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Justice League 3000 Volume 1 Yesterday Lives Review

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Booooooooooooooo. Okay, Justice League 3000 wasn’t terrible, but it was certainly pretty bad. This is a plot that had a lot of potential and it was a little similar to Future’s End. Unfortunately, the series couldn’t live up to its potential and you can tell that things are going south right from the get go. I just don’t understand why the writers made some of the decisions that they did.

It has been ages since the Justice League formed. The year is now 3000 and the universe is essentially ruled by The Five. They are super villains who did what no other ever could, they conquered everything. If a hero tries to rise up, they just blow up his/her planet and move on. The only thing that stands in their way is Cadmus and they aren’t much better. Cadmus is basically what’s left of the government. The only problem is that they have no real heroes and there are spies everywhere. Nowhere is safe from them! Cadmus decides to change this by bringing the famous Justice League back to life. They do this by placing their DNA in normal humans, so that the DNA takes over the vessel and essentially becomes the hero. With the exception of Cyborg, The New 52 Justice League roster is back…with some changes. Can they defeat The Five and liberate their future?

The plot should have been good, but it just didn’t work out. The main reason is the twist that the heroes have lost some key memories so they are not acting as they once did. Superman is now much meaner than usual and he’s about as likable as the average horror film protagonist. He’s extremely unintelligent and he basically acts like a cave man. Wonder Woman is back to being extreme in her views on how she strongly dislikes all men and likes to slaughter any foe she comes across. Green Lantern, Batman, and the Flash are mostly like their usual selves although Batman doesn’t mind cracking a joke once in a while. It essentially plays out like a fanfic and that’s the last thing that I could have wanted here.

Superman is also badly nerfed to help move the plot along. He can no longer fly and his physical abilities seem to be a lot worse as well. Wonder Woman and Superman were getting crushed by a goddess, one of The Five, and that’s something that I can’t see happening to their true New 52 selves. This lady may be strong, but one simply doesn’t take out the top 2 Justice League members so easily. The humiliation doesn’t end there as the strongest member of The Five, a Reality Warper, defeats the League with ease. Already, you can tell that this is going to be the kind of series where the heroes are on the run for the whole time and that can certainly get old rather quickly.

Towards the second half of the graphic novel, Firestorm joins the ranks and the sad thing is that he’s the most likable member of the team. It’s just sad because he’s essentially a villain here as his mind is even more corrupted than the other members. He wants to slaughter anyone who gets in his path and luckily he has the power to do it. His abilities come in handy against the villains, but it’s too bad that he couldn’t have kept his moral compass along the way. Ah well, at least the Justice League has one member who can fight.

Let’s talk about The Five. One of their members is named Locus and she appears to be the strongest member by far. She is the reality warper that I mentioned and her abilities are limitless. The only way to beat her is to knock her out before she can form a thought Naturally, this leads to plot hax whenever she has to fight and cannot win at the moment. She’s a psycho, but I’m sure that we expected this. Kali is a warrior whose strength seems to surpass that of Superman and Wonder Woman’s. Both of these villains have yet to be on the losing edge of a fight aside from a knockout blow from behind and Firestorm’s impressive debut. Convert is one of the more useful members of The Five even if he’s not a fighter. He invades people like a plague or the Phalanx. He currently controls billions of people across the universe and he can literally turn an entire population against you by controlling them. Finally, we have Coeval who attacks from the cyber world. He seeks to weaken the wills of the heroes by playing on their doubts.

Naturally, to be The Five, those 4 need a leader. He does end up appearing at the end of the graphic novel and it should come across as a decent surprise. It certainly makes things look a little dicier for the heroes as there is not much they can do about the situation anymore. The leader is probably the weakest member aside from Coeval as the average human could probably beat him, but I’m sure that the leader will dig up a robot somewhere to finish the job.

Technically, it’s a good idea to have a supervillain team to face the League. Kali and Locus were good starts even if they were overpowered, but the other members can’t fight, which limits the potential. One thing that hurts the comic is the natural need for it to be gritty. A lot of Superman’s lines revolve around him flirting, making suggestive comments or threatening to hurt people. Locus literally rips one of the heroes to shreds and while the page has a lot of energy and spacial effects to distract you, the scene is much more violent than it needs to be. We have the classic Man of Steel moment as well to make sure that the comic covered all of the bases. An eye stab also happens and nothing Narutoesque happens since the opponent is basically invurlnable, but I always found that to be a rather dirty fighting technique that crosses the lines of justice and injustice.

Really, the comic just isn’t that good. Even the art isn’t up to par with the high level of quality that DC is known for. It helps that the character designs are mostly lacking. Only Batman’s looks good from the original team although Firestorm joins him later on. Green Lantern’s cloak is cool, but without it, he doesn’t have a very good design. The fight scenes are where the art shines, but there aren’t many true fight scenes to see so this is pretty limited.

It goes without saying that the writing isn’t very good either. Meanwhile, it has certainly been a long time since the year 2000, but I find it hard to believe that some of this happened. How could the Five conquer the galaxy and the Green Lantern race was eliminated so easily? I don’t buy it and I don’t see how Earth fell so quickly as well considering that we have such an unstoppable army of superheroes. Locus is strong, but Kali would be defeated by a good fighter like Supergirl or Darkseid and the rest of the team could seriously be beaten by the Teen Titans. Where’s Lex Luthor when you need him!?

This is only the first volume so the series still has some hope, but it’s going to have to move quickly. For starters, the series should not try to be as dark and gritty as can be. Right now, the heroes really have no hope unless they can revive the other heroes, but what then? Even if they defeat The Five, they’re living in a future where just about everything was eradicated. It’s not going to be much of a life. Toning down the dark atmosphere should be enough to tip the scales, but the comic also needs to make the Justice League a whole lot more likable. Superman’s already getting some development, which is a start, but we’re going to need the writers to accelerate the process.

Overall, I currently don’t see the point of this title. The future is grim and the heroes must save the day again, but this kind of story has already been done and with much greater efficiency. Typically, a future story is extremely interesting and that’s what keeps you reading. The new villains have conquered to be sure, but the heroes are still ready to deal out some damage. Here, the writers have stacked the deck so much in the villain’s favor that the heroes really do not stand a chance. Locus just has to think and they’re all dead. So, there’s literally no way that they should win and the amount of plot hax in future issues is going to be immense. Just check out the time travel episode in Justice League Unlimited and you’ll witness what this comic should have been like. Likewise, Hitman Reborn had an arc with this kind of plot that was infinitely superior. The heroes should have definitely been in character and I guarantee that this comic would have been much more enjoyable. Well, if I do check out volume 2 anytime soon, we’ll see if the series will have managed to improve. As of now, I recommend checking out Superman Unchained instead as it’s an epic action story with some guest stars to help you out as well.

Overall 4/10

Batman The Animated Series Update

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I now own the complete Batman TV show! This ties in well with the Superman series and I’m even farther along in this one. Both reviews will likely be coming in soon once I’m done with them. This is certainly a very good Batman series and it does have a theatrical feel that the others simply don’t have. This is certainly a keeper!

Superman The Animated Series Update

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I now own the complete series! You know what that means? I’ll be writing a review for this title once I have seen all of the episodes. I’m currently in the middle of season 2 I believe so I’m certainly getting there. This is still the definitive Superman series and it’s incredible.

Hanon vs Superman

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Hanon is back once more and now he’s up against the Man of Steel! Superman is a powerful opponent who is easily the strongest comic book character of all time. As such, it’s always fun to compare him to the various anime powerhouses. As per usual, Superman simply can’t win this round because of the gap in speed between them. Hanon’s combat speed is off the charts and his destructive energy attacks will eventually take Superman down for the count. Being stronger than a locomotive simply isn’t enough this time. Hanon wins.

Action Comics Volume 3 At The End of Days Review

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All right, it’s time for another Superman review. Unfortunately, this one is not quite as positive as Unchained and it actually looks pretty bad in comparison. It lost focus on what it means to be a Superman comic. I had actually enjoyed the first two volumes, but this one just wasn’t that good. It has its moments, but everything is too chaotic and it makes it hard to just have fun. Superman is also on the run a lot, which takes away opportunities for big fights.

The plot….well, the first story is a quick one about a guy from the Phantom Zone who learns that you can escape it by inhabiting a mummy suit that allows you to move in the real world. The main positive from this is that we finally get to see Krypto. The main chunk of the comic is about a new villain who’s from the same world as Mr. Mxysptlk. He wants to destroy Superman (For awful reasons that are explored in a flashback( and with his reality warping powers that shouldn’t be hard. He gets a little greedy though and decides to destroy Superman at many points in time all at once. He attacks Superman in the past, present, and future. He disrupts a lot of things in the timestream so Superman’s life has been radically changed. How can he possibly defeat this villain? Let’s just say that it involves the limitless power of words.

First of all, I have to say that the cover of the comic is an instant warning sign. There’s way too much happening on it to the point where the comic doesn’t look interesting. I’ll take a classic “Superman holding a car” over this any day. It does work as good foreshadowing for how confusing the comic is though so I’ll give the cover some props there. It’s going to need it!

One thing that you will notice right away is that the art is nowhere near the quality that we have come to expect from DC. It’s not very streamlined and the art fluctuates so much that it can be pretty scary. Gone are the days of Superman Unchained folks! The art isn’t very bad, but it’s a considerable step down from the average DC comic. It’s like adding more fuels to the flames.

All right, I’ve gone over some pretty minor weaknesses of the comic, but let’s go into the bigger ones. The main problem with the collection is that the stories simply aren’t that good. I didn’t really care about what was happening in the first adventure and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense either. The villain’s will power was just so strong that he created a suit and escaped? I really don’t buy that. As for the long arc with the Mr. Mxyz ripoff, that wasn’t much better. This guy is virtually all powerful so it’s hard to fight him. It means that we won’t get a real nailbiting finish as we have to settle for plot hax instead. How does Superman stop this guy? Wait for it…wait for it…waiiiiiiiitttt-he talks to him. See, talking in 5D actually hurts people so Superman just talked along with the citizens of the planet and the villain was defeated. Game set and Match…thanks!

That was rather anticlimactic. Now, there were some pros to the whole time travel aspect. I did enjoy seeing the Legion of Superheroes make an appearance and Superdoom makes for an intense opponent. He’s a Superman who gets stronger and stronger as you think about him. It’s impossible to not think of someone that you’re currently fighting so this makes him pretty tricky. The villain group who each have different Kryptonite abilities was also pretty neat. They seem pretty weak on their own though so I don’t see them doing too well without some outside help.

Lex Luthor joins the fray as well through a robot that he has under his mental control. It doesn’t last for very long of course, but it’s good to see him helping out. Things wouldn’t be good for him either if the villains win so it’s a good time to swallow his pride. Krypto looks pretty great and I’m glad that his character was depicted correctly. He’s fearless and not an opponent that you want to underestimate. It’s too bad that he couldn’t crush the villains some more, but I suppose that it would have been tricky without getting hit with the animal violence badge. Maybe it was for the best.

So, the comic certainly had some good additions to it. It’s fun to see Superman have to team up with Lex and I also liked the references to the older comics. Like Superman’s team up with Ali and he death against Doomsday. We also got to see Captain Comet return along with his new team. They came out of nowhere, but they seem like they could ultimately become a fighting force to be reckoned with. If the comic had been written a little better, this could have been a winning formula.

Unfortunately, there are too many parts to the story that simply aren’t interesting. Anything that had to do with Mr. Mxyz and the new villain was rather boring and the Legion should have actually helped out a little more. A lot was going on and yet, the situation would hit a stand still at times. I just couldn’t get into the comic the same way that I could get into most of them. The art, writing, and lack of action just blended together in a way that didn’t work out.

Overall, Action Comics fell down a step or two here. Considering that this was a Superman comic and that we even got guest stars in the form of the Justice League, it should have been a lot better. A 7 is essentially the minimum for how good a Superman comic should be. I definitely did not expect to walk out of this with a 6 at the ready. It just doesn’t seem right or natural and the comic was actually very close to scoring a 5. The action at the end saved it from that fate. The writer was probably trying to be clever by thinking of such a convoluted plot, but it epically backfired. If you want to check out a Superman comic, I recommend buying Unchained. Otherwise, you may as well just skip this volume since it’s practically filler. You won’t be missing much.

Overall 6/10

Superman Unchained Deluxe Edition Review

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I finally got to check out one of Superman’s recent comic titles and it’s safe to say that Unchained lives up to the hype. It’s too bad that it couldn’t have kept going on since it was certainly on the right track to fame and fortune. Snyder does a good job of depicting Superman and we get a very good amount of action. It’s easily one of, if not the best Superman stories that I have read and you can make a strong case for this actually being the best comic book of all time. I’m not going to go quite that far yet, but it is certainly awesome.

For the plot, Clark Kent no longer works at the Planet. He’s finally just getting to enjoy life and everything seems right with the world. Unfortunately, a terrorist organization has been getting pretty active lately and that keeps Superman pretty busy with nuclear strikes and their other forms of mayhem. It wouldn’t be so bad if the government didn’t continue to get in Superman’s way, but that’s just how it goes this time. They have an ace up their sleeve in the form of Wraith. Wraith is a mysterious figure who has been helping the government from the sidelines for decades and his powers are comparable to Superman’s. Superman’s going to have the fight of his life on his hands, but luckily he has Batman and Wonder Woman to back him up considering how many dangerous situations continue to pop up.

First off, the art is really good here. It’s easily some of the best in the business. The only parts of the comic where the art looked off was in the flashbacks, but for some reason that was actually intentional. It was drawn with a lack of color and it doesn’t work very well. Next to the colorful fights, it just doesn’t work. Luckily, this is pretty rare and the rest of the art easily makes up for this. It looks dynamite and a lot of attention was given to all of the details. Superman’s display of his x ray vision is a good example of this as his eyes turn blue. It’s a small detail that is appreciated as you read the issues.

As this is the Deluxe Edition, there are a lot of bonus covers at the end. You may have been surprised at how thick the volume was and that’s why. A good 20-30 pages are spent showing us a lot of fun covers. They’re pretty cool and it’s always enjoyable to see the retro ones that had such interesting plots. We also get the director’s cut for the first comic, which is pretty fun as well. I would have preferred that for a comic with more action, but it was still pretty neat.

You’ll be glad to know that the characters are portrayed very well. Wonder Woman gets less of a role than Batman, but she still gets a good hit in and there’s nothing that will make you question her character. Batman looks awesome right from the start. “If you’re here to intimidate me, then you’re wasting your time” is one of his better quotes. Another good one arises when Wraith lets Batman know that there’s no way that Superman can detect the villain’s presence thanks to how he can control his energy. Batman’s reply is essentially, “Good, now he can’t save you” and it’s pretty great. I always like to see Batman looking so confident and awesome. He holds his own against Wraith for quite a while and that is an extremely impressive feat. I also liked his new suit and Batman’s ring invention worked perfectly. If Batman had some more prep time, things definitely could have gotten dicey for Wraith.

As for Superman, I was not surprised that he also looked really good. We got a flashback to show how heroic he was even as a kid. He was always ready to help someone and he would never take a life. In the present, he constantly makes sure not to cross the line and he’s very confident in his abilities. Not in a rude way as he is sometimes portrayed, but just in the way that a commander has to be confident. Superman’s genius is also displayed at times and he doesn’t mindlessly punch his way through things. The author shows us how Superman sees a situation and it’s pretty cool. He’s always analyzing and thinking of possible solutions to a problem as he approaches it. Superman’s easily my favorite comic book character and when he is portrayed like this, there’s nobody who’s even close. If only Man of Steel could have used this storyline for the film to show off Superman’s heroics.

Wraith is the big villain and I’m sure that you’ll find his mere existence to be a stretch. How did nobody notice him in the last 75 years right? He can turn invisible, but it’s definitely something that you will find hard to believe. Well, we’ll just let that slide this time and look at him as a character. Wraith is not a likable “hero” but he makes for a pretty good villain. He snaps rather quickly, but I suppose that we didn’t expect him to keep up the facade for very long. It does make his final appearance a little sudden, but at the same time, he is still committing to his role as a soldier. He wasn’t made aware of his race’s plans and protecting the Earth in his way is still Wraith’s main mission. It’s too bad that he was so stubborn since he really could have been a valuable ally to the heroes. That being said, one should never cross Superman. He is said to be a little stronger than Superman, but I naturally don’t buy that. Once they battle in an even playing field, Superman proves who the stronger warrior is. Superman’s a master of hand to hand combat so his super abilities are definitely not his only asset.

The supporting characters are also present of course. Lois looks pretty good as she takes chances, but she is pretty reasonable once she is thrown into dangerous situations. She also helps out a little when the army ends up going nuts. Jimmy is around, but his role is pretty sad. He just can’t stay away from trouble. Lex Luthor also looks as sadistic as you would expect and he admits that Superman isn’t half bad when the man of steel cannot hear him. Lex definitely makes for a pretty interesting villain and he is typically one step ahead of the other characters.

If anything’s a little dicey, it’s the fact that the government seems way more powerful than usual. Since when do they have the ability to casually fire black hole bullets and energy blasts that can even cripple Superman? They were apparently organized for such a battle, but getting the tech is just unbelievable. It’s ironic that the government always looks good when they are about to face a superhero, but then they crack once an actual villain appears. If their weapons are this good then they should have defeated Darkseid and the Aquaman villain. Of course, this is a mini series so you can say that the continuity is a little dicey, but it’s just an example. Things would be so much different if the government was this strong. They were actually defeating Superman, which I still find hard to believe.

On the bright side, it did give Superman an excuse to don his Superman Prime outfit. Now that was an awesome moment and I think I speak for all DC fans when I say that we miss the guy. Superman Prime was just so intense and his outfit was definitely a keeper. Once again, I do have to reiterate that no matter how much tech the government had, there’s no way that they should be able to defeat Superman. Superman’s speed should be able to totally outclass their tech and the battle would be over before it even started. That doesn’t happen, but Superman still fights on to the bitter end so it was handled rather well compared to how it could have ended.

Finally, there was one main reason above all that made this comic not just good or great, but amazing. It wasn’t the incredible writing, the dynamic art, or even the fact that Batman got to be so awesome. No, the clinching factor was the amazing fights that we got. The whole trade paperback is loaded with action and the fights between Superman and Wraith are definitely the highlights here. They get punched across cities and continents. You never want to take your eyes away from the action for a moment. The series may have been quite a few issues, but you’ll find yourself just blasting through the whole collection because you can’t tear yourself away. I haven’t read something this enjoyable in terms of action in a long time and now it’s time for the big question..is this the greatest comic of all time?

Before now, that title would go to either the Secret Wars or X Sanction. Both of those are great comics to be sure, but I have to say that this one tops them both. It shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that I still do prefer DC to Marvel. Adding in the fact that Superman is the main character here and it’s a no brainer. It’ll be almost impossible to top this collection and I don’t see such a thing happening for a long time. It’s really too bad that Unchained ended so quickly, but we got a great ending and a really fun ride. Thus, I can safely say that I am satisfied with it and I highly recommend checking this volume out. If you wanted to see a likable Superman and a comic that fits in a lot of action while still having great dialogue, this is the comic for you!

Overall 10/10

Adventures of Superman Volume 2 Review

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It’s time for a good ole DC review! The Adventures of Superman is a decently fun series with the main drawback being that each story is a stand alone comic with completely different art each time. So, some stories are naturally a lot better than others so the important thing is to make sure that no comic is downright bad. They all need to at least a little entertaining if this trade paperback is going to work. It’s definitely not as good as the average Superman comic and the art does get pretty bad at some points, but it ends up being a (quick) satisfying read.

The first story starts the volume on a high note as Superman learns about his past and realizes that his father may not have been as heroic as he thought. There were some significant pieces left out in his story about how he warned Krypton of their upcoming demise. Superman also learns about the Phantom Zone and must decide whether he should be willing to use it on Mongul when the titan attacks Earth. This is definitely a solid premise and the artwork looks pretty good here. I was definitely satisfied with Superman’s decision at the end and the fight with Mongul was pretty fun. If the whole volume had continued from this comic it would have been great, but that’s the thing with short story collections. You can never get too attached since things end up changing. Still, this was easily my favorite story in the batch.

Next up was a comic dealing with the Church of Superman. Basically, a group of people started to think that Superman was such a great hero that they would jump off of buildings so Superman could catch them. If he didn’t, then they were just meant to die. Superman tries to convince them that this is off the walls crazy, but they don’t buy it. Meanwhile, Metallo is making his move! The art takes a slight dip, but it still looks reasonably good here. Superman’s portrayal is also pretty great as he shows that he’s willing to make the tough calls and yell the people the truth that they need to hear even if they don’t want too. The concept of a Church of Superman that got so widespread is a bit much and everyone deciding to jump off of their roofs will just make you shake your head. It’s sad that Superman has to deal with all of this. All in all, it’s a pretty entertaining comic even if it’s all a bit of a stretch.

Continuing on was a short story where Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter get brainwashed by Darkseid. Superman has to save them and quickly heads back to Earth before a kid falls off of a tree. The stakes have never been real for Mr. Kent and it’s a fun story. I could have done without the subplot of the kid, but at least we finally got some guest stars. The art isn’t very detailed, but it’s pretty fun and the fight scenes look pretty good as a result. That’s definitely what I like to see.

In the next comic, Superman gets word that Krypton is still alive so he heads over there. His father informs him that the explosion never actually happened and he was arrested for “scaring the civilians.” Superman manages to convince the court to let his father out of jail, but something feels pretty suspicious about the whole endeavor. If someone’s messing with Superman..they better watch out! You will probably assume that the whole story of Krypton surviving is fake from the start given that it always turns out to be a trap, but it’s still fun to see Superman interact with Krypton. It’s not quite as action packed as some of the other adventures, but it’s a good story. The art also holds its own so maybe our art worries were for nothing!

Bizarro got to have a big role in the next comic as a “cure” allows him to act and speak normally. Superman believes that Bizarro could actually be a good guy deep down so they team up to help the world. Unfortunately, Bizarro starts to revert to how he used to be. Why is this happening? This comic definitely wasn’t that interesting and I can’t say that the ending was very good. It was just really hard to get into. The art was also a little more sketchy than the previous ones and I guess I would call it average looking. The characters are still easily recognizable, but they typically just look a little off.

This next comic was easily the worst in the batch. Superman travels to a town after getting some mail from a kid telling him about a monster. Superman shows up and it turns out that the kid is the monster. Can Superman actually defeat this menace? The ending is pretty terrible and Superman didn’t look very good during the battle. The art was also easily the worst as Superman looks overweight and there is absolutely no detail in the art. Everything is just vague and not cool. Well, we got the worst story over with so it’s all uphill from here right?

Finally, we get a short story where Superman fights with Metallo, but the villain gets the upper hand when Superman has to protect some civilians who wandered into the line of fire. The ending is pretty emotional and it shows that Superman always cares about every individual. He’s not just a hero, Superman is The hero. It was a good way to end the collection.

So, it’s a pretty short read, but this collection did a good job of being entertaining. I don’t see it doing very well in terms of sales since this is the kind of collection that’s better to read at the library instead of paying the big bucks for it. My advice to DC would be to switch the format over to one continuing story and they could still keep this atmospheare of the good ole Superman days. It’s less risky and it could have given the comic an extra star.

Overall, Adventures of Superman was a pretty good trade paperback. I still prefer an ongoing plot series to one where each comic is a different story, but most of the stories were good, which was a relief. Most of the writers seemed to have a good handle on who Superman is as a character and it was fun to see so many of his adversaries pop up. From Mongul to the Toyman, they all tried their best to land a good hit on Superman. I definitely recommend this comic to Superman fans or to anyone who wants a casual comic to check out. By “casual” I mean that it’s short and simple. There are no large plots or character development to watch out for, but the stories are pretty fun and entertaining. In the end, that’s all that we could want from this right?

Overall 6/10

Justice League Throne of Atlantis Review

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Well, the sequel to Justice League War has finally arrived. I was not thrilled with the shift into the New 52 lineup from the start and this title definitely doesn’t help. It’s easily the worst Justice League film to date and that’s a pretty sad title to achieve. With such a great cast, it isn’t hard to make any Justice League film an elite, but this just shows how important a good writing staff/director is. All right, let’s look at why this film didn’t succeed.

A submarine is travelling through the waters when the crew is murdered by several underwater beings. The missiles are stolen so the Justice League is brought in to investigate. Meanwhile, Prince Orm is riling up Atlantis to go and face the surface dwellers. The Queen is keeping him in check, but for how long? Aquaman must leave the life that he has led on the surface to realize his destiny as an Atlantean. The players are all moving towards the climax where a confrontation shall be had!

For this review, I’m going to do some damage control before I get into the many negatives. One positive is that Batman doesn’t get hit during the film. He may as well be invincible since nobody can stop him. The flip side to this is that Batman never even gets to throw a punch this time. He’s basically in this film for star power since he doesn’t really have a role. He looks pretty good in his scenes, which is a plus. He gives up a little quickly on the flooding issue, but that just shows how dicey the situation was.

Another positive for the film is the animation. It still looks pretty good like in Justice League War. The battle scenes all flow pretty smoothly and there isn’t really anything negative to say about the animation. The character designs are another matter. They all look below average to be honest and it’s like they aren’t even trying in the New 52. Superman’s is probably the worst, but there’s something about GL’s that just isn’t appealing. At least, compared to his real uniform. Aquaman looks good, but he doesn’t have much of a costume to change here.

Are there more positives? Well, I’m sure we’ll find some as we go through the negatives. It’s time for some real talk folks so strap yourselves in because this roller coaster is about to begin its free fall! It’s hard to know where to start, but let’s begin with the romance section. Having Wonder Woman and Superman get together is completely pointless and it’s insulting to the fans. I grew up with the classic days where Superman made sure to keep everyone in the friend zone. He was firm about this so that villains couldn’t use his friends as targets. That was the Superman that I know. His pairing with Wonder Woman is wince worthy at best and it makes both of the characters look pretty awful here. More on that during their individual sections. Cyborg randomly gets a pairing as well and it’s just as sad. Superheroes don’t need rushed romances to keep the audience engaged and it just makes things sadder for us…the fans!

DC’s decided that their new films are going to be a lot more violent than the older ones. This started out with Flashpoint and I’m sure that we all remember the films that came afterwards. Well, Throne of Atlantis tries to compete with those as the blood runs like water here. The fight scenes will make you think that you’re watching Mortal Kombat considering how many beheadings and diemembering appear in the film. Everyone gets stabbed at some point. Superman begins to bleed for no real reason when he gets zapped by the staff and let’s not forget the hand to hand scenes. The film adds some noises like the sound of a jaw breaking to make the scenes more “intense.” Aquaman really beats up on the normal joes and it’s the kind of fight scene that could easily be done without the extra effects. DC says gritty and I say unnecessary. The overload of violence is just distracting and it really takes away from the film. It definitely makes the title unsuitable for kids and it is definitely a very strong PG 13 so you’ll want to be careful with your teenagers as well. It’s probably not the most violent DC film to date, but it certainly tries hard to achieve that spot. So, the fights are pretty streamlined and flashy, but the violence hurts them pretty badly. They may be trying to send a message to Marvel’s animated features, but this blurs that message.

The writers also seemed to want to suck the philosophical questions that the comic had so they made Prince Orm a one dimensional villain. He is not a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination and he’s just your average super villain who wants to destroy everything. Once he gets the staff of power, he just goes around beating everyone up. His design also looks pretty fake as if the film is adding insult to injury. You’ll probably want to boo him off the stage since he’s so generic and not very intimidating.

Black Manta is also here, but he doesn’t serve much of a purpose either. He gets a brief fight with Aquaman, but he is humiliated and we remember that the Aquaman hype train will not be derailed until the next film. for quite a while. I’m fine with it since that’s handled pretty well, but Black Manta should have known that he was outmatched. He was just very sub par here.

That transitions into another area where the film needed some help. The writing. We’ve got violence, but that doesn’t make the film gritty enough right? Time to throw in some language! There aren’t many big swears, but the ones that are there were definitely added to show how edgy the villains are. Black Manta and a throwaway villain in Gotham just use the word for no discernible reason. They’re just using it because they can and I always attribute that to bad writing. The writers of today sometimes realize that they can’t match the ones from the Bogart and Bacall days so they don’t even bother. Adding in swear words is one of the ultimate cop outs.

The movie is definitely a lot different from the original comic and unfortunately, it is much worse. We don’t really get any action scenes since most of the “fights” just result in the Leaguers decimating hundreds of mindless monsters or watching the flip side of that. The only real fight for the League is at the end against Ocean Master and that one’s wince worthy due to plot hax. The movie also takes away any sense of danger since they erase the flood scene. It’s odd because it’s hyped up as the villains bring a giant tsunami towards Metropolis, but then they just part the waves dramatically and decide to attack the city on foot. It’s probably one of the most foolish decisions that I have ever seen in a film and it’s embarrassing for them. There is literally no point to using such a tactic and you’re basically giving the heroes a chance to fight back this way. Batman’s big “People are going to die” moment from the comic just doesn’t work this time since only a few soldiers are taken out during the battle. Not quite the amount of casualties that we were expecting huh? Cyborg’s drama about going through with the operation to replace his lung? It’s taken out here as he just says yeah from the start. The film wanted to speed along through everything.

The pacing is very quick, but a little too much so this time. The film is barely over an hour so it rushes through Aquaman’s origin so that they can have Ocean Master take the stage. This results in every area of the film feeling rushed since nothing is developed so that they can go to the next scene. The Justice League get the shaft at times because of this and you’ll find yourself just waiting for them to come back. The longest draught is when Batman and Superman leave to investigate. They don’t appear again for what feels like 10-15 minutes since it’s time for Aquaman’s subplot. This is the kind of film that should have easily been 2 hours and I think that it would have helped the film tremendously.

One of the biggest problems is the power level issues that are found here. Wonder Woman lands a direct punch on Ocean Master and it does virtually no damage while Aquaman is able to land some killer blows. Wonder Woman is stronger than Aquaman and the opening scene of the film practically proves this. Aquaman has trouble with random grunts and that’s pretty sad. They land a lot of hits and they don’t defeat Aquaman, but he certainly doesn’t look as strong as Wonder Woman or Superman. Superman looks particularly terrible as he is beaten down two times without doing any real damage. The first time, he grabs Ocean Master’s scepter….big mistake. He is quickly zapped and loses in a single blow. I think we can all agree that Superman doesn’t go down with one shot and especially not to someone like this. The Flash is naturally tripped and that sidelines him for the rest of the film. A random trip…he didn’t even get zapped! Green Lantern is swamped by minions like in War and when he breaks out he is quickly taken out with a zap. Cyborg is stabbed because he was too slow to dodge and Shazam gets one shotted by the lightning as well. (Shazam’s lightning did no damage of course) Aquaman gets in more hits than the rest of the Leaguers, but he is also stabbed and taken out of action.

Batman doesn’t get to fight Ocean Master, which may be a good thing since we can tell that the writers did not know what they were doing. Instead of a satisfying ending where one of the heroes beats Ocean Master, we basically just get a betrayal plot twist. (Not for the fans, but for the Atlanteans) This finishes with a blind side punch from one of the heroes. Now they can all remember how they were crushed but won with a sucker punch. That’s not a good way to end the film and it’s pretty depressing for the heroes. There is an after credit scene that has some potential for a good sequel, but we’ll see what arc this film tries to adapt. If it really is Trinity War, then it will likely be an even looser adaption this time around.

As I mentioned, Batman was kept in character here. Cyborg is still not very likable and he has a new subplot where he’s very cold to people. He’s a machine after all, but he eventually warms up to everyone and gets a romance going. That was pretty terrible. Shazam still looks really bad and his voice is very high pitched. You can’t take him seriously and he doesn’t have the Wisdom of Shazam here. His character just doesn’t make sense as it’s still Billy’s mind just with an adult form. He looks pretty bad and he’s not likable either.

The Flash is basically perfect and it’s too bad that he doesn’t get to have more action scenes. He’s certainly one of the strongest members of the team and there is no opponent that should be confident of his chances against the speedster. Green Lantern is pretty similar to his portrayal in War, but he still seems to be portrayed as one of the weaker links. He doesn’t get beaten up on a lot like in the last film, but he still needs some work if he’s going to be a good hero. It’s sad because he is usually a great character, but I’ll have to say goodbye to that version.

Wonder Woman is technically good, but she really gets 0 character apart from the romance plot. We’re reminded that she is a good warrior when she is slashing away at the villains of course, but that’s about it. I just can’t forget that plot with Superman so she is certainly one of the least likable characters. This applies to Superman as well, who really seems like a shell of his former self. He talks about how he’s going to make one of the villains eat his weapon and it’s lines like that, which makes this new version of Superman hard to identify with. He talks tough, but he’s typically just showing off or getting beaten up. It’s hard to really be a fan of him here and he gets to sink just like Wonder Woman.

Aquaman looks pretty good here, but he does fall into the romance plot with Mera way too quickly. You have to realize that the film mostly takes place over the span of a single day…so that’s a reeeeally rushed romance. Aquaman doesn’t betray the League like he did in the comic so he’s a lot more heroic here. He does what needs to be done and Aquaman turns out to be a good fighter. There’s really nothing negative to say about him aside from the rushed romance. Likewise, Mera is certainly a capable fighter and she does well when needed. Her water abilities are very potent and they make her a lethal fighter to be up against.

Seeing the Justice League get to form for a second time was pretty fun. The film actually started out decently well with this plot since the daily trip to Gotham was pretty intense as per usual. Seeing GL go to fetch Batman was definitely in character since he wasn’t going to let the dark knight skip a meeting this time. Gotham always has a certain edge to it that distinguishes the city from the rest and we also get some of the best animation featured in that moment. Not bad Batman…not bad! It’s a little disappointing to see how irresponsible Superman and Wonder Woman were though. We can naturally understand why Batman and GL didn’t show up at the meeting, but why wouldn’t the power hitters come? You can make the case that they didn’t hear the signal…but that’s highly unlikely. Ah well, more time for those two characteres to sink I suppose.

Lois and Jimmy were two characters who had no purpose in this film, but it’s time for the review to start winding down. Ultimately, the film was just plagued with too many negatives for me to really call it a good film. Take away the Justice League and it’s probably a bad film. The iconic characters are what keeps it afloat,m but the actual handling of this otion picture just wasn’t up to par with what you would expect. The film is also extremely light on meaningful action and I would be disappointed if the upcoming live action film had a similar climax. I’m expecting big things from that title and I don’t want to be disappointed! There isn’t much of a soundtrack to be found here so I’ll skip that.

Overall, Throne of Atlantis is pretty disappointing. These could be dicey times for DC. The box art isn’t very good and it follows that live action feel that I’m not a fan of. The violence is way over the top to try to make the film gritty and I had problems with just about every scene. The final fight must be one of the most inaccurate moments in all of cinema. The animation looks nice and the main characters are mostly all pretty likable, but that’s just not good enough to help the film this time. I recommend just skipping this one and watching Crisis on Two Earths yet again. That film never gets old!

Overall 5/10

Aquaman Volume 3 Throne of Atlantis Review

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Aquaman_Throne_of_Atlantis_(Collected)
The Throne of Atlantis film is coming up soon so let’s take a look at the source material. I think DC could do better with other Justice League stories, but this is one of the best ones to pick if you want to start establishing Aquaman as a big player again. After all, he’s essentially the main character here so he gets a lot of screentime. It’s a fun Justice League story to read even if it’s not a game changer.

The collection starts off with a quick glimpse into Aquaman’s past and how he rejected the throne to live above ground. He had some adventures as he hid his powers and he just faded away into obscurity. Well, that doesn’t last long as Aquaman is forced back onto the field when the Atlanteans decide to attack the surface world. Gotham and Metropolis are some of the targets, but ultimately the human race itself is in the crossfire. The Justice League retaliate and Aquaman is forced to choose between his allies and his people.

The New 52 may get a lot of criticism from consumers, but the art has never been a problem. This graphic novel continues DC’s trend of having great art in its titles. It is easily still some of the best artwork in the business and you could almost read the graphic novel for that alone. The fight scenes really pop out at you and all of the character designs are spot on. There are no questionable looks (Superman in vs the Elite) that will have you take a step back. This is the Justice League as they were meant to be seen.

One of the big worries for this arc was the fact that there are no powerful villains in it. At least, this was a concern of mine. How would Superman even be challenged? (Rhetorical question as well since I was well aware of what would happen to him before I read the comic) Unfortunately, a not very subtle mix of plot hax and villain hype is the comic’s solution. Ocean Master even landing a hit on Batman is another story altogether! I think that the writers do need to be very careful when including villains who can’t even level a city to be the opponent of the Justice League. Keep in mind that Green Lantern and the Flash are busy so the Justice League is weakened at the moment, but the Atlanteans are not a threat.

They are a threat in the sense that they will do a lot of damage to the cities, but they aren’t a threat to the heroes. You won’t think for a second that they will be able to take out the superheroes. It’s just not going to happen. As for their invasion, they will deal a lot of damage, but the government in DC is actually pretty competent when necessary. I’m sure that Amanda Waller and her various groups of heroes/villains would be able to drive the invaders back. A lot of civilians would be taken out, but that part is inevitable since this is a war.

Naturally, this does affect the fight scenes. We actually don’t get a whole lot of action here. We have a brief dispute with Aquaman and a short fight with the Ocean Master at the end, but that’s about it. Most of the comic involves Aquaman’s history and the fight against the Atlanteans. The art and character portrayals still keep this as an above average comic with room to spare, but I would have liked to have seen some more action.

Batman’s portrayed very well as he’s still the smart member of the group and he’s not about to back down when the going gets tough. His role isn’t huge, but he still plays a pretty big role in protecting Gotham and getting Aquaman to see that what he’s doing is madness. His scene with Ocean Master does leave a lot to be desired though and it felt like the writers didn’t know how to actually make Batman lose. Truth be told, it’s a pretty tough feat to accomplish.

Superman also looks pretty great and we get to see a solid glimpse of his heat vision. The only problem is that his vaunted strength isn’t enough to help him endure a lightning blast when it should have been easy for him. If Batman could live through such a blast, there’s no way that Superman would be knocked out. Magic or no magic. (Wonder Woman was also knocked out and she has a pretty good immunity to magic so there’s that as well) Superman was definitely nerfed here, but his portrayal was still pretty spot on aside from one issue that I will address.

Wonder Woman has been upgraded to Superman level in the New 52 although some may try to say that she was always this strong. Wonder Woman has been tough for a long time, but her lack of speed has typically kept her a little under Superman’s level. Their speed seems to be more or less equalized under normal circumstances so she’s definitely a heavy hitter here. She seems to be a little quicker to strike with lethal blows as opposed to the rest of the League, but she is a warrior first and foremost. She was a pretty solid character as well, but she had the same negative as Superman.

The negative is the rushed romance between the two heroes. We don’t really need a Superman and Wonder Woman pairing since it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. There’s just no point and teammates should know that it’s better to just stay friends rather than risking it all falling apart before their eyes. It’s simply not worth it and the comic didn’t need to add the romance to sell some more copies. I’m sure that sales were good enough and the brief spike wouldn’t last for very long. That was too bad.

Aquaman is the main character, but it’s hard to root for him at times. Choosing to attack the Justice League was not the right call. It’s true that he was actually making a little progress before they jumped in, but I doubt that the Ocean Master would have ultimately backed down. At that point, Aquaman just needed to follow Batman’s lead since the Dark Knight typically handles these situations pretty well. Aquaman is pretty tough and it’s good to see him actually trade blows with Superman and Wonder Woman, but I don’t think for a second that he could actually hold his own against them in a prolonged battle. I’m also unsure about his decision to just abandon Atlantis to live on the surface world. The whole thing was a little odd and you can’t help, but feel bad for the Atlanteans. It’s sad when you can sympathize more with the main villain than with the main character. Aquaman’s decision to banish Ocean Master to Earth was just adding insult to injury. Aquaman’s a good character overall, but you can’t forget how he was so quick to attack the Justice League. I wouldn’t trust him all that much after this if I was one of the heroes.

Ocean Master is the main villain and the comic portrayed him very differently than what you may be used too. He is played by another character into attacking the surface world and he’s really doing it to help the Atlanteans. He willingly stepped down from the throne the first time Aquaman went to Atlantis and he seems like a pretty reasonable villain. He was willing to talk to Aquaman during the war and he wasn’t the raving madman that you would have expected. He was calm and he made some valid points about how the surface world is always attacking the ocean. (BP does a good job of that on their own with the big oil spills!) I actually liked Ocean Master to a degree. He’s certainly not going to become one of my favorite DC villains, but he’s good enough to be an interesting antagonist and I’m wondering how the film is going to portray him. I have a feeling that he’ll be more evil and less sympathetic in the animated version, but I suppose that we’ll find out soon enough. He is very weak though so he needs a significant amount of plot hax during each of his fights. He’s really just a guy with mild super strength and a thunder staff.

Throne of Atlantis was a pretty fun Justice League adventure and if you just think of it as an Aquaman arc, then it’s probably the best one yet. I do miss the Flash and Green Lantern since the League is pretty incomplete without them. Cyborg gets a very brief role where he loses more of his humanity to save the league. It was supposed to be very emotional, but it didn’t seem too tragic when you really think about it since he didn’t lose any parts of his soul. This is still an Aquaman arc first and foremost so that’s one of the only reasons why it’s okay that the Justice League’s role was decently small at times. I do think that the government should have stepped in a little sooner with their super weapons to deal with the Atlanteans, but all’s well that ends well.

Overall, Throne of Atlantis is a pretty good story. There is not a whole lot of fight scenes to keep you occupied, but we have action in other ways like the giant flood that the Atlanteans cause when they start to invade. Ocean Master is actually a pretty compelling villain and aside from a brief romance between Superman and Wonder Woman, the Justice League were portrayed accurately. The artwork is stunning as always and there weren’t any really big negatives here. The collection was fun/decently long read from start to finish and I’m looking forward to seeing how the animated feature turns out. We already know that there will be some significant changes to it will be interesting to see how this affects things in the long run. Now’s your chance to see the New 52 Aquaman so this is a must read!

Overall 8/10