For the past few years, many comic book fans wanted a Timm-Dini Justice League animated series. DC allowed an animated-style Justice League to appear in the erratic Adventures in the DCU comic; Wizard published several false rumors about a potential series; and more than one fan has taken up pen and ink to create their own artwork of the Justice League in an ersatz Bruce Timm style.
And now, at last, the Justice League appears in an animated series. Well, sort of . . .
The Call is a much-anticipated two-part episode of Batman Beyond in which Terry McGinnis is asked to join the Justice League. Terry quickly finds out that Superman is actually sabotaging the team, and must find out why before it's too late. Like many of the prior two-part episodes of both Batman Adventures and Superman Adventures, the storyline is alternately riveting and unfocused. Just as with Legacy (the final episode of Superman Adventures), there’s simply too much information packed into too little time. Expanding The Call into a three-part episode or turning it into an OAV would have made the final product much more memorable.
The Justice League that appears in The Call resembles the classic lineup of the Justice League as they appeared in comic books. There’s a Hawkman-like character, an Atom-like character, Aquagirl, and Big Barda. Of these four, only Barda is currently a character in DC comic books; a strong female warrior, she serves as a surrogate for Wonder Woman, whose television rights are probably unavailable to the producers of the animated series. The Green Lantern who appears in the program is an odd little fellow who levitates and vaguely resembles a Buddhist monk. Superman has visibly aged and now dresses almost entirely in black. It’s an interesting lineup of characters, far better than some of the Justice League lineups that DC allowed during the 1970s and 1980s. (Thank God Dini didn't toss in Zatanna or Guy Gardner!)
Is the story worthy of the characters?
In a word, no.
The plot of The Call is an amalgam of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Silver Age saga Starro the Conqueror, which introduced the Justice League to comic books in the early 1960s. Starro (although he isn’t referred to as such in the cartoon) is a starfish-like alien intent on world domination - and although explaining more would ruin the already flimsy plot, Starro is the hidden villain of The Call. Starro is capable of mind control, and there were times when I wondered if Starro controlled Paul Dini’s mind when he wrote the teleplay for The Call. Charitably put, The Call makes no sense. Superman's motives for sabotage are never clear to the audience, especially after he lures the Justice League to the Fortress of Solitude to do Starro's bidding. Why not just invite the League up there in the first place? Why attempt to kill fellow teammates? Why even invite Batman to join the team?
The Call teases us with red herrings and manipulative storytelling. Dini's pre-show interviews were similarly cryptic, hinting at comparisons between Kingdom Come and The Call, and I fully expected something darker and more mature than a warmed over Silver Age villain. Virtually all the suspense of the first episode – including Bruce Wayne’s confession that Superman had “gone rogue” before – is defeated within minutes of the second episode. The Call could have been salvaged very easily had it been an OAV or three-part episode and had been treated to at least one more intensive rewriting. As it is, Dini was sloppy, and forced his Batman Beyond future vision upon Superman. I honestly don't see how this episode could entertain a kid who'd just stumbled upon the Justice League for the first time, and I don't see how many long-time fans could be happy with it either.
An honest-to-goodness Justice League cartoon could still be a success story for Warner Brothers – if they abandoned the current “epic” mentality and just tried to create well-crafted stories like the original Batman animated series. Maybe it’s best to relegate The Call to Mark Waid’s beloved Hypertime, pretend it never happened, and move on.
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Other Nonanime Reviews Legacy Review Batman:Subzero Batman Beyond Review Fantasia Review* Jackie Chan Adventures Review* |
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