ANI-MOVIES, *Justice Society: World War II

Originally intended to be a Wonder Woman animated series set in WWII(similar to the first season of the Lynda Carter TV show), Justice Society: World War II is the first DC Comics project starring very first superhero group in their own title outside the regular comics continuity. Supposedly taking place in the same refreshed DC Universe animated movies as Superman: Man Of Tomorrow, this is the also the first DC project bridging the gap between the Golden Age and modern day superheroes.

Prior to the watching the main feature, it would benefit the viewer to seeing the DC Showcase short of Kamandi At Earth's End which indirectly ties into the movie, similar to how DC Showcase: Catwoman was a contination of the Batman: Year One movie. Based on Jack Kirby's post-apocalyptic saga that would later go onto influence his work on Thundarr The Barbarian, Kamandi is thought to be the last boy alive on Earth, and gets thrown into a gauntlet of challenges by a Planet Of The Apex knockoff tribe to be proclaimed as their "mighty one", who it turns out was actually Superman. Kamandi then sets off to find Superman in the wastelands, with a large hint that this was a smaller part of a larger narrative. For a DC Showcase film, it utilizes Kirby iconic designs to shine the light on one of the lesser-known comic book characters.

The feature presentation starts off with Barry Allen(aka: The Flash)visiting Metropolis with his girlfriend Iris, who is black in this story to mirror The Flash TV series. He zooms off to help Superman stop an attack by Brainiac, meaning the evil alien android might have been the one who hired Lobo to hunt Superman in the Man Of Tomorrow. During the fight, Flash travels through a wormhole that takes him to Europe smack in the middle of WWII where the Axis are being held back by a secret team of superheroes classified as the Justice Society of America. Lead by Wonder Woman the last Amazon, the team consists Hawkman, Black Canary(complete with her "Canary Cry"), Hourman, and the Golden Age Flash, this team reports to the Allies through Diana's boyfriend Steve Trevor, and their correspondent referred to as Shakespeare. The JSA gets a mission to rescue Dr. Fate being held in an Nazi-occupied castle, where its revealed that Shakespeare is given the Superman outfit from an unnamed youth who bears a strong resemblance to Kamandi, and the mysterious war reporter is bulletproof. Barry Allen regocnizes Dr. Fate as the one who he saw when going through the wormhole, coming to the conclusion that he's not just in the past but in a pararllel universe, or an Earth-2. The JSA follow Dr. Fate's info to the Bermuda Triangle where they encounter Aquaman and his Atlantean forces, who turns out to be under the mind control of the power of Nazi agent known as The Advisor, which most regular DC Comics fans would be familiar using the moniker of Psycho-Pirate. The rest of the movie seems to loose the traditional DC Comics storyline angle and seems to combine the ending to Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and Throne Of Atlantis where Wonder Woman is in mortal combat with Aquaman while the other heroes focus on the Atlantean forces invading New York. After Hawkman and Steve Trevor had already dies, Shakespeare finally decides to join the fight to stop the remaining Nazi bomber planes back when Superman only had the power to "leap tall buildings", which is similar to having Constantine freeing Wonder Woman from Darkseid's control after she had already killed Etrigan in Apocolips War. The JSA manage to snap Aquaman out of the Advisor's control, but leaving Atlantis as a possible existing enemy in this reality, while the Advisor himself disappears, hinting at a possible rematch. Barry Allen manages to get back to his world thanks to Golden Age Flash where the modern day speedster cements a friendship with Superman and suggesting that they form a league of their own.

Justice Society: World War II has a greater production than what Warner Bros. put into the previous movie of Superman: Man Of Tomorrow. The opening credits pay homage to films of the 1940s, and the plot moves along in the style of old movie serials. It does switch paces though from a war movie to an atompunk story with the introduction of Aquaman and the Nazi-controlled Atlanteans, with a large emphasis spent on letting the viewer know that any of the heroes could be casualties of war. Old school comics fans should thrill at all the references to DC Comics' history layered throughout the film, and recent comics readers should get a kick out of the Golden Age crackerjack action!