The Ignominious Death (and Underwhelming Life) of the DC Animated Movie Universe
Everybody wants a shared universe these days. We can blame that on Marvel and the billions of dollars their interconnected, decade-long superhero epic raked in. Unfortunately, nobody else really seems to be able to figure out how to actually pull it off. In a way Marvel got lucky by being the first ones to attempt bringing the full-on complexity of company-wide continuity to the big screen; it forced them to really take their time and sell the audience on their characters before bringing them all together, because they didn’t know if the audience would accept it, while every other company now accepts it as a valid concept and tries to rush theirs into production, ignoring all the time and work Marvel put into it, with generally disastrous results.
The most hilarious of these failures is the “Dark Universe,” Universal Pictures’ attempt to create a shared universe around their classic movie monsters (Dracula, The Mummy, the Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc). Twice Universal attempted to launch this franchise — first with 2014’s Dracula Untold, and then with 2017’s Tom Cruise-led The Mummy reboot — and twice they bombed, more concerned with stuffing their movies full of characters who would spin-off into future installments than in telling a satisfying story or attracting movie-goers. Elizabeth Moss’s 2020 reboot of The Invisible Man was originally intended to be the franchise’s third installment, but released (to excellent reviews) as a standalone film instead, driving the final nail into the Dark Universe’s coffin, may it finally rest in peace.
Interestingly, Marvel’s greatest competitor, DC Comics, have run into similar problems attempting to launch their own shared cinematic universe. The Man of Steel was meant to be a standalone film, or at least the beginning of a new Superman franchise, but in the aftermath of the success of The Avengers was retooled into the launchpad for a whole extended universe. This led to Batman vs. Superman — already a terrible movie, though that’s a rant for another day — being bogged down with the burden of setting up future movies. Wonder Woman’s inclusion really added nothing to the story, but at least she ended up being the most legitimately entertaining aspect of the movie; far worse was the amazingly dull sequence where Wonder Woman sat at a computer and watched surveillance footage of other superheroes, solely so that there’d be some hint at their existence for future movies. It’s a textbook example of how not to set up a shared universe. DC would continue to flail for a few more years before finding a sweet spot with a string of movies (Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam, Birds of Prey) that, while technically taking place in the same world, largely stood alone, and could finally just focus on telling good stories with their own tone and goals.
The entire time DC was struggling to establish their own cinematic shared universe on the big screen, though, they had also been creating another one on the small screen. In 2007 the company started releasing straight-to-DVD animated movies based off popular DC Comics storylines or characters. Despite what the phrase “straight-to-DVD” might have you thinking, these generally had a high level of skill and production value thrown behind them, and have generally been well-received both critically and financially. While a few have been original stories (most notably 2008’s Batman: Gotham Knight, an Animatrix-inspired compilation of six shorts supposedly set in the world of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and animated by famous Japanese studios), most have been rather faithful adaptations of famous comic book storylines, with the tone, animation style, and voice actors changing with each production. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies copied the blocky, bombastic style of the original story’s artist, Ed McGuinness, while Justice League: The New Frontier instead borrowed Darwyn Cooke’s brighter, retro-inspired aesthetic. Batman: Year One is a dark and moody noir story, while All-Star Superman aims for over the top silliness and inspiration above all else.
Things changed in 2013 with the release of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, an adaptation of the comic event Flashpoint. I won’t besiege you with the details of this storyline that I really did not enjoy; all that matters is the ending, where the Flash travels back in time to try to undo the apocalyptic timeline the storyline was set in, and accidentally ends up rebooting his entire reality. In the comics, Flashpoint was used as the springboard for the New 52 initiative. I spoke a bit about the New 52 in a previous newsletter, but the gist is that in 2011 DC rebooted their entire line of comic books, cancelling all their titles and relaunching them with a new continuity. Flashpoint was the genesis of all that, and likewise, DC’s animation arm used The Flashpoint Paradox to launch a new shared universe within their straight-to-DVD (and, eventually, streaming) releases, the DC Animated Movie Universe (or DCAMU, for “short,” ugh). The only hint of this within The Flashpoint Paradox itself is the fact that Flash’s uniform changes slightly when he travels back in time at the end of the movie, and the first of the DCAMU films doesn’t even acknowledge it; up until a couple months ago Flashpoint Paradox creating the DCAMU was just a piece of trivia confirmed by producers, but in the DCAMU’s final film it becomes a vital piece of information. We’ll circle back to that in a bit.
The DCAMU began in earnest with 2014’s Justice League: War, a film that adapted the first storyline of the New 52’s Justice League title, Justice League: Origin. Obviously, that storyline told the New 52 League’s origin (they came together to fight the alien overlord Darkseid), and its first issue was the very first issue released in the New 52 (it and the final issue of Flashpoint were the only comic books released by DC that week); as you could imagine from that, War and the DCAMU borrowed the New 52 aesthetic hard, and stuck to it throughout its entire existence.
Whether that’s a problem or not probably depends on how much you liked the New 52, but I could see it being a problem even for fans. One of the biggest criticisms against Marvel’s cinematic universe — the popular shared universe, remember! — is that all the movies kind of look and feel the same, with similar, corporate mandated tones*. This is certainly one of my greatest criticisms of the DCAMU. While its first few years largely just adapted New 52 storylines, later down the line it branched out to older, more classic stories, but every single one of them was saddled with the same tone, the same voice actors, the same animation style. It sucked the variety — which had been the lifeblood of these DVD releases! — out of the entire franchise.
*I agree with this about 75% of the way. Obviously directors clashed with Marvel headquarters when they tried to stray too far from the Marvel house style, and obviously all the movies are a bit quippy, but the Shakespearean-aiming Black Panther is a far cry from the wacky Thor: Ragnarok, and the classic superheroics of The Avengers very different from the tenser, almost thriller-infused Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I’d say that the Marvel movies all stick to a certain range, but they fully inhabit every degree of that range.
It doesn’t help, though, that I’m not a fan of the tone, voice acting, or animation style of the DCAMU. The New 52 (in?)famously began with legendary artist/DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee redesigning the costumes of the founding Justice League members, complete with unnecessarily intricate piping and details, high collars for everyone, and the removal of Superman’s red trunks.
Because comic creators and fans (myself included) are all insane, there was rabid, sometimes hateful debate about Wonder Woman’s pants (she lost the pants and returned to her tights before the New 52 actually launched) and Superman’s trunks (they stayed gone the entirety of the New 52; when superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis took over Superman’s books in 2018, he made the return of the trunks a major plot point in his first storyline, because: comics!), but otherwise the designs were tepidly received at best, and aren’t looked back on fondly. Hell, this Cyborg design was so clunky that they transplanted him into a totally new body to fix it by Justice League’s second year.
Despite all that, the DCAMU based their character designs closely on the New 52 ones, and were then saddled with them for a good four or five years after the comics themselves had already abandoned them — Superman and Wonder Woman’s designs weren’t changed until the final year of the universe’s existence.
A lot of it really is just a matter of taste, but I hate the collars, the shape of Superman and Aquaman’s faces, the weird end of Superman’s sleeves, the style just looks ugly to me. The animation itself throughout these movies isn’t bad, but it lacks the pizzazz of so many of the movies that came before that were each trying to inhabit a certain artist, era, or feeling besides “generic superhero.”
The New 52 was also often criticized for having an overly edgy and grim tone. Comic writer Gail Simone was writing Batgirl at the time, and was specifically coached to make Batgirl’s life worse and worse (and was briefly even fired for resisting); other writers weren’t allowed to have their characters marry for the same reasons. The DCAMU movies also copy this tone. There’s little in the way of joy or affection in these films, which are mostly filled with snark, action, and gore. (The action is probably these movies’ saving grace.)
In fact, the DCAMU films have a very juvenile idea of what it means to be “adult.” As straight-to-DVD releases they’re allowed to get away with much more than they could on a broadcast network, and these movies push the PG-13 rating to their limit (in fact, several are rated R). I’m always afraid I come across a little puritanical in these newsletters, but if these movies used profanity or extreme violence to make their characters feel more human I’d be all for it. Instead, though, they wield them like 13-year-old boys who are titillated by a superhero saying a naughty word or by the mere sight of blood on the screen. Batwoman, a character who in the comics one time came into conflict with Batman over the morality of killing villains, has her entire personality (and 99% of her screentime) in the DCAMU boiled down to her shooting guns at bad guys. The cynicism of it all can be exhausting.
Finally, I despise the voice acting in these things. It’s a shame, because the casting is good. The cast are all talented actors and voice actors — the likes of Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Rosario Dawson, Shemar Moore, Sean Astin, and Steve Blum among many others — so it must be the voice direction screwing them up. The range of emotion in these voices is limited, as if the actors are purposely being subdued to try to fit the more “realistic” (read: grim/edgy) setting of the movies. It leads to awkward and stilted exchanges, especially if a scene is aiming for anything sensual or affectionate. Very few of these voices feel like they are truly inhabiting these characters.
Probably the greatest crime of the DCAMU, though, is that it largely wastes the setting of its interconnected, shared universe. It’s good that these movies tell full stories on their own, but the characters’ stories, their personal arcs, don’t flow from one film to the next (The only real exception is Damian Wayne/Robin, who debuts in the DCAMU’s second movie, remains a constant presence, and resolves his thorny relationship with his father, Batman, in its final entry). Members of the Justice League and Teen Titans appear with no introduction and disappear at random (Shazam disappears after the third film with no explanation and doesn’t return until the finale, again without explanation). Major shifts in the status quo or in the characters’ relationships happen off screen, or with a throwaway line. For example, Lex Luthor helps rescue the Justice League and save the world in Reign of the Supermen. The next movie in the series, Batman: Hush, has Batman steal a file from Luthor’s home and Luthor mentions “couldn’t you just ask me for it? I’m a member of the Justice League now!” THAT’S how viewers learn that Luthor’s deeds in Reign earned him a spot in the League. And then that plot never even goes anywhere, as we only ever see him in the League in the prologue of the DCAMU’s finale, and his role in the rest of that movie would’ve worked just as well even if he hadn’t been a member.
The shared universe just doesn’t add much to these films. Justice League: Throne of Atlantis didn’t need War’s origin story to tell its Aquaman-centric tale. Hush barely acknowledges it at all besides a ten second cameo from Damian. Reign of the Supermen benefits from having the Justice League in it, but they didn’t need to be this particular Justice League to fill the role this movie needed (Reign did cleverly bring back Darkseid to help tie its villain’s motivation into the DCAMU franchise as a whole, I’ll give it credit for that, but I’d give it more credit if Darkseid ever had any sort of overarcing plan despite being the main villain of these movies, or if he had any motivation or personality at all).
A few months ago, after fifteen films, the DCAMU came to an end with its final entry, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (unrelated direct-to-DVD movies will continue, though). From the get-go, the name is misleading. Though there was a Justice League Dark film in the DCAMU a few years back, that team doesn’t appear in this movie. One of its members, John Constantine, is essentially the film’s viewpoint character, but it’s mostly inhabited by members of the Justice League and Teen Titans. I’m confused by the branding before I’ve even started watching.
SPOILERS FOR JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: APOKOLIPS WAR FOLLOW:
Apokolips War wants to be the Avengers: Endgame of the DCAMU. It’s the big climatic finish that brings back almost all of the heroes from every entry in the series against Darkseid, the monstrous threat that’s been working in the background since the very first film. There’s two major differences here, though: while Endgame finds time for pretty much every single character to have a spotlight moment, Apokolips War relegates most of its cast to voiceless background cameos, and while Endgame, somber as it is, still attempts to be a victorious happy ending full of moments meant to satisfy fans, Apokolips War is a relentlessly grim and bleak downer from beginning to end.
That’s not a terrible choice for a story, but it’s a strange one for a grand finale. Apokolips War creates a lot of tension by essentially demolishing the Justice League within the first five minutes and having the surviving heroes on the run, outgunned and under-powered for the rest of the movie. But the sheer unrelenting death and gore eventually sucks all the tension out of the film and replaces it with monotony. Watching Green Lantern or Aquaman be torn apart by Paradooms early in the film is shocking; by the end of the second act, when they’re systematically slaughtering each and every hero left on Earth (that’s no exaggeration), when they’re unceremoniously snapping Superboy’s neck or quite literally tearing Batgirl apart limb from limb, it elicits little more than an eye roll. I’ve grown numb, and the movie does nothing to even try to make these moments feel sad. If they don’t care about these characters, then why should I? The deaths are just perfunctory, again, as if the movie thinks that gore is all that the viewers want.
By the end of the movie what’s left of Earth’s forces have defeated Darkseid, and there were even a couple satisfying moments along the way (between Batman and Robin, Robin and Raven, Lois and Clark, and even the surprise battle between Darkseid and Trigon the Terrible that I’d always wanted but never knew I wanted until now), but it leads to a remarkably bleak ending — over 50% of the Earth’s population is dead, and Darkseid did so much damage to the Earth that the planet itself won’t last much longer before it falls apart. I’ll admit, if the movie stopped here, it wouldn’t be a satisfying ending, but it would be a ballsy one. I could respect it, in a way.
But…but…
Remember Flashpoint?
Constantine does, and as the movie ends, he tells the Flash to do it again. To go back in time and restart everything from scratch. Another reboot. Replace this universe — the fifteen movies you just spent seven years watching — with yet another one.
“Everything will change. Again,” Flash says, in despair.
“And some of those changes may be shite,” Constantine reassures him, “and we may make the same mistakes again. It won’t be perfect, but it will be a long side better than what we’ve got now.”
And that’s it. That’s the very last line spoken, not just in the movie, but in this entire franchise, in this entire shared universe. Flash runs off to restart the universe again, the surviving heroes, realizing what’s about to happen, embrace, and the screen is bathed in white, cut to credits.
It’s…it’s an astonishing choice, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. Not only does it render everything, and I mean everything that just happened completely meaningless, but that last line is just…wow. “It will be a long side better than what we’ve got now,” in context, yeah, is saying anything would be better than the dying, post-apocalyptic Earth they’re left with, but as, again, the final line in the entire franchise, it carries a lot of negative weight. It sounds like it’s saying than any other possible universe, that whatever random continuity Flash creates next, will be better than the one we just finished watching. “Well, the next series will be better!” That’s not the kind of energy you want to end your, again, fifteen movie, seven year long saga on.
The DCAMU movies were never great, but they all had their moments, and they had gotten better as they went along. They deserved better than this ignominious end.
CHECK OUT
The only DCAMU movies I can really recommend are The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen (which, together, are one long story); they’re still saddled with the lackluster designs and voiceover work, but they tell a darn story nonetheless. If you happen to be a fan of the Hush storyline in the comics I’d say check out the DCAMU adaptation just so you can experience the sheer audacity of some of the changes they made to the source material, but otherwise, I wouldn’t go out of my way to look it up. The rest of DC’s direct-to-DVD movies fare much better, though. My favorite is Under the Red Hood, which actually manages to improve upon its original comic book source material. It’s the story of Batman being confronted by a figure from his past who was very close to his heart, and it’s full of awesome action, plenty of character and emotion, and a truly fun take on the Joker from John DiMaggio (who you may know as the voice of Jake from Adventure Time or Bender from Futurama). It’s worth seeking out.
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!