Speed Force

TV Guide reports on the voice cast of Justice League: Doom, an upcoming direct-to-home-video animated film inspired by Mark Waid’s JLA: Tower of Babel, in which Batman’s contingency plans to take down each of his colleagues if necessary are stolen and turned against them. Based on the cast list, it appears to have been adapted to better match the current “New 52″ lineup, with Hal Jordan replacing Kyle Rayner (as he replaced John Stewart in Crisis on Two Earths) and Cyborg replacing Aquaman (who is in the new comics lineup, confusing the issue a bit).

The feature will reunite Justice League/Justice League Unlimited cast members Kevin Conroy as Batman, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Carl Lumbly as the Martian Manhunter…and Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash. Joining them will be Nathan Fillion, reprising his role as Green Lantern Hal Jordan from Emerald Knights, Tim Daly, voice of Superman from the 1990s animated series and the more recent Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and Apocalypse features, and Bumper Robinson as Cyborg.

The Green Lantern Corps forum has more information including a list of villains (via TRKA): The Royal Flush Gang, Vandal Savage, Cheetah, Bane, Metallo, Star Sapphire, and Mirror Master (Alexis Denisof).

Today’s guest post is by Dave Huang.

In 2011, Green Lantern is getting an animated series because of the feature film. The executive producer is Bruce Timm of DCAU fame, along with Giancarlo Volpe (director: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Jim Krieg (writer: X-Men Graduation Day, Spider-Man, Ben 10) as producers. With a history of hand drawn animated DC shows, Green Lantern stands out as the first DC show done in CGI. This article considers the advantages of making The Flash the next.

The main reason to consider CGI is GL’s production. Overcome the learning curve for producing a quality superhero CGI show with GL with make the production team veterans for a polished Flash series and keep their experience from going to waste. Although Batman: The Animated Series was the first DCAU show, the universe wasn’t born until Superman: The Animated Series brought us “World’s Finest”. Until then, B:TAS was closed-off, much like GL is currently being developed to be (taking place 98% in space with no anticipated overlap with non-GL DCU at large). S:TAS established the crossovers and serial storytelling that expanded into the production of a full blown, lasting, and lucrative universe. A CGI Flash series following a CGI GL series can play the same role- bridging two worlds- as Flashes and Green Lanterns go together like PB and J… and CGI and The Flash may be a surprising fit.

While The Flash Family is no stranger to animation, their appearances tend to come in brief bursts, in part because of the challenges with bringing a speedster to the small screen in an animated format. On commentary tracks, Timm has remarked how difficult it is to keep Flash in frame and to convey a sense of speed cost-effectively, perhaps accounting for why he said in 2007 that he will probably not do a Flash series. However, some of the strengths — indeed the requirements — of CGI production might change his mind:

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After a long wait, Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster, the Flash-focused episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, airs tonight on Cartoon Network at 7:00pm. (Or, depending on your time zone, already aired.)

It’s been online through sketchy channels ever since it played in Australia in May, and legitimately on Amazon Video on Demand since early August. (It was also available on iTunes briefly, but was pulled, possibly to hold it until the US broadcast.)

So, what’s in it? Three Flashes vs. Professor Zoom. Super-speed hijinks. Time travel. References to everything from Crisis on Infinite Earths to the “Dark Tomorrow” arc in Impulse. Cameos by the Rogues. A race around the world. A story about teamwork and no-ally-left-behind….

And great voice casting!

Thanks to Darren for the screenshot, and JC Norris for letting me know that the episode is being shown tonight.

A few brief news items:

Top Cow’s delayed Velocity #1 is shipping June 16. I’ve been looking forward to this since reading the Pilot Season book, though of course this is an entirely new creative team. On the plus side, it’s a miniseries, so there’s not a huge commitment to picking it up.

Cartoon Network will be producing a Green Lantern animated series. Green Lantern: First Flight was pretty good, but of course there’s no guarantee that any of the same people will be working on this.

DC will be teaming up with TASCHEN Books to produce 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking. Basically it’s a history of DC Comics. How soon can I pre-order this?

Hypergeek notes that the UK graphic novel Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? has been nominated for the 2009 Eagle Awards. From his review, it looks like it’s not about a speester so much as it’s about a man who can stop time, and reluctantly becomes a hero. I’m going to have to look for this one as well. [Edit: I should note that I stopped reading the review once I decided the book looked interesting, just in case there were spoilers.]

I finally watched Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths this week. It was entertaining, though I can’t help but think it would have worked better if they’d kept it in DCAU continuity, instead of the weird DCAU/DCU hybrid it ended up being. Lots of fun character spotting, and Owlman & Superwoman basically made the movie.

I’ve updated the Animated Flash (since this one is virtually identical to the Justice League Unlimited version) and added a profile on yet another Johnny Quick. Tomorrow the disc goes back to Netflix.

There’s been talk for a while of a “Flash Legacy” episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold. The main Flash on the show is Jay Garrick, who has appeared in at least two episodes: “Trials of the Demon” and “The Golden Age of Justice.” Kid Flash was notably absent from the recent “Sidekicks” episode, but producer James Tucker told the Aquaman Shrine that they have plans for Kid Flash “in the near future.”

In a comment thread on the show’s Facebook page a few days ago, producers confirmed that “Jay, Barry, and Wally will be featured in a upcoming episode that focuses on the Flash legacy.”

New episodes of the cartoon return in March.

DC’s latest direct-to-home-video animated film, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, goes on sale Tuesday, February 23.

In it, the Justice League answers a plea for help from an alternate Lex Luthor, one who comes from a world where good and evil are reversed. The heroic Luthor fights against the tyranny of such master villains as Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, and Johnny Quick (a name that DC has reused several times).

It is, of course, inspired by a long tradition of evil-counterpart stories in DC Comics.

Speedster corner: The story is adapted from an unproduced Justice League Unlimited script, so the Flash is the familiar wise-cracking, thinks-with-his-feet type. There’s also supposed to be a good super-speed fight between him and the evil Johny Quick.

As previously reported by Kelson, in a effort to fill in the gaps of characters not yet made in the Justice League Unlimited toy line, Mattel is releasing the Justice Guild of America Set on 2/16 for sale exclusively at Mattycollector.com for $30.00.

Justice League and Justice League Unlimited devotees will remember the Justice Guild of America from the Season 1 episode “Legends”. The Justice Guild was the closest the show got to featuring the original Justice Society of America, as the creators of the show were not allowed to feature any of the original members due to the nature of the story. To that end they created several analogs that were a direct homage or in some cases a combination of characters.

The Streak was obviously based on Jay Garrick, the very first Flash (and the primary reason I’m featuring and purchasing this set). The Green Guardsman and Black Siren were Alan Scott (Green Lantern I/Sentinel) and Dinah Lance (Black Canary I). And Tom Turbine and Catman were amalgamations of the original Atom/Golden Age Superman and Batman/Wildcat respectively. Unfortunately for Batman and Wildcat fans we won’t be getting Catman, but every other member of the group is present and accounted for (well except for mascot, Ray Thompson, himself a tribute to classic comic book writer, Roy Thomas and celebrated author, Ray Bradbury).

Again, the set goes on sale at Mattycollector.com for $30.00 on 2/16 so be sure to swing by there and grab yours before they are all gone. And yes there is a limited stock.

-Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Last week, the Titans Tower Monitor Room reported on a rumor, based on a message board post, of a Young Justice cartoon in development. It seemed far-fetched at the time, but more information surfaced, including possible character designs. (Note: the Monitor room moved to a new site today. It looks like everything’s been transferred, but here’s the original post from last Thursday, for completeness’ sake.)

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool picked up the story, and today it’s on Blog@Newsarama, MTV Splash Page, etc.

Reportedly the show will be Young Justice League (trading on name recognition?) and will feature Martian Girl (is that Miss Martian?), Aqualad, Nightwing (is Robin tied to the Batman license again?), Impulse, Arrowette, and Connor Kent as teenagers.

Honestly? I’ll believe it when I see it. But an animated Impulse would be great fun to watch.

Interestingly enough, Impulse was part of the original pitch to Kids WB! for the 2001 Justice League cartoon. I’d been under the impression that this footage was hard to find, but apparently it’s an easter egg on the “Paradise Lost” DVD.

Update (April): The show has been officially announced.

Tonight’s episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, “The Golden Age of Justice,” features more guest stars than usual: not only the return of the Flash, but the entire Justice Society of America!

CBR has preview images from the episode, which airs at 7:30 tonight (which means it probably just finished on the east coast).