Bruce Timm's New Justice League

[Slash Man]

http://io9.com/bruce-timm-is-making-a-new-darker-justice-league-ani-1636289292

The title caught my eye for sure, Bruce Timm and Batman together again. Though my hopes of a revival of the original DC Animated Universe were crushed pretty early on, as this is said to be an entirely new interpretation.

While I have no doubt that Timm will deliver a satisfying product, my doubts were really vocalized by the author; the whole "darkness" issue. The word has been over-used to the point where it means nothing anymore, especially on the topic of Batman. The last time the word actually had any bearing was in 1989. I'm a little disappointed that Bruce Timm, of all people, played into the "dark and gritty" gimmick.

In my opinion, Batman: The Animated Series created the definitive Batman. The perfect balance of the character's previous incarnations, and the ability to take it seriously while still having the appeal of the comics was something that has never quite been repeated. Even The New Adventures of Batman made Bruce lose some of his charm and personality.

To be honest, the recent DC animated movies don't have much appeal to me. Each one seems like its trying to be more edgy than the last, but hey teens'll eat that up.

[The Laughing Fish]

In my opinion, Batman: The Animated Series created the definitive Batman. The perfect balance of the character's previous incarnations, and the ability to take it seriously while still having the appeal of the comics was something that has never quite been repeated. Even The New Adventures of Batman made Bruce lose some of his charm and personality.

To be honest, the recent DC animated movies don't have much appeal to me. Each one seems like its trying to be more edgy than the last, but hey teens'll eat that up.

BTAS also wasn't afraid to show Batman having emotion e.g. episodes like I Am The Knight and the Mask of the Phantasm film. This made the show more interesting and humanised him and I guarantee this was one of the reasons the show attracted a lot of older viewers. TNBA, on the other hand, make him come across as cold, i.e. his falling out with Dick Grayson, and the show suffered because of it.

I do enjoy most of the DC Original Animated Movies, but I'll admit that the quality is going downhill. Entertaining, but not as good as Under the Red Hood, TDKR or even Year One. As for this new Justice League, I assume they're going for an even more serious version of Justice League: War, which is a film like most recent DC films I wouldn't watch again.

[The Laughing Fish]

A featurette of Bruce Timm's new Justice League: Gods and Monsters has been released.

A few things were revealed:

• This is an Elseworlds-type sort of story - the Justice League here is nothing like the original characters. Superman is described as close to being the son of General Zod than Jor-El, who comes across as rather tyrannical and is rather distant to humanity except for a few people close to him. Batman is Kirk Langstrom - NOT Bruce Wayne - and became a vampire following an experiment he conducted on himself with bat DNA, in an attempt to cure his lymphoma.
• The heroes don't have any no-kill policies. In fact, they kill easily and without remorse.
• The protagonists are being framed for crimes that they didn't commit.

[The Laughing Fish]

^The video above isn't working, so I'm embedding it again.

And here's the official trailer.