Pitching the JUSTICE LEAGUE Movie

Given the success of not only Avengers but the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s not surprising that other companies would attempt to copy the idea of an integrated superhero universe: Fox has hired Mark Millar to piece together a Fantastic Four and X-Men-focused universe, and Warner Brothers, of course, is trying to figure out how to pull off a DC Cinematic Universe.

It seems like the DC Universe should be easily translatable to the big screen as you’ve got massively iconic and famous characters ready to roll, yet it seems every few days there’s another story about how the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie is having more difficulty getting off the ground than a pig flapping it’s legs. Warner Brothers put a stake in the ground for 2015 but that seems impossible given the recent news that the script they had commissioned by Will Beall (the writer of Gangster Squad) is terrible.

There have been plenty of rumors about directors (Ben Affleck, Ridley Scott) but no one has signed on.

Think about that for a moment. We’re talking about a film that has the honest potential to be the highest grossing film in the history of history, and WB can’t get a director to sign on for the project.

Why?

I think it’s because the time isn’t as perfect as everyone in corporate thinks it is to get that JUSTICE LEAGUE movie off the ground. For starters, the company’s two biggest characters are at completely opposite ends of the cinematic spectrum. Batman has just finished his most recent trilogy, and there’s been no indication that either Christian Bale or Joseph Gordon-Levitt has any real interest in pulling on the black latex.

Which, to be honest, is a good thing. Nolan designed his Dark Knight trilogy around the idea that there was no other superheroes in the world but Bats, and so building off that world sets a bleak, unforgiving tone. How is Metropolis, Star City, Coast City, and Keystone City when Superman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and the Flash set up shop? And given how Bruce Wayne ran away like a selfish coward at the end of Dark Knight Rises to go live in seclusion with Anne Hathaway and leaving “his” city to fend without his expertise, are we really going to want to watch Bruce hobble around complaining about his bum knee and back for 2 hours?

Probably a good idea to leave the Nolan Batman collecting dust on everyone’s Blu-ray shelves and start new. Batman is as close to a sure-thing as cinematic superhero projects get, so there’s not the same risk in starting over with a new Batman as there would be, say, trying to do Avengers with someone other than Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark.

If WB is going to start new, the upcoming Man of Steel Superman relaunch would seem to make for the ideal launching point. This presents some problems, too. One, we don’t know if the movie is going to be any good and/or if Henry Cavill is going to be the type of actor you can build a multi-film, multi-billion dollar franchise around. To be fair to Cavill, he could turn in the greatest ever superhero performance or the worst ever superhero performance. We just don’t know. To be doubly fair to him, it’s not like Marvel attempted to build the Avengers franchise around Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, either. They built it around Downey, who has the personality and presence and desire to be a centerpiece.

Superman and Batman are hugely popular superheroes, of course, but I don’t know if either of these characters has the presence to lead a cinematic universe. Bats lives in the shadows and Superman is short on personality. Do you really want to build a whole cinematic universe in 2013 around a guy whose idea of fun is flying home to see his mom?

The other problem with building the JUSTICE LEAGUE around Henry Cavill’s Superman is that it’s being directed by Zack Snyder. Now, I love Snyder’s visual approach, even when I’m not crazy about his movies. We don’t know how Man of Steel is going to look and feel in total. I’ve described the vibe in the trailers as Thin Red Line-esque, which is great for me because The Thin Red Line is the best war movie of all time. I think something quiet and contemplative can make for an excellent Superman film, but I personally don’t want to see that tone carried through all of the films.

Now, we don’t know if that tone will be the dominant tone in Man of Steel, either. It’s a bad idea to rush to judgment about a film based on the trailer.

But look at the Marvel movies – all of them feel like they’re taking place in the same universe. They have a similar look and feel and it helps, if you’re going to build a cinematic universe, to have a style that’s all your own. DC and Warner Brothers don’t need to do this, of course, but it helps, which is why I’ve been arguing they need to appoint their own Kevin Feige before they go ahead and find someone to direct JUSTICE LEAGUE. Putting one person in charge of everything can only help the franchise and ensure that the films feel like they’re taking place in the same world. Warners could likely attract a big name director (not that they need one – Marvel built their success on hiring quality rather than names) if the director knew there was someone in charge to help facilitate the sprawling franchise.

The first question that needs to be answered, of course, is whether to follow the Avengers model and do solo movies that lead into a team movie, or work it in reverse, by doing a team movie that feeds into solo films.

I’ve gone back and forth on this idea. Originally, I thought they should do the JUSTICE LEAGUE film first and then spin movies off of it. This would allow WB to determine which characters and actors have the most momentum with fans. If they’d done this with the Avengers, it’s possible we’d get a Black Widow movie instead of a Thor movie. Given that WB has need of a new Batman and hasn’t committed to a sequel for Green Lantern, this idea still makes a lot of sense. The risk, of course, is that if you do JUSTICE LEAGUE first (or second, given the existence of Man of Steel) and it bombs, you could screw the franchise. Marvel had time to develop its style and feel over the course of multiple films and build momentum through the linking mechanism of Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and SHIELD.

I think the slow rollout is the better idea, but I also think there’s no way Warner Brothers is going to make us wait four or five years or so while we get a Superman movie in 2013, then Flash in late 2014, then Wonder Woman and Green Lantern in 2015, Batman in 2016, and then Justice League in 2017. I don’t even know if they can get a movie out by the end of 2014.

What WB really needs to do, of course, is just stop, take a breath, figure out a strategy, and then go about executing it. Forget about release dates or artificial deadlines or hiring people to do individual films until they hire someone to oversee the entire catalog and let them get to work. The fans and the money will be there.

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Over on the Better in the Dark Facebook page, the JUSTICE LEAGUE film has generated decent discussion and so I offered a writing challenge for people to submit their pitches for a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. Both David Ellis and Sean Taylor responded, and here are their pitches.

First up, David Ellis:

This might be too long but, here’s a Justice League movie pitch: SUPERMAN, BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN, GREEN LANTERN, THE FLASH, and AQUAMAN are each established in his or her respective status quo (it’s assumed that each of them has been operating for at least a year, and spin-off movies could show what happens afterward or backtrack and show origins, depending on the preference of each spin-off project). One deep-voiced narrator informs another narrator about what makes each of them tick. Two things keep the info-dump interesting: the sight of each of them doing extraordinary things alongside ordinary activities, and the revelation that the deep-voiced narrator turns out to be J’ONN JONZZ. The other narrator, a roboticist named PROFESSOR ARTHUR IVO, has captured the shape-shifting Martian and has trapped him in a machine designed to boost his telepathy to a near-global level in order to learn (in short bursts) as many secrets as possible, including the secret of immortality and unlimited power.

J’onn focuses on the heroes’ nobility and humanity, while Ivo is only interested in their power and weaknesses; Ivo sends robotic minions to test and distract the heroes. J’onn is being caused incredible pain even as he struggles to maintain his sanity; he manages a distress call to the heroes, who converge and try to rescue the Martian. They find that Ivo has figured out a way to be immortal: he’s downloaded his consciousness into the AMAZO android, which is able to duplicate the heroes’ abilities based on J’onn’s intel (supposedly all of their strengths, but none of their weaknesses). After an initial defeat, the heroes butt heads with each other and learn how to work as a team, in the process utilizing aspects of their character that J’onn had revealed as strengths but Ivo had previously dismissed as inconsequential. Amazo is destroyed, and in the aftermath the heroes decide to band together to form a permanent team. In the stinger at the end of the movie, Ivo’s consciousness has survived; it’s been uploaded into an alien computer system, which is scanning his memories for useful data. The computer turns out to be aboard a skull-shaped starship belonging to BRAINIAC.

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Second to go, Sean Taylor:

Mine would be far different than most for a JL movie.

We begin a knee-deep in the middle of an all-out war with an alien race that is not from Apokolips (perhaps the Dominators or the one from Legion Lost original series). In the first five minutes, the League goes down. The first to get handed his butt is Superman, followed by Green Lantern Hal Jordon, but in the end, they all go down … HARD. Which leads to the guerrilla war that takes up the bulk of the movie, led by not the core seven but the extended JL (led by GL John Stewart, and consisting of Fire, Green Arrow, Metamorpho, Nightwing, and a core group of B-Listers). They search out other heroes now hiding away from the invaders and build up a group to rescue the core seven from the alien invaders. In Act III, the JLUnlimited frees the JLCore and together they kick some alien butt, teaching the Core JL that they’re not the end-all-be-all in superheroes and they decide to open up League membership to the other deserving heroes.

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And finally, the pitch from me, Mark Bousquet, operating on the premise that this is the first DC Universe movie post-Man of Steel:

Cast: Superman (Clark Kent), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Wonder Woman (Diana of Themyscira), Green Lantern (John Stewart), Flash (Wally West), Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol), and Green Arrow (Oliver Queen).

Space. War. Green Lanterns vs. Red Lanterns. The battle has raged for years and has now come close to the planet Thanagar. Both sides are exhausted and near defeat. Hal Jordan is missing. Debate rages in the Thanagar capitol over whether the planet should get involved. The ruling class wants no part of it, while the Wingmen security force believes it’s their duty to help their comrades in arms, the Green Lanterns. This faction is led by Katar Hol, who makes a passionate plea before the council. He leaves and the council turns to their secret adviser: Sinestro the Yellow Lantern, who has ingratiated himself into Thanagar politics. Sensing an opportunity to grow his own power, he convinces the council to let Katar and the other Hawkmen go. When the Hawkmen join the fray and tip the battle in favor of the Green, Sinestro calls Parallax forth and he decimates both sides and takes control of Hol. Wanting revenge on Hal Jordan, Sinestro claims leadership of the Hawkmen and orders Parallax to Earth. The Thanagar elite are happy with thoughts of conquest, but Katar’s wife, Shayera, is disgusted by this and steals a Wingmen outfit and uses some Rann tech to beam to Earth. Unknown to her, the Green Lantern for this section is killed and the ring was seeking her out, accidentally hitching a ride to Earth with her. When she appears on Earth, she immediately finds herself in the middle of a fight in Star City between Green Arrow and Deadshot. The villain uses her appearance as cover to exit, shooting her square and knocking her out.

This leaves Oliver Queen with a strange woman in a coma and the question of what to do. Any thoughts of taking her to the hospital are immediately erased when he sees the Green Lantern ring zip away. Recognizing this “Hawkgirl” is an alien, he takes her home, knowing he needs to get help, and knowing he has to ask for it from people he cannot stand.

We cut to Keystone City where kids are wandering around the Flash Museum. Everything is Barry Allen related, including the big statue out front honoring him for giving his life when the world was in crisis. A news report breaks in, telling us there was an explosion at the police station. Kids are being huddled together when all at once every window in the museum shatters. Glass rains down. People scream. And then just as the glass is about to hit the kids, the danger is passed. People look around to find all the fallen glass placed in a corner and Barry Allen’s costume missing. The green lantern ring is seen floating away in the aftermath.

Metropolis. Day. Overrun by demons. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman fight to stop Hades and some massive demons. The demons are defeated. Hades is defeated. The heroes turn to leave … and an arrow whizzes straight past Batman’s ear. Superman and Diana rush forward, but Batman tells them to stop. They do. “You can come out, Oliver Queen.” Green Arrow emerges, a smirk on his face, and points behind them, where they find Lex Luthor stuck to the wall with an arrow in his shoulder and some kind of crazy tech gun in his hand. Ollie tells them he needs their help and explains Hawkgirl. Luthor is apprehended and they leave.

The ring follows them out but as it moves past a broken piece of the building, a large chunk falls. The pauses, watches it go, and way down on the street, a man runs into harm’s way to save a group of people from being crushed. The ring descends, and follows the man home.

In Star City, Hawkgirl awakens, tells them what’s coming and and Superman agrees to fly into space to see what he can find. On the moon, he runs into Parallax, who takes him over and leaves Katar for dead. He returns to Earth and after a huge battle, defeats Batman in Gotham and Wonder Woman in Washington, D.C. He holds them both aloft and declares himself the conqueror of Earth when the new Green Lantern and the new Flash arrive separately and battle Superman hard. They can’t beat him, but they do manage to get Parallax out of him.

They feel good, someone cracks a joke about getting schawarma, but then Superman tells them all of their individual cities are under attack and they split to find themselves facing both Yellow Lanterns and Hawkmen. They’re outmatched, overwhelmed, and barely able to keep themselves going. Batman realizes they have to team up and go after Parallax and Sinestro directly, even though that means sacrificing their cities in the short term. The heroes can’t stand doing this and they tell Batman to come up with another plan.

That’s when Superman hears a voice in his ear. “I can help,” says Luthor from his prison cell. “How?” Superman asks in the middle of battle. “Haven’t you wondered how I was able to hide from you during the fight with Hades? Break me out of prison and I’ll give you victory.” Superman does. At Luthor’s office, he activates his teleport tech and disappears. Superman curses, but then he hears Luthor’s voice. “Look up, up, and away.” Supes does and discovers Lex Luthor standing on the bridge of the Watchtower, a massive space station in Earth’s orbit. Batman and Luthor work out a plan to get the Lanterns and Hawkmen into space, and the final battle is a big space brawl taking place both in space and in the Watchtower. The heroes (and Luthor) win, but Parallax escapes to Earth. They go after him and he takes over all of their minds, forcing them to fight their biggest fears. The heroes are getting beat until they start to join together and fight each others’ fears. They win, defeat Parallax, crows goes wild.

Reporters roll up on them. Lois Lane questions whether they’re a team or whether this was a one-off. Superman says, “As long as there’s a fight we cannot handle alone, we will work together.”

“So you are a team?” Lina Park asks.

Superman starts to say no when Lex Luthor splits the group to stand in front of the reporter. “We are most definitely a team, Ms. Park.”

“And what do you call yourselves?” Lois asks, rolling her eyes. “Luthor’s Legion?”

“Do not be silly,” Lex replies charmingly. “This is bigger than me. We are … the Justice League.”

Lex is the only person smiling.

Epilogue. The camera zooms across a planet of fire and metal and death before zooming beneath the surface. We hear screams of pain and sounds of torture. The camera zooms into a room and comes to rest behind the hooded head of a man promising another man that this is only day 47 of his torture.”

“Is that all, Desaad?” an unseen voice asks. “How many days do I have left?”

“Eternity minus 47,” the torturer smiles. “Now, let us see if we can remove that sparkling ring today.”

And we see that chained to the wall in yellow energy resides the battered, bruised, and broken body of Hal Jordan.

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And that’s what we’ve got, folks. Any ideas on how you’d do a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie? Go ahead and post them below in the comments. Heck, if you’ve got two ideas, post them both. My pitch is how I’d do it today, but by tomorrow I’ll have another way I’d go. Thanks for reading.

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And if you like superhero movies, please check out:

Atomic Reactions: Marvel Comics on Film coming soon.
Image and book copyright, Mark Bousquet, 2012

The paperback version of ATOMIC REACTIONS: MARVEL COMICS ON FILM is now available for purchase at Amazon. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. Thanks for reading, everyone.

Taken from my reviews here, MARVEL COMICS ON FILM contains every single one of my Marvel reviews, and covers every single instance of Marvel Comics on film that I’m aware of.

Here’s the book’s Table of Contents:

Table of Contents

Fade from Black

Part One: The Marvel Cinematic Universe
1. Iron Man (2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (2010)
4. Thor (2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
6. Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)

The Avengers Reactions
1. The Hawkeye Reaction
2. The Agent Coulson Reaction
3. The Black Widow Reaction
4. The Nick Fury Reaction
5. The Maria Hill Reaction
6. The Captain America Reaction
7. The Chitauri/Thanos Reaction
8. The Hulk Reaction
9. The Thor Reaction
10. The Loki Reaction
11. The Iron Man Reaction

Marvel One-Shots
1. The Consultant, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, and Item 47

Part Two: Spider-Man
The Sam Raimi Trilogy
1. Spider-Man (2002)
2. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
3. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

The Marc Webb Relaunch
4. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Part Three: The X-Men
1. X-Men (2000)
2. X2: X-Men United (2003)
3. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
5. X-Men: First Class (2011)

Part Four: Blade
1. Blade (1998)
2. Blade II (2002)
3. Blade: Trinity (2004)

Part Five: The Punisher
1. The Punisher (1989)
2. The Punisher (2004)
3. Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Part Six: The Fantastic Four
1. Fantastic Four (1994)
2. Fantastic Four (2005)
3. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Part Seven: Ghost Rider
1. Ghost Rider (2007)
2. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

Part Eight: Daredevil & Elektra
1. Daredevil (2003)
2. Elektra (2005)

Part Nine: The Non-MCU Avengers
1. Captain America (1944 serial)
2. Captain America (1990)
3. Hulk (2003)

Part Ten: The Nexus of All Realities
1. Howard the Duck (1986)
2. Man-Thing (2005)

Part Eleven: The TV Movies
1. Captain America (1979)
2. Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979)
3. Dr. Strange (1978)
4. Generation X (1996)
5. The Incredible Hulk (1977 pilot)
6. The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)
7. The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989)
8. The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990)
9. Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1998)
10. Power Pack (1991)
11. Spider-Man (1977 pilot)

Part Twelve: The Marvel Animated Movies
1. The Invincible Iron Man (2007)
2. Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme (2007)
3. Hulk Vs. (2009)
4. Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)
5. Planet Hulk (2010)
6. Thor: Tales of Asgard (2011)
7. Ultimate Avengers (2006)
8. Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006)

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS: Some Shows From Your Childhood Have Not Aged Well

Challenge of the Super Friends (1978) – Season 3 of the Super Friends animated series – Starring Batman, Superman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai.

When looking at CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS, it’s important to remember two things: 1. it was made in the mid-to-late ’70s, and 2. it was made for kids.

When I keep this in mind, I can enjoy the singular episodes well enough. CHALLENGE offers up the Justice League of America versus the Legion of Doom every week, and it contains one of the great openings in Saturday morning cartoon history. It never gets old watching all of the various team ups and hero vs. villain combinations, which is good because this is a highly formulaic show: the Legion of Doom comes up with a crazy plan, they temporarily succeed, the JLA recovers to defeat them, the Legion escapes.

I originally bought the DVD a couple years ago and dutifully sat down to watch each episode. “Wanted: The Super Friends” kicks things off and it involves the Legion using some kind of dream brainwashing to get the Super Friends to commit a bunch of robberies for them. The Legion has the JLA (I’m not going to keep writing Super Friends because it takes longer than writing “JLA” and it sounds stupid) bring all of the goodies back to the Hall of Justice. The next day, a cop calls the JLA on their monitor telephone and tells them they need to turn themselves in. Superman says, “We need to do it or everyone will think we’re guilty.”

Just like Supes – giving a crap what the public thinks.

The JLA dutifully turns themselves in and gets locked in a single jail cell. The cops are all, “We know you can break out, so we’re holding you to your word to stay locked away.” Batman makes the case that they need t be let out to figure out who’s behind all this, when one of the two cops before them goes all Mission: Impossible and pulls off his mask to reveal … Bizarro!

How’d he learn to talk normal?

It doesn’t matter because nothing matters in CHALLENGE beyond the coolness of the idea.

Don’t believe me? Well, that jail cell the Super Friend (d’oh!) are in actually has rockets on the bottom and the Legion sends the jail cell full of Super Friends blasting off into space!

Yeah, really.

In one or even two-episode chunks, this is still tolerable for me because it’s got enough nostalgia and fanboy thrill to be entertaining. When I watch more than that, however, it can get a bit too much to bear. Everyone is just so … stupid. And everyone says everything out loud. When I was five, this was probably necessary for me to get what was happening. Now? Not so much.

This isn’t to say I hate CHALLENGE. But, much like the two 1981 Spider-Man cartoons (the one with his Amazing Friends and the one without), it can get a bit tedious.

That’s to be expected, of course, because I’m not five anymore, but that doesn’t mean I have to tolerate it. There are so many good superhero cartoons that have been created since 1978 that CHALLENGE is little more than a tasty nostalgic snack. Like any snack, if you try to make a meal out of it, it doesn’t work so well.

There are some really good episodes here, though. “Secret Origins of the Super Friends” sees the Legion of Doom going back in time to prevent Diana, Hal Jordan, and Kal El from turning into Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman, respectively. It’s pure fanboy joy to see Cheetah become Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor become Green Lantern. There’s “Conquerors of the Future,” when the Legion of Doom pretend to be good in order to take over the Earth in the future.

It’s a bit of a downer to see the Toyman instead of the Joker, and it’s always a shame to see Luthor eschew business suits for his Flash Gordon Meets Green Goblin outfit, but it’s so nice to see Sinestro, Black Manta, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, and Grodd that those are small complaints. It’s not like the Toyman is awful (he’s actually quite fun and makes complete sense in a kids’ cartoon to have a character like this) and while Luthor might look like a narc trying to bluff his way into Studio 54, he’s still coming up with plans so crazy only a diabolical genius/idiot could come up with them.

The series ends with a bang, with three really good episodes: “Doom’s Day,” where Sinestro, Black Manta, and Cheetah get all angry at being abandoned by the Legion of Doom and go rogue; “Super Friends: Rest in Peace,” which sees the entire Justice League killed; and “History of Doom,” where three aliens come to Earth to find everything destroyed – including the Super Friends.

How do the Super Friends get out of this?

Well, the aliens turn back time and save the Earth.

Well done, Super Friends?

There’s a lot of good here, and if you grew up watching CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS, I can’t see why you wouldn’t get a kick out of this series all over again. Just don’t expect it to blow your mind this time around.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER: Where the World Puts Aside Its Differences to Fight Dinosaurs

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) – Directed by Dave Bullock – Starring David Boreanaz, Miguel Ferrer, Neil Patrick Harris, Lucy Lawless, Kyle MacLachlan, Phil Morris, Kyra Sedgwick, Brooke Shields, and Jeremy Sisto.

I’m so over the superhero origin movie that it’s a credit to THE NEW FRONTIER that I enjoy this origin of the Justice League movie as much as I do, despite a premise that’s basically, “What if the Justice League were the X-Men, but set in the 1950s instead of the 1980s?”

Yep, it’s a “world that fears and hates them” story. Batman makes a kid cry even after saving his ungrateful ass. Wonder Woman says the United States used to be right but now they’re wrong. The Martian Manhunter hides his Martian-ness, as the government prepares to send bombs to Mars to potentially blow the crap out the Martians. The Flash retires so no one hurts the people he loves. Superman wonders where it all went wrong.

Sounds depressing, right?

It’s not. FRONTIER is certainly a more serious, somber approach to an animated movie than the general fare, but it’s also more compelling. There’s perhaps one too many characters to focus on (they could have easily just dumped the Flash or Wonder Woman and it wouldn’t matter), but that’s a small complaint in an otherwise fantastic movie.

What makes FRONTIER work is that the world may be a bit of a downer for superheroes, but the characters are all at different emotional places. Superman is the guy lamenting what’s happened – he’s confused and a bit depressed and doesn’t know what to do. There’s a really nice heart-to-heart with Lois about what’s going on, but this Superman is really no more of a leader than most versions of Superman. It’s one of the reasons he annoys me so much as a character – he’s an inspiring figure to so many people but he can’t ever do anything tangible with it. Some of that is the convention of superhero comics in a shared universe, but here we’ve got the connected between the world and its heroes severed and his response is to get confused about it, but because DC is so protective of their Sainted Cape, we rarely get to examine all of the flaws, or if we do everything just goes back to being normal.

Here, he’s disappointed with what Wonder Woman does when she allows female POWs enact revenge on the men who’d captured and tortured them. Supes can’t understand why Diana didn’t stop them, but Diana’s take is that it’s not her job to stop them from seeking their own justice, so she steps back and allows the women to kill their captors. What does Superman do about it? Well, he says he disapproves and in response Diana tells him to shove off and squeeze some coal into diamonds and then cry about, so like a good little lap dog, he just flies away and looks for someone else (Lois) to tell him what to do.

If you look at FRONTIER top down and ask, “What is this movie trying to get across?” and then look at the characters and try to find the one whose arc best matches that, it’s Diana, I think. She’s disillusioned, she’s angry, she’s playing the pouting goddess, and her response is to half-act – she’ll save the women because that’s the right thing to do but she won’t stop them from taking their revenge in blood. The decision to enact either revenge or moral justice is a powerful question and always has been, and I would have liked to see Diana struggle with that more – as it is, her arc is implied rather than fronted.

J’onn gets accidentally beamed to Earth and since he can’t get back, he changes his shape and becomes a cop. He hides his powers but uses them to help solve crimes and do good things and it’s just not all that interesting. I feel like this is the one arc that needs to have either been amped up or toned down, or at least made to jibe a little better with what happens to him when he’s captured by the government and decides he’s just going to sit in his cell.

Batman is just going about his work, trying to still do what needs to be done; he wants to think how the world views him and the other heroes doesn’t matter, but when the kid he saves is just as much, if not more afraid of him than the cultists who were going to sacrifice him, he realizes that he needs to make changes to his approach. So he gets a teenaged sidekick.

Of course he does. The silliness (or wrongness) of it is probably worth it just to hear him growl in response to Supes’ question as to why Robin exists: “I don’t do this to scare kids.”

So he gets a slightly older kid to run around in short shorts? Makes complete sense …

The real star of FRONTIER is Hal Jordan. Hal doesn’t like to shoot guns and kill the enemy during the war, but is forced to when he crashes and an enemy combatant tries to kill him. He spends some time in treatment for mental stress related to the war, but he’s able to find employment with Ferris Industries as a test pilot who (unbeknownst to him) is actually being tested and trained for the mission to Mars where (unbeknownst to him) he’ll be carrying enough weapons to blow the crap out of the Martians if they look at us funny.

Hal is the most fully realized character here with the best personal and narrative arc and I would have been plenty fine with seeing more of him and less of everyone else.

As it is, however, FRONTIER is still such an excellent movie that I’m even willing to overlook the big fight at the end coming off like the end of Independence Day except with dinosaurs instead of aliens. FRONTIER is really effective at having this sense of unease running through everyone and them reacting to it at different levels. It’s the first time I’ve watched a DC animated movie and thought they should have broken out of the 75 minute format and expanded it by a good 15 just to layer in more depth with the individual character arcs, but that’s a bit like saying you liked your Quarter Pounder with cheese but wish you could have had a Quarter Pounder with cheese and bacon.

I like how the DC animated movie adaptions often emulate their source art style, and if that means you occasionally get some less-than-spectacular Michael Turner-inspired art, it also means you occasionally get some completely spectacular Darwyn Cooke-inspired art. The look of FRONTIER is gorgeous and the use of the old school costumes adds to the uniqueness of this movie.

DC has gone with the star treatment in voices and they work well enough, especially David Boreanaz as Hal, which I thought was going to be a disaster but wasn’t.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER isn’t a perfect movie but it is a really, really good movie, where it’s faults are less about what it does give you than what it might have given you with more room to grow.