Justice League Tuesday (NOT a review)

Justice League Tuesday!  I stopped by Target to get their exclusive JLA Adventures DVD earlier in the day and when I got home and was about to start watching it, I saw that they also released Justice League War for digital download.  I purchased War from the Google Play store and got ready for some back to back DC fun.

I was surprised to hear about JLA Adventures a few weeks ago.  The cover image reminded me of the young reader line of DC books that you could usually find at Target or the junior section of Barnes and Nobles.
The "movie" started off like an episode of Challenge of the Super Friends with the heroes and villains running at each other before the title splash started the show.  The animation was on a Saturday morning cartoon level...not bad but not the level of the DC Direct DVDs we've seen lately.  The story revolved around the Justice League battling the Legion of Doom before Luthor and a villain named the Time Trapper sent Solomon Grundy, Toy Man, Bizzaro and the Cheetah back in time to eliminate Superman and thus prevent the Justice League from forming.

Diedrich Bader voiced Batman bringing back memories of Batman the Brave and the Bold for me.  I wasn't too familiar with the rest of the cast...but then again, it's Batman.    I enjoyed it and all the little "Super Friends" references in the show.  The ending was left wide open for a follow up movie.  I wouldn't mind if DC/WB put this out from time to time.

Justice League War on the other hand was a love it/hate it movie for me.  I thought the animation was great, the voices were pretty good and the story/action was enjoyable though understandably different from the source material.  The problem I had wasn't really with the movie but the fact that I'm not a big fan of the New 52.  Three years after DC rebooted the universe, I'm still not used to the fact that the characters themselves are different...not just modernized but almost different people (but that's for another post).  Following the first arc of the New 52 Justice League story line, DC's big 7 (minus Aquaman add Captai....errr...Shazam...) must put aside their differences and work together for the first time to stop Darkseid from taking over the Earth.

I enjoyed both, will be picking up Justice League War when it does come out on DVD/Blu-Ray in a couple of weeks to add to the collection.

First iTunes movie...

The first song/mp3 I bought on iTunes many years ago was Mr. Brightside by The Killers...today, I bought my first movie off of iTunes.  Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2.  I was initially gonna wait for the Blu-Ray/DVD combo to be released in a couple of weeks but since iTunes had it early, I decided to get it there to watch it.  I'll probably still pick up the DVD.

I really enjoyed the movie, probably more so than Part 1, and I liked Part 1.

Good bye City of Heroes...

City of Heroes shut down the servers for the last time last Friday...I didn't enter the game, I forgot until my friend Napua mentioned it.  I reminisced with her about the game which she got into in the past couple of years.

A bunch of us got into the game when it launched back in 2004.  I remember we loaded them onto the PCs in the animation lab at UH and had some marathon gaming sessions while waiting for projects to render.

I remember the late nights and the dreaded 15 minute warning that the servers were going to shut down for the evening for maintenance...which was probably a good thing because the servers would shut down around 3am Hawaii time.  I remember seeing the giant octopus in the harbor for the first time and the huge number of players that would show up to battle the thing.  I remember when the giant snowmen were actually a threat and you couldn't really take him down by yourself.

Maybe it was because I was a lower level and working my way up but getting into a large group was actually fun and you needed the multiple players and a variety of classes to get by.  Maybe it was the community that had me continuously coming back for more.  The one thing I did know was that I played the game continuously for about 5 years until about 2009 and even after then, I would go back time to time to run around and fight crime in Paragon City.

I played a little World of Warcraft and I still play a little Champions Online but I didn't play either nearly as much as I did City of Heroes.

So when Napua said that the game kind of went out on a whimper rather than a bang, I was a little sad.  I was already sad that City of Heroes would be gone but I think I was more sad that instead of some grand exit, some ending akin to the end of the original City of Heroes Beta where the Ritki invaded, the game ended with...

Adam West gets his star

This isn't my picture but it's such a great picture that I hope the author of the photo doesn't mind if I use it.  If I had the money, I think I would have headed out to Hollywood to witness this in person.  Adam West got his star on the Hollywood walk of fame today April 5, 2012.  Hopefully he'll be at the New York Comic Convention later this October.  It'll be pretty cool to meet him again.

Went to Reid's annual Wrestlemania party at his house.  Reid's always a good host and this year we brought some wrestling themed snacks for the party.  We brought the Pepsi for CM Punk (his logo), a can of Monster energy drink (Kane; Big Red Monster), a "pie" for the Rock, a box of Fruity Pebbles for John Cena and for the old school wrestlers, we had a couple of Slim Jims for Macho Man/Edge and a couple cans of Pringles for Paul Bearer (Percy Pringle; the Undertakers old manager).  

Kawaii Kon 2012...

We went to the Kawaii Kon this past weekend.  We usually go only one out of the three (four?) days and see our pals Jon J. Murakami and Sam Campos at their respective booths.  It's always great to see all the costumed characters running around but this year there was a couple of guys dressed as Batman and Bane from the Dark Knight Rises.  One of the highlights of the "Kon" for me.

I did think it was interesting and actually great that there were a lot of non-anime/manga related characters at this years event.  Don't think it'll happen but I think that the con could grow bigger if it opened itself up to more genres.  Still, had a good time this year at the event.

Justice League: Doom

Justice League: Doom!
I picked up my copy of Justice League: Doom early this morning before work and couldn't wait until I got home to watch it.

Based on the JLA Tower of Babel story line from 2000, this was another animated movie from the DCU.  The animation was beautiful, seemingly having an anime influence (IMO) and yet at the same time, different than the designs from the other DCU animated movies.  The one thing I really like about these movies is that there is a bit of familiarity in the animation but at the same time each one has it's own style and often times, reflecting the art work of the original artists.

I really enjoyed the story, they of course had to modify it to fit in the time frame allotted but still a great adaptation.

A great documentary on the late Dwayne McDuffy as well as a memorandum to him at the end of the film was also a nice add to the combo set.  The only thing I was a little disappointed about was that the set did not include a DCU short.  Maybe I got spoiled but it was one of the things I looked forward to in these releases (other than the feature itself).  Hopefully the next release has one in it...maybe an Aquaman story...