It’s happening – we’re getting a new DCAU movie…we think. When does it take place? Can it fit within established continuity? And what is up with Miss Martian?!

Well. After much speculation, we finally have an official look at the Justice League vs the Fatal Five movie, and my god, I cannot stop looking at this thing.



So, let’s hop in and analyze the sh** out of it because that’s what we’re here to do and you know it.



The very first thing we see if Mr. Terrific lookin’ terrific as hell, exactly how we saw him in JLU. He’s voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson instead of Michael Beach, but I’ll take what I can get. Richardson just voiced Floronic Man in the DCAU, and like we talked about in our Batman and Harley Quinn sneak peek analysis a while back, he’s also provided the deep, gravely voice of several other past DCAU characters. So he’s definitely no stranger to this universe–WHOOP, I’m getting a little ahead of myself.



Mr. Terrific says “we just got a message from the Fatal Five,” which is…interesting, because…are we to expect that Batman has any idea who they are? The only Leaguers in JLU’s “Far From Home” that encountered the Fatal Five were Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Supergirl, and Supergirl stayed behind. Though, I suppose one of the green boys probably laid out the details to the other Leaguers, and this is Batman we’re talking about. Plus, GL and Batman have already been on a time travel adventure together, so they probably have, like, a super secret little time travel club goin’ on.



We see the Fatal Five in various locations throughout this teaser. Sometimes they’re in what looks to be their own time period, fighting Legionnaires or creating all around chaos among a futuristic landscape. Sometimes they’re on top of more modern-looking buildings or or they’re in a forest. So, it would appear time travel is definitely involved. We do see the villains coming down to Earth in a bubble-like ship very reminiscent of the time machine used in “Far From Home” (the JLU episode I was talking about before, not…not the new Spider-Man movie. I can see how that could be confusing ’cause that trailer just came out, too).



There’s little snippets of Legionnaires here and there, including designs we’ve seen before in the DCAU, but most interesting (besides Saturn Girl, who we already talked about in our last video) is the design for Brainiac 5. He’s bald and a little less “human”-looking than we saw him in JLU. Now, he also looked different in the Superman episode “New Kids in Town,” so it’s not out of the question for members of the Legion of Super Heroes to change costumes or character designs in general. Maybe Brainy just gets less and less hair as he ages? Wait…there was that fan theory that Brainiac 5 is a descendant of Lex Luthor…oh, man. I’m so sorry for your head, dude.



Starboy is pretty cool to see. He’s a character I’m not personally very familiar with because, well, the bulk of my comic book knowledge comes from the DCAU, which he never really made a proper appearance in. I am loving the costume, though. The movement, or lack thereof, of the stars on his suit reminds me of…some old cartoon I used to watch as a very small child. It was, like, some guy that wore a plaid coat and whenever he would move, the plaid texture would stay in exactly the same place–is this ringing a bell for anyone else?



Anyway, we finally see a glimpse of Wonder Woman here and she looks just like she did in Justice League. Holy crap. This was the point when I realized this is gonna be a special movie. Not only are the voice cast from JL and JLU returning to voice the Trinity, but their character designs are THE. EXACT. SAME. DESIGNS. It’s surreal. It’s like they made a JLU episode back in the day and then accidentally shoved the tape under a desk somewhere until it was found in 2019…and yes, that is a Spongebob reference.



Wonder Woman’s only design update seems to be that she’s got a sword at her side at all times, at least in this sneak peek. Since the conclusion of JLU, Wonder Woman’s typical character traits and history have certainly evolved in the comics and other media, not to mention she’s appeared in 3 live action movies, for the first time ever. So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the sword was added because that’s pretty much a part of her these days. No shield that we see, but other than the sword, she’s copy+paste Justice League Unlimited…and that makes James a happy boy.



Same goes for Superman and Batman, who are ripped right off their JLU model sheets. Batman and Harley Quinn Batsuit, who? I’m so excited to see this version of Batman again. It’s like a dream come true, and I feel like I am dreaming just looking at him. I can draw the dude all I want but it’s not the real thing until he’s standing right here in front of…wait, are these Justice Leaguer statues? Looks like Huntress, Captain Marvel, Zatanna, Doctor Fate, and Batman, plus whoever this one is that we can barely see. It would be weird if that wasn’t Superman, right? And where is this? The Metrotower lobby? Or maybe this is in the future–that would make a lot more sense…we’ve even seen a hall of statues like this there before…would’ve been funny if the statue was in the Batman and Harley Quinn costume for when Batman says it looks nothing like him. I would laugh at that. Ha ha.



We also get a peak at Miss Martian in this little scene, who we see again many times throughout the teaser. Again, I’ll come back to her more later, but for now it’s cool to see her character design is rather reminiscent of her season 2 Young Justice look, which may or may not be intentional. She’s described as “fun” here, and that she makes a good foil for Batman, which, while that sounds entertaining, brings up spine-shuddering Batman and Harley Quinn memories for me, as that was their approach to comedy in that movie as well.



Jessica Cruz also has an interestingly unique character design, different from the typical longer hair in recent comics. But I like it. It’s always great to see the creative team incorporating more minority characters into these productions. Case in point: the swap-out of Kyle Rayner for John Stewart in Justice League. And speaking of the League, the producers seem to bring up the roster of the team several times in their little blurbs, but we never see any more of the expanded membership, besides I guess their statue cameos. So I do wonder if we’ll be seeing any others besides Mr. Terrific.



They do reference Terrific being the “third smartest man” in the world, and “the smartest guy in the Justice League,” which was sort of alluded to in JLU’s “Panic in the Sky.” He’s got some coolio floaty disc things like Mr. Miracle usually has, or other New Gods, so that’s…cool. And we finally see his T-Spheres do more than try and hit Flash-Luthor. F…Fluthor.



Jessica Cruz is described at the lead character of the movie, which I think is a great choice. She’s a character that’s new to the DC…A…U…question mark? So we don’t know a lot about her. We know enough about Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman to fill an encyclopedia (trust me, WE’RE WORKING ON IT) so just seeing them do literally anything together again for the first time in 13 years is phenomenal. But a new Green Lantern, and one that’s young and inexperienced, it seems, is a subject that really intrigues me.



She’s also mentioned to have some troubles with anxiety, which I think is really great of the creative team to bring into this movie because of how conscious of those types of disorders we are as a society these days. Starboy’s story also seems to be based around lack of medication for an illness he has, so the intertwining of his relationship with Jessica may be more powerful than any of us expected. Back in 2006, when JLU ended, we may never have gotten characters like this, so having them now is tremendous. Plus, I have to appreciate Bruce Timm’s inclusion of characters and themes like this after a movie full of double-butts and cartoon Hooters.



It looks as though Starboy’s story will take us to Arkham Asylum as well, from the looks of the uniforms on both the staff and patients, not to mention the fact that Batman and…Dr. Bartholomew…maybe?…are watching events unfold up above the main floor. Does this mean we’ll get some new glimpses at other Arkham inmates? Like Riddler or Two-Face or–OOOH, what if we saw the Joker?! That would at least confirm that this takes place before the Return of the Jo— JAMES! STOP IT! Gotta get through this part first…



They mention they didn’t directly draw on any specific comic book for this movie’s story, which to me is great. As I’ve repeatedly stated on our podcast 12th Level Intellects (which comes out every other Monday on iTunes, YouTube, and WatchtowerDatabase.com), I much prefer an original story to one I’ve already seen done in a comic. You can do an interpretation of that story, sure. But a panel-for-panel recreation in animation just usually doesn’t do it for me. I know I may be in the minority on that, but, so be it. So this gets me even more excited for this movie (which I didn’t think was possible) because it now means that anything goes.



Emerald Empress finally says something in this teaser, and it’s enough to make me think she’ll become a part of Jessica Cruz’s story, which should be fun to see.



It’s great to see that the Fatal Five will have more of an earned substantial presence in this movie (I mean, they’re in the title), since their appearance in “Far From Home” (the non-Spider-Man one) was pretty lacking. I don’t know anything about these characters because all they did was some punching and stuff. Now I can really get a good sense of who they are and why they do what they do, other than just “they’re the bad guys.” Overall, their character designs are very similar to how they looked in JLU, but everyone is at least slightly different. Tharok, as he did in JLU, reminds me of Metallo 2.0. I…I just wanted to say that.



The Fatal Five is a super goofy team…and I love it. They’re pretty much the epitome of wacky comic books villains. I mean, they were invented during the Silver Age in the ‘60s, and they’re the most Power Rangers-y, over-the-top group of baddies I can think of for DC Comics.



So. Let’s talk timeline and continuity. There’s not a lot to go off of here, but…here we go.



Emerald Empress looks…different, perhaps younger, than how we saw her before. And I’m not talking costume, but…face. Much less Rita Repulsa, to use another Power Rangers metaphor. This struck me as odd at first, but really…Superman’s face has changed. Bruce Wayne’s face has changed. THE JOKER’S FACE HAS CHANGED.



When is the movie set? I would say it’s gotta be after JLU in present day, since something’s gotta be up with Green Lantern, and Miss Martian…exists.



How do we explain her, anyway? Typically (and this is a MAJOR SPOILER ALERT), she’s actually a White Martian. But since those guys don’t exist in DCAU continuity, could she be one of the aliens from the Justice League premiere, “Secret Origins”? You know, the ones that aren’t called the Imperium? Because this guy is the Imperium? They’re white-colored, they’re aliens, they have shape-shifting powers…or maybe she’s, like, actually an OG Martian, and J’onn wasn’t the last of his kind after all. The lack of J’onn in this sneak peek is disturbing.

Or maybe…maybe she’s a Cadmus clone…like Galatea or Doomsday, but from J’onn’s DNA–ooooooooh…



Either way, I sure hope we get an explanation for her character in this movie or else I’m gonna be a not-so-happy James no more.



But…Miss Martian does specifically say that all of the Legionnaires seen in this shot are teenagers…which, despite Brainy’s unfortunate hair loss, would likely place this movie’s future-set scenes closer to the events of STAS’ “New Kids in Town.” Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl are listed in their official “Superman” bios to be 16 years old, and with that episode’s future set in 2979, and the “Far From Home” future set in “approximately 1000 years into your future, in what you’d call the 31st century” which is at least 21 years later (or 25 if we take the “1000 years” thing literally), this would put those Legionnaires in their 40s…which does seem kind of odd, and the showrunners have actually admitted that the “31st century” comment was an oversight. But if Miss Martian is correct about the…teenagability, then the future segments of this new movie would more than likely be in the 2970s or 2980s. That…really has no impact on the film, it’s just something I…felt…like…mentioning…



Other than the Miss Martian thing (which we’ll hopefully get an answer to), I really can’t think of anything that would keep this out of the DC Animated Universe…as far as we know right now. I kind of hate that I’m not going to be able to watch this movie without thinking about these kinds of things constantly. But…that’s my life now. I did this to myself.



All in all, I am PUMPED beyond belief for Justice League vs the Fatal Five. Honestly, I feel like a little kid again, getting ready to tape the next JL episode onto a nice crisp new VHS tape. Susan Eisenberg said I would love this and I do. If you’re reading, Susan, holy balls, I do. I’ve said “holy balls” 3 too many times in this.



Are you excited for Justice League vs the Fatal Five? If not, WHY?! Let us know your thoughts on our thoughts in the thought place, aka the comment section, below! And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more overly-produced YouTube content about decades-old superhero cartoons, here at the Watchtower Database!

