Justice League: War

When it comes to comic books, I tend to lean more towards Marvel. The X-Men got me started reading comics and I count Spider-Man as one of my favorite characters. This love for Marvel bleeds over into other media as well, like the movies and television shows. But even though I consider myself a Marvel zombie, there are a lot of projects from DC Comics that I enjoy, such as the new live-action series, Arrow. With that said, I just saw the trailer for the upcoming DC Animated movie, Justice League: War, and I have to say I'm pretty excited for it.

I was pleasantly surprised when DC relaunched their line and started the New 52; it enticed me to begin buying some of their books again without getting lost in decades of continuity that I didn't have the time or money to catch up on. And one of the titles that really caught my eye was Justice League. Justice League: War is based on the first story arc of the comic series and shows how the Justice League came to be.

As I said, I'm pretty excited for the movie. I like the art direction even though it's a far cry from Jim Lee's epic pencils in the comic book. They gave it a look similar to the Young Justice series which, in all honesty, was a good decision. Young Justice was instantly recognizable without being overly stylized. The adaptation of the story also looks pretty loyal to the comic.

There are a few things I don't like, like a lot of the voice casting. Darkseid just sounds ridiculous. When I see Darkseid in the comics, I hear a deep, resonant voice, tinged with the screams of millions of dying souls. Basically something completely beyond anything human. So to hear him sound like a prime-time newscaster is very disappointing. Seeing that Darkseid is played by veteran voice actor Steve Blum, the same guy who played Wolverine in Wolverine and the X-Men (and almost every Wolverine appearance since), the fact that he sounds so completely unintimidating is doubly disappointing.

I have the same feelings about how Batman is portrayed. In nearly all of his animated appearances, Batman has been carefully cast, with the actor chosen to supply a deep, aggressive voice. But in this, he sounds just as cheery and ol' Darkseid, which is pretty ridiculous. The rest of the voice casting seems pretty on point. Superman, Green Lantern, Flash; you would expect all of them to sound pretty mellow and serene. But Batman? That needs intensity, not soap opera.

I'm not crazy about Wonder Woman's new look, either. It seems like every time we turn around, Wonder Woman looks different. It's like DC is trying to get rid of the iconic look and find something new. In a few cases it works, like her last redesign with the long pants and leather jacket (well, I thought it worked). But this one is just too close to the classic look without enough to differentiate it. It just seems pointless to go with this when her outfit was just redesigned for the launch of the New 52, and done better at that.

The most irritating thing about Justice League: War is the lack of Aquaman. The New 52 Justice League line-up consisted of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman. But here, Aquaman is replaced by Shazam. Given the surprise hit the Geoff Johns-penned Aquaman series was post-relaunch, it doesn't make much sense for them to remove him from the team. Granted, Johns also wrote the relaunch of Shazam for the New 52, but that wasn't even given its own series; the origin was told as back-up stories in Justice League. And, in my humble opinion, they were weak as hell. But Johns was able to take Aquaman, a character that many people consider a joke, and make him interesting. He even played off the fact that most people consider Aquaman a joke and used it humorously in the book. Maybe DC has plans for a future Aquaman animated film? If that's true, I'm not sure it's the best idea, but whatever they do better be good for them to give him the finger like this.

I know I said I was interested in Justice League: War then proceeded to list three pretty heavy strikes against it, but I really do want to see it. Despite its obvious flaws and poor decisions, it looks like it will be decent. I like what DC has been doing with their animated movies so hopefully this will live up to their streak.