Justice League: War, the latest animated adventure from DC Entertainment, hits stores today and even though it is the 18th installment in DC’s large library of animated features it will start off a whole new continuity! Just like the New 52 comics, War, which is ALMOST identical to its comic book counterpart, will act as a re-introduction of the characters we all know and love! In an interview with CBR at the premiere of War in LA, producer James Tucker said the following, “This will definitely be the first salvo in doing new movies that are in continuity with each other. Our next movie’s going to be ‘Son of Batman,’ and that Batman will be the same Batman that you see in ‘Justice League: War.’ Basically, we’ll have two concurrent series of Justice League movies and Batman movies, and they’ll be in continuity with each other. So it’s kind of world-building.”
DC and WB’s plan from this point on is to put out three animated films a year, two of which will exist within the established continuity and one that will stand alone. For example, the next film on this year’s slate will be Son of Batman which will feature the Batman from War, but the film after that, Assault on Arkham, will take place in the universe established by the popular video game series. Also the movies will start a new tradition, end credit scenes! Justice League: War is the first film to do so, which we shared last week, as it hints at a potential Aquaman standalone animated feature, which we will probably be seeing on next year’s line-up!
So in the end there really isn’t much new happening here. Except that DC Entertainment and Warner Premiere are kind of replicating the DC Comics New 52, which was pretty apparent after they just did a Flashpoint movie last year and then followed that up with War, which ultimately gives the creators a bigger sandbox to play in. It is nice to see a “new universe” being launched and I hope they do get to explore some more of the properties beyond JL and the main stable. I would love to see them do a Rot World movie, as both the Swamp Thing and Animal Man New 52 runs are top-notch! Or with the popularity of Arrow, a Green Arrow one! But like I said if they are still going to do classic stories outside the “new” continuity, then they can maybe get to Red Son and make some of us old school fans happy as well. But as director Jay Oliva puts it, “The New 52 isn’t following the Bruce Timm universe. It isn’t a classic story like ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ where I have to make sure that I please the Frank Miller fans. It’s nice, because I can approach this with a fresh eye: What do I want to see in this retelling of this story? It’s fun”. While I am ok with all of this as a fan of the New 52, I also want to see some classics please. You hear me over there?!
Justice League: War hits stores today, so go pick up your copy on Blu-ray or order online it here
~CynicNerd
