DC Animated Universe movie
Creators: Jeff Wamester, Jeremy Adams and Meghan Fitzmartin
Release date: May 2021
I’ve talked about a number of trades in the past few weeks. This week, I’d like to turn the focus to the latest DC Animated Universe direct-to-DVD — or in this case, Blu-ray — Justice Society: World War II. And let me warn readers right off that there will be some spoilers in this post. Generally, I try to avoid spoilers so new readers can experience the material fresh. In this case, I can’t really address some of what I’d like to say without some spoilers. You have been warned.
I’m also going to say right from the beginning that I very much enjoyed this film. I want there to be no mistake about that despite me leveling a few criticisms of the movie in the following paragraphs. I’ve said before that I prefer to focus this blog on celebrating the good in comics, not on the bad. This movie is good despite a few quibbles.
I’ve long liked the Justice Society, and the promise of an adventure following this group set firmly in the World War II era sounded like an excellent idea to me. I enjoyed some of the brief flashbacks to this era in the Justice League cartoon, and this film goes those one better, ramping up the action and the consequences of war, as viewers would expect from a feature movie rather than a 30-minute episode. This Justice Society is led by Wonder Woman and includes Hourman, Hawkman, the Flash and Black Canary. They also are joined by Steve Trevor and a couple other cameo heroes I won’t spoil here, except to say kudos to the creative team for tying in the Showcase Short moreso than I have seen a previous DCAU film do.
*** SPOILERS BEGIN NOW ***
The cover art for this movie offers one of the first spoilers, i.e. the inclusion of the modern-age Barry Allen Flash alongside the other golden-age heroes. Yep, this is a time-travel story, sort of. While the framing sequence of Barry and Iris West traveling to Metropolis for a picnic leads to a team-up between Flash and Superman, Flash’s unplanned trip to meet the Justice Society, and serves to inspire Flash to suggest a Justice League of heroes upon his return to his own place and time, I wish the creators of this film had simply told the Justice Society tale and let it stand on its own. The title says this is the Justice Society fighting during World War II. The framing sequence is nice, but unnecessary.
My other quibble involves the inclusion of Aquaman in this film. Again, the package art for the Blu-ray spoils this as Arthur Curry is prominently displayed on the back cover of the jewel case. I like the touch of giving Aquaman the yellow gloves the golden-age Marine Marvel is usually depicted with. I also like the fact that one of my favorites is included here when he easily might not have been. His inclusion is one of the reasons I was anxious to see this film when it was released.
What I wasn’t as thrilled to see is Aquaman’s inclusion as an ally of the Nazis, albeit a mind-controlled unwitting pawn. It’s not so much that he was mind-controlled into helping the Nazis; that kinda thing happens to superheroes a lot. They eventually shake off the mind-control and redeem themselves. Aquaman was denied this heroic turn in this film. He almost shakes off the mind control once or twice, but ultimately fails until the very end of the film. Then, instead of redeeming himself, he runs away in shame and is not seen again for the rest of the film. That hurts.
It reminds me of a couple other recent story arcs in the comics that I have enjoyed overall despite unkind characterizations of Aquaman in the process of telling said tales. The first is the “Legacy” six-part story from Justice League Rebirth Nos. 26-31. The other is Aquaman’s characterization in the Flashpoint reality from the limited series of the same name. Neither series had very flattering portrayals of one of my favorite heroes, and I hope this trend does not continue.
But again, overall, I think this film is good and well worth a watch.
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