One nice thing when I finally logged in to HBO Max is they have almost all of the DC animated movies from Mask of the Phantasm in 1994 to ones released last year. Quite a few I had already seen on Amazon Prime or Redbox (usually as part of a BOGO Free) but there were some I hadn't seen. And as I said overall the quality of the stories is still better consistently than the live action DC movies.
If you don't already know, these movies are PG-13 or R-rated with bad language, blood, gore, and sex. They're cartoons but they're a lot different from the old Superfriends cartoon.
Superman: Red Son: This was one I wanted to see but it came out last year near the start of the pandemic so I didn't get the chance. It's an adaptation of the graphic novel by Mark Millar that postulates what would happen if Superman's rocket had landed in the Ukraine in 1938 instead of Kansas. The result is that Superman becomes a servant of Stalin and the Soviet state before becoming the head of the USSR. Much of the world then comes to his side while Lex Luthor and the USA becomes more desperate, isolated, and poor.
The animated version follows most of the key points of the graphic novel: Superman ending Stalin's camps, taking over as the premier, befriending Wonder Woman (though not that way), fighting the Russian Batman, fighting Luthor's cloned Superman (essentially Bizarro), and fighting an American Green Lantern Corps. The end is a bit different as there's a big battle with Superman and Luthor teaming up against Brainiac. I think that was added to give the third act more oomph because in the comic I think Superman beats the Green Lanterns and shows up to the White House where Luthor has him read a note asking if he'll put the whole world in a bottle like one of Brainiac's captured cities. Superman then realizes that he's been going at this wrong and backs down. Then it skips forward into the distant future on a dying Earth, where baby Kal-El is sent back through time and space. Both endings work pretty well.
Gotham By Gaslight: This is a Batman Elseworlds that takes place in the late 19th Century. Someone is killing prostitutes in Gotham and Bruce Wayne as a steampunk Batman tries to track down the killer. I read this a long time ago and thought it was kind of meh. Like a lot of these Elseworlds it's just "let's set it in this time period and do basically the same story as in modern times." The difference between this and Red Son is that Red Son is a lot bolder in telling a unique story while also integrating a lot of the traditional Superman characters. Whereas stories like this feel more like a costume party; it's like everyone is dressing up in 19th Century costumes and acting out a Batman story. It's not all that interesting to me. Still, it's not bad either.
I'm not sure if they changed the ending or not because it's been so long since I read this. I like how they worked the Robins in, which I'm pretty sure this was added for this because the graphic novel was a long time ago. I was pleasantly surprised they didn't work the Joker or Harley Quinn into this; I suppose the Joker being Jack the Ripper would have been too obvious.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow: This is a prequel or maybe a reboot from last year about Superman when he's just starting out in Metropolis. When Lobo comes to track him down, there's a big fight and some alien goo gets on a janitor, who becomes Parasite, able to drain people of life force--including Superman. With the help of Lobo, Martian Manhunter, and Lex Luthor, he's able to stop the Parasite in a battle that takes much too long to get to what we all know is going to happen. I mean obviously Superman isn't going to die, so why drag it out for like 20 minutes? And watching Martian Manhunter burn to death was a little over-the-top, though spoiler, he doesn't really die; it was just a psychic trick.
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract: The Judas Contract was one of the first big event comics from back in the early 80s. In it Deathstroke is hired to capture the Titans, which he does with the help of a girl named Terra who has earth-controlling powers. The title comes from Terra betraying the rest of the Titans--like Judas. The 2017 movie tells basically the same story though it's more streamlined and a few things are different because the team is a little different. Overall I think it was a good representation of the story and unlike some later animated movies wasn't too dark or violent.
Superman Unbound: This was an older one from 2013 that I might have seen before, though I'm not exactly sure. It's about Brainiac coming to Earth and Superman and Supergirl have to stop him and free the Kryptonian city of Kandor from his clutches. It was good for the most part. It was PG-13 so there's some violence and language but nothing too much. It ends with Clark proposing to Lois, but I think they rebooted their animated continuity before they could get married.
Batman: Hush: This was a big storyline in the 2000s by Jeph Loeb, who went on to work for Marvel TV projects. A mysterious man with a bandaged face is using Batman villains to cause havoc. He even has Poison Ivy brainwash Superman. Meanwhile, Batman and Catwoman hook up and Bruce even reveals his secret identity. In the end it turns out the Riddler dresses up as Hush after finding out he has a tumor (cue Kindergarten Cop joke) and dunks himself in a Lazarus Pit. I thought it was Bruce's friend Tom Elliott in the comic but it turns out that was the sequel Heart of Hush, which wasn't as good as the original. Anyway, it was a decent movie. The relationship with Batman and Catwoman worked as well as in Tom King's recent comics, though like with those comics of course it doesn't turn out. Like other recent animated movies some details were changed to make it fit into the animated continuity, like the presence of Batman's son Damian, who I don't think had shown up yet in the comics when it came out.
Batman: Death in the Family: I'm glad I saw this on HBO Max because to spend any money directly on it would be a huge ripoff. Maybe the DVD has more stuff but this was just a Cliff Notes version of the Under the Red Hood movie from years ago. Seriously, they just took the footage from that and edited it down with narration by Bruce in a diner with Clark Kent. To pad it out feature length they have 4 unrelated shorts. The first is Sgt Rock (a WWII hero voiced by Karl Urban) with a vampire, werewolf, and Frankenstein monster taking down a Nazi castle. Another is Adam Strange looking like The Dude saving a mining colony in space. Another is The Phantom Stranger (voiced by Peter Serafinowicz of The Tick on Amazon) helping a teenage girl avoid being eaten by a demon. The last one (the best one) is a struggling artist meeting Death (the young girl version from the Neil Gaiman Sandman comics) and painting a picture of her--then he goes to the afterlife. On streaming this would be a waste of money but from what I read on Amazon the DVD might have the alternate endings for the Death in the Family story.
Batman: Ninja: I thought this would be like the Gotham by Gaslight one where it's just Batman in medieval Japan. Instead it's about Batman, his allies, and some of his enemies actually going back in time to medieval Japan. And then it gets weird with castles that turn into giant robots and then those giant robots make one super robot Voltron/Power Rangers style. And a bunch of monkeys and bats form a giant Batman. I did like how Batman's motorcycle turned into robot armor like a Robotech/Mospaeda Cyclone, but unfortunately that was destroyed too soon. The animation was mostly in an anime style with a little CGI thrown in and one section had something that was cruder and more like painting. It did look pretty cool but I'd have liked more of a down-to-earth story.
The Death of Superman: It was a few years earlier when they did a half-assed Death/Return of Superman called Doomed, but this is more like the comics from the early 90s that were shocking at the time. The gist of this is still the same but it's a lot more streamlined and there are some changes made to make it fit in with previous Justice League movies like War and Throne of Atlantis since this does function as a direct sequel of those, not as a stand-alone or Elseworlds kind of movie.
So anyway, a huge monster called Doomsday attacks, the rest of the Justice League can't stop it, and Superman does, but he dies. At the end Superman's body disappears and in cookie snippets during the credits we get glimpses of the four Supermen taking his place, setting up the next movie. Overall this was a good movie that did a better job at setting up the Lois and Clark relationship than in the live action movies.
Reign of the Supermen: Superman is dead, long live the Supermen! Taking a cue from the 90s comics, 4 characters vie to replace Superman. There's a young clone of Superman made by Lex Luthor--but don't call him Superboy! There's Dr. John Henry who basically makes an Iron Man suit and becomes known as Steel. There's "the Eradicator" who wears a yellow visor, shoots beams of light, and has no problem killing people. And there's the Cyborg Superman who is...a cyborg that looks like Superman.
Like the previous movie the story is more streamlined to fit into about 80 minutes and things are changed to fit into the animated movie continuity. I didn't read all the comics back in the 90s so I'm not sure if the origins of the Supermen are really the same. Like I'm not sure if the Eradicator was a hologram in the comics who was dedicated to protecting Kal-El as he regenerates--and apparently used a really liberal definition of protecting him. Or if this Superboy was a clone, though I know there was at least one in the 90s-2000s who was. Or if the Cyborg Superman back then was created by Darkseid.
The Cyborg Superman becomes the main villain while Superboy and Steel are good guys and the Eradicator kind of disappears after a battle at Luthor's headquarters. The involvement of Darkseid helps to explain how Hank Henshaw becomes the Cyborg Superman and also sets up for the next movie in the series. In a cookie scene, the Justice League decides that they need to take the war to Darkseid on his home of Apokolips...
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War: This takes a cue from the last two Avengers movies as it ties together all the stuff that came before with all the various teams: Justice League, Justice League Dark, Teen Titans, and Suicide Squad. Maybe they put this under the Justice League Dark banner because it gets dark...really fucking dark. This is R-rated and it's not a light R rating either.
It starts off with Superman convincing everyone they need to do a preemptive strike on Darkseid's home of Apokolips. The whole Justice League goes along with Constantine and Zatanna of the Justice League Dark. But unbeknownst to them, Darkseid is eavesdropping through Cyborg and thus is prepared for them and the heroes are routed. Zatanna and Hal Jordan are killed. Wonder Woman, Mera, Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter become cyborg servants of Darkseid. Batman is brainwashed into becoming Darkseid's aide. Cyborg and Flash are used to help run systems on Apokolips. And Superman is injected with liquid Kryptonite and sent back to Earth depowered to show everyone the price of fucking with Darkseid.
Two years later Earth has been overrun by Darkseid's minions. Constantine is tracked down by Clark Kent and Raven of the Titans to help them find Damien Wayne for their last ditch plan to get to Apokolips and try to get Batman to help them. But to get to Apokolips they need to recruit the Suicide Squad to help them get into LexCorp in Metropolis. Meanwhile, Darkseid launches three machines to suck the magma out of the earth, which will destroy the planet.
It's all pretty grim, but wait, there's more! Once the heroes start their last-ditch attack, the bodies start dropping: Shazam, Batwing, Batgirl, Batwoman, Jon Stewart, and all the other Green Lanterns and Guardians on Oa are all killed. The body count keeps climbing and yet somehow Harley Quinn is still alive--grrr...
As I was watching things just get darker and darker I kept wondering when they were going to go back in time and fix all this. I mean that's what has to happen, right? Right? I mean you can't leave it with like 75% of the heroes dead and most of the others mutilated. And the planet has lost enough magma from the core that Earth is probably going to die. So, yeah, finally the Flash leaves to go back and create another Flashpoint. But we'd have to wait for another movie to find out what's different. Since these movies started based off the New 52 maybe they'll reboot it to Rebirth or whatever.
Anyway, I don't mind darker superhero movies but this was too dark even for me.
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines: This opens with a prequel as Steve Trevor crashes on Paradise Island after his plane is attacked by Darkseid's parademons. Diana rescues him and decides to take him back to Man's World, but her mom doesn't want her to go. When Diana defies her, it means she can't come back to Paradise Island ever again. Steve takes her to the home of some anthropologist or archaeologist or whatever and the lady's daughter Vanessa gets jealous because her mom is fawning all over Diana.
Years later, after Diana has become Wonder Woman and part of the Justice League and everything, Vanessa steals some shit and when her mom and Diana go to stop her, Vanessa's mom is killed and Vanessa blames her. Vanessa joins up with some bad guys and becomes "Silver Swan," who looks like a female version of Archangel or whoever in that X-Men Apocalypse movie. Apparently the only way to save her is to take her to Paradise Island and use the "purple healing ray" to fix her. With the help of an evil pharmaceutical company CEO, Diana finds where Paradise Island should be, but...it's a trap!
The bad guys unleash Medusa and shit starts getting dark as Medusa turns numerous Amazons to stone and kills them. There's a far-too-lengthy battle between Wonder Woman and Medusa, during which Wonder Woman blinds herself to keep from looking at Medusa and turning to stone. Did we really need to go that far? Couldn't she just use a mirror like Clash of the Titans or something? Since we all knew Wonder Woman was going to win eventually it just seemed way too drawn out.
Other than that it was OK but not great. Still better than WW84. In the same way, that Apokolips War movie was too dark and grim but the plot does hold together a lot better than BvS. Man of Tomorrow was a better Superman origin story than Man of Steel, probably because they truncated all that Krypton stuff. So that's what I mean that the animated movies have been consistently better than the live action ones. Going forward, though, maybe they can lay off the darkness just a little bit. I don't need it to be all slapstick or something but maybe fewer mass killings and mutilations. I'm just saying.
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