Tuesday, May 14, 2019

ANI-MOVIES, *Justice League Vs. The Fatal Five

Supposedly set in the original DCEU, Justice League Vs. The Fatal Five is modeled and based on the Justice League animated series, which also includes the 90 Batman and Superman shows. It takes the main archenemies of the Legion Of Super-Heroes(whose show was not canon with the DCAU), and brings them into the canon of the mid-00's. Tim Burton was brought back to revisit his take on the DC Universe, with Sam Liu to make this made-for-video film.

A thousand years in the future, the remaining members of the Fatal Five: Mano, Persuader, and Tharok, pull a GTA on the Legion's time machine to go back in time, but the unstable Legionnaire Starboy hops a ride. He ends up in early 21st Century, which despite his gravity powers, he has a specific mental condition that requires medication found only in the future. Batman picks up Starboy believed to be a clueless naked stranger, and for some untold reason places him in Arkham Asylum with all the other super-psychopaths! Superman meanwhile had found the orb the Fatal 3 arrived in, and has Justice League member Mr. Terrific use his intelligence to try to crack the egg. The trio of future felons escape and go searching for the current Green Lantern, a fresh recruit to both the Corps and the League, Jessica Cruz. The new GL is dealing with latent shell shock, but despite that was chosen to be a ring-slinger. Mano, Persuader, and Tharok try to capture her, but the active League arrives to her rescue, along with their newest addition, Miss Martian(which is odd considering that the Justice League show established that J'onn J'onzz was the only survivor of Mars!). Starboy joins their fight after busting out of Arkham, and gets mind probed by Miss Martian to reveal that the Fatal Five remnants want Jessica to help free their other comrades who are now imprisoned on the Green Lantern homeworld of Oa. Jessica ends up giving herself up to the bad guys when the threaten to blow up a whole city with their future tech. She takes the villains to Oa where they bust out the remaining Fatal Five, the gigantic Validus, and their leader Emerald Empress who uses her magical artifact called the Eye to drain the main Green Lantern power battery. Apparently this didn't completely drain the other power rings as Jessica managed to repair her ring after it was destroyed by Persuader, and heads back to Earth to help the League stop the Fatal Five from destroying the sun.

This was an original story which incorporates several different DC Comics story arcs, largely from Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice Society. Its very difficult to calculate where this might fit in as far as the DCAU timeline, like if its during the period when the League had 7 members, or 50, or back to 7 during the Batman Beyond years. There's also elements established in DC Comics' New 52 like Jessica Cruz actually getting her Green Lantern ring from another universe which is never brought up in the movie, nor that she had to share her ring's power battery with another Lantern recruit from Earth. The parts involving Starboy's mental instability were also covered when he was a member of the modern day JSA. The animation is above-average compared to its predecessors, but the standard character designs could use a little updating more than just adding a sword Wonder Woman accessories. The holy trio of Kevin Conroy, George Newbern, and Susan Eisenberg are back voicing the Trinity, so that at least makes it a notch in your nostalgia belt.