All-Star Superman

Spoiler Level: High

I think I need to rewatch this one.

I'll be honest... I think I missed the point.  When I first heard about DC's "All-Star" comics, I thought it was something different than it actually is-- I figured it was family-friendly stories where you didn't need to worry about continuity with the DCU at large; something that the average reader off the street or a kid starting out could just pick up.  And by "family-friendly" I don't mean kid oriented; I mean along the lines of the current Doctor Who, something that has enough action and character drama for adults but that you can generally count on to not be too intense for your kids.  And the fact that this movie is rated PG, while all the other DCU OVAs have been rated PG-13, reinforced that in my mind.

Well... I was wrong on all counts.

Not that this is completely unsuitable for children; I'd feel more okay watching this with my daughter than I would with just about any of the other DCU OVAs.  There's no blood, but there's some strong language, and some very intense fight scenes, so it is a lot heavier than I expected.

Where I was really off was in my mindset of how it connected to the rest of the DCU.  While I didn't expect it to be tied heavily to DCU continuity, I thought it was still a part of DCU continuity.  Yeah, I was completely wrong there.

What the All-Star line is supposed to be is all-star creators on all-star characters, telling stories that touch on what makes those characters iconic.  Which is, really, a great concept.  It's stories that, by necessity, need to be in their own little world, because we're examining the mythos of the characters themselves.  I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I had realized that going in.

It's an enjoyable tale, but the problem with seeing an adaptation of an adaptation is I didn't realize what was being changed from the original comic for the movie.  Okay, Lois doesn't know Clark is Superman here; is that something the movie-makers are doing because the general public doesn't realize she does know these days, or is that from the original All-Star Superman comic?  And that's what kept throwing me off the entire time.

So now that I've seen it and I know what approach it's taking, if I watched it again I could appreciate it for what it actually does, with completely different expectations.

For example (and here come the spoilers)-- one of the main elements of this story is that Superman is dying.  His body has been overloaded with more solar power than it can absorb.  But I didn't honestly believe for a minute that this meant Superman was really dying.  I figured it was a motivator for a lot of his decisions but he'd be cured by the end.  Because, y'know, even when Superman dies he doesn't stay dead. And if I don't believe that a character really can die, the drama doesn't work. But now that I know this story is in its own world, I know that Superman's plight is sincere, that he isn't guaranteed to survive, and I can appreciate it for the story it wants to tell.

So I think I'd like to at least watch this one again, and possibly read the original comics.

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DC Showcase: Superman / Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Spoiler Level: High

The collection of DC Showcase shorts has finally arrived!  Well, okay, it arrived a long time ago, but Rich and I finally made time to watch it!

The lead feature, "Superman / Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam," is up to the usually DCU OVA high standards.  The animation is fantastic, as usual.  It's a somewhat different take on Black Adam, as he can now shoot lightning from his hands, but his origin is closer to the his classic pre-Crisis origin of having been banished from Earth and spent 5000 years returning.  It's also Captain Marvel's origin story, as we meet Billy Batson and get to see him meet the wizard Shazam and be given his powers.

The only complaint I'd have about it is that Billy Batson's voice is a bit too young; he's drawn as a young teen, but his voice sounds like a pre-teen.  But I can live with that.  Black Adam's lightning blasts don't bother me, because I can never remember if this was a more recent comic change or a change made for the video, and besides, it works really well with Superman's vulnerability to magic.

It also had a few surprises and some great lines. I always liked Captain Marvel, so I'd love to see this lead to more, including the introduction of Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel in future shorts.

I've already reviewed the Spectre, Jonah Hex and Green Arrow shorts.  I wanted to comment on the extended versions here, but all I can say is that I can't tell what was extended.  I realize it's been a long time since I saw the ones for the Spectre and Jonah Hex, but Green Arrow wasn't that long ago, and really, every single scene seemed familiar.

Rich tells me there's no DC Showcase short announced for the next DCU OVA, All-Star Superman. While my initial reaction is disappointment, I'm hoping this is because they're saving them all up this time so all the shorts on the next DC Showcase collection will be new ones.

Batman: Gotham Knight

Spoiler Level: Medium

A very dark yet very enjoyable anthology of short stories about Batman, all done in the vein of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies.

The animation is done by different anime studios, and while each one is done in a different style often with different looks, the changes never feel jarring.  And with this being anime, it truly is an OVA!

My favorite short is probably the first one, where four skaters exchange stories of the encounter they've just had with Batman, and each one sees him as something totally different;  a supernatural shadow, a living man bat, or a high tech mecha warrior.

While each short is self contained, there are small connections between them, which is part of what makes it fun.  It has some truly gory scenes, which isn't so fun, but drives home how terrifying a place Gotham is and what Bruce Wayne has been through.

So all in all, not my favorite DCU OVA, but still enjoyable.

DC Showcase: Green Arrow

Spoiler Level: Medium

I liked this "DC Showcase" the best out of the three they've made so far, but I would;  Green Arrow is more my speed than Jonah Hex or The Spectre.

It's a straight-forward super hero tale, with Ollie stumbling upon an assassination attempt and jumping in to protect a young princess.  It has great action scenes, and Green Arrow gets some nice witty dialogue, but at 11 minutes long there's not really room for much more than that.  Still, Green Arrow's personality manages to shine through, both in his dialogue and in his getting to use trick arrows!

I'll probably be watching the expanded version of this in two weeks when we get to see the Superman / Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam DVD, where it appears with expanded versions of "DC Showcase: Jonah Hex" and "DC Showcase: The Spectre."  Apparently they haven't announced any new DC Showcase shorts for the future DCU OVAs being planned, but I haven't given up hope.

Superman / Batman: Apocalypse

Spoiler Level: High

Another enjoyable offering from the DC Original Animated Movies.  Again, having not read Superman/Batman I wasn't familiar with the source material, but Rich says that from what he can remember,  it was a very loyal adaptation.

It also includes a nice touch with mentioning the impeachment of President Luthor, a direct reference to the previous Superman & Batman OVA, Public Enemies.  It doesn't feature in the plot at all, but it's a nice touch of continuity, letting us know the two stories are connected.

This is the story that re-introduced Kara Zor-El, the Silver Age Supergirl, back into the DC Universe.  Personally, I'm not a big fan of the reSilvering of the DCU; I rather liked that the modern Green Lantern was Kyle Rayner, the modern Supergirl was Matrix / Linda Danvers, and that Wally West had inherited the mantle of the Flash form the late Barry Allen.  Now Hal Jordan, Kara Zor-El and Barry Allen are all back, and the DCU doesn't feel like it's grown as much as it had 10 years ago.

But on the plus side, at least the stories are enjoyable, and that's what really counts.  Kara arrives on Earth and her powers come to her in a rush;  they feel like too much responsibility to her, and really all she'd rather do is lead a regular life.  (And Lois is conspicuously absent in the scenes where she learns to go shopping.)    But of  course, everyone else has other plans for her;  Wonder Woman feels Kara needs to master her powers in the safety of Paradise Island, and Darkseid would rather have her lead the Female Furies.  All of which gives Kara opportunities for some good teenage angst on how she wants to choose her own life.  Batman manages to hold his own against the big guns (literally) in Apokalips.  Oh, and Krypto has a cute scene too.

Pretty much my only complaint is with Darkseid's voice.  No offense to Andre Braugher, but his voice just isn't deep enough.  Darkseid looks like he's made of stone, and as such his voice should be more gravely.  It needs to rumble.  But as complaints go, that's not much of a complaint at all.

I have yet to see a DCU OVA I didn't like, and this one is no exception.  Really, how great is it that we live in an age where we're getting animated movies of acclaimed comic storylines? I'm certainly enjoying it.  Only two more to go!

Superman: Doomsday

Spoiler Level: High

DC's first Original Video Animation (or in this case, Animated Original Movie) is arguably one of the most influential stories told about Superman: his battle with Doomsday, resulting in his death and rebirth.  It was certainly a big one for me; it was because of this storyline that I started reading Superman, and became a huge Superman fan, devotedly reading the four Superman comics (being published as a "Superman Weekly" format) for nearly a decade.

This film actually covers three comic arcs: The Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend and Reign of the Supermen.  So it has a lot of material to cover in a mere 77 minutes.  You'd think that would make it rushed, but the story here is more of an retelling than a straight-out adaptation, and it works really well.

Let's start out with Doomsday:  now that Doomsday's origin has been told in the comics, his discovery and release on Earth can be tweaked to fit.  Originally Doomsday was just bound and buried in a vault on Earth, and broke out on his own.  The implication in later issues was that he was a Cadmus experiment that had gone horribly wrong that they tried to dispose of without anyone knowing.  But by the time the storylines had run their course that was way too mundane an origin, so when the official origin came out he was now a Kryptonian experiment that had been jettisoned into space, where he roamed the universe causing more and more destruction until he was finally trapped and buried on Earth.  So as a result, in this movie he's now stumbled upon in a buried spaceship with an alien warning.  So that's a bit of retconning that actually improves on the comics.

Clark's relationship with Lois is a totally new take:  in the original, Clark had already proposed to Lois, she had accepted, so he revealed he was Superman.  Here it's exactly the opposite: Superman and Lois are an item (and they shower in each others homes a lot), but he hasn't told her he's Clark yet.  Not that she hasn't pretty much figured it out on her own, and is in fact getting peeved with him for not opening up and telling her.  It's a dynamic that makes for an interesting story, but it kind of gives me the creeps.  Not Superman Returns creeps, but it still feels wrong:  it was always important to Clark that Lois love him for who he truly is, and this flies in the face of all that.  Yet it manages to combine the element of Lois learning the truth about him yet still have the emotional drama of the watching the man she loves battle to the death in front of her.

And what a battle it is.  Doomsday takes advantage of the PG-13 rating, mercilessly killing anyone in his path, often by doing terrible things to their heads.  There's just enough done off -camera or in shadow that when combined with a lack of blood keeps it horrifying without becoming gratuitous.  And then once Doomsday faces off against Superman, it just intensifies as neither one has to hold back-- something you rarely see with Superman.  Buildings are destroyed left and right, and while it's never come straight out and stated that there's still people in them, we see plenty of people in other buildings and no evacuations.  The final attack where Superman defeats Doomsday is actually more dramatic here than it felt in the comic.

This movie doesn't acknowledge the rest of the DCU, so the "Funeral for a Friend" arc focuses just on Lois, Jimmy and Martha Kent, and doesn't last very long.  We have a nice seen with Martha and Lois, and then pretty soon Superman's back-- but of course it's not really Clark, it's the beginning of the "Reign of the Supermen."  But four new Supermen would require a movie all on its own, so instead they ditch Steel and The Cyborg all together and combine Superboy and the The Eradicator into one character-- a clone created by Lex Luthor to be under his control, but who becomes a "dark Superman" imposing his own justice on the world.  So instead of Kal-El coming back in black-and-silver to fight The Cyborg, he comes back in black-and-silver to fight The Dark Clone Superman Who Acts Like the Eradicator.  It's a change that needs to be made for it to work in this format, and it does work.  (And they still gave him long hair.  That's another thing that kept me reading for years.)

One last thing:  maybe it's just because I've seen this one twice now, but the theme they've created her for Superman is pretty good too.  Not as good as the Green Lantern: First Flight theme, but still a worthy theme for Superman.  It's a shame it's not included on the "DC 75" CD.

So all in all this was a very good kick-off movie for the DCU OVAs (I realize I should be calling them OAMs, but I'm an anime fan from the 80's) and a good way to show Superman's most famous battle to people who have probably never read the comics.

Green Lantern: First Flight

Spoiler Level: High

Now THIS is one I first saw about a year ago when it was released.  I didn't want to review it until I'd finished watching all the bonus features, and since Rich and I recently watched it as part of our ongoing series of watching all the DCU OVAs, I figured it was long overdue.

The movie itself is AWESOME.  It doesn't adapt any one Green Lantern story; rather, it's a new take pulling from all the various Green Lantern mythos.  But all the key elements are here:  Hal Jordan, test pilot for Ferris Industries, is whisked away by a summons from dying Green Lantern Abin Sur to become his replacement in the Green Lantern Corps, a universe-wide police force run by the small, blue Guardians.  He's trained by a fanatical Green Lantern named Sinestro, who ends up turning on the Corps and becoming Hal's greatest enemy.

The details are different; Abin Sur looks much more alien now, and his reasons for coming to Earth (in a spaceship instead of under the power of his ring) are different, but those reasons get changed every few decades in the comics as well.  There's lots of appearances from other well known Green Lantern Corps members as well.  But this version treats them all differently; just because someone is a prominent Green Lantern in the comics doesn't mean that they'll be bullet proof here.

All in all, it's a faithful yet fresh take on Green Lantern, and a wonderful starting point for more stories.  In many ways it treats the source material in the way a big-budget live action movie would.  Hopefully the actual big-budget live-action Green Lantern movie being made now will do as good a job as this video did.

Being a big GL fan, this is the only DCU OVA I bought, and I bought the two-disc version.  There are some great bonus features on here, including the wonderful "Duck Dogers" episode "The Green Loontern" (talk about a lot of cool GL cameos!), documentaries looking at the history of the Green Lantern comics and the mega-event "Blackest Night," which was just about to start when this DVD was released.  What's missing, however, is anything on the making of this video.  That's because Warner Premiere likes to put the "making of" featurettes on the previous DCU OVA DVD (LOL) as a teaser to get you to buy the next one that's coming up.  Which I suppose I could understand, but for someone like me who is content to just watch the others and only wants to own the Green Lantern one, I would have liked it to be on here.

The bonus feature that I stalled on was the "Bruce Timm Presents 2 Bonus Cartoons" feature.  It's two episodes of Justice League Unlimited, "The Once and Future Thing" parts 1 & 2.   I watched the very beginning and didn't see what it had to do with Green Lantern.  I either turned it off or got distracted before I found out why these episodes were picked.  So now that I've finally gotten to watch them, I can say, "Yes! Awesome! Wonderful!  A great choice!"  Not only was it an episode focusing on Green Lantern John Stewart, it dealt with him meeting a future descendant of his, and featured the Kronos mythology of the hand that started the Universe!  Awesome GL stuff.  Mr. Timm, I apologize for having ever doubted you.

Oh, and I might be totally biased here, but while I think all the musical scores on these videos have been good, this one has been my favorite.   It's the only one I found myself humming the main title theme to.  I've been thinking for a year I should try to make an mp3 of it, and then low and behold, they release it on the "Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection" CD!  So someone high up must have agreed with me, right?  Gonna buy that one as soon as I have the extra money for it.

Word has it that there will be a second GL DCU OVA DVD (ROFL) to coincide with the new movie, but from what I hear it's going to be Tales of the Green Lantern Corps as opposed to a follow up to this DVD.  I'm disappointed that Hal apparently didn't sell well enough to warrant his own follow-up DVD, but I absolutely love the Corps so I'm still psyched about this.  And besides, Hal will be getting his own TV show soon anyway.  It's a good time to be a Green Lantern fan, and this was a fantastic First Flight!

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Spoiler Level: High

Wow, and I thought the Wonder Woman one was violent!

This is another case where I was only vaguely aware of the source material.  I was aware that Jason Todd was back from the dead in the comics because he was alongside Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy in Countdown to Final Crisis.  So I asked some friends how he came back, and the general answer I got was that when Superboy Prime was smashing at the walls of his little pocket universe bubble it was sending ripples through the New Earth universe, which led to several characters being resurrected.  Which is a bit convoluted, but hey, it's comic books.  And apparently Judd Winick felt the same way, because he crafted this tale to give it a more straight-forward and Batman-centric reason.

I can imagine that for people who read the original comic there was more of a mystery who the Red Hood really was, but any suspense on that part is completely lost here by the need to explain to the general audience just who the heck Jason Todd is in the first place.  So the film needs to open with the conclusion to "Death in the Family" where we're shown one of the most shocking moments in Batman history-- the scene where the Joker beats the second Robin to death with a crow bar and then blows him up.  Although it wasn't handled quite the way I would have done it, it still comes across as properly shocking and harsh as it needs to be.

After having set up just who Jason Todd was, the suspense that the Red Hood is Jason back from the dead is pretty much a give away right after Batman and Nightwing's first fight with him, and the center of the story becomes the question of how he came back, and are his more severe tactics better than Batman's.  It raises a lot of good questions and creates a lot of good character drama between Batman, Nightwing and the Red Hood. Batman is blaming himself for failing Jason, but at the same time we also see the stable, self-confidant man that Dick Grayson has grown into because of Batman.

All in all, this is possibly the darkest Batman film I've ever seen, live action or animated.  It may be a bit gratuitous at times, but that helps to convey why Batman has a line he won't cross, and why Jason Todd felt it needed to be crossed.  Jason's side may even be a valid argument, but Batman reminds us why it's important to not let the heroes be reduced to the villains' levels.  And I for one am glad to see that even one of the DC's darkest heroes has never forgotten the difference.

DC Showcase: Jonah Hex

Spoiler Level: Low

Batman: Under the Red Hood also includes the second DC Showcase short, this time focusing on Jonah Hex.  It's a pretty straight-forward western tale, although just like the Spectre short it's very dark.

This time we also get a little sex in the form of saloon girl prostitutes. Nothing too graphic-- we are sticking to the PG-13 rating, after all-- but I could have sworn I saw a guy getting a motorboat in the background at one point!

"DC Showcase: Jonah Hex" will also be collected with the other two shorts and released in an expanded version in November on the Superman / Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam DVD.

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DC Showcase: The Spectre

Spoiler Level: Medium

"DC Showcase: The Spectre" is the first in a series of animated shorts that are being included on the DCU Original Animated Movie DVDs.  The wonderful thing about this is that characters who probably wouldn't be able to sell their own DVD can now get the beautiful animated treatment that Batman and Superman have been getting, even if it is only for about 11 minutes.

First off, I have to say I'm impressed with how well this short was made.  It's given a scratchy film look and an awesome 70's pulp-noir inspired soundtrack.  The animation itself is very fluid and fantastic to watch.  And The Spectre himself is in true Wrath of God form.

Having said that, I'm reminded why I tend to only like The Spectre himself as part of the Justice Society and could never get into his solo comic, even when he was Hal Jordan.  The Spirit of Vengeance is just too damn dark for me.  Rich commented that this story was pretty much a horror story, and I've never been very big on horror.

But I can still appreciate it for what it was, and it makes me really look forward to the other DC Showcase shorts that are on the way.  This one is currently available on the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths DVD, but will be gathered with "DC Showcase: Jonah Hex" and "DC Showcase: Green Arrow" in November along with a new 22 minute short, Superman / Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam on DVD in November.

Wonder Woman (2009)

Spoiler Level: Medium

WOW, was that violent.  Not necessarily gory, although there is some blood; and a lot of the more gruesome things are shown in shadow.  But this movie takes full advantage of its PG-13 rating.

This video is an origin story for Wonder Woman, setting her in modern times.  It uses the full Greek mythology, which I always thought worked best for Wonder Woman as it gives her more depth and a rich history to draw from.  The Amazons are fierce warriors... hence a lot of sword combat and the aforementioned violence.

And Nathon Fillion is absolutely fantastic as Steve Trevor.  Steve has a rough time, as the Amazons of Themyscira have been betrayed by Ares, the God of War, giving them a general resentment of men, but Fillion's trademark humor carries Steve through it quite nicely.

Sadly, I've heard that the sales of this DVD weren't as high as the previous Batman, Superman and Justice League OVAs, so there aren't any plans to do any more.  Which is a real shame.  Wonder Woman is the #3 character in the DCU, as iconic in US pop culture as Batman and Superman, and this video shows she can easily hold her own as the star.  I have no doubt that Warner Brothers will change their mind and make another one when the big-budget Hollywood movie comes out in 2013 (assuming that they're still making DCU OVAs at that point), but with a new DVD being released every four months, four years is way too long to give Wonder Woman a second shot.
 
And as to that big budget movie in 2013, well, I can only hope that Hollywood will do as good as a job as this movie did!

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Spoiler Level: High

Okay, first things first:  The DVD cover is the same as the graphic novel cover.  Major, major points for that.

Second things second:  I've never read the source material.  Superman/Batman (the comic book) came out at a time where Jeph Loeb was driving me crazy with how he was handling the Superman titles.  Yes, I was one of those few people who actually enjoyed the "Superman Weekly" format and the HUGE cast of Metropolis that grew out of it.  When Jeph Loeb and his crew came on board, their goal was to get back to the basic cast and split the four Superman books back into four separate comics.  All of which I wasn't thrilled about, but was handling okay.  But he was also very big on returning the characters back to the way they were in the Silver Age, and that led me to eventually drop all of my Superman comics.  So I never read Superman/Batman (or "S-Bat," as Rich and I always called it) when it debuted.

In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't, because it allowed me to go into this movie with a fresh attitude.  And it's really good.  Oh sure, the Giant SuperBat Robot made my jaw drop, and not in a good way.  But I can forgive that, because it tried to be an homage to the Super Robots of old, such as Mazinger Z, and because the rest of the story worked so well.  I always liked the concept of Lex Luthor being president, and the guest stars alone gave a lot of great moments; Power Girl having such a big role was great, seeing so many villains try to take the two down was fun, and best of all... a true Superman vs. Captain Marvel battle! 

Chalk up another win for the DCU Animated Original Movies!

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Spoiler Level: Medium

First off, let me apologize to my buddy (and fellow blogger over at greatplaidmusings) Rich.  See, Rich and I started watching the DCU OVAs last week, so it was kind of assumed we were going to wait for each other to watch them.  But I was hanging out with another friend of mine this weekend who was in a mood to watch some super hero cartoons, so we picked Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths via Netflix's instant viewing option.  But don't worry, Rich, I liked it a lot and will be happy to watch it again.

Crisis on Two Earths loosely follows the story from the graphic novel "JLA: Earth-2" by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.  A lot of the key elements are still there; the take on the Crime Syndicate definitely owes more to Grant Morrison than to the pre-crisis versions of the team.  The big difference is, to me, a big improvement:  The Crime Syndicate's Earth is not Earth-2 of the anti-matter universe, but simply one of infinite Earths.  Call me too old-school, but I can't get into "Earth-2" ever being anything other than the pre-Crisis home of the JSA.  (What Earth is this now in the 52 universes, anyway?)

The story itself is mostly a lot of smack-downs between the JLA and the Crime Syndicate, with some interesting views into their Earth in between.  It's actually nowhere near as dark as the original graphic novel, which is kind of amazing considering it's PG-13.  Unlike Justice League: The New Frontier, there's nowhere near as much strong language and very little blood.

Sadly, since we were watching it via Netflix I didn't get to see the Spectre short, so I still have something new to look forward to when I watch it again with Rich.  :)

Justice League: The New Frontier

Spoiler Level: Medium-Slightly Highish

I haven't read the comic that this video is based on; at the time it was published, I was already spending too much money on "Prestige Format" comics, and I couldn't see doing it for what seemed to me at the time to be just another JLA origin story.

But it turns out that story was really pretty good. I always enjoy Elseworlds stories, especially ones that tie in to real history like this one does. It sticks with the idea that McCarthy forced the Justice Society to resign in the 50's, but then continues to ask, what if the next generation of super heroes rose to fill that gap immediately, at a time when anti-communism was running rampant? Where the heroes weren't just universally accepted but were considered to all be vigilantes? Where those heroes now had a legitimate distrust of their own government after what just happened to the JSA?

I also loved the 1950's look of it all; Ferris Industries looks like the pop-art 50's vision of how the future was supposed to be. Superman still has his Golden-Age color scheme, and Batman starts out with his long-eared 1940's look.

The final lesson, that it shouldn't matter what views we have, we're all Americans and in this together, is a good one for this day and age.

This is the third DCU OVA I've watched (the other two being Superman: Doomsday and Green Lantern: First Flight, the latter of which I plan to review after I finish watching all the bonus features) and I've definitely noticed a trend. The violence is pumped up, which is of course why it has the PG-13 rating. However, I also have to wonder if it's not a bit forced, to bring home the point that "this is not Superfriends." Same thing with the dialogue; while it's nice that the story doesn't have to come up with substitutes for "ass" and "son of a bitch," it's not like the foul language is essential to the story. I'm kind of left with the attitude that a lot of the early imported anime of the 90's had, where the anime community was working too hard to emphasize that they weren't kiddie cartoons.

But overall I'd say the DCU OVAs I've seen have been 3 for 3, and I look forward to seeing more of them. It's great that we live in age where comic book animation can not only be a thriving industry, but that the material is treated with so much respect.