So the second season of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Dwayne McDuffie’s Justice League animated series (and last season before Unlimited started) has now been released on DVD for a few weeks, timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Superman Returns. Season 2 was a step-up in many ways from the lackluster first season, though it doesn’t quite achieve the range and maturity of storytelling as seen in Justice League Unlimited.

The first season of Justice League picked up where the third season of Superman the Animated Series left off and was set to begin the climax of the Timm/Dini DC Animated Universe. Season 1 got the show off to a rocky start with several boring or predictable stories, a noticeably pared-down Superman and, frankly, nothing with a whole lot of “oomph”. Season 2 almost feels like a completely different show, with the writers and animators getting the hang of the characters, the dynamics with one-another and how to manage them in some truly epic stories.

The series starts out with one of the best Darkseid stories ever written, “Twilight”, which sets up elements which will be expanded upon in the third season of JLU. After viewing Twilight, right away you know that you’re in store for a superior Justice League experience. “Tabula Rasa” is a decent arc introducing Dr. Ivo’s Amazo android. While this version of Amazo is much more interesting than his comic book counterpart, the story doesn’t stand out as one of my favorites. Now, “Only a Dream”, that one holds up as my favorite arc of the series. The best interpretation of Dr. Destiny (a personal favorite villain of mine) since Neil Gaiman wrote him into an issue of Sandman, the story runs like the Justice League vs. Freddy Krueger. William Atherton (Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Real Genius) plays a fantastic Dr. Destiny. You’ve got possibly the most important story of the season on disc 2, “A Better World”, which sets up everything of importance that’ll be used in JLU season 2. “Wild Card” is a hilarious Joker-centric story which ties into Batman Beyond. Also of note, all the members of the Royal Flush Gang are voiced by the cast of Teen Titans. Nice little reference, there.

There are a few “meh” episodes in the bunch, I will admit. “Secret Society”, while a good super villain brawl with a less-than-subtle Challenge of the Superfriends inspiration, never really struck me as the high-point of the season. “Maid of Honor” is a rather “bleh” Vandal Savage story, predictable from start to finish, starring an annoying spoiled Princess who falls in love with the villain. Easily the weakest link in the season. “Hearts and Minds” is a Green Lantern-focused story starring Despero as the villain. Despite the phenomenal Keith David providing the villain’s voice, the whole story just doesn’t grab you at all.

However, the good episodes very easily out-weigh the not-so-good ones. “Hereafter” is a great twist on the Death of Superman idea, “Comfort and Joy” is a syrupy Christmas-themed comedy relief episode (with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Swamp Thing cameo!), “The Terror Beyond” is a great Solomon Grundy story that’ll appeal to any H.P. Lovecraft fan, and then there’s the 3-part series finale, “Starcrossed”, which is all sorts of hardcore. Really a fantastic selection of episodes, and even the worst of the bunch aren’t nearly as bad as “Warworld” from season 1.

The special features are decent-enough. “A Better World part 2”, “Twilight part 2” and “Starcrossed part 3” all have commentary tracks with Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie and various other members of the production team. They’ve all improved their commentary skills since the Batman the Animated Series box sets (which had the most boring commentaries I’ve ever sat through) and listening to them geek-out is always fun, especially if you’re a hardcore comic book nerd and can catch all their references. The only documentary included in the set is Justice League Declassified, an interview and question and answer panel hosted by the ever-entertaining Phil Lamarr (voice of Green Lantern). He interviews various members of the creative staff, which is very informative (though a lot of the info they give in the documentary is told during the commentaries).

You get 26 episodes on 4 disks with hardly a sucky one in the bunch. While Justice League Unlimited was an improvement, the second season of Justice League is still a marvelous show and should certainly be on any comic book fan’s wish-list.

With the Superman Returns feature film coming up soon, Warner Bros has released this straight-to-video animated movie. So, how was it? Well, see for yourself in My Review. But to be blunt, it was pretty bad…

So Superman Returns came out this Wednesday and with it comes my review.  To make a long story short, the movie had great effects and a marvelous supporting-cast, but the lead character failed to deliver and some story elements were just a bad idea.  Overall, I thought it was above average but not quite everything I’d been anticipating.  You can read my full review Right Here.

Now, just to get any confusion out of the way, X-Men Evolution Season 3 is the first season of the series to be released in a full box set.  The previous two seasons have been released on individual DVDs consisting of 4 or 5 episodes per disk.  So don’t go crazy trying to find box sets of seasons 1 and 2, as they don’t exist (yet).

On to the review…

X-Men Evolution got off on a rocky start.  First it alienated many fans by making the cast of mutant peace-keepers hip and trendy teenagers.  The first season didn’t endear itself to everybody as it basically stood to introduce new characters with every episode and pretty much just set up the next season.  So the entire first season just felt like a primer for a REAL story.

However, once X-Men Evolution got its wheels turning it took X-Men fans for one Hell of a ride.  Season 3 is where things REALLY picked up, with arcs developing tension between the X-Men, the New Mutants, the Brotherhood, the Acolytes and even the Morlocks.  Long time X-Men fans are given a lot to chew on, and when the season finale leaves you cliff-hanging with the rebirth of Apocalypse, Season 4 just can’t get here fast-enough.

Like most American animation, the approach is to tell a story arc through a series of self-contained episodes, allowing viewers to pop in and out at their leisure and remain relatively clued-in.  The first arc of the season picks up where Season 2 left off; the mutants have been outted to world and now must learn to live amongst people who hate and fear them.  The high school-angle of the series, scoffed at by many during the first season, really shines through in this story arc.  High schools are already breeding grounds of hate and negativity among human beings, add in the unrest of a new civil rights movement and things quickly turn ugly.  The characters deal with the problems in different ways; Spike becomes too horrifying due to his rapid mutation and can’t bare to be seen in public, the Brotherhood chooses to use their powers for intimidation rather than acceptance, and Nightcrawler learns that with his image-inducer he can pretend to be a human, but at the risk of loosing his mutant pals.  The anti-mutant racism and the high school setting leaves limitless opportunities for story potential and the writing crew handles it superbly.

There are a few throw away episodes in the bunch.  The origin of X-23 breaks up the arc and doesn’t really feel like it properly fits in anywhere.  It’s a GREAT episode, with some of the most gorgeous animation in the series, a magnificent fight scene with Wolverine and the best characterization X-23 ever received (she was eventually brought into the X-Men comic, to a luke-warm reception).  However, it throws off the pacing of the season’s arcs and feels like it was simply tossed in for the Hell of it.  There’s also an episode where the X-Men attend a cruise to the Bahamas which acts as a character piece for the bland 4th tier mutant, Magma.  Other than her discovering the extent of her powers, and lots of bikini fan-service, nothing really happens in this one.

The special features on the DVD are limited but interesting.  Xavier takes you through narrated character profiles of a handful of heroes and villains.  Most of the info is pretty much common knowledge, but I’m a sucker for character profiles.  There’s a short 15 minute documentary on the season which features a few key writers providing insight behind the creative process.  They pretty much admit that the X-23 episode was a spur of the moment-thing, which is why it feels so awkward.  There’s also a lame trivia challenge, but nobody ever bothers with that crap.

X-Men Evolution is where the series really hit its stride and is a must-own for any of you X-Men fans, even if you did prefer the 90’s Saban series.  You get 13 episodes for $19.99; not a bad deal at all.  I thoroughly recommend it.

So in anticipation of the upcoming Superman: Returns feature film comes this straight-to-video animated movie.  Was it any good?  No, not really.  You can read my review Right Here.