This is my first attempt at a timeline of recent JLA related events. There are spoilers involved if you enlarge it.
[Click the image to enlarge it]
The inspiration for this was a random note on Twitter saying somebody was confused as to the reading order of the JLA books and how events aligned against each other. The key seems to be that the events for Cry For Justice parallel 12-issues of the main book, but that most of the events actually occur in a short window immediately before the Blackest Night events.
This isn’t complete – there are a lot of Blackest Night and Superman related things I could add.
I would welcome any comments, suggestions, or corrections that people may have.
Updated 11/03/2010 - I’ve slightly rearranged the original version that I’d posted by moving the Cry For Justice line to the top. I’ve also added the Vixen and Red Tornado mini-series. The Vixen mini-series is relatively easy to position as it was published as soon as “The Second Coming” (the story where Vixen got her powers back) ended. It also features Batman so it had to finished pre-Final Crisis.
The Red Tornado mini-series is more fluid, but there are distinct mentions in the main JLA title of Red Tornado taking a leave of absense (JLA #31) and then returning again (JLA #36) so it seems logical that the story takes place during that leave.
Included on the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is the first in a new series of standalone short-animated films featuring characters from DC’s vast archive. The first film is DC Showcase: The Spectre written by Steve Niles who, along with creating Simon Dark for DC Comics and re-imaging the Creeper, is one of a new wave of horror comics writers. The Spectre had originally been created in the 1940s by Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman) and Bernard Baily, but in this short Niles draws most heavily on the Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo 1970s Spectre feature from Adventure Comics.
The director is Joaquim Dos Santos, a name from the original DCAU days, but the old Timm-style models are gone entirely. That look is replaced by a very Anime inspired styling that is freer in its staging and framing that the normal DC series/features. Additionally, the entire short is graded as if it was a 1970s cop movie with a slightly washed out look and the deliberate recreation of dirt on the film. From the very start you know you’re watching something that is different from what you may have expected.
The film opens with a Hollywood director getting blown up in his own home. Police Detective Jim Corrigan (Gary Cole) had once been romantically involved with the director’s beautiful blond daughter (Alyssa Milano). To the annoyance of his superior and colleagues Corrigan makes it his business to become involved with the investigation.
Unknown to anybody else Jim Corrigan is a dead man, a ghost who masquerades as a living-man whilst he investigates violent and heinous crimes. Then once he as ascertained who the guilty party is Corrigan’s ghost transforms into the nightmarish Spectre – a force of vengeance who murders the guilty in perverse and outlandish supernatural executions.
If you’ve read any Spectre comics you’ll know that he can be very inventive in the way he kills the guilty. Ethics aide – I’ve ranted on quite enough about heroes killing in my review of Cry For Justice - this is what the Spectre does and has always done. His executions in this short suitably live up to his reputation. One takes place in a Hollywood props house and makes full use of the horrors stored there. Another takes place out on the open road and owes a lot to Steve Spielberg’s 1975 film Duel. In both cases the Spectre is more of an animator and than a direct agent. It works well and care has been taken not to break the ambiance. In all, the 1970s pastiche works surprisingly well.
The look of the Spectre is very traditional, almost too traditional. Even handled as he is you can’t help but think the Spectre’s bright green cape looks a bit out of place in what is otherwise a horror film. Gary Cole’s Jim Corrigan is suitably hard-boiled, but I thought his Spectre was a little flat. Milano is okay as the girlfriend, but her screen time is so short that its impossible to judge.
This “short” is only two-thirds the length of a normal 22-minute TV cartoon and it was never going to have a great depth to it. However, it does manage to tell a full story and you don’t feel cheated by the length.
Batman: Arkham Asylum has got a lot of rewards lately and the developers are going to celebrate by releasing a special 3D edition of the game called the Game of the Year edition. It’ll include all the previous downloadable content. What’s more, it’s going to be in 3D,
The multi award-winning Batman: Arkham Asylum adds a new dimension to crime fighting with support for TriOviz 3D on both PS3 and Xbox 360. TriOviz 3D is a patented 3D process which adds depth to the game, visible to players wearing the included 3D glasses. Compatible with all standard and high definition TV sets, TriOviz 3D creates a far more immersive gaming experience, allowing console players to dive deeper into the gothic world of Arkham Asylum..
I’m not too familiar with the TiOviz technology, but it seems that they use green and cyan glasses and not the traditional red and blue 3D glasses. It means that colours should look more natural. The developers seem to have accomplished the effect by using the depth information that is already computed in the game.
I’ve played and finished Arkham so I really don’t need another version, but… the 3D is tempting.
Main Cast: Kevin Conroy (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Mathew Valencia (Robin/Tim Drake), Billy Zane (The Demon/Jason Blood)
Supporting Cast: Stephen Wolfe Smith (Klarion), Peter Renaday (Auctioneer)
Season Credits
Producers: Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm
Associate Producer: Haven Alexander
Series Story Editors: Stan Berkowitz, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Rich Fogel
Series Writers: Hilary J.Bader, Stan Berkowitz, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Rich Fodel, Robert Goodman
Series Directors: Hiroyuki Aoyama, Curt Geda, Kenji Hachizaki, Butch Lukic, Toshihioko Masuda, Dan Riba, Yuichiro Yano
Theme: Shirley Walker
Voice Direction: Andrea Romano
Executive Producer: Jean MacCurdy
Synopsis
A very rich select crowd gather at Gotham Auctioneers, Ltd for an auction of rare and unique artefacts. A natural habitat for billionaire businessman Bruce Wayne, but a rather boring outing for his youthful ward Tim Drake. Tim spots another boy and tries striking up a conversation with him on the assumption that he too has been dragged there against his wishes. However, the odd youth (Klarion) and his vicious pet cat (Teekl) seem to be there of their own volition.
The auction starts with an item reputed to be the personal branding iron of Morgaine Le Fay (a sorceress enemy of Merlin and King Arthur). Klarion and a man called Jason Blood get into an bidding war over the item and it appears that Klarion has won until Bruce Wayne suddenly bids 1 million dollars. Wayne bought the item because Blood was trying so hard to keep it out of Klarion’s hands. Blood warns Wayne not to underestimate Klarion, a “witch boy” who turned his own parents into mice (the implication being that they were then eaten by Teekl).
Is there an a Justice League computer game in the works? Sure looks that way…
The two screen shots above seem to show a Planet Krypton style restaurant themed around the JLA heroes. Other screen shots appear to show Paradise Island and Atlantis. There have been several earlier Justice League games, most recently well received Justice League Heroes and an earlier beat-em-up Justice League Task Force – not to mention a number of games based off the Justice League Unlimited franchise.
These screen shots leaked online via the portfolio of an artist, according to Michael McWhertor’s posts on Kotaku and Follow Xbox,
The screens were taken from an ex-Shiny Entertainment artist’s online portfolio, the development studio behind movie-to-game adaptations like The Golden Compass and The Matrix: Path of Neo. The developer, part of Double Helix, has also been pegged to a game based on Warner’s Green Lantern film.
I can’t see a mention of a Justice League games on Double Helix’s website, but do have a cryptic news post that says
Double Helix Games is working on an exciting unannounced Warner Bros. Interactive title
That could be the mentioned GL game or could just possibly be the game these screenshots are from.
Warner Brother’s recent purchases of computer game companies signals a strengthened interest in the games sector. Marvel have bad a bit of success in that area, but DC has so far only had scattered success. Batman: Arkham Asylum was a critical success, but the DC Universe/Mortal Combat crossover was rather disappointing. On the horizon are the Arkham Asylum sequal and a massive-multiplayer online game called DC Universe Online.
I was looking around at some other reviews of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths to see what other people were saying. I was rather relieved that I seem to be in line with the general feelings posted on comic sites (e.g. IGN, Mania, Robot 6). Most of the reviews reiterate the history of the film’s development, criticise some part of the voice acting, but ultimately really like the feature. As of March 1st IMDB is showing 7.2/10 on 483 votes and Amazon has 4/5 for 56 votes which is favourable and fairly consistent. Dwayne McDuffie has a list of well-earned praise on his homepage, but I was interested to see if people were saying anything more enlightening in their reviews.
Okay, so Batman’s on a space station bought and paid for out of his own pocket, decked out in a Power Loader, and squaring off against demented versions of three Marvels and a Wonder Woman from a parallel universe. The smart money says I could go ahead and stop the review right there since this is clearly the best movie ever.
I found their review interesting as they pulled apart the audio and video just as you’d expect a site interested in HD quality. They take issue with the video compression, but I don’t think its something I’d know to notice.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths just doesn’t sound like a movie. Justice League got its start on basic cable, and that’s pretty much where Crisis…’s soundtrack wound up too. There are no dubs, alternate soundtracks, commentaries, or downmixes this time around
I agree that the lack of a commentary is a downside, but I’ve listened to the Superman “Brave New Metropolis” commentary I know how little these guys can have to say about an otherwise brilliant episode. Now a solo commentary by McDuffie would have been cool.
The latest direct-to-DVD feature from Warner Brother Animation is Justice League: Crisis on Two-Earths. The other features they’ve done have been good, maybe even brilliant, but I think this is the one I anticipated the most. And it’s good, really good – not quite as good as Justice League: A New Frontier, but it’s close. The main film does seem a little short (75 minutes), but that’s made up for by the presence of the Spectre animated-short on the Blu-Ray disc.
This is quite amazing. It’s the Justice League recreated on an Etch-A-Sketch by the Etch-A-Sketch Man (alias Christoph Brown) and edited together by Nathaniel Brown. What impresses me isn’t just his skill with the device, but a lot of these are actually quite good compositions regardless of the medium.
This Next Wednesday sees the end on one of the most contentious Justice League stories in years. The Source has a five-page preview of Justice League: Cry For Justice #7 by James Robinson and Mauro Cascioli. We may know broadly how this ends, but many of the details and drama remain to be unveiled. And if you need those splashes splashed together BCs got that covered.
Correction 25/Feb: It’s actually the following week (March 3rd) that Cry #7 comes out. DC normally puts previews out for the following week, but this one is for two weeks after it was posted and I didn’t read the date closely enough.
I was surprised at just how long Titans had been in a holding pattern and at how short the time was between Final Crisis and Blackest Night.March 7, 2010 10:47
DC Showcase shorts I'd like to see: Zatanna, Booster Gold, Nightwing, Rip Hunter, and something Jack Kirby: New Gods or even Jimmy Olsen.March 6, 2010 4:04
For some reason I expected there to a b/w Firstwave promo in the back of Firstwave #1, after all they're in almost every other DC comic.March 5, 2010 10:46
Milestone Forever #2 (McDuffie/various) - Fantastic. Made me want to read more Static. Surely a Static Shock ongoing by DM is a no-brainer?March 4, 2010 9:40
Cry For Justice #7 (Robinson/anybody else DC could find) - Should have been great, but wasn't. Read JLA, ignore CFJ.March 4, 2010 9:38
Cry for Justice #7 out today. We know some of it, but now we find out what actually happened when Prometheus blackmailed the JLA.March 3, 2010 11:05
Interesting blog-post by Guys Lit Wire explaining why they think only the big-guns JLA ever works http://tinyurl.com/ye3tjrxMarch 3, 2010 10:31
When watching Crisis on Two Earths just assume John Stewart is off in space and that Hal is filling in for him - everything else fits.February 27, 2010 11:25