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This great fan film was the 2009 Award Winner at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, IL. It was written and directed by George Doerr VI and features Thomas Hayes as Lex Luthor and Doerr as the Joker. I particularly liked the “Villains Just Want A Day Off Song” sung by Poison Ivy (Jenny Garofalo) to the tune of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”.
Yearly Archives: 2009
Discuss thisJ.T. Krul interview @ Newsarama
Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers has interviewed Green Arrow writer J.T. Krul about his upcoming Rise/Fall storyline, the one that spins our of Cry For Justice and Justice League. He comments upon his collaboration with James Robinson and the changes that Roy Harper and Oliver Queen will be facing.
Nrama: How does Roy differ from Green Arrow? Will those differences play a role in the story you’re telling?
Krul: I’ve touched on this a bit already, but in terms for the Rise of Arsenal and the Fall of Green Arrow, it really is about how they react and respond to the events in Cry for Justice. And absolutely, you’re going to see how those differences cause friction between the two.
[...]
James [Robinson] is up north now, but we’ve still been able to talk a lot about what’s going on with Green Arrow and the rest of the JLA. I was even lucky enough to attend a DC summit to discuss all the plans being put into motion for our books. It was a tremendous opportunity and a great way for the stories to get even better by allowing us time to come together.
[...]
Nrama: How big of a role will other JLA characters play? Can you share any of the specific characters who will be an important to the story?
Krul: Early on, the JLA will play an important role in both stories, and those closest to Ollie and Roy will have big moments throughout the story. For Ollie that means his best friend – Hal Jordan. And for Roy, that means his old friend Dick Grayson, another former sidekick who is adjusting to a new role – Batman.
Justice League: Cry For Justice #5
So far in Cry For Justice separate small groups of heroes have become aware that the villain Prometheus is preparing some unspecified, yet dastardly revenge plan against all superheroes. He has coerced a score of super villains to do his bidding and there have been fatalities on each side. This issue makes the point where the separate group opposing Prometheus come together for the first time.
This issue opens with Donna Troy and Starfire (Kory) relaxing in their swim suits around Buddy (Animal Man) Baker’s swimming pool as Congorilla (Bill) and Starman (Mikaal) come calling. Buddy, Kory, and Donna agree to help Mikaal and Bill once they convince them that they no longer want to murder Prometheus. The Shade has approached the original Flash (Jay Garrick) in his home to tell him that Prometheus is deliberately distracting heroes with his stream of attacks.
Meanwhile, Hal Jordan’s JLA splinter group has, at the suggestion of Captain Marvel (Freddy Freeman), turned to the main JLA group for help in combating Prometheus. Black Canary is initially hostile to their approach, but Freddy and Hawkman (Carter Hall) smooth things over. Hal explains that Prometheus is organising something big. He’s been forcing villains to attack heroes that they wouldn’t normally fight. As if to illustrate his explanation, Batwoman contacts the Watchtower to say that she just fought Endless Winter, but the villainess was killed by Prometheus before she could talk. Firestorm is sent to Gotham to pick up the body.
Winter is an old character turned into a relatively recent, but rather unpleasant JSA foe. Delores Winters was a 1940s movie star until the Ultra-Humanite stole her body, but he saved her brain and it was transplanted into her daughter’s body. She later gained super powers by literally stealing the second Ice Maiden’s skin (the blue one, Sigrid not Tora).
The Atom’s analysis of Winter’s corpse shows that Prometheus is using Suicide Squad technology to enforce his allies compliance. Another call comes through and the Guardian transfers to the Watchtower with a device that had been left by Plunder (a mirror universe version of a detective from Central City) in Metropolis. Analysis of it by Will Magnus and his colleagues shows that it a prototype teleportation device that has amalgamated several different technologies. It could theoretically send an entire city anywhere in time, space, or dimension, but it requires an immense amount of power and computer control.
Just then Animal Man, Donna, Kory, Mikaal, and Congorilla arrive to compare notes on Prometheus. Before anybody can say anything Congorilla bounds off down the corridor. Red Arrow had left to pick up his daughter and Supergirl had gone to find Freddy who had also wandered off. Congorilla rushes past Supergirl as he follows a bloody trail. They are shocked to find Roy with his right arm torn off. Supergirl cauterizes his wound with her heat vision, but they’re attacked before they can investigate further. Congorilla’s cry brings the rest of the assembled heroes running. Green Arrow is shocked to find his unconscious son, but is determined to find the person responsible. Doctor Light and Animal Man rush off to check the security cameras. Elsewhere, Captain Marvel and Supergirl square off beside the unconscious bodies of Congorilla and the Flash.
This issue is odd. It’s really the last phase of bringing the band together – assembling all the heroes on the JLA Watchtower – but, they don’t do anything except talk and argue. Every plot development (Batwoman, the Guardian, etc) comes to them. I really want to like this issue, but you can help wishing that Prometheus would just get on with whatever it is that Robinson and co have built towards.
The further we get into this series the more I’m conflicted about Mauro Cascioli’s art. Yes, it does look great, but some of the artistic choices Robinson/Cascioli make are odd. The biggest example is the amount of cheese cake in this issue – from the obvious pool scene with Kory and Donna, to the Batwoman/Winter Fight, and the endless odd angles on Supergirl. There is one particular panel (the splash on pages 12 and 13) where Supergirl looks impossibly thin. This isn’t too dissimilar to what Ed Benes use to get up to, but it really isn’t necessary in a serious story.
Hal references that they’ve been running around hunting criminals for several weeks and Black Canary says she disbanded her League. Both of those would imply that this story take place parallel to or after Len Wein’s recent JLA arc. Yet the JLA present on the Watchtower when Hal’s group teleports in is quite random. Why are Canary, Roy, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl just hanging around when they’re not currently members. There is also the issue of randomly appearing heroes. Firestorm and Doctor Light just pop up to say “I’ll handle that” without it previously being established that they’re on the Watchtower. The same happens to the Flash on the last page. He’s shown unconscious next to Congorilla without it being established how, when, or why he’s on the Watchtower.
When I first read this story I understood that it was Freddy Freeman who had attacked Roy, Congorilla, Flash, and that it was Supergirl who was heroically confronting him. However, now I’m not so sure. Could it be that Kara, or somebody impersonating her, is really the mole?
The Verdict
| Site | Reviewer | Original Score | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews Portal | Comic Book Resources | Timothy Callahan | 3/5 | 60 |
| Community Reviews | Comics Vine User Reviews | Ave of 1 review/s | 3/5 | 60 |
| Community Reviews | iFanboy | 380 pulls | 3.6/5 | 72 |
| Character Site | Supergirl Comic Book Commentary | Anj | B | 60 |
| Character Site | Superman Homepage | Michael Bailey | 4 (story) & 4 (art)/5 | 80 |
| Reviews Blog | Comic Book Bin | Koppy McFad | 6.5/10 | 65 |
| Reviews Blog | A Comic Book Blog | Wayland | 65/100 | 65 |
| Reviews Blog | Comics Per Day Reviews | Timbotron | Average | 40 |
| This Site | Captain’s JLA Blog | Jason Kirk |   |
60% |
| Grand Average |   |
62% |
Justice League: Fury Part Two
Screen Shots
Episode Credits
| Writer | Director | Music | Voice Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stan Berkowitz | Butch Lukic | Kristopher Carter | Andrea Romano |
| Main Cast | Guest Cast | ||
| Kevin Conroy | Batman | Julie Bowen | Aresia |
| Maria Canals | Hawkgirl | Susan Sullivan | Hippolyta |
| Susan Eisenberg | Wonder Woman | Olivia D’Abo | Star Sapphire |
| Carl Lumbly | J’onn J’onzz | Karen Maruyama | Tsukuri |
| Michael Rosenbaum | Flash | Maggie Wheeler | Firefighter |
| Vanessa Marshall | Paramedic | ||
| Animation Timing Director | Storyboard | Character/Prop Design | Animation Services |
|
|
|
Koko Enterprise Co. Ltd. |
| Animation Directors | |||
| Sangwan Lee | |||
| Series Story Editors | Series Directors | Producers | Associate Producers |
|
|
|
Shaun McLaughlin |
| Executive Producers | |||
| Sander Schwartz | |||
| Theme: Lolita Ritmanis, Main Title Design: Bruce Timm, Main Title Animation: Cantina Pictures Visual Effects | |||
Synopsis
Previously in Part One: Aresia had a difficult childhood. She had escaped from the civil war that engulfed her homeland, but lost her mother when the refugee ship they were on was torpedoed by pirates. Aresia clung to a makeshift raft until fate washed her up on the shores of Themyscira, island home of the Amazons, where she was discovered by Queen Hippolyta. Aresia was adopted by the Amazons and was raised alongside Hippolyta’s daughter Diana (the future Wonder Woman). The adult Aresia secretly left Themyscira and hired a team of mercenaries to steal the ingredients she need to create toxin that would kill only men. Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and most of the men in Gotham City had already succumb to the toxin by the time Batman and Hawkgirl returned from Themyscira with the truth of Aresia’s origin.
Lots of JLA news quotes harking forward to 2010
In these last few days before Christmas there have been a few quotes about the Justice League and what 2010 has in store for them. Dan Didio addresses a number of JLA topics while speaking with Newsarama, the JLA movie producer has commented on WB’s evolving strategy, and Mattel has announced that their JLU line will continue.
Justice League Mortal
The most widely discussed/re-tweeted story has been from Dan Lin, the producer of the in-stasis Justice League Mortal. Lin is also the producer of the current Sherlock Holmes film and Collider.com has had a running seven-part interview within him. During that interview Steve Weintraub for Collider asked Lim about JL Mortal.
Collider: You’re listed [as producer] also for Justice League Mortal.
Dan Lin: It’s the dream project.
Collider: Right, that’s why I’m sort of saving it. It’s like the punch at the end.
Dan Lin: Yeah. I mean it’s… I’ll say it’s the reason I started my company. You know, I thought that was the ultimate project. I was a fan-boy for me to work with all those characters together on a team and kind of the themes of that movie. That’s my dream. It’s on-hold right now as DC sorts out its strategy but as you’ve talked to Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov it seems like they’re building to Justice League instead of going with the team movie first and doing individual movies after that.
Collider: [...] are there certain superhero movies that you are interested in bringing to the screen….because I know they did a whole shakeup at Warner Brothers with people letting go of projects and other people coming onboard.
Dan Lin: Right. The only one right now as you probably know, they’re unveiling their DC strategy in January so you’ll hear more about that and they’ll speak about that in the new year. The only other one besides Justice League that I’m working on is the Suicide Squad.
This specific strategy shake-up had been mentioned by Charles Rovin, a director who had been linked with a potential Flash film. However, this is the first time that we’ve got a date for the announcement of the results.
The 1980s Justice League
Over at Newsarama Dan Didio, DC executive editor, is holding an end of year twenty-questions session. In the third installment, it was suggested that the 1980s JLA wasn’t doing to well out of the current DC Universe.
There is a lot of dicussion about if the 1980s Justice League had a target on their backs. I’m happy to tell you Bifford [the questioner] that the 80s JLA group is going to be back, and be back with a vengeance in 2010.
No clue about what that means, but the reference to a “target on their backs” makes it implicit that he’s talking about the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle Justice League. Over at Blog @ Newsarama Russ runs a bit of a conspiracy theory about this quote and DCU recent events.
Roy Harper’s Injury in Cry for Justice.
In the same round of questions Didio was asked “what makes the maiming of red arrow significant when has friends who are capable of replacing his arm?” To which the answer was,
I really want to be very clear about this, this story is not just about replacing it with a cybernetic arm, if that is how the story turns out. And this is one of those cases where I want to remind people to read the story as it develops. There is so much emotion depth that is going on here. Roy is an archer first and foremost. To [..] lose his arm, his ability to do what he does best, is what really leaves the emotional scar on him, not the idea that he can replace it simply, but more importantly that he’s lost a part of himself, the part of him he considered the most valuable, that helped define him as a person. That’s what we’re going see develop.
Roy’s arc in the Justice League has been about stepping into the role of Red Arrow, in succeeding to his father’s place in the Justice League. He was already knock-backed by his break up with Kendra so this really does look like the lowest ebb for Roy – maybe even lower than his old drug habit.
The Price of the Justice League comic book
In the final round of questions Dan Didio was asked directly how DC could justify raising the price of JLA when the sales had declined.
[Pauses] Price increase is only the answer when we improve quality and quantity. We’ve been saying this a lot over the last couple of months, especially with so many people being price sensitive at the moment, but I wanted to reiterate it with this question. A 3.99 price point is something that is on books that have greater than the standard number of pages and will continue to be so. We will continue to hold the 2.99 price point as much as possible, but if we feel that the story warrants extra pages then unfortunately the price will increase with that, but hopefully you will get the feeling of value in that book.
With Justice League: so much that is going on with Justice League, with the fall of Green Arrow and the rise of Arsenal Justice League, will be playing prominently into that storyline. A lot of focus is on the team and how its being built there is a lot of focus on JLA throughout 2010.
Mattel JLU figures to continue in 2010
Miraculously Mattel’s of Justice League Unlimited figures are still running – over three years after the cartoon itself finished. On their Facebook Blog Mattel confirmed that the line will be continuing at Target,
JLU is going to continue in Spring 2010 at Target stores. We’ll have some new figures to reveal at Toy Fair in NY at out collector event on Feb. 14th. Stay tuned!
[...]
And as stated above, JLU will still be at Target stores in 2010. We have some great singles, 3 packs and 6 packs in store including many more fan demanded character, a return to Apokolips and a few out of the blue surprises we think JLU fans are going to love!
Superhero Times has the full quote.
Seth Kushner’s Cos-players
Seth Kushner is a New York based photographer who has taken an interest in cos-players at comic book conventions. His project on fandom (and here) has been spun out into a photo-essay on NYC Graphic. I think my favourite image is the one that’s reproduced the most – the juxtoposition of the Golden Age Green Lantern and the men’s bathroom.
Seth also has a running project on New York based graphic novelists which his website says will eventually be released as a book.
[Via: Robot 6 @ CBR ]
Mike Mayhew’s Green Arrow sketch
Mike Mayhew, the artist on March’s Justice League: The Rise and Fall Special #1, has posted a fantastic Green Arrow sketch to Deviant Art. He describes it as “Warming up for my Justice League: Rise & Fall gig.” Also go see the coloured version, but I think I prefer the pure pencils.
Justice League to acquire a co-feature
During CBR’s conversation with Dan Didio about DC’s c0-features it was revealed that Justice League will gain one.
Moving forward, “Teen Titans,” “Justice League of America” and “JSA All-Stars” will include co-features where, rather than focusing on one character over a long story, readers will see different cast members related to the main team embark on their own, limited run adventures. On occasion, a co-feature will be dropped for a month if the main story needs to expand out to 30-pages.
Co-features are DC’s current branding for what we use to call back-up strips. They’ve run in a number of series for the past year with mixed results. No word yet about what the JLA co-feature will be or who will be writing it.
JLA Solicitations for March 2010
March 2010 appears to be Green Arrow and the JLA month with four-linked issues that spin-out of Cry For Justice and the events there-in. We’ve already covered their announcement, but DC has now released the solicitation details for those issues. It kicks off on March 10th with the Rise and Fall Special by James Robinson and J.T. Krul. Krul then follows that with Green Arrow #31 the following week (March 17th) and the start of the Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal the week after that (March 24th). Then at the end of the month James Robinson wraps up his first JLA arc and deals the implications of The Rise and Fall from the League’s side. Each of the four issues has a 1-in-25 variant cover created by Justice League: The Rise and Fall Special #1 artist Mike Mayhew.
Spoilers below…
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths round-up
Around the net there has been a slow build-up of studio conducted interviews and casting details being released by Warner Home Video to promote the up-coming release of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.Voice Actors in the News summarises the coverage and links to Toonzone’s copies of the interviews.
A direct to DVD movie pitting the Justice League against the Crime Syndicate. TV Shows on DVD have hi-resolution images of the DVD’s artwork. The special edition Blu-ray cover is reproduced above, go to their site to see the boxes for the other formats.
The Official Press describes the film as:
To save our world and all those like it, SUPERMAN, BATMAN and their caped colleagues must go toe-to-toe with their evil mirror images in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the seventh entry in the successful ongoing series of DC UNIVERSE Animated Original PG-13 Movies coming February 23, 2010 from Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. The full-length animated film will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Special Edition 2-disc version on DVD and Blu-Ray™ Hi-Def for $24.98 (SRP) and $29.99 (SRP), respectively, as well as single disc DVD for $19.98 (SRP). The film will also be available On Demand and Download.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League) rooted in DC Comics’ popular canon of “Crisis” stories depicting parallel worlds with uniquely similar heroes and villains. Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday) is executive producer. Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors.
In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, a “good” LEX LUTHOR arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the JUSTICE LEAGUE to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the JUSTICE LEAGUE. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by OWLMAN, puts the balance of all existence in peril.
The movie features an all-star voice cast led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as SUPERMAN, James Woods (Ghosts of Mississippi) as OWLMAN, Chris Noth (Sex and the City, Law & Order) as LEX LUTHOR, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as BATMAN, Gina Torres (Serenity, Firefly) as SUPERWOMAN and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as the President.
The official website, www.JUSTICELEAGUECRISIS.com, is now live, but as yet doesn’t contain much more than the trailer.
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