DC Comics Classic Collection

Justice League: Season One Blu-ray Review

The Magnificent Seven.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 14, 2011

Bruce Timm appears to be a mild mannered producer, but one has to wonder if he's secretly a super-powered alien from a faraway planet where cartoons are king and episodic television fare isn't just for kiddies and relegated to Saturday mornings. Timm came up through the animation ranks, doing journeyman service for such iconic houses as Don Bluth and Filmation, before finding his true calling at Warner Animation, working with collaborator Eric Radomski initially on theseries. Timm and Radomski then moved on to reenergizing the DC Comics brand with an innovative collection of series and straight to video efforts that includedandand. In 2001 Timm broughtto Cartoon Network. Much in the same way Timm had reinvigorated the two most iconic DC characters, Batman and Superman (you fans of other DC heroes can stop frothing at the mouth, please), Timm wanted to reinvent the frankly cheesy adventures of the oldseries in a new, post-modern light. As is discussed in one of the supplements on theBlu- ray, there's something exciting about seeing a gaggle of your favorite superheroes working together, not the least of which is the feeling you're getting a special bargain by only having to plunk down your dime (and/or five dollars, considering what most comic books go for nowadays) and getting more than just one or two icons for your investment. The fact thatdid involve so many characters actually gave Timm considerable pause, as he discusses in a couple of the brief interview segments included on this Season One Blu-ray as supplements. Timm and his collaborators decided early on that the only way to give sufficient screen time to the seven or so main characters involved in this retooled Justice League was to make all the episodes at least two parters, with a couple of three parters thrown in for good measure. That gave the writers a chance to slowly build character arcs for all of the main players, as well as making sure that none of the heroes was relegated to just a few seconds of screen time in any given episode. The multi-episode format ofis one of its best attributes, allowing a little more exploration than is traditionally the norm in animated fare which is often churned out without a lot of care or nuance.The series gets off to a fun start with the three part "Secret Origins" story, which documents how this iteration of the Justice League comes together. The series starts with Batman investigating some mysterious scientists who are up to no good, and the Caped Crusader is soon joined by the Man of Steel, Superman, in a failed effort to thwart the bad guys.is actually quite interesting in this regardnamely, that the heroes often don't smite the villains right off the bat, and in fact they're often at a loss as to how to proceed to achieve their noble aims. In this arc, Superman is prone to deadly literal "mind games," when he's beset with horrible visions and auditory hallucinations which are ultimately explained as attempts by Martian J'onn J'onnz to contact Superman telepathically, attempts which are being filtered by the bad guys, thus leading to Superman's disorientation. This opening gambit has obvious parallels, strangely, to H.G. Wells', though in this case J'onnz is the last of the Martians and is a good guy, having survived a long ago attack on his home planet by the bad guys, aliens who are now intent on destroying Earth (or at least earthlings and the Sun, which they don't particularly like). The design of the tripod aliens is obviously modeled on George Pal's creature design for the 1950's version of the Wells classic, but the storyline also tips a bit of the DC hat to (again, somewhat strangely) the White Martians of the brand's comic universe.J'onzz's telepathic efforts manage to recruit most of the rest of what will become this reconstituted Justice League, but lovers of the franchise will notice a couple of salient differences to the usual lineup in this first season's episodes. First of all, while Aquaman makes a "special guest appearance," he's not a regular participant. Instead, perhaps as a bow to political correctness, Wonder Woman is not the only female in this new gathering and is joined by the relatively little known DC character Hawkgirl. Also, this particular version features a somewhat cranky African American Green Lantern, one John Stewart (no, notonethis one has an "h" in his first name), also probably a bow to racial diversity and political correctness. The rest of the team is the standard assortment of heroes, namely The Flash, bringing the character count to seven, with Superman, Batman, J'onn J'onnz (also known as the Martian Manhunter), Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern. That's a lot of characters to stuff into even any given two part episode, but over the course of the first season, a surprisingly large amount of backstory and even development for individual characters is given, though (perhaps understandably) in dribs and drabs within the context of individual episodes.Purists may decry some of the changes made to this, as well as the perhaps questionable decision to include some nascent romantic elements between Hawkgirl and the Green Lantern as well as between Wonder Woman and Batman. The startling regularity with which all of these superheroes get knocked down and/or out may surprise those who grew up with more invincible versions of the characters, but that vulnerability adds to the excitement of the overall enterprise. The series is well animated and within the somewhat confining strictures of mass produced television fare is often very well written, with some nice character developments along the way. This may not in fact be your father's(or, as it were), but it's a fun and enjoyable rebooting of a venerable franchise that invests a lot of new life and energy into the DC universe.