Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Earth awaits Final Doom as Jolie flashes legs.











While everybody is still tallking about how wrong it was for Angelina Jolie to show how sexy she can be without eating at the 84th Academy awards ceremony yesterday, I had the joy of catching up with Warner's latest straight to Blu-ray animated adventure in the DC Universe: Justice League: Doom, which is released today!

For a show that is obviously struggling with declining ratings, I can't imagine who came up with the 'brilliant' idea to air the Oscars Ceremony at the exact same time the NBA Allstar weekend's main game went down. Anyway, wasn't it awesome when the writers team of 'The Descendants' came on stage to accept their Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay from Angelina and Jim Rash decided to do a Jolie imitation? I mean, that alone deserves another Oscar!




















Above: Jolie shows why she isn't cast for the next Tomb Raider sequel: Yes, Lara Croft needs her breakfast to do all those exciting moves! Jim Rash feels the former star tried to steal their thunder and decides to strike a pose himself. Brilliant!

Justice League: Doom is based on Mark Waid's 4 part 'JLA: Tower of Babel' storyarc which ran in DC Comics JLA issue 43 to 46 in 2000 (see below). It had art by Howard Porter and inks by Drew Geraci. In the animated movie co-produced by Bruce Timm, the JLA team is confronted with a diamond heist that ends up being a decoy to get into Bruce Wayne's hideout and hack his secret computer system to download all his data on the JLA team members. Doing so provides a group of super villains the ultimate insight to get rid off the Justice League, consisting of Batman, Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter and the Green Lantern.

While Superman meets with a bullet to the heart made of Kryptonite, The Flash gets a bracelet conceiling a bomb that goes off if he decides to slow his speed.

Above: the four covers to DC's JLA issues that started it all: Earth's final doom in 2012. The Green Lantern is hypnotised to part with his powers while Wonder Woman is infected with Nano machines and The Martian Manhunter bursts into flames after his body is poisened with Magnesium. The band of super villains, grouped together in the 'Legion of Doom', are lead by the immortal 'Vandal Savage', who wishes to reshape the world in his vision, meaning two thirds of the world's population needs to go.

To fullfill his plan he decides to bomb the sun to initiate solarflares that will destroy the Earth and civilization as we know it. It is clear that writer Mark Waid has read up on the Mayan longcount End Calendar prophecies and NASA's predictions, concerning heightened solar activities for 2012. Throw in some of the internet's favorite conspiracy theories that have the world's elite rule the planet in the near future with only 500 Million of us left and you have the making of a great plot.

Above: Superman 'lends a hand' when the team is fighting the Royal Flush Gang. The 'Ace' character is voiced by Bruce Timm himself. Below: Wonder Woman flashes more than just a leg while fighting Cheetah. Well, she's a demigod after all! Below: A magnificent shot of the Batcave, where Bruce Waybe keeps all the inside secrets on the JLA team on his computer system just in case.

The script was written by Dwayne McDuffie (photo below) just before he died last year during open heart surgery at the early age of 49, one day after his birthday. McDuffie was also responsible for revamping Ben 10 Alien Force and Ben 10 Ultmate Alien for Cartoon Network. He had worked as a script writer for DC and Marvel comics his entire life and this film is dedicated to him. He will surely be missed.

Warner has released twelve original animated movies in the DC Universe since 2007. DC has announced that 'Superman Versus The Elite' will be the next one coming out later this year. Directed by Michael Chang and written by Joe Kelly, it is based on the Superman comic story 'What's so funny about Truth, Justice & The American Way?' published in DC's Action Comics issue 775 from March 2001 (with pencils by Doug Mahnke and Lee Bermejo). A two part animated adaption of Frank Miller's classic four issue limited series 'The Dark Knight Returns' is also in the works.



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