DC Showcase: The Spectre

 

Hidey-ho, Readers of the Rotten! Sorry but I had to change up that intro, otherwise it gets rather dull. Today, I wanted to look at some of DC Comics animated showcase. What I thought was going to be a fairly longer and more played out story line turned out to be a short. That will not detract my want to write this but it won't be all that detailed aside from my knowledge of the existing character. This is The Spectre.

The Dreaded Emo!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not to be confused with the alternative title to the 1963 Riccardo Freda's The Ghost ( A common misconception, I know.), the short film in question can be found on the 2010 release for Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. An early morning in the hills of Los Angeles, a movie mogul name of Foster Brenner (Jeff Bennet of Johnny Bravo, Star Wars: Jedi Knight- Jedi Academy, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Striperella, The Powerpuff Girls, Dave the Barbarian, Duck Dodgers, The Batman, Saul of the Mole Men, and Justice League: The New Frontier) lands a blockbuster and decides to take an 9 a.m.dip in the pool, only to have an explosion and shock-wave send him into the hereafter. Well at least his last flick wasn't something like Ishtar or Gigli.

Told you that Michael Bay kid had moxy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Police are notified by the butler (also voiced by Jeff Bennet) and homicide and probably the bomb squad's expertise is on the scene, along with veteran detective, Jim Corrigan (Gary Cole of Office Space, Crusade, Vamp U, The Penguins of Madagascar, An Officer and a Murderer, 30 Rock, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Archer, The Good Wife, Justice League Action, and F Is for Family) who is friends with the family, decided to survey the blast site and offer condolences to Aimee, (Alyssia Milano of Who's The Boss, Commando, Fear, Embrace of the Vampire, Deadly Sins, Charmed, My Name Is Earl, Hall Pass, Romantically Challenged, Tempting Fate and Insatiable)vowing to right this tragic wrong.

Things and people aren't always what they seem to be in this crazy town and...okay I have to tone this down or it's going to sound like a knock off of Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler. Sorry about that. Our detective is no slouch in the powers of observation, primarily around the wages of sin.   You see, Corrigan has a little secret he has kept quiet for some time.  He's been dead for quite a few years.   I know the whole inert investigator, the ghost gumshoe sounds awkward at best but he has been chosen by a higher power to redeem his soul.  This is the portion of the review of a bit of exposition dump.  I normally don't do such a thing buuuut, our short is 13 minutes long so we need a little background.

Oh yeah? What about the rights of that little girl?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Corrigan was LAPD detective 2^nd class before mobsters dropped him in an oil drum filled with cement and into the bay to sink. Given he was a hard nosed cop, he may have beaten a confession out of a few suspects in the day or threaten their rights so he is a soul that should head to redemption. His soul is linked to an ancient power. The Wrath of God known as The Spectre. (Not KHAAAAAAAN!!) He can be a physical person when he wants to and he can go ghost if needs be. Manifests over objects, warps reality and can do serious damage to the living and the physical plane. Hell, in the comics he ate the souls of the damned and sent them to judgement. Technically he has been with the department since 1932 when he got gacked but hey, who's really in charge of record keeping, right?

The police captain (Voiced by the late great character actor Jon Polito of C.H.U.D., Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Highlander, Crime Story, The Equalizer, Barton Fink, The Rocketeer, Homicide: Life on the Street, Lands of Lore III, and The Tailor of Panama) is looking to bust Corrigan's chops for stepping into an investigation that isn't his, nor can it really be due to his personal involvement. The captain wants Corrigan to look into the sudden death of one of the suspects into the Brenner murder. Yup so go investigate the murder of one of the potential murderers of your family friend. Um, isn't that still a no-no due to personal involvement of the victim's potential victim?

Jim starts nosing around in these suspects' lives to come up with the clues needed to close his case and God's will. Unlike anyone else kicking this dirt clod of a planet, Jim is focused, capable and not easily distracted by Life's pursuits or fancies. That helps keep a sharp mind and well you can't very well bribe, cajole or distract with jiggly girls to a guy that pushed off the mortal coil.

Overall, while brief this short is got that gritty L.A. Noir vibe of the dogged detective, maybe a femme fatale and more than a few homicides. The music score sounds like something out of Dirty Harry or The French Connection.  While I wish it was a longer story, it had a great vo cast, gorgeous music score and the animation was top notch. Yes I would love a Spectre series Live Action or animated but so far, that is not in the works. C'mon DC! The fans would love it.

Additional; holy crap Gary Cole did awesome voice work! Keep tossing him in front of the mic!

 

Stop crowding and just go around me!!

 

Batman: Year One

 Welcome back, Readers of Rotten. This time around we are going back to animated movies. Yes apparently saying Adult Cartoon sounds vaguely pornographic, so with that in mind we look at another WB creation. Before the crusade began, the training and the will had to be forged in order to save Gotham. Before the legend of the dark knight, Bruce Wayne had to become something else. This is Batman: Year One. 

 

Sure hope that's not The Spectre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 years after Bruce Wayne (Ben McKenzie of Junebug, 88 Minutes, The O.C. Southland and Gotham)lost his parents, he has returned to his hometown to find it rife with corruption. From the City Hall to the organized mob, there will have to be a serious culling before the streets are safe for the decent people of this city.  But Wayne is not the only new arrival to this abysmal burg, a newly appointed GCPD Lieutenant James Gordon (Bryan Cranston of Armitage III, Seinfeld, Malcolm in the Middle, The Fallen, The Cleveland Show, Breaking Bad and Godzilla) expected to tow the company line, look the other way and not make waves in Gotham like he did in Chicago. 

 

Don't think I like Gotham's AAA service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commissioner Loeb (character actor Jon Polito of Highlander, Dream Lover, Critical Condition, Miami Vice, The Equalizer, Homicide: Life on the Street, NightMan, The Big Lebowski and Tale of the Mummy) along with his head thug, Detective Flass (Fred Tatasciore of Ultimate Avengers, The Wild, Ultimate Avengers II, Justice League Heroes, The Invincible Iron Man, God of War II, Ben-10, Wolverine and the X-Men and God of War III) expect good things from Gordon. 

 

Save me, Jenny Craig. Yer my only hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With mob infesting the Gotham elite and controlling lawmakers and legislators, what hope does anyone have of survival?  Bruce attempts to infiltrate the streets as a Vietnam vet but none of the thugs are impressed and attack him outright. With his skill set and substantial strength, he makes his way back to the manor. He has to recreate himself, to give him an edge against criminals.

Gordon is shaking loose some of his own dead weight, i.e. cops on the take, thugs with guns and more of Loeb's informants, so he can run a department people won't be afraid to call for help. His latest hire, Detective Essen (Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica, Halloween: Resurrection, 24, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Riddick, Star Wars Rebels, Longmire and The Flash) is smart, resourceful and dedicated to the job.

 

Hey, Rock Hudson! Stay for a picture?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rumors of a giant bat is plaguing the underworld, leaving suspects and skells unconscious and scared out of their minds. This "Bat-Man" amuses the upper crust until he gives them a visit and delivers his ultimatum. One of the greatest written lines for Batman hails from Frank Miller's Batman Year One. "Ladies, gentlemen, you've eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. But your feast is nearly over, From this moment on, none of you are safe." 

 

 

The seemingly untouchable mafioso, Falcone (character actor Alex Rocco of Motorpsycho!, Wil Riders, The Godfather, Detroit 9000, Three the Hard Way, Starsky and Hutch, The Entity, T.J. Hooker, Return to Horror High, The Facts of Life and Lady in White) starts to experience serious liquidity issues thanks to Batman breaking up drug sales, trashing racketeering and a cat burglar in a cat suit known as Catwoman (Eliza Dushku of True Lies, Bye Bye Love, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bring It On, Angel, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Wrong Turn, Tru Calling and Dollhouse) has been looting Falcone as well.

Making allies out of Gordon and Harvey Dent D.A., charges are being made and arrests are happening. This will not finish overnight. This is no longer a matter of a few strategic moves here and there, this is a crusade. Can Batman purge Gotham of its evils? Can Gordon truly trust a man in a mask?

 

I'm Batfflack!

 

 

 

 

 

Fun film fact, Ben McKenzie who is voicing Bruce Wayne/Batman plays James Gordon on Gotham. Well, it's a fact even if you don't find it that fun.

From the get go, this film follows the graphic novel verbatim. There are two narratives that make up so much of this story, Wayne and Gordon each have their views for Gotham and their best intentions for the town; even at the expense of their own lives. This is everything I had hope Batman: The Dark Knight Returns would be. It completely impressed me on all accounts. A superb voice cast, excellent animation and still entertaining even though I have read and re-read this particular story many times.

Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Howdy Rotten Readers! Word shopping a fan based term. So after sitting through a public domain horror film I was asked to do something more mainstream. Yes readers, I do take requests. Feel free to hit me up on Instagram, Facebook and the like and leave title suggestions. That being said, this request was for a team-up I was only aware of the comic book crossover, it was a tad confusing to see Nickelodeon and Warner Brothers hand in hand with this project. This is Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Pizza party in the Bat Cave!!

Yeah I didn't stutter; as this was released to streaming, DVD and Blu-Ray on June 4^th, this very month. I heard skuttlebutt about it but thought it was wishful fanboy goofiness. I was most definitely wrong. Now certain elements of the comic book series has been passed over as they might have been deemed convoluted or unnecessary. The turtles do not travel through a dimensional tunnel but in fact, drive from New York to Gotham. Big difference. The whole instability of their mutagen properties in another dimension was shelved and honestly good idea.

Shredder has apparently been hobnobbing with Ras Al Ghul. Because there's two conglomerates you want together. League of Assassins and the Foot Clan. Can you just see the T-shirts now? Shredder is offering the mutagen to Ras Al Ghul to make obedient mutants and Shredder gets to dip in the Lazurus Pit to extend his life further with the whole near immortality and all.

But enough about the baddies. The turtles are a bit edgy, Ralphael is a bit of a harsh dick, Donnie's very cerebral as always, Mikey's got jokes and Leo has the proverbial stick up the butt as per usual.

Visiting Powers Industry (little nod to Batman Beyond), Barbara Gordon (for some reason made a college kid again) is fascinated by this clean air and emission free generator when...evil is afoot! Well the Foot Clan start haranguing the scientists in an attempt to steal the generator. Oh FYI, these are not shoddy built robots but human ninjas. And parents, there is some decent violence. Not 80s Action Hero level mind you, but still some blood in the air so you have been warned. About PG rating.

So, do my goggles make me look kind of dumb?

Ninja shenanigans aside, the generator is gone, Babs blabs to Bats about it and he is looking pretty peeved. Not dead parents peeved but at least irked. A bit of footage and Batman is on the case trying to figure out both the appearance of the Foot as well as the Turtles. To be fair, he may not read the New Yorker.

Wayne Enterprises' experimental tech is up for grabs with the exception of their night watchman who pummels quite a few Foot before having a showdown with the Shredder. Also they didn't over power Bats for a change so that's nice to see him being mortal.

Plenty of Easter Eggs for fans of either series. I caught a "My Toe!" reference from the standup arcade of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:Turtles in Time. Mikey's jokes just poke fun at Gotham. I mean all the damn blimps for example. They never have billboard ads, they don't route any traffic changes, they're never over a stadium. What's with all the damn blimps, Gotham!?! Couldn't help but notice,Baxter Stockman sounds very much like Jeff Goldblum via The Fly so yeah some good gags.

The Craigslist hook-up that shocked the world.

With a mystery to be solved, the World's Greatest Detective is on the case. Along with Damien Wayne/Robin and Batgirl, our caped crusaders fight alongside the Turtles to defeat Ras Al Ghul and Shredder.

The artwork is reminiscent of The Brave and the Bold Batman series with a slight tone of the 2008 TMNT. The designs of the characters are simple enough but not so radical that you couldn't identify these folk. The biggest plus of this film is no huge, overtly elaborate explanation of every character. Even if you are just mildly aware of either comic book, movies or cartoons , the average movie goer can pop this in and get right to the story. Easy peasy.

Also we are spared dead Wayne parents. Yeah Warner Brothers, I am sick to death of Thomas and Martha kill scenes. WE GET IT! We know why his runs around Gotham in a lightweight, ceramic and Kevlar armor beating the crap out of bad guys.   Additional, loved the Batmoble resembled the Animated Series version overall.

 Breeze feels good on my junk tonight.

Thankfully this has the right amount of grim and humor. Hell the title intro scene music feels like a proper mesh of Batman and TMNT so kudos to composer Kevin Riepl (Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor, Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock, Gears of War, Crackdown 2, Silent Night, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Justice League Action and Constantine City of Demons: The Movie) and a serious praise for the slightly loose interpretation of writers James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II, this was a lot of fun. Recommend this for all ages, we got a decent popcorn film with the right amount of ass kicking, crime solving and of course, Turtle Power.

KER-POW!

Hulk Vs

Hey folks back some more. Well after the illuminating film, Beaster Day I decided I wanted some more superhero viewing. Avengers: Endgame is up and running but yeah gonna be hard to take screenshots of that. So why not hit an animated film with at least two Avengers and maybe a runty X-Man too? With droves of devastation, mass smack downs and more that a few furious roars, today's film is coming at you. This is Hulk Vs.

Hulk say you not Idris Elba!!

What is a two-part story line of Hulk's many forays out and about from his gargantuan leaps, Hulk makes his way into Asgard. All Father Odin, King of Asgard, the light of the Nine Realms and the life's blood of Asgard must sleep for the winter in order to replenish the realm and bring forth a bountiful harvest and give power back to the lands. Well into the Odinsleep, the realm is less protected and gets lumped onto Odinson, Thor (Matthew Wolf of Family Affairs, Shelf Life, Fable, Samurai Warriors 2, I Shouldn't Be Alive, Call of Duty 3, BladeStorm: Hundred Years War, Rambo and Big Red), his friends the Warriors Three and Lady Sif (Grey Griffin of Star Wars: Jedi Knight- Jedi Academy, Looney Tunes: Reality Check, The Powerpuff Girls, Doom 3, Johnny Bravo, Ultimate Avengers, Xiaolin Showdown, X-Men: The Official Game and Batman: Arkham City) to keep things in check.

Isn't that Hulk pimp slapping Not Idris Elba around?

 As any good Thor fan is aware of.   Dear adopted brother Loki is plotting and scheming as per usual, so enter the Hulk who will no doubt be duped or mind controlled into doing Loki's bidding.

The green goliath is voiced by Fred Tatasciore (Avengers Assemble, Batman Ninja, Guardians of the Galaxy, Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High, The Loud House, Lost in Oz, DC Super Hero Girls: Legends of Atlantis, Marvel Powers United VR and DuckTales) and brother the Golden Realm is in for a serious real estate overhaul when Hulk is in full-on "Smash mode".

As predicted, Loki takes over Hulk and proceeds to go sick house on Asgard when Thor and Mjornir crack open a 36 pack of whoop ass and then...PLACE YOUR BETS!!! Prince of Asgard vs the Jade Giant! Fear not for the realm but pity the masons that have to do this massive repair job. I wouldn't wish that gig on anyone. Hey, does the All Father approve of O.T.? Things like that keep me up at night, huh? So what do you get? 12 solid minutes of a brutal match between Loki controlled Hulk and Thor.

Of course, dullard that Loki is, he's fueling Hulk's rage. Y'know, like dropping wood into a forest fire and then following it up with napalm. For those not getting this analogy, that's bad. Important safety tip there. Don't do any of that. Well the local landscape, architecture and maybe a random sheep are getting squashed, smashed and crushed. Even better news, no Loki or Banner to reign Hulk in...there's no end to his rage. So yeah that's gonna go well.

Permit me to take you to "Funkytown", mortal.

The day is done and Banner has given more than any of us will ever know. Primarily because we are not selfless fictional characters. Onto a realm filled with darkness, primitives and maple syrup. I speak none other than the feared region known as...Canada!!! A virtual Savage Land and... okay all kidding aside, why does most of America have issues with Canada? I'm clueless on this one.

Now we check in with one of my favorite antiheroes voiced by the talented Steve Blum (Wolverine and the X-Men, Superhero Squad, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Star Wars Rebels, Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Transformers: Rescue Bots and Let It Die), at 5'5", 300 lbs of Adamantium and all attitude, Wolverine. Yup, need a deep growly voice for this guy and brother Blum delivers. Well bub, he's the best there is at what he does. Too bad none of that is diplomacy or a deft hand at dealing with a raging beast that can clear most forest fires with a clap of his massive hands.

When Atomic Wedgies go horribly wrong!

Naturally we need a hero vs hero fight so off we go! Yup, this forest area is completely boned.

I mean just the large thump from 300 foot Hulk drop into the Earth, thunderclaps rocketing trees willy nilly and oh yeah smacking a midget with claws through trees, boulders and skipping him like a stone in the lakes. Wolvie has been dispatched by Department H (it is unclear if he is still under Canadian Spec Ops still or not, definitely not Alpha Flight) as a town has been completely destroyed, innocents lost their lives and Hulk's scent is all over the place.

What will have here is two guys with buckets of stamina, rage issues and the need to put the hurt on the other. Seriously I don't think Logan has ever gotten along with Banner's alter ego ever.

Low and behold; an off the books Weapon X project is underway and gee, isn't that Sabertooth, the cyborg assassin Lady Deathstrike, the Soviet super-soldier Omega Red and the Merc with the Mouth Deadpool? Well these peepers rarely fail me, so yes it is.

Wolvie Revenge Force Activate!

Wel,l the professor that originally gave Logan bones and claws laced with adamantium wants Hulk and Wolverine for a new Weapon X project as soldiers. Yeah multiple PhD s and this doesn't sound stupid. Shockingly enough, Wolvie's sparring partners want him dead, gouge the prof and prepare to unleash a series of fatal ass whippings on Wolvie but he gets loose and gets to Banner. Oopsie Poopsie, Hulk very angry. Must have knocked Sabertooth about at least a mile. Deadpool bounced like a tennis ball, all the while Omega and Deathstrike are still trying to mix it up with Wolvie.

Not going to lie to you, not a huge fan of the artwork but both stories and voice cast easily make up for that. We have two substantial fights of epic proportion. And yes I loved Nolan North as Deadpool. He was killing me. Pew pew pew!! So at the end of this madness, I had two colossal, drag out battles worthy of wine and song. Thanks Marvel.

FYI, first cartoon flick we get to see Wolvie take the villains to claw town. Yup bunch of soldiers dressed like Hunks from Resident Evil get the sharp end of those blades and dammit, we need that now and again.