Justice League Unlimited 'Clash'

[Robovski]

I believe there is a book as well, which I remember getting from the library in my youth. I present Stan Lee's - How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5tU2PuRdU8

[RobbyB1982]

How many guys have the same lantern jaws, top heavy bodies and nearly identical black hairstyle? The art style throughout is fairly limited. BUT it is important to note, it was functional and I miss the hell out of it after seeing the amount of Teen Titans Go inspired animation they have now. (Have you seen the clips for the new Turtles cartoon? What the hell...)

Yes, the men pretty much all had the same physical builds, but they had different jawlines, cheekbones, chin clefts, eyes, and sometimes eyebrows and noses. There was *some* difference. You're not going to mistake Flash for Martian Manhunter or Batman or Superman or Captain Marvel or Lobo. (And I'm not even counting facial hair since I'm not counting haircuts on women.)

Meanwhile Barbara Gordon, Hawkgirl, Lana Lang, Wonder Woman and even elderly Ma Kent look identical except for eye color. And if you ignore hair style that broadens to literally every female character.


This is an incredibly common thing in comics and animation, where men can be super crazy varied in style, but women have to hit a sort of ideal and so don't vary much at all, which leads to things like the Disney Princesses all looking super similar.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Yeah, male character designs get more range, whereas female designs are kept samey because there's so much concern about making sure they're hot.

I imagine that insurance companies have a range of coverages and then try to wriggle out of it, like in the real world.
"But I have superhero insurance AND supervillain insurance!"
"Well, yes, but Red X is a morally grey anti-hero, so I'm afraid your policy doesn't cover this damage."

[turbo_sailor67]

This episode showcases why Luthor is a great villain, and also is what Batman Vs. Superman could have been, was trying to be, and utterly failed at in humiliating fashion.

Kinda depressing now that I think about that.

I think that movie was just rushed, same as every other "connected universe" that's recently tried and failed to get momentum. They all want to copy the MCU but either don't want to, can't, or won't do the work and build up to there. They seem to want jump straight to the dénouement at the beginning.

Even this episode of JLU had the entirety of the first Justice League Animated series, all the seasons of Batman the Animated Series, and Superman the Animated Series to build from. Even if you come into this episode blind from any of the other series' episodes, you can go back at the very least to Superman the Animated Series and see the back and forth Superman and Lex Luther have had previously to see how the latter has learned how to push the former's buttons so effectively.

We didn't have any of this history in the Batman vs. Superman movie. While I was never sold on Batfleck and he never did win me over, I did go see the movie regardless. About the only thing I thought was interesting was the nightmare sequence Batfleck has about evil Superman, and well Wonder Woman who stole the movie (again, to me) and was the only part of the movie I really liked.

[turbo_sailor67]

How many guys have the same lantern jaws, top heavy bodies and nearly identical black hairstyle? The art style throughout is fairly limited. BUT it is important to note, it was functional and I miss the hell out of it after seeing the amount of Teen Titans Go inspired animation they have now. (Have you seen the clips for the new Turtles cartoon? What the hell...)

Meanwhile Barbara Gordon, Hawkgirl, Lana Lang, Wonder Woman and even elderly Ma Kent look identical except for eye color. And if you ignore hair style that broadens to literally every female character.

Really? I thought all of the characters looked like they were the same base model, just colored differently and then the accoutrements e.g. cape or no cape, mask or no mask, etc. Almost certainly done for simplicity and time's sake. Look at how differently characters look when it's the animated movies, barring Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker since they were done in the same style as the TV series' but, look at Justice League: Doom, the Flashpoint Paradox, Crisis on Two Earths, Throne of Atlantis, vs. Teen Titans, etc.

Those have more time dedicated to them, a bigger budget, and largely one-offs since they don't always have the same actors playing the roles, and the designs (costumes) can look different movie to movie.

[Fianna]

I think that movie was just rushed, same as every other "connected universe" that's recently tried and failed to get momentum.

Well, the Conjuring universe has been quietly plugging along and doing quite well for WB, but they have the sense to keep the budgets for those movies in check.

[Mickey_Rat15]

Superman started out disliking Captain Marvel from the start. DC did not create the Captain Marvel character and sued his creators for copyright infringement for being too similar to Superman.

[zardox78]

Ya know, I never noticed this before now, but different characters have different types of eyes in this cartoon. Billy Batson only has large black dots for eyes, which was probably done to resemble the old-school comics. But the other kids in his class have more realistic looking white circles with small black dots inside. Thought that was character-specific to him for a moment, but then I noticed Superman's eyes are pretty much the same as Billy's (though the dots are a bit smaller), while Lex has the white circles.

[AllanO]

This is very late to the game...

I found it interesting that there are only 5 phone booths in New York, I suspect there are more in Toronto as I can think of about 3 I can see within a mile or so of each other in town. Not saying they are much used or even work, but they exist and I always find it interesting that others find them such a rare sight nowadays.

On Superman changing in phone booths, the lack of phone booths was already a problem in 1978 when the Donner Superman movie makes a joke about Clark looking for place to change when he sees what appears to be a phone booth, but is actually just a payphone in a sort of half-shelter. Note that the glass and metal phone booth is probably not as good a place to change as the older wood and glass phone booths of an earlier time which were a little more concealing (I think there was a Superman comic that made a joke about that). Apparently Superman only very rarely changed in a phone booth but those few instances became iconic with the character. https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-324/

My explanation of why the age of superheroes does not seem to lead to widespread prosperity etc. (ignoring all the cops with laser guns and shining monorails we may see in some settings) is that all the increased productivity from super science etc. is eaten up repairing stuff etc. after super hero fights, repairing damage done by supervillains etc.

I always like this Captain Marvel when I see him in things like this, but other than a few specials issues (Like Shazam Power of Hope) I have never read that much Captain Marvel/Shazam etc. I do like trivia about him, like that his nickname was The Big Red Cheese, also note that a complication in the copyright dispute between DC and Fawcett over the idea that Marvel was a copy of Superman, is that it became clear that the Superman writers had been copying elements from Captain Marvel. The joke to make is that Captain Marvel refers not only to Carol Danvers, but also to Maria Rambaugh, Mar-Vell of the Kree empire (rank captain), his son Genis-Vel, his sister Phyla-Vel and probably more.

In terms of the problems if Captain Marvel's name being Shazam, Chuck points out, famously Captain Marvel Jr. could not say his name in conversation because he got his powers from Captain Marvel meaning that he said the name of his benefactor (Captain Marvel) to transform (Billy Batson got his powers from the wizard Shazam, who Batson would call the Old Wizard). So if CM Jr. said Captain Marvel Jr. he would have transformed back into his civilian identity.

[turbo_sailor67]

I have never read that much Captain Marvel/Shazam etc. I do like trivia about him, like that his nickname was The Big Red Cheese, also note that a complication in the copyright dispute between DC and Fawcett over the idea that Marvel was a copy of Superman, is that it became clear that the Superman writers had been copying elements from Captain Marvel. The joke to make is that Captain Marvel refers not only to Carol Danvers, but also to Maria Rambaugh, Mar-Vell of the Kree empire (rank captain), his son Genis-Vel, his sister Phyla-Vel and probably more.

In terms of the problems if Captain Marvel's name being Shazam, Chuck points out, famously Captain Marvel Jr. could not say his name in conversation because he got his powers from Captain Marvel meaning that he said the name of his benefactor (Captain Marvel) to transform (Billy Batson got his powers from the wizard Shazam, who Batson would call the Old Wizard). So if CM Jr. said Captain Marvel Jr. he would have transformed back into his civilian identity.

Just trying to read that I'm like Austin Powers when Basil Exposition is explaining the time travel mission and Austin tries to recap it and says "Oh no, I've gone cross-eyed"