Category: DC Media (DCEU, DCU)

Why am I always the last to hear about these things? I knew that Warners was still trying to figure out a Superman movie, and I’d heard that Batman: Year One was also on the drawing board (so to speak), but I hadn’t heard a ‘Batman vs. Superman’ flick was in the offing.

This is not going to be easy. Comics, especially in the last decade or two, have struggled with how to get these two icons to duke it out without the whole thing ending up as a smear of Bat-paste on the asphalt. Comics have the advantage of lots of static panels. Even cartoons (the “Worlds Finest” Batman/Superman crossover, for example) can get away with a lot of stuff that a live action film cannot.

The other problem is that — fanboy “look at the pretty CGI and other fx” rapture aside — I’ve found superhero films at their best when they are about character. Yeah, Spidey swinging around Manhattan was kind of fun, but what made Spider-Man a great movie was Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. What made Burton’s Batman great was Keaton’s psychodrama performance.

But Batman points out the danger here. It can be difficult in an action flick to give enough “character” time to a single lead role. Make it two lead roles, and you end up short-changing one or the other. Keaton’s Batman was overwhelmed by Nicholson’s screen time and scenery-chewing as the Joker. Dafoe was a supporting role as the Green Goblin, and did well at it, but, really, did we get to know about Norman Osborne all that well?

You might argue that everyone knows who Batman is, and everyone knows who Superman is, so you don’t need half the movie to develop their characters first. Well, yes, you do. Unless you’re going to concede that it’s just a big slug-fest between costumes, you have to provide the background to make the motivation behind the conflict click. “(Superman) is clear, bright, all that is noble and good, and Batman represents the dark, obsessive and vengeful side. They are two sides of the same coin and that is material for great drama,” says the new director for the project. That’s great — but you’re going to have to show it, explain it, make us believe it, before you start trying to make us believe the conflict (let alone believe that either Supes can out-think Bats, or Bats can out-fight Supes).

Tricky, especially if this thing has to be kept at 2 hours.

Coming this fall on the WB is Birds of Prey. It sounds like it is based — loosely — on the quite fine comic book of the same name, though they are playing fast and loose (understandably) with some of the Gotham/Batman stuff.

It could be fun and dramatic, like the book is. Or it could be jiggly dreck.

We’ll see come Wednesday nights.

• Overall grade: B+
• All the negatives I note below are based on the first episode. Which means there’s plenty of opportunity to change and improve things. There are lots of rough edges here that can be sanded down.
• The first episode of a new series is always tough, because you end up spending a lot of time introducing the characters. This one-hour premiere gives them extra time, but it’s still slow slogging. To that end, it’s clear that JL is going to face a problem that neither Batman nor Superman alone did — a wide array of characters makes for more surface presentation of each.
• The animation: Good, but a distinct tick below the Superman grade. Ambitious all the way through, the execution often exceeded the ambition, at least a bit. I’m trusting that this will improve with time, as the show’s behind-the-scenes processes and personnel get into the groove.
• The music: Bleah. It varied between barely-passable Epic Heroic to pretty tinky electronic fight stuff. Both Batman and Superman had excellent accompaniment, and I believe that in an animated show, what you hear is as almost as important as what you see.
  The story: Why not trust Superman to disarm the world and protect it himself? Because, when the going gets tough, he ends up getting slapped down by energy beams again. So he needs pals — “What, like a group of super friends?” Flash quips. Throw in ancient Martian civilizations and homages to War of the Worlds and Independence Day, you’ve got what should be a pretty exciting episode. Alas, there’s a bit too much deus ex machina to hold things together when the “Who are you?” questions get asked.

• Batman: Still the brains of the group, and the aloof brains as well. Classic Bats-in-the-JL problem: with all the cosmically powerful types lurking around, how do you take a (highly-trained) mere human and make him a reasonable competitor? By brains, usually, as “the World’s Greatest Detective.” Or by making him a mysterious character who will only show up when it’s appropriate. Bats, by the way, looks more 30s in style than in previous incarnations — extra-long ears, “structured” cape and all.
• Superman: It’s going to take a while to get used to the “new” voice — the voice artist is trying too hard to be heroic, and doesn’t seem to have the range that the previous one did. Given Supes’ key role in the JL, that’s going to be a problem. That aside, Supes spends a lot of time getting slapped down, hard, by various powerful energy beams. Ouch. But it’s the classic Superman problem: when you’re the most powerful hero of them all, how do you keep from showing up everyone else? By showing that he can get zapped as well as the next guy. Problem is, you do that too much, you stop thinking of him as that powerful of a guy …
• Wonder Woman: It’s a bit strange seeing WW as the “rookie.” She does okay, though. They simplify her origin, but keep the important parts (though I always pronounced Thymiscera with emphasis on the second syllable, not on the first and third). The voice artist needs to give her a bit more oomph — some of her “Hera help me!”s are a bit weak — but they haven’t shied away from the idea of a modern character praying to the Greek gods.
• Hawk Girl: They’ve kept her as Thanagarian (will we get to see her husband?), which means the JL has three aliens on staff — or more, if you consider how much time GL spends in space, or if you think of WW as an alien in her own right. She’s definitely a warrior woman, even more than WW, which is kind of odd in places. She swings a mean energized mace, and actually flies with animated wings that don’t look too goofy.
• Green Lantern: Even though he’s named John Stewart, this GL is nothing like that DC character. Instead, he comes across as a military man, shouting orders and plotting strategy. (Interestingly enough, the other actual military man in the cartoon is also black.) It;s an odd change, but one that I can get used to, since it potentially makes sense. The drawback is that there’s little imagination to GL’s use of his ring — blasts, shields, and flying bubbles, that’s it. Which is a shame, because he could be one of the more dynamically visual characters.
• Martian Manhunter: Since this episode deals with his introduction and origin, you’d think we’d get a good feel for Jonn Jonzz (which they keep from sounding too goofy by making the “j” sounds more like “zh”). Well, we do get to know more about Mars, and the origin actually works, sorta, but we don’t end up getting any better feel for him at the end than we did when he first appeared. His powers have been reduced to telepathy, “ghosting,” flight and shape-shifting. He has potential … but just potential.
• Flash: As in his Superman appearance, Flash here is brash, obnoxious, and the guy whose one-liners keep the dialog from being grim and boring. His main problem is that he doesn’t really do that much except dodge stuff. They’re going to need to find some more interesting uses for super-speed (another power liable to editorial abuse) if they want his participation to be meaningful.
• Group dynamics: The team is surprisingly aggressive in places — both GL and Hawk Girl are take-no-prisoners types. It’s not clear why these are the characters being pulled together to form this team (nor where the other metahumans were during the festivities), but JL is not the first animated show to beg that question. So far there’s little basis for a “team” — but that doesn’t stop them from creating one.

So … a rough but acceptible beginning. I’m not overwhelmed, but I’ll be checking out the next episode Monday night.

And I expect it run longer than Howard Stern’s TV show did. If there’s justice.