Saturday, February 27, 2010

Justice League Crisis Crisis



The new "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths" animated video is certainly a letdown. I give it a B- grade tops.
(In comparison, "Superman Doomsday" was an A- and "Superman Batman Public Enemies" a B+)
Superman was plain mishandled throughout the video and there simply was no majesty or magic to the overall story.
(Single disc suggested retail price is $19.98.)
The "Superman" of either Earth was characterized as a brash thug, who reacts before he thinks.
Even Batman was not up to par, or as slick as he is represented in all other DC animated productions.
There was a lot of mindless kind of fighting throughout, some by villains even I have no idea who they were supposed to be ...
I failed to understand why the nuclear weapon threat from the government was much of a threat in the story to the super-villains either.
I guess the voices were OK, but I don't think there was even one voice that had been used by DC to portray the same character before. I missed the regular Batman and Luthor voices in particular.
The one bright spot was Gina Torres as Superwoman. She was a a perfect fit and style.
It was also NOT true to its title and ended up being a "Crisis on Infinite Earths," not a "Two Earths" saga.
Spoiler: Owlman wanting to destroy all Earths just didn't make sense either.
Spoiler! They way the villains just surrendered at the end to the government was a further insult to a good story.
If DC would have just taken "JLA Earth 2" -- an existing graphic novel -- and just spruced that up, they would have had a much better story, instead of trying to invent a new one that ended up below average.
Listen up DC! You want some great story ideas for future animinated movies? I'll give you three from your own proven graphic novel collection that you'd have to work hard to mess up:
1. How about a spin of "Superman Red Son"?
2. A twist on "Speeding Bullets," with Superman as a Batman?
3. A Tweaking of "Superman: Secret Identity."
(Above images are courtesy of DC Comics.)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Worst Superman stories of the past year?

If you had to get rid of a Superman story of the past year or so from your personal collection (AS IN THE WORST STORY OF ALL), what would it be?
For me, it would hands down be all the Superman and Action comics without the Man of Steel and and featuring all those boring sixth-string characters (and rarely an appearance by Kal-El).
Even the storyline in these mis-titled comics has moved far too slow, only picking up speed in the last month.
I would not miss these comics at all and will probably never re-read them. Sadly, I wasted my money on them ...
A close second would be all those recent Justice League of America comics without the first string of heroes too. Boring, boring, boring.
Do I see a trend here? When will DC wake up and realize these supplemental characters just don't fly on their own? Cramming them in titles where they shouldn't be the stars makes no sense and just makes me mad.
If DC wants to feature these characters, put them as guest co-stars, or give them their own limited series, but quit trying to pawn them off as first stringers.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

"Absolute Justice?" No, "Absolute bore!"

I watched the Feb. 5 "Absolute Justice" Smallville episode and while it was better than I expected with my "smallerville" expectations of the overall TV series lately, it was surprising at the lack of action it featured.
Boring, yes. It was a boring 9.5 on a 1-10 boring scale.
How could you make this 2-hour event and have so little action?
Forget the poor Hawkman costume, or the pitiful treatment of "golden age" DC comics characters. Some daytime TV soap operas contain more non-sexual action than this 2-hour Smallville did. This double-length Smallville had less action than most one-hour Smallville episodes do too!
The only bright spots were the Amanda Waller sub plot and that the Martian Manhunter got his powers back.
And, Clark Kent needs his telescopic vision. He also needs to fly and start using his vast array of powers.
The Amanda Waller angle is intriguing, but the Zod and other Kryptonian plot just needs to go away as quickly as possible. It's boring.