I suppose that could be another Uncle Dudley from an Earth where he has powers.
[SPOILERS for the Crisis on Infinite Earths animated movies]
So you all know Uncle Dudley from the Marvel/Shazam Family, right? The good-natured codger who is privy to all the Marvel Family’s secret IDs, and hangs out with them, and when trouble comes a’callin’, he quickly doffs his outer clothes to reveal his homemade Captain Marvel costume beneath? Who then complains that his ol’ “Shazambago” is acting up and can’t use his powers (of which he has none) and one of the other Marvels picks him and carries him to their destination. And while they do, they usually think “We all know he doesn’t actually have any powers, but we love him anyway and play along with him!” You know, as they carry this civilian into outright danger.
Anyway, he makes a brief cameo in the new Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths where he flies under his own power through space with a glowing fist, and then shoots an energy blast out of that fist at the bad guy:
I watched all three of this Crisis on Infinite Earths direct-to-home-video animated features from DC Comics, and…well, it wasn’t great.
The premise is that the New Animated Universe that forms post the Flashpoint animated movie from 2013 is under attack, with parallel Earths being wiped out by an unknown enemy, and, well, you probably know the story.
Well, that story from the comics is not the story presented here in the film, which is an even more disjointed accumulation of nonsense than the source material, except lacking the the always-excellent George Pérez art to carry it along. There’s an awful lot of characters standing around looking at things, or staring and/or taping on displays that tell the viewer nothing. The Bad Guy isn’t defeated so much as conceded to, as the heroes run away to a safe bolthole and presumably the destruction of the parallel Earths won’t extend to this new one they just cobbled together.
Lots of your favorite characters show up, only to sit still in space and let anti-matter wash over them. Sorry, Booster Gold fans! And I’m never quite clear if the bad guy is destroying entire parallel universes or just targeting parallel Earths, because it sure looks like (and characters act like) it’s the latter.
Not to say there aren’t a few good points, the main one being Matt Ryan, the One True John Constantine in Media Adaptations, reprising the role yet again and stealing the show whenever the character shows up. In one of the twists I actually like in this reworking of Crisis, Constantine takes Pariah‘s role, as the man cursed to watch the multiverse die, and he’s the reason why it’s happening. (Okay, in the original it’s revealed Pariah wasn’t at fault, but John definitely is here).
Not so efficient a swap is Supergirl stepping in for the Harbinger role, which is primarily there to set up a version of her death, which ends up being moot anyway.
So, they throw a lot of parallel Earths at us, most of which mean nothing to us except maybe mildly duplicating Earths from print. It isn’t really until we start seeing some familiar multiversal faces that, hey, suddenly we’re intrigued. Like, here are decades-old properties that mean something to us, not Earth-221 that we see all of once, where Firestorm is left-handed instead of right-handed.
Two of the Earths we see just as they get destroyed is Super Friends Earth, featuring our heroes as they appeared in 1970s cartoons. And the Batman from the 1990s animated series, voiced for the last time by the now-deceased Kevin Conroy. And if that’s to be Batman’s last line ever spoken by Conroy, it’s a good one to go out on. …But where were these guys fighting alongside the other heroes in this film? That would have improved the proceedings. (Earth-One Wonder Woman: “Let’s go punch those guys!” Super Friends Wonder Woman: “Wait, hold on, let’s set up some traps!”)
I don’t know. This is all just clearing a path for however long the James Gunn and the other guy whose name I never can remember’s regime presides over the DC Comics media-that-ain’t-comics empire. The plan is for…everything to tie together now? With characters in live action films voicing their animated versions as well? We’ll see how long that lasts.
Probably lots more to say about this, but these are just the immediate thoughts on the matter. It’s not the worst of the animated films (that would the 2023 Legion of Super-Heroes flick) but it ain’t good.
Thanks for the review. I kind of wanted to watch this movie because of the final Kevin Conroy performance, but it doesn’t sound worth it. Another DC animated movie to avoid.
Speaking of, are there any can’t-miss DC animated movies? I’d love to see one that I actually enjoy from beginning to end.
Uncle Marvel also had actual super-powers in the animated film “Crisis on Two Worlds.” Mind, in that film, he was a gangster, one of mob boss Jimmy Olsen’s goons.
@ Thom H.
I think Justice Society: WW II is worth seeing. And it would be cool to explore that Earth more with a sequel animated film that expands the team membership with other Golden Age JSAers or All-Star Squadron characters.
In fact, DC has so many characters from so many defunct publishers now that they should really be trotting more of them out in animated films.
Like adapting Grant Morrison’s “Pax Americana” with all of the Charlton Comics superheroes, or a film featuring all of the Fawcett Comics characters as the “Shazam Squadron of Justice.” An Earth X animated Freedom Fighters film could be cool as well–think of all of the obscure Quality Comics characters that could be shown or depicted as falling in battle while valiantly fighting fascism–while the Blackhawks, Plastic Man, Phantom Lady, Doll Man, The Ray, The Black Condor, Uncle Sam, and the Human Bomb fight on.
@Mike Sterling
I’m tempted to watch it just to see Booster Gold perish–they should have done away with Guy Gardner, Lobo, and Harley Quinn as well! But I can’t believe they offer the Super Friends–not cool!
Beyond Uncle Marvel, does Tawky Tawny get a cameo? They should have had him meet the Tiger Men from Kamandi.
I think they should give Burt Ward work as the animated voice of Dick Grayson, whether he’s Robin or Nightwing. The same goes for Lynda Carter as the animated voice for Wonder Woman.
*offed the Super Friends–not cool
Wait. WHICH Super-Friends? The ones with Marv and Wendy? Because those desire a special kind of hate.
“Sorry, Booster Gold fans!”
No, it’s cool. If our boy ever got any actual respect, we would probably stop being fans.
“where Firestorm is left-handed instead of right-handed”.
How Sinister!
“Supergirl”.
In every reality, she dies again
and again
and again!
“2023 Legion of Super-Heroes flick”
I did not know that existed.
““Sorry, Booster Gold fans!”
No, it’s cool. If our boy ever got any actual respect, we would probably stop being fans.”
He’s the Rodney Dangerfield of superheroes!
Sean, I suspect that Lynda Carter charges a lot more for playing Wonder Woman than for any other roles, similar to the way Danny Glover got about three times his usual fee for the “Lethal Weapon” sequels.
…whereas Burt Ward (if we may judge from some of his films–remember “Beach Babes from Beyond,” “Virgin High,” and “Assault of the Party Nerds 2”?) probably takes any offer he is given.
I wonder if putting John Constantine in the Pariah role is a pull from the old Alan Moore Twilight of the Superheroes pitch, which had Constantine playing a similar “trying to warn everyone and partly responsible for the problem” position.
@RAR
I take your point about Lynda Carter–at least she had a cameo in “Wonder Woman:1984.” Burt Ward also had a cameo in the CW’s Arrowverse adaptation of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” several years ago, and he’s also reprised the voice of Dick Grayson/Robin in several animated Batman ’66 projects over the last decade, so he would still be cool to cast at a presumably reasonable rate.
From clips I’ve watched on YouTube of this “Crisis” animated film, I have to say that the art is fairly bland, unfortunately.
It would have been cool if they had tried to include all of the animated iterations of DC characters, Including the ’40s Max Fleisher Golden Age Superman, the Silver Age JLA and Teen Titans from the Superman/Aquaman Hour by Filmation (I think). This was basically a JLA comprised of Superman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Flash (Barry Allen), Hawkman (Kator Hol), Aquaman, and The Atom (Ray Palmer). Ana a Teen Titans comprised of Wonder Girl (Donna Troy–in her original costume), Kid Flash (Wally West–for some reason the cartoon reversed the colors on his costume and gave him black hair), Aqualad (Garth), and Speedy (Roy Harper). I guess Batman and Robin were off limits due to the Batman ’66 show. Anyway, I think there was a Batman animated cartoon show in the late ’60s as well, and then in the late ’70s there was the Batman cartoon with Bat-Mite and The Riddler’s pink costume. Also, the Plasticman cartoon with Penny, Hula Hula, and Baby Plas comes to mind. And wasn’t there an animated Shazam and Isis cartoon as well? Also, the Legion of Super-Heroes animated show that lasted a season.
Also, did this “Crisis” animated film feature the Justice Society of America as an actual team at all?
I think I would rather see faithful adaptations of actual classic JLA/JSA annual team-ups from the comics being realized as animated films–with better animated art a la Ralph Bakshi’s aesthetic or like “Fire & Ice. Or adapting classic issues in general, like JLA no. 200.
What if we got an animated adaptation of “Camelot 3000” and they tried to make the animation look like Brian Bolland art?
Or a New Gods/Forever People/Mister Miracle animated film adaptation that actually looked like Kirby/Royer art?