folks!

–

Music Meister image thanks to World’s Finest. I made the Justice League screencaps, please ask if you’d like to use them.

By James Robinson (writer), Mauro Casciolo & Scott Clark (artists), Adam Schlagman (assistant editor), Eddie Berganza (editor)

The Story: The whole issue is one meeting after another, wherein heroes tell each other what has happened so far and start arguments they don’t finish. The only exceptions to the absence of action are the shocking last three pages of story.

What’s Good: Cascioli’s art continues to blow me away. It is so powerful, that for the first half of the issue, I didn’t realize nothing was happening or that the characters were incomprehensible. The muscle work, texture, shading, skin tones, postures and facial expressions are blowing every other artist in comics out of the water. Incidentally, Donna Troy never looked better. Check out panel 4 of page 1. Now, there’s no dramatic reason for her to be in a bathing suit, but the view is great and the gratuitous T&A distracts from the story problems.

What’s Not So Good: For the most part, I’ve enjoyed Robinson’s work on Superman: World of New Krypton, which was what had me so surprised that Cry for Justice seems to be falling apart before my eyes. I used suspension of disbelief to buy into the idea that some major and central characters in the DCU took up vengeance as a deeply-held value to be pursued to the point that they would break ranks with friends and loved ones. Yet, by issues 4 and 5 of Cry for Justice, Mik and Congo Bill have changed their minds, and Green Arrow is back at the Justice League HQ as if nothing has happened.

Black Canary said it best when she said that these guys only came back because Prometheus is too big to chew on. Now, if you accept the idea that Prometheus, although smart, could really hold out for more than a couple of seconds against Green Lantern, Supergirl or Shazam, then the conviction and depth of our heroes’ beliefs is pretty shallow. If, on the other hand, Prometheus is as weak as he appears to me, then the writer is moving all these characters around for his own ends, and not the story’s.

Either option is bad, but given the other motivational problems and choices in the book, I’d opt for the second. Robinson wants to build his new JLA and he’s doing it here, even if what the characters are doing makes no sense. Let me give you a few incomprehensible character moments: Supergirl, Congorilla, Green Arrow and Black Canary are around a gravely, gravely injured teammate. What do they do? Supergirl cauterizes a dismembered limb and rushes off with Congo Bill to “Get the bastard who did this!” Green Arrow, overcome with grief, wants to stay to help (for god’s sake, someone give him first aid!), but Black Canary, the one he’d been fighting with GA about the whole vengeance thing before, suddenly says “Keep focused. You need to find who did this!” Where did this come from in her? What’s Green Arrow’s response? “Let’s get the son of a bitch” (and leave dear friend dying of shock). There are more. Watch for them.

The issue also feels episodic, with one conversation bleeding into another, with a huge cast, very little momentum and no action until the last pages. Arguments and anger flare and don’t go anywhere. New heroes join the effort with little enthusiasm or explanation required. And worst of all, most of the issue is filled with characters standing around doing nothing.

Conclusion: Art wise, I don’t think there’s another artist in comics I’d rather see right now than Casciolo, but he couldn’t save this issue, and probably not this series. Save your money. Wait until Robinson starts on the main JLA title in 2010. It isn’t really important why some people are on the JLA and others aren’t, is it? Even if you read Cry for Justice, I’m not sure it becomes any clearer.

Grade: D

-DS Arsenault

It’s time for a special Thanksgiving treat courtesy of the Everything But Imaginary players! Step into Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere and accompany us on a quick jaunt just one day into the future, where we travel to the JSA Brownstone in New York. The decorations are hung, the walls are packed, and the aroma of turkey, ham, and Ma Hunkel’s famous Pumpkin Pie fill the air. Three generations of superheroes are gathering, and this year, you’re going to join us for…

Everything But Imaginary #330: Thanksgiving at the JSA Brownstone

Superman/Batman #66
Written by Scott Kolins
Art by Kolins

As it turns out, Bizarro is much more interesting in Black Lantern emotional spectrum vision then he is without it. Haha. I like that he said he was full of rage when the Black Lantern saw love. Nice use of the opposite speech and twisting it to fit Blackest Night perfectly. It was also great to see Frankenstein and the Bride. This was good but a little rushed. It was a quick read.

Some of you may have read my earlier post on Smallville’s upcoming 2-part Justice League themed episode. Word is that this is no longer the case – the CW has decided to make it a 2 hour MOVIE!!! The title for the flick?? Smallville: Absolute Justice. (It has a nice ring to it, huh?)

Additionally, the movie will debut yet another character known in the DC Universe – none other than Hawkman (yay)!

The actor that has signed on to play Hawkman is Michael Shanks – some of you may know him from Stargate SG-1, but I know him from his 4-episode arc as Victor on Burn Notice.  Check out the first picture of our artificially-winged friend:

Here he comes to save the day??

Nice pants guy…

FYI - The airdate for Smallville: Absolute Justice has been changed from January 29 , 2010 to February 5, 2010. (Boo.)  

Lastly, I have also read that Pam Grier will be joining for multiple episodes playing the wonderfully bad Amanda Waller. (Hmmm..not too sure about that.) Yummy tidbit:  Waller was ranked as IGN’s 60th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time in 2009. I’d say Grier has some cracked eggs to fill. What do you think??

Credit once again goes to Michael Ausiello for the scoops… http://ausiellofiles.ew.com

Written by: Len Uhley
Teleplay by: Dwayne McDuffie (Part 2)
Directed by: Dan Riba
Original Airdate: October 4, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: An old military buddy of Green Lantern’s is caught in an industrial accident arranged by his fiancee’s corrupt father that turns him into a freakish-looking master of matter.

Arc Details: This is one of the last true ’standalone’ episodes for some time (there’s a stretch starting with “Eclipsed” in Season Two that isn’t really tied into anything else). Well, it does have a small tie to a futuristic hero we’ve already seen….

Featured Characters: Green Lantern

Debuting Characters: Metamorpho, Sapphire Stagg, Simon Stagg, Java

Other team members: Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, J’onn J’onzz

Background:

The explosion of third-rate independent comic companies in the 1990s always seemed to include a cookie-cutter super-team, comprised of repeated gimmicks. The weapon-wielding bad boy, the chick, the strong guy… and the shapeshifter. While it’s hard to accuse it of being cookie-cutter, the Justice League has had a few that fit that general category over the years, one of whom is the focus of this episode, Metamorpho.

Although Metamorpho is a bit more unusual than the typical DC superhero found in the League, looking at his creation history it shouldn’t be too surprising. Metamorpho was created by Bob Haney, most famous for some very, very trippy Teen Titans stories in the Silver Age. Metamorpho was something of a parody character of the scores of increasingly bizarre superheroes who emerged in the late 60s, complete with the impossibly beautiful girlfriend and her evil father trying to get in the way of their relationship.

Metamorpho was something of a unique character in the DC Universe in that he wasn’t the most selfless man in the world – or, at least, he viewed his powers as a curse rather than a means of helping others, due to being more cut from the mold of the “freak of science” character than anything else. The character is partially a shapeshifter, but also a bit of a science hero, hence the nickname The Element Man. Although never that prominent, he’s been a DC team regular, first with the Outsiders (an appropriate team, as he refused to join the JLA at a time when that was a really big deal), then as a member of Justice League Europe (… yes, Europe…), then finally the final version of the JLA prior to the Morrison era starting. In fact, Metamorpho “died” the first issue of the Morrison series, but as is shown in this episode, he’s not an easy character to kill. Owing to his satirical roots, he’s become something of a comedy character – the bane of all shapeshifters in team books, it seems – but has never really managed to carry his own series for a long run.

… yeah, I know, not much on this one. I probably should’ve talked more about the Outsiders.

Thoughts on the Episode:

Unfortunately, occasionally the constraints of an action show get in the way telling a good story, and this one certainly falls victim to that problem. This story revolves around an interesting character quirk for John Stewart, namely contemplating “the road not taken”, the fact that he’s given away what likely would have been a promising civilian life (the comic John is a successful architect). But… aside from one line from Hawkgirl, that’s all the consideration this gets before the final scene of the episode. I understand the need for a lot of action, especially in the two-part format of this show, but in this case you’d assume that a quieter episode (at least one half) would be merited. But between the introduction of a new hero and a final fight that’s impressively staged if unimpressively dramatic, there just isn’t enough room for a subplot that could have saved the episode. Given this same story in a comic format, the path not taken aspect could have been given a proper followup the next time around, but here it’s dropped because the season finale is looming. Of course, John does explore one of those paths the next time around, although it’s not as glamorous as the one he sees Mason taking.

The strength of the episode is in its handling of Rex Mason’s transformation into Metamorpho. Due to the nature of Metamorpho, Mason was never really developed as a character, but here he comes across as a character straight out of an 80s prime time soap like Dallas – the company executive who’s stealing the bosses’ daughter out from under his nose. While it’s admittedly neat to have a character as blatantly sexy as Sapphire in an animated show (well-voiced by Danica McKellar of The Wonder Years, whose most prominent costars we’ll meet later in the series), Sapphire’s role ihere is actually pretty realistic; she doesn’t try to save the day and in fact probably does more harm than good, but seems fairly accepting of the whole insane circumstance she finds herself in until her father transforms into a literal monster. Actially, rather than Dallas, the whole thing smacks of the Hulk’s origin, even down to the scene in the hospital with Bett… er, Sapphire fainting at the sight of her lover’s monstrous new form. It’s probably the fullest superhero origin in the series, and although it’s pretty different from the sorcery-influenced comic origin, it’s a classic enough storyline that it works.

Part of the problem with this episode is that if a viewer knows that Metamorpho is going to wind up being a hero, having him as the antagonist for the first three-quarters of the show doesn’t really make much of a dramatic impact. Them, when Stagg transform, there just isn’t enough time for the League to set up a battle scene against the monster, aside from the obvious King Kong homages. While the ending is set up very much like a Morrisonian JLA story, with Batman working from a lab and controlling the team in the field, the rest of the League almost feels incidental to the storyline, as they basically bounce off the monster until the finish. Metamorpho does have a decent enough action scene in finishing off the monster, but it’s too little, too late.

When I first saw this episode in 2002, I thought the animation was pretty horrid. Time has dulled that revulsion somewhat, but it does seem to suffer from end-of-season disease (namely, that money is shifted to finales as opposed to the episodes immediately preceding it; take a look at Doctor Who’s end of season episodes like Midnight for a great example of quality episodes done on the cheap). In this case, the episode feels as though it needed some more time getting the action on-screen to flow and have a lot more punch. The biggest problem is that Metamorpho is a character that’s a lot easier to draw than he is to animate, even in stripped-down form, and he doesn’t quite look right at any point in this one. The look would be revised for his brief JLU cameos, but that was too little, too late.

Grade: C-. Maybe I’m being harsh on it, but between Metamorpho’s look just not working in animated form and the episode not really having anything to say about the circumstances or characters, I really can’t stand this one. Things would get better very quickly, however….

Random Thoughts:

• The monster is sort of a version of Chemo, a frequent Doom Patrol bad guy, albeit with less of a visual impact.
• ummm…. just move along. There’s little to point out here.

Next Justice League: Another three part episode to close the first season, The Savage Time

Next Time: Continuing with the main arc, and introducing Supergirl, in “Little Girl Lost”

The marching band is coming onto the field, the coach is giving the Justice League a much-needed pep talk, and the fans have gone to pee. That’s right, it’s the Blackest Night Halftime Show! With the fourth issue of the eight-part epic on the stands, this week Blake and Kenny sit down to talk about the story so far, the various tie-ins, and make their predictions for the second half of DC’s best event in years. In the picks this week, Kenny goes with Vampire Hunter D: Stuff of Dreams and Blake digs the new Fables spin-off miniseries, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@Comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 145: Blackest Night Halftime Show
Inside This Episode:

Did you know that there’s a lot of Blackest Night comics that I haven’t reviewed?  I mean… really.  I guess it’s time to play catch up on our fun mega event of DC.

There’s a lot of zombie bashing both positive and negative after the click.

So, the first batch of miniseries tying around the Blackest Night event ended within the last couple of weeks.

I have to say that really… it wasn’t too much of a success.  Sure, some parts were nice like seeing Deadman for a bit… and then not… and then having Dove suddenly becoming a surprising (even to herself) player in the event.  But, overall, it just didn’t all flow to me.  I think part of it was just that it was all too ridiculous for me. 

Batman was a big stupid stupid fest of stupidness in the last issue where The Flying Graysons and Tim Drake’s dad recreate their deaths in an incredibly elaborate way to get some sort of emotions out of the Big B and Red R.  Then, the whole Mr. Freeze gun/last ditch effort to hide themselves from the Black Lanterns was way too contrived.

Superman was just a big brawl fest.  Plus, the characters were pretty flat.  Sure, it was nice to learn that Superboy’s arm could have fear in it, and to see the Psycho Pirate back (and then his semi-useful mask used as a tool against the Black Lanterns… which crumbles in two frames which took a lot of rereading to figure out).  Overall, the miniseries just accomplished me feeling really bad for Smallville.  Poor one-dimensional stereotypical hickish townsfolk…

Titans was a love affair, hate affair, okay affair.  Part of me could see past the T&A fest when the story was okay, but then the other part of me was super offended.  I like Dove’s new role, but that’s about it.  Plus, it would have been cool to see Raven in this… but she wasn’t there.  Oh well.

Overall, the first batch of miniseries get an okay out of me… not really satisfying but not really terrible… they just don’t equal the power in the main feature.

The next grouping is the first two weeks of the ring promotional deal!  You know, when this was first announced (you’d get a promotional plastic ring with one of the Lantern Corps symbol on it for buying a certain comic) I thought it was a great marketing ploy but I wasn’t too excited to buy some comics that I wouldn’t normally get.  Well, each one of them proved me wrong in their own little ways.

Doom Patrol #4:

Now, I’ve been meaning to read some of the classic Doom Patrol stories, but I just haven’t had the time.  I know there’s a giant mythos behind the group, but I can honestly say that I don’t really know any of it.  Now, all of the promotional books (thus far) have included a memory download for the Black Lantern ring to sort of bring new readers (as in the people just buying the comic for the ring) up to speed.  I don’t really feel that this one completely accomplished that unlike the other two.  Sure, it definitely helped a hell of a lot, but not completely.  Part of me liked the art in this comic and part of me didn’t… It looked good in some instances (most notably how the Black Lanterns have sort of a mummified look to them and the representation of emotions through the Black Lantern’s eyes now used as a common device in all of the Blackest Night books), but bads in others (I didn’t too much like the inking or coloring, really).  The reveal at the end was super interesting with Clifford Steele and has me considering picking up the next issue.  To tell you the truth, I didn’t read the back up feature… I really like J.M. Dematteis especially after Savior 28, but to have a back up feature and then a preview for an upcoming book sort of steals away from the flow.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #10

First things first, I really loved the art in this comic.  The highly stylized use of a thin line and the super cool inking with dashed lines to show texture (especially on faces) was just way too neat.  The facial expressions are over the top and yet spot on.

Anyway, this issue follows Braniac 2 and 3… I knew a little bit about the different Braniacs, but the Memory Download beginning was a nice refresher.  My question was why does Vril Drox (Braniac 2) still hang out with a giant posse (including Kanjar Ro) when he has robots to do his shit for him?

Oh well, the reveal at the end was priceless and shows that something done before in the Sinestro Corps War can be done again and still have a kickass effect.

Plus, Black Lantern Harbinger’s in here… and she’s not that whiny!

I’m definitely considering picking up the next one, and this review’s sort of sparse because the comic mostly speaks for itself.

Booster Gold #26

Now, I have a love/hate relationship with Booster Gold… He’s a showboat who’s now on the right track, but that still doesn’t forgive for his past mistakes of being sort of a stupid character.  Like everyone else (mostly), I feel like 52 definitely vindicated him a lot (which makes me think… are we ever going to see how Animal Man is dealing with Blackest Night?), but there’s still some problems in his comic now.

Despite having an unbalanced relationship with Booster Gold, I’ve always liked Ted Kord Blue Beetle… mostly because the first issue I read with him in it was Infinite Crisis and him being all badass with Max Lord and getting his brains blown out.

Overall, I came out of reading this comic saying aloud “Holy shit! That was a lot better than I thought it would be.”

From Booster revisiting one of his failures to the relationship with the new Blue Beetle, I really thought this issue excelled, and there’s no doubt that I will buy the next comic.  Part of the reason this comic works so well is that we know Ted Kord’s going to come bursting in at some point, but Dan Jurgens holds it off until the end and instead works on developing/reminding the reader of Booster and BBs friendship and characters.  That makes the sickening reveal at the end so much better.

Does anyone else find that Ted Kord’s nose looks really weird and a little uncharacteristic of him in life despite being all decaying…?  Also, couldn’t they have made his costume on the head sink in just a bit to represent the head wound…?

Nevertheless,

Our next grouping is the actual main event players a la Green Lantern, Corps, and Blackest Night.

Green Lantern #47

You know, I really don’t care much about Hal Jordan anymore.  Sure, he’s cool, but he’s just a Batman in space with a ring…  The stars of this book are the other players: Sinestro, Larfleeze, and Atrocitus.  Holy shit do I still want them to stay around when this is all over.  They’ve had such little screen time (excluding Sinestro) that I really want them to play out for much longer.  Hell!  Atrocitus gets his heart ripped out by the Inversions (who look super neat) like everyone else and ends up still living because he doesn’t need a heart because he’s such a badass.

Too bad Abin Sur doesn’t stay around for a bit longer… I guess he’s more important for the ideal and the standard of being the best Green Lantern ever than actually an interesting character.

Unfortunately, this comic doesn’t accomplish what it’s meant to, and that’s making Green Lantern seem interesting… it’s a bit of a sign of bad tidings when your lead character’s outshined by others.

Still, a respectable:

Green Lantern Corps #42

Stuff on Oa increases the shit up… there’s a lot of characters and I feel like only Kilowog gets a decent amount of treatment.

Sure, Kyle Rayner’s sacrifice at the end is pretty neat, but after just seeing something similar with Sodom Yat, the effect is lessened.  Plus, in the whole Origins and Omens thing that came out to get people excited about Blackest Night, Kyle was all painting a mural… So, I know that this isn’t going to last.

I don’t know… this comic just sort of felt like a placeholder in the event to find out what’s happening elsewhere.  Hmm…

Blackest Night #4:

Do the Justice League villains on the front of this cover really play much of a role on the inside… no… but they look cool.

Wow, but isn’t the part in Gotham so neat… Scarecrow just walking around and stares down Black Lantern Azrael (who looks super cool with that hood even if it’s a bit like Black Lantern Hawk).

Then, Luthor’s being a badass.

Then, Mera is suddenly a power player with the Flash and Atom… the new Big Three.  Then, Jason fights Ronnie and makes me want to see what happens.  Then, Atom gives a pep talk that sort of back fires (sadly) but rips a guy apart.

Then, in two pages in creepy near silence, Nekron rises… as does all of Coast City.

Oh yeah, this is what I’m talking about! Whereas Marvel’s direct to DVD animated films have been fairly bland affairs treated with kid gloves, Warner Bros. are giving DC diehards film after film to get excited about. It’s a smart approach that they’ve employed with every recent film, such as Superman/Doomsday, Green Lantern: First Flight and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and it goes a little something like this; don’t bog down the story in exposition but just get straight to what the fans want. Apparently Public Enemies sold like gangbusters, and now Warner Bros. are considering a first for this series; a sequel.

This approach works splendidly, as it’s the fanboys and girls that lap this stuff up and expect the same kind of maturity and action they get from their comics. However, with great extras explaining just who these characters are and revealing a little DC history, newbies need not be overwhelmed, but hopefully intrigued by the DCU.

So, gushing aside, next year’s DVD feature is entitled Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and features a good Lex Luthor from an alternate earth visiting “our” Justice League’s aid in wiping out their evil counterparts, the Crime Syndicate. Trailer below. I said Public Enemies was the best of these films, but I may just have to revise that statement early next year.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #26
Written by Dan Jurgens
Art by Jurgens and Mike Norton

Jurgens is by far one of if not the best artists DC has, why doesn’t he get any appreciation for it?! He is also just as good of a writer. You don’t have to have read anything with Booster Gold before and you would completely understand and enjoy this issue. If you know Booster’s history, you will enjoy it more but that means it is a good use of continuity. I loved every page of this issue. Pick this up if you are a fan or just someone getting into DC through Blackest Night.

Release Date: Spring 2010

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is a 2010 announced original direct-to-video animated film that is based on the abandoned direct to video feature, "Justice League: Worlds Collide" (originally titled "Justice League: Fearful Symmetry"), intended as a bridge between the then-concluding "Justice League" series, and its then about to be launched sequel series "Justice League Unlimited." The movie project was shelved because of insufficient staff to produce the movie and the TV show simultaneously. Crisis on Two Earths was reworked from the Worlds Collide script to remove references to the TV series’ continuity.

The premise of "Crisis on Two Earths" is borrowed from the 1999 Grant Morrison JLA: Earth 2 story, where a heroic Lex Luthor from an alternate universe coming to the Justice League for help against the Crime Syndicate but it is not an adaptation of that story.^[2] The film is the seventh in the line of the DC Universe Original Animated Movies line released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. Written by Dwayne McDuffie of the Justice League (TV Series) fame, it is a modified script by McDuffie for a previously canceled Justice League Unlimited prequel. The film is not a DCAU production in any way, nor is it connected in any way to the previously released Justice League animated film; Justice League: The New Frontier.

Fuente –>

Muchos superpoderes, pero a la larga y como siempre Batman va a terminar salvándolos a todos.

Written by Keith Damron
Directed by Butch Lukic
Original Airdates: September 20 & 27, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: The sorceress Morgan LeFey seeks out the Philosopher’s Stone, but coming into contact with her power causes J’onn to be tempted by the possibility of a reunion with his long-lost family.

Debuting Characters: Morgaine LeFay, Mordred

Focal Character: J’onn J’onzz

Other team members: Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, with Etrigan taking a guest role.

Cameos: Too many at the costume party to track.

Background:

Well, since this is the episode that finally gives us a full Etrigan origin, might as well cover that.

DC has historically not trod in Arthurian legend as much as Marvel, with only a couple of significant characters coming from that period. The original, Sir Justin the Shining Knight, is relatively minor but will get a significant feature role late in JLU. The Demon is the other, created by Jack Kirby during hs 70s DC return as a character based on Arthurian lore – complete with an origin that, as seen here, involves Merlin cursing Jason Blood.

What’s really interesting about the character is that, owing to the passage of time and proximity to magic, Jason Blood has often been written as very capable of performing superheroic acts without even needing to call on Etrigan – again, with the lack of depth in DC’s magic-user ranks, the Jason Blood character offers a lot of storyling possibilities. In fact, Blood has joined the JLA (on an interim basis, back when Nightwing took over the team) with the understanding that the Demon wouldn’t come into the picture. For a character that’s got elements of the Hulk sprinkled into it (Etrigan’s relative malevolence changing depending on the whims of the creative team), it’s a neat hook.

Thoughts on the Episode:

This is a very strange one, but it’s a the first season favourite. It doesn’t really come together into a whole as the structure is more of a series of disconnected scenes rather than one linear narrative. The action jumps from Arthurian times to Batman and Jason in England, to “Mars”, to the hilarity of the party at Hickman’s to the Watchtower to a lengthy battle revolving around a J’onn / Etrigan showdown that serves as the climax. Normally, that would be a recipe for disaster, but the combination of a great four-member team (as noted earlier, both Batman and Flash showing up in an episode usually means that episode will be, at a bare minimum, good) and the fact that the episode’s refusal to pick a tone keeps the viewer guessing somehow works out.

Aside from the individual scenes, though, it’s a bit weird to watch this episode after Harry Potter fever has tapered off a bit and think that this episode hit the air just as it was ramping up into the full-blown pop culture frenzy that made such an impact on this decade. “Knight of Shadows” is built around the Philosopher’s Stone – which admittedly wouldn’t be recognisable as a Potter plot device by any of the Americans watching – which now seems like a bit of a rip-off, but any time a superhero series can leverage myths and legends in order to make a MacGuffin seem a bit more relevant, it’s good for me.

Another notable point in this episode’s favour is that, in what is essentially Etrigan’s third outing in the DCAU, we finally get an origin for him. Before, he was merely a mystic cursed with a demonic “other”, but now the basis for that curse is revealed, in a really nice cold opening featuring a much younger-looking Morgaine, ogres, knights, and even a cameo from Merlin. That Jason wasn’t entirely purehearted could probably have been gathered from his earlier appearances – he certainly seemed to empathise with Batman’s feelings regarding Talia – but the fact that he essentially single-handedly caused the fall of Camelot adds a whole lot of tragedy to his background. That sets up the main thread of the episode: contrasting J’onn’s ability to be tempted by the restoration of his pre-invasion life with Jason’s failure to resist a similar level of temptation.

After Etrigan’s first two appearances were built to through a large proportion of the story in which they appeared, in this story Blood doesn’t waste any time in making the transformation, and basically remains as Etrigan for the entirety. Mind you, Etrigan is a lot more verbose this time around, chatting casually with Batman – well, as casual a conversation as a Demon can have with the Dark Knight – about J’onn’s descent into temptation and what exactly Batman would do in order to come out ahead in the situation. Bruce’s answer, “Whatever. It. Takes”, echoes earlier dialogue of his from both Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond. Of course, even if we hadn’t said it earlier, we know enough about Batman that the answer isn’t surprising.

On the other hand, this is the first real J’onn focus since the premiere (in contrast to the assumption seemingly everyone held when the episode title appeared in listings that this would be a Batman episode), and we do learn quite a bit more about him here. His status as a sole survivor was briefly touched on earlier in conversation with Superman, and J’onn’s desire to see his family again will prove to be eerily reminiscent of Superman’s deepest desire (which we’ll see a couple of seasons from now). It’s not hard to see why J’onn would like to be back on Mars; unlike every other league member, he actually had children killed by the invaders. Sure, there’s orphans left and right, but as we’ve already seen with Aquaman, a parent who has his children threatened is something else entirely. J’onn’s descent into temptation is handled very well, and the resolution – a wayward telepathic attack on Etrigan flooding his brain with Blood’s memories of how Morgaine betrayed her agent – is a natural outgrowth of everything else in this episode.

Of course, with all the tragedy in this, there needs to be some comedy, and while Flash does his usual good job of letting some of the air out of the tension balloon with the occasional acerbic remark, the standout in terms of comedy is… well, let’s not put too fine a point on it: it’s Wonder Woman and Flash visiting the Playboy Mansion, complete with thinly-veiled Hugh Hefner analogue Harv Hickman. In-jokes abound, from the costuming (we’ll see many of these again as the New Gods plotline picks up) tot he people inside the costumes (I think a couple are supposed to be Timm and Dini, or at least their DCAU equivalents who’d already shown up in a Batman episode). Heck, even Wonder Woman gets to be funny, flirting with Harv and then apologising when she takes out his worm form.

The second half of the story is somewhat more conventional – if you can call resetting London to its 8th-century equivalent conventional – as the League first has to deal with the ogre army seen in the cold opening while on board the Watchtower, and then take the fight to Morgaine and Mordred. The revelation that both of them are significantly powerful makes for a nicely balanced battle at the climax, one that the League doesn’t really win.

As noted, you wouldn’t think that this would work in any way, but it somehow remains very watchable, while being very character-focused. The next Justice League episode on the schedule is going to be almost completely the opposite – a plot-focused episode that doesn’t really work in spite of all outward appearances – so I guess the bottom line with these is that looking at this series on surface value alone doesn’t clue you in to much.

Grade: A-. The contrast between J’onn and Jason, which I didn’t really get when I first saw this episode in 2002, raises the episode to amongst the best of the first season. Well, that and Flash interuptting an investigation to hang out in the grotto.

Random Thoughts:

• Before anyone paying very close attention to the credits asks – it’s a different Michael Gough.
• I actually had to look up Flash’s “Cecil” reference. Rare of the writers to somehow out-obscure even me.
• This episode makes it obvious that the only way to get to the Watchtower is the Javelin 7. That slight design problem would be resolved with the second, more elaborate tower at the beginning of JLU.
• I think Etrigan reverting to Blood when J’onn’s psychic attack knocks him unconscious is a goof – generally, it’s been the case that the reversion couplet needs to be spoken to accomplish that.
• Yet another example of the J’onn gambit, even if it doesn’t work this time.
• Sadly, we’d never see Etrigan speaking entirely in rhyming couplets in the DCAU.

Line of the Episode: “I’d love to see your stone, Mr. Hickman.” – Diana’s certainly learnt a bit since “Fury.”

Flash Line of the Episode: “Under that goofy green skin, I guess you’re human after all.”

Next Justice League: One of my favourite DC heroes gets a very mediocre episode to show himself off, in “Metamorphosis.”

Next Time: Back to Batman Superman Batman for a bit – I still need to do “Knight Time”, so that’s up next.

by Blair Marnell – MTV

The upcoming two part episode of “Smallville” featuring the Justice Society is already highly anticipated among fans thanks to the involvement of comic scribe Geoff Johns and the introductions of Hawkman, Stargirl and Doctor Fate. However, Michael Shanks—Dr. Daniel Jackson on “Stargate SG-1” and the newly cast Hawkman—is hinting that the JSA could appear in more than just the two episodes.

Michael Shanks

“The way it’s set up there is a strong possibility that there could be more,” Shanks explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. “I don’t know where they’re going with their season arc, but they certainly set the table. They’ve left that possibility wide open.”

Shanks also confirmed that the reports that he will be portraying the Carter Hall incarnation of Hawkman. Additionally, Shanks revealed that he has already been fitted for his “wings” five times.

“This is what I’ve been doing the most of, is going for fittings and you know, talking to the producers about the character and discussing the elements of the voices. But mostly it’s been focused on the costume and the logistics of the costume,” Shanks related. “Again, it’s a necessary thing. I really appreciate the reverence that these guys have.”

“When you’re a guest character, you’re used to being one of those things that are being ignored,” Shanks continued. “But they’ve really given a lot of thought and reverence to my input, both artistically, talking to (producer) James Marshall about the character and where he wants to see this develop… They’ve given a lot of prep time to work out the bugs, because I believe for ‘Smallville’ and for myself as well, and a little bit for television, kind of breaking new ground with this character and with the logistics of it.”

Shanks also elaborated on how Hawkman will affect Clark Kent’s continuing evolution as a hero.

“Hawkman being the alpha in the Justice Society, being someone who…has made some missteps along the way, can or could represent a type of mentor character to Clark in his leadership abilities with his burgeoning team members of the Justice League,” Shanks said. “He represents a character that has a lot of wisdom to pass down to this next generation, so there is a strong possibility that once the initial phase wears off that there will be a coming together of those two to paint a larger portrait of the future, of what Clark has available to him and what his options are.”

Amazon Specials!

5 out of 5

There’s a new superhero in Gotham, one who wears silver-gray tights and a cape.

And she’s a woman, a bat-woman.

At first it appears she’s here to help, but when she begins targeting the Penguin and Rupert Thorne’s secret arms operation, the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder step in to solve the mystery of the Batwoman.

Who is she? What does she want? And why is it each time Batman thinks he’s solved her secret identity does he find himself back at square one?

As Batman and Batwoman put the strain on the Penguin’s operation, the bird man calls in a deadly force to eliminate them: Bane.

The Bruce Timm-designed Batman series is a staple on the animated superhero genre. The sleek yet angler style’s been used in Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. And in Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, it’s delivered in spades. The art is just simply amazing straight through.

The story is terrific, with twists and turns right up till the end, and no punches are pulled in giving each and every character a level of depth not usually achieved in animated features.

Kevin Conroy is Batman and has the greatest Batman voice out of them all, both live action and animated. His line delivery as the Dark Knight forces you to respect the pointy-eared vigilante and take him seriously. The dude’s got major authority.

Likewise, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred? Wow. Between him and Kevin, these two hold down the film and set the tone for the entire movie. The relationship Alfred and Bruce Wayne share is beyond close and is a stark contrast to the relationships the bat women suspects have with their own family or loved ones.

You know what? All the voices were terrific, not a one out of place. Each suited the character they portrayed, the acting and tone behind their voices never missing a beat.

The stakes are high, the danger’s real and Batman is better than ever.

Go. Watch. Enjoy.