This summer, a non-comics-reading friend of mine got me into the animated offerings of DC. He first recommended Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. I thought it was alright, but liked the fact that it did include Big Barda and did look pretty nice. I watched it through Netflix, so no harm no foul. It was pretty good, no more, no less.
But then I had these Best Buy gift cards (gifts from students--I'm lucky in that my PTO has a special book of teachers' favorite stores. Mine: Best Buy, Dick's, and Target) just burning a hole in my pocket. I buy all my electronics online (SO much cheaper), which leaves me to buy DVDs through that store. You wouldn't believe the sale they had this summer. Actually, if you're a frequenter of that place, you would. Many many $4.99 DVDs of Batman/DCU animated.
This has really been my first foray into the Batman Animated Universe. I was always well aware of the Animated U, but was never really an avid watcher of any of it. But now I realize that this isn't a bad bridge between the public who watches these movies/shows and the comics reading crowd. At least there's a common ground for discussion. And I feel like as a result of these movies and TV shows, there is a much broader public base who knows of so many diverse characters who go beyond the basic Justice League characters (Superman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and Flash).
I now own so many of these thanks to all those gift cards (with maybe up to $25 out of my own pocket).
- Batman: Gotham Knight: A wonderful take on a classic Batman or Detective issue (can't remember which one) where some boys around a campfire are telling stories about what they perceive Batman to be.
- Batman: Year One: This one was especially impressive. Definitely not for kids, but true to the comic. I wish the animation had looked a little more like David Mazzuchelli's artwork, but in the long run, this is still an awesome DVD.
- Justice League: The New Frontier: Man, I wish this had been a bit closer to the comic than it was, but the artwork and the amount of characters that they had to work with in reality was probably about as close as they could get. This is one of my favorite comics series ever, so I can't complain.
- Justice League Unlimited: Saving the World: For a series I never watched while it was on, this gave me a nice little glimpse into three episodes. One is a loose adaptation of JLA: A World Without Grown-Ups, one features Hawk and Dove (the original), and one with an atomic robot featuring Captain Atom.
- Superman/Batman: Public Enemies: What I remember about the first arc of the comic on which this was based was the gross mishandling of the Amanda Waller I knew from Suicide Squad. You know, the Ostrander version. Well, this one still mishandled her, but it was still kind of fun to watch.
- The Best of Batman: This is a great batch of episodes from Batman: The Animated Series. This one has all kinds of villains like Harley Quinn, Joker, (in Mad Love), Ra's al Ghul, Bane, Firefly, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, and yet another version of the classic boys on a campfire telling stories that was Batman: Gotham Knight.
- Under the Red Hood: This is possibly my favorite adaptation. It took what was originally put in the comics (which made perfect sense to the comic book reader) and made it make perfectly good sense to the typical sci-fi movie watcher. I like that Judd Winick was the writer, especially. This was really good.
- The Batman: The Complete First and Second Seasons: While this wasn't bad, it wasn't suited to my tastes. There just didn't seem to be anything new here. The animation was pretty cool, but that's about it. Nothing original. Maybe in the following seasons, but I wasn't going to bet on it.
- Batman Beyond: Seasons One Through Three: This was great. I love the slightly futuristic take on Batman. I was always aware enough of this series, and I liked the individual episodes I'd seen, but never enough to watch for them while they were airing. I'm a huge fan of Terry McGinnis, and I hope he can play into the series somehow, sometime. In the meanwhile, I can easily enjoy the comic Batman Beyond.
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold: FAR and AWAY my favorite. The breadth of characters, the characterization (felt like a lot of Silver and Bronze Age) here was just so classic, so perfect, and so heartfelt. I stated this summer my wish that they would take this version of Aquaman and make him the DCU version. All of the characters featured here are just perfect. Jonah Hex, Blue Beetle, Aquaman, the Atom, Wonder Woman (jeez, with the 70's/80's theme song playing?), Green Arrow, OMAC, Firestorm, Plastic Man, Captain Marvel, Superman, Green Lantern, etc. All of them were just done to perfection. This is the bright view of the DCU that I want. The Challengers of the Unknown? Man. This is beautiful stuff.
I know a lot of you have been around this stuff for years and years, but I've just had an awesome time going through these movies. I've really enjoyed it. I wish I'd enjoyed them as they'd come out, but I'm keeping tabs on other things now via On Demand, like Green Lantern and Mad. And I have to admit that I've enjoyed catching up with twenty years of animated history over the past five months. I know I have a lot to catch up on, like Justice League Unlimited and All-Star Superman, but that just gives me something to look forward to for another day.
Replies
Has anyone seen the Dark Knight Returns Part 1 yet? I'm waiting until it's all one complete package.
I bought the first part but am waiting to watch it until I get the second part. According to the Amazon reviews, the first part follows the book very closely. The Part 2 DVD is being released on January 29, 2013. I haven't heard about a release of a single package with both parts.