What a Living Room!

Check this out:


I came across this, killing time on deviantart.com. Cool, huh? I'd love to have something like that in my place, if only I had the art skills, wall space, and paint supplies to do it.

After the Finale...

So, the JLU series finale aired. It was pretty good. The animation was sharp as always and some of the returning characters were surprising, but I'd be lying if I said I was totally satisfied with it. I was hoping that some of the character that popped up during the this season -- The General, King Faraday, Deadman -- would return since their last appearances were so open-ended. Granted the finale didn't really call for them to show up again, but from a story stand-point their returns were called for since the odds of getting closure at this point is nil. Also the big bad, however shocking and fun his final fight against Superman was, came out of left field and deprived the expected all-out brawl between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom. I think the problem with this season was the handling of the Legion.

The whole idea of doing the LoD is so you can have them square off against the Justice League. Of course, not doing this is a nice twist, but having the Legion as anything but direct adversaries for the Justice League is pointless when you don't actually care about any members of the Legion. Most of them were background fodder anyway with no prior animated appearances to draw from, and the few new villains that did get a moment in the spotlight -- Dr. Polaris, Atomic Skull, the Key, Silver Banshee, Sonar - received no development as characters at all. They were basically one-dimensional bad guys with gimmicks. The few villains that did show up from older series -- Metallo, Giganta, Toyman, Sinestro -- were included in episodes so overloaded with material they weren't given any chances to do anything new and lost any uniqueness that made them so memorable to begin with. The one "new" villain (a brief, non-speaking role aside) to pique my interest was Atomic Skull, and that was only because of his natural sounding voice contrasting with the fact he's a huge guy with a flaming green skull for a head.

But really, the big reason why the Legion failed as a season-long arc was that there was no depth to it. Cadmus worked because you had real people with understandable motives who didn't think they were evil -- they felt they had legitimate reasons to fear and strike against the Justice League. The Legion on the other hand, know they're evil. They just about say as much in several episodes. And, unlike Cadmus with it's rich multi-episode endeavors, the Legion only shined in the season premiere that introduced the team and set up the promising premise of an anti-Justice League, the Warlord and Viking Prince episodes that furthered the story and set up the intriguing idea that Grodd was willing to sacrifice members of his team to keep the Secret Society a true secret, the Deadman episode, and then the two part finale. The two other Society appearances throughout the season were either too brief, as in "Grudge Match", or played for laughs, as in "Great Brain Robbery".

The entire season moved away from episode-to-episode developments of JLU's first and second seasons and instead spent either half of the season on separate mini-arcs with the SS. This shift ultimately contributed to the lack of character development through JLU's final thirteen episodes and brought the show back to the arguably less refined style of the original Justice League series. It's frustrating as a fan because I've seen how well they can handle a mature Justice League Unlimited and made the season less satisfying on the whole.

That said, the finale packed a punch indeed with a great many shocks and surprises in the forms of shocking returns and the deaths of several DCAU vets. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it a great deal but the lack of any emotional connection to the characters coupled with the fact that the huge developments called for action over character meant there was little emotional resonance to the proceedings. J'onn's return was a nice touch -- I'd forgotten about him but remember hoping he'd come back during the season -- but Darkseid menacing the world again felt old hat at this point. I got charged up when the Daily Planet was destroyed, but Superman didn't even seem to care, much less worry about Lois Lane and company who were inside when it went down. I felt the same way when Hawkgirl got a spear thrown at her, only to have her shrug it off soon afterwards. What could have been a shocking, emotional moment became a throwaway bit.

So I enjoyed the finale. It was made all the more better watching it on Sean's 42" plasma screen with him, Kerr and Raf, JLU newbies all (and they actually started to like it too!) And with the finale so ends the DCAU proper. Sure there'll be things like the Superman DTV down the line, but I think this is a last real hurrah for these characters. It might not have been my favorite way of closing the curtains, but they still went out with style. Kudos all, and from someone who's been watching since that fateful Saturday in September 1992, thanks for the memories.

Justice League Unlimited series finale on Tonight at 7pm

In case anyone out there stumbles upon this between now and 7pm, the series finale of Justice League Unlimited -- don't judge me for my nerdish leanings -- is airing tonight on YTV. I'm hoping it's a good one. It's already aired overseas, but folks in the US haven't seen it yet. Not that they have much longer to wait, about a week or two, but it's still cool to be ahead of the game, I suppose.

Recent News

So, the family get-together was fun, if not terribly aggravating -- people get unusually tense in my family when it comes to organizing parties. I just hung out with Kerr and Johnny for the most part, but I did sit in when the choir was here, and to hear a few of messer. Levy's stories -- FYI: he and the director of "The Man" didn't get along.

There was a bit of a fuss when word got out that Justice League was coming out on DVD but it wasn't going to be widescreen. In the three or four days since that announcement, Warner Home Video rescinded and said that everything from season two on would be WS. I'm okay with that though -- season one wasn't real widescreen anyway.

My column wasn't in the latest Cut and Print, nor have I heard back from Jake about my mini-interview with Eugene. I suspect something's off with my email, but I'll keep trying to get through.

Anyway, I'll check back soon. Have a good day.

Why I Like San Diego

The first script I ever wrote to completion, TDSA - The Teenaged Defending Squad of America, was set in San Diego. Why, I don't know. I guess I liked the fact that it was a big city, but not so big, like say a Los Angeles or a San Francisco. I wanted a city that would accomadate superhero types, but also be small enough that I could easily set my script there at a minimum of research. Like most writers, I avoid research when possible, but I did actually look into San Diego quite a bit, although most of the research was cut from the final draft. I even placed a call to a San Diego info center for street names, something I've completely forgotten about and can't believe I actually did.

But anyway, the San Diego comicon is going on right now, the biggest, greatest comicon in North America, and the mecca at which the top publishers reveal their plans for the year and genre video game companies and film studios hock their wares. I haven't been, but I wish I could go, especially since the JLU creative team will be there: Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie, James Tucker, Shaun McLaughlin, and Matt Wayne. Plus Paul Dini, prolific DCAU writer is signing in other areas. I'd LOVE to actually be able to meet Messers. Timm and McDuffie, and maybe even get a sketch from B.T, but that'll have to wait until I... have, uh... money.

Ahem.

Still sounds cool. Can't wait to see what gets unveiled.

"Epilogue"

So the season finale of Justice League aired on YTV tonight, and for the second time in as many months, YTV screwed up the airing by instead showing an infomercial and then "Snailympics" for the first five minutes of the show. No word if they'll be reairing it, which would be great since it was a spectacular episode.

Aside from not, not much else to report on. I've been thinking alot about Michael Reaves though, a Batman writer whose episodes I never really liked, they were mostly lower-key, realistic romps and his dialogue occasionally sounds tinny, but the more I think about it, and see his episodes again, I've found they're some of my favorites. "Bullet for Bullock", "Avatar", "Read My Lips", "Sideshow", "Vendetta" -- not the episodes of the classic series (now on DVD) that spring to mind, like say a "Heart of Ice", but all very solid with excellent animation. Definitely underrated as far as DCAU writers go, but right up there with the best of them.