Review of Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015) by Mark M — 26 Jul 2015

Set in a parallel universe of the canon Earth, Justice League: Gods and Monsters features a Justice League far unlike what many would be familiar with. Led by Hernan Guerra (Benjamin Bratt), the son of General Zod and the Superman of this universe, and flanked by the vampire Kirk Langstrom (Michael C. Hall) and the New God called Bekka (Tamara Taylor), this universe's iteration of Batman and Wonder Woman respectively, the Justice League of Gods and Monsters is an unrelenting force of justice that aren't held back by the normal Justice League's rule of no-killing. Deftly voice acted - Dexter's Michael C. Hall sounds adequately dead as the undead Langstrom -, and as seen prior to the animated film's premiere in the web series Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles' three companion episodes - "Twisted", "Big" and "Bomb" - distributed by Machinima, the act of killing to this version of the Justice League is merely an easy means to an end, like the act of sneezing.

But it isn't all scenes of Batman sinking his fangs into the necks of criminals, sucking them dry of blood, or Wonder Woman running her sword through her clueless assailants; Gods and Monsters has pathos to go with the violence. While the film's villain takes a page out of the slew of badly written villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the (troubled) past of the lead trio is developed instead, as light is shed upon their motivations as the sole guardians of the planet, with Hernan's Superman taking a chunk of the character development, as the character, being a son of the villainous Zod and the peaceful Lara Lor-Van (mother of the original Superman, Clark Kent), struggles between ruling Earth using force to keep it safe from itself, or to go about safeguarding Earth in a more peaceful manner. It is worth noting the very scene of Zod inserting his seed into the incubator pod for Lara's egg borders on an allusion towards rape.

Similar to the videogame Injustice: Gods Among Us (and its subsequent related media), Gods and Monsters benefits from how its iteration of the League are prone to outright killing their opponents, providing the animated film with a drastically different tone involving violence, sexual innuendo and adult subject matter. The departure allows the creative minds to explore different iterations and characterizations of existing characters, such as Lois Lane being a sensationalist reporter for a tabloid news station parody of TMZ, instead of her usual character as a hard news, Pulitzer-winning journalist. And the glue that holds this all together is the behemoth creative team that was responsible for a large number of quality DC Comics animations in the past.

Slickly animated, harkening back to the style of the DC animated universe (DCAU) from the early '90s to the mid 2000s, Gods and Monsters is a callback to the past, and directed by Sam Liu, the man behind Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010), All-Star Superman (2011) and Batman: Year One (2011), with Gods and Monsters' story and screenplay coming from the legendary Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett, two of the DCAU creators whose filmography span from Batman: The Animated Series right up to the Justice League TV series, Gods and Monsters is rightfully the best DC animated film to come out from Warner Bros. and DC Comics since Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox in 2011.