BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN PART II

Warner Bros provided this blog with a complimentary Blu-ray of the featured movie. Opinions expressed are honest and my own.

Batman: The Long Halloween is such an epic graphic novel that to adapt it into a motion picture took two movies to do the story justice. These animated flicks are Warner Bros. straight to home video DC Universe Movies which put fans first in their fan-tastic portrayals of the gritty and violent nature of Batman's vigilantism. Part I was released on Blu-ray and Digital back in June and Part II is available now to add to your home entertainment library of comic book inspired movies. The first installment of The Long Halloween was intense and I've been eagerly waiting with anticipation to see how the world's greatest detective solves this murder mystery. 

Continuing from the cliff-hanger ending of Part I, the Holiday Killer is still at large and, with Bruce Wayne under the spell of the venomous Poison Ivy, Batman is nowhere to be found. The Caped Crusader finds himself liberated by an unlikely ally. Meanwhile Harvey Dent is confronting battles on two fronts: attempting to end the mob war while also dealing with a strained marriage. And, after an attack that leaves Harvey hideously disfigured, the District Attorney unleashes the duality of his psyche that he’s strived his entire life to suppress. Now, as Two-Face, Dent decides to take the law into his own hands and deliver judgment to those who’ve wronged him, his family and all of Gotham. Ultimately, the Dark Knight must put together the tragic pieces that converged to create both Two-Face and the Holiday Killer.

In Batman: The Long Halloween Part II, the Dark Knight must combat a unified front of classic DC Super-Villains, diffuse an escalating mob war and solve the mystery of the Holiday Killer in a thrilling conclusion to this two-part entry into the popular series of DC Universe Movies. And just as I thought the first installment was intense Part II elevates things going to an R rating from the first movie's PG-13 rating. Batman: The Long Halloween Part II is rated R for violence and bloody images. These animated DC Universe Movies definitely aren't featuring the cast of the Saturday morning Super Friends cartoons for sure!

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, in addition to the feature-length animated film Batman: The Long Halloween Part II contains some exciting bonus content. The Blu-ray and Digital editions of the movie include a DC Showcase short film, a sneak peek at the next animated film in the DC Movie Universe, flashback scenes from two previous Batman flicks, and two Two-Face themed episode from Batman: The Animated Series. Holy Red Robin Batman that is a lot of extras! 

● DC Showcase – Blue Beetle (New Animated Short) – Sufferin’ Scarabs! Silver Age Blue Beetle is back! And, had he ever starred in a 1960s Saturday-morning limited-animation cartoon with its own jazzy earworm of a theme song, it would have been just like this! Welcome to the adventures of Ted Kord, alias the Blue Beetle, as he teams up with fellow Super Heroes Captain Atom, The Question and Nightshade to battle that nefarious finagler of feelings, Doctor Spectro. 

 ● A Sneak Peek at the next DC Animated Movie – An advanced look at Injustice. 

 ● DC Universe Movies Flashback 

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 

Batman: Hush 

 ● From the DC Vault o Batman: The Animated Series 

“Two-Face, Part 1” 

Batman: The Animated Series – “Two-Face, Part 2”

 

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This isn’t the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA that I grew up with

As a kid a fixture of my Saturday was tuning in to see the newest episode of “SUPER FRIENDS” during the morning block of cartoons on television.  SUPER FRIENDS featured the adventures of DC COMICS greatest heroes working together as the Justice League of America to protect the world from the villainous Legion of Doom which united the comic publisher’s greatest villains to promote anarchy and destruction.  The Justice League of America featured a core membership of Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman, Superman and the Wonder Twins (Wonder Twin Powers activate!).  They were occasionally assisted by other “junior” members of the team like Hawkman, Plasticman, and the Green Arrow. SUPER FRIENDS ran on ABC from  1973 to 1986, but this wasn’t the first time that DC COMICS brought together its individual characters to work together as a team.

The Justice League of America first debuted in the comic book THE BRAVE & THE BOLD #28 in February 1960.  After a few appearances by the Justice League of America in THE BRAVE & THE BOLD the team was given its own self-titled comic book series that ran until 2011.  JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA was one of DC COMICS best selling publications during a 50 year run.

 In September 2011 DC cancelled all their titles and relaunched all the comic books in their universe starting at issue #1 in what they called the NEW 52.  It was a fresh start for all their comic book characters and story lines and with that came some changes.  The JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA title with its core assemble of characters was changed to just JUSTICE LEAGUE.  Same cast, simpler title and the things move on…well not necessarily.  DC reintroduced JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA a year after the kick-off of the NEW 52 but it isn’t the same JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA that I grew up with or many people would think of when they hear the name.

In the NEW 52 era, the general public is just discovering the existence of individuals who have super powers and is scared of them whether they are using their talents for good or evil.  The U.S. Government doesn’t trust that the JUSTICE LEAGUE will always support its national security interests or in fact not be a threat itself to the Country.  So the United States creates its own super powered team, THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, meant to safeguard the country versus the Justice League and to perform secret missions for an agency called ARGUS (Advance Research Group for Uniting  Super-Humans).

The Justice League of America team in the NEW 52 is made up of essentially the type of characters who would be second-tier characters for the Justice League and pits them against DC’s core super heroes.  The cast for Justice League consists of Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Stargirl, the new Green Lantern Simon Baz, Katana, and Vibe plus are led by someone most of us probably associate as a criminal, Batman’s lover and antagonist the Catwoman. 

So DC COMICs did make a gritty change in its NEW 52 reboot with the origin and cast of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.  Did you miss the original monthly installments of Justice League of America?  If so and you are interested in this newly formatted team DC has just published a paperback book compilation of the first seven issues of the series titled JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: VOLUME ONE. This New 52 monthly series has decent artwork and storylines worth giving it a read.  This comic book is probably most interesting for those people intrigued about the angle of how this Justice League of America differs from the one most of us are more familiar with from before the New 52 timeline.

For more information, visit: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: VOLUME 1

DISCLAIMER:  The publisher provided me with  digital PDF advance copy of THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: VOLUME 1  for this review.  The comments and opinions in this post are my own.