DC and Warner Bros continue their new animation line with Batman finally taking the backseat and audiences getting other stories featuring other characters in their rich stable. This is the reason we have this Justice Society: World War II review, because they finally woke up and realized there are other characters they can tell stories with.

The animated film is directed by Jeff Wamester and features the voices of Matt Bomer as Barry Allen aka The Flash, Stana Katic as Wonder Woman, Chris Diamantopoulis as Steve Trevor and Darren Criss as Superman/ Clark Kent.

It also introduces us to the JSA or the Justice Society of America back in their glory days fighting the Nazis during World War II. The team isn’t as big as the ones from the comics but they do specifc roles and play specific parts including Hawkman, Black Canary, Jay Garrick aka The Flash and Rex Tyler aka Hourman.

For starters let me just say that I did not like Stana Katic as Wonder Woman here. I feel like they were trying to do the Gal Gadot schtick too much. They were already echoing some choice scenes from Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman movie here so I guess they figured it would be ultra cool to make her sound like the movie version too.

Its really refreshing to have the story revolve around Barry Allen’s The Flash. The last time he really shone bright was in the animated Flashpoint movie years ago. This is made twice the fun as we have both the Silver Age and the Golden Age Flash interacting and throwing lines.

And as a JSA reader (can’t call myself a fanboy yet because I’ve barely scratched the surface of the super team’s rich history), its nice to see that comics Garrick is translated well into animated movie Garrick. His gentle demeanor, overall good guy appeal and big brother/ fatherly treatment to Barry hit a soft spot to me.

And while this version of the JSA isn’t the JSA that we know and love, it still works although I got to drop a point down for not really giving Hourman time to shine. They set his conflict up but it never really materializes or bears fruit. At the end of the story, he’s just Rex Tyler, powerful puncher and super smart guy. Never got his shining moment. At least Steve Trevor got to do something and impact the team in a big way.

Then there’s Aquaman.

I don’t want to spoil fully Aquaman (or even Superman’s involvement) fully but the talk points I can touch can be on the design on the character as well as his animation. DC greatly benefits from their new style and while I’m going to miss stuff like “JLA: War” and all those stuff, the new animation style fits well with action scenes. Even Arthur spinning his trident and doing serious damage looks AMAZING with the animation style.

Justice Society: World War II Review – Verdict

8/10

Justice Society: World War II is a step towards the right direction for DC. Sure it may remind you of Archer from time to time but the animation is slick and it separates itself from other projects like “Young Justice” and that is a good thing. There’s a certain air of premium-ness to these new stuff DC Comics / DC Entertainment has been churning out as of late.

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