The latest DC Animated Universe offering has arrived and it’s once again team-based. Thankfully it’s a team that’s relatively new to general audiences: Justice League Dark. Magic has been something already showcased a bit in this on-going animated franchise, which started with Justice League: War and most recently appeared in the form of last year’s Justice League vs. Teen Titans*. We’ve seen magic used by Shazam, Trigon, and a few others, but never quite on this scale.
The basic premise is that some dark force is influencing innocent people to commit horrendous acts of violence all around the globe. The Justice League are confounded by this and hold a meeting to determine their plan of action. This is pretty much the only seuence of the film where the more traditional heroes show up en masse, with the likes of Green Lantern, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Wonder Woman all either weighing in or just quietly listening. From this point onward, only Batman (Jason O’Mara) appears in any real capacity.
Through the interventions of a mysterious force, the Caped Crusader sets out to locate “master of the dark arts” John Constantine (Matt Ryan**), With the help of Zatanna (Camilla Luddington), Deadman (Nicholas Turturro), Ritchie Simpson (Jeremy Davies), and Etrigan the Demon (Ray Chase), the source of the dark disturbance is traced to the likes of Felix Faust (Enrico Colantoni) and Destiny (Alfred Molina). Other supernaturally-tinged characters appear, such as Swamp Thing (Roger Cross) and the Demons Three, but the above are our main characters throughout.
So how does it stack up? This is a solid tale for the most part. All of the new characters are interesting and have their own distinct personalities and motivations. A fresh set of characters is always welcome, especially a lot as quirky as this. The only sore spot is Batman being shoehorned into the proceedings. I get the need to have an “in” for viewers who aren’t familiar with the rest of these characters, but that could have simply been accomplished by containing Batman’s presence to the first act and maybe a return in the finale. Since he‘s around for the duration of the tale, a great majority of his scenes amount to him hanging around in the background as our true protagonists do their thing. It’s not a dealbreaker, just an unnecessary addition.
On a scale of Justice League: War (my least favorite of this franchise) to Justice League vs. Teen Titans (my favorite thus far), I’d place this one on the higher end of the stack. It might not be the best thing they have tossed out, but it sits comfortably alongside the equally watchable, but unremarkable likes of Batman vs. Robin and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. There’s certainly room for improvement, but I like these characters and would happily watch a sequel, should one be produced.
* – 2016 also saw the released of animated films Batman: The Killing Joke and Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, but neither are set within this core animated franchise. The first is a standalone adaptation of a classic comic and the latter a continuation of the Adam West era. I wasn’t a fan of Killing Joke, but Caped Crusaders is well worth your time.
** – While the star of the cancelled-too-soon live action NBC series (and occasional CW guest) once again plays John Constantine here, this film is not set within the same continuity as the DC shows on The CW. For an DC TV in-continuity animated Constantine, you’ll have to wait for the upcoming CW Seed animated series.
