Warner Home Video’s adaptation of Mark Waid’s Tower of Babel story is called Justice League Doom. It arrives on Blu-ray and DVD in February, but today we learned who will be voicing the Justice League.
The casting announcement at TV Guide should make fans quite happy –
- Superman – Tim Daly
- Batman – Kevin Conroy
- Green Lantern – Nathan Fillion
- Flash – Michael Rosenbaum
- Martian Manhunter – Carl Lumbly
- Wonder Woman – Susan Eisenberg
- Cyborg – Bumper Robinson
That’s a pretty impressive list of actors, each having voiced the characters for years. Now, no mention has been made of Aquaman or Plasticman, so the adaptation may not include them in the story. It is interesting to note that the late Dwayne McDuffie write the script.
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Hot diggity, they got the band back together!
…Cyborg? Was he in the original arc?
nope
all hail corporate synergy!
side note: if Dwayne McDuffie wrote this, and Cyborg is a main character, does that mean that
A) The DC Relaunch was planned that long ago, or maybe
B) They put Cyborg in the Justice League as a favor to Dwayne McDuffie?
I hope the Flash is Wally, rather than Barry.
Waaaaait. Green Lantern’s going to be Hal Jordan, isn’t he?
Yeah, Armaan – and as much as I like Fillion as Hal Jordan, I wish it was Kyle Rayner instead. The characters would react differently to a situation like this.
Hummm, where’s Plastic Man and Aquaman? I really like what Batman had prepared in case they went rogue.
Plastic man is a copyright nightmare, that’s why he doesn’t show up that often in the cartoons.
I have a lot of faith in Warner Home Video’s releases in general (Timm, Montgomery, Liu, etc), so this classic voice cast sounds great and I hope the loose adaptation means that they fix Batman’s plans which are just plain terrible!
In the original story, Batman needed plans that: 1. Are non-lethal (prohibition on killing); 2. Are likely to work; 3. Do not require super powers to fully execute (meaning Batman can perform them while remaining non-lethal). Several of his plans fail this criteria. Take, for example, his plan to take out Flash…
Wally first needs to be surprised. Then he needs to be immobilized. Then he needs to wake up enough to perceive you shooting at him. Then he needs to choose only to vibrate and allow the bullet to pass through his spine. THEN the plan works. Can you see how this falls apart? You need Flash to be surprised and immobilized for the vibrational bullet to even come into play… if you can surprise and immobilize The Flash to begin with, who needs a fancy bullet? Then you need for Wally to be JUST awake enough ONLY to vibrate… he can’t be so unconscious that you shoot him in the spine and kill him… he can’t be so awake that he blitzes you and stops you. Then you need for Wally to ONLY vibrate… not dodge, not steal speed, not block, not stop the gun, and not vibrate and move slightly to the side… the bullet has to go to the spine through a Wally who’s already moving fast enough to vibrate through a bullet! The chances of such a plan working are ridiculous!
A lot of Batman’s plans don’t make sense according to his criteria… if you don’t have The Flash to put Plasticman together, then your plan essentially kills Plasticman… but if you have The Flash, doesn’t a plan deploying his powers and abilities to stop Plasticman make a lot more sense (like stealing his speed to freeze him)? Less collateral damage, trauma to Plasticman, and risk of non-League members (like R’as) using the plans? If you don’t have Martian Manhunter to deprogram Kyle or Arthur you’ve essentially maimed them for life… but if you have J’onn, doesn’t anti-GL/Aquaman plans using J’onn’s abilities make a lot more sense than maiming them? When Wonder Woman is a supernatural goddess of Truth, why is a technological VR bug a reliable stopper? Isn’t it probable that her supernatural powers, nature, or sponsors allow her to see through, defeat, or be delivered from a technological lie / illusion?
The real forehead slapper is that Batman’s ultimate plan against Superman was… a rock. A rock is not a plan, it’s just a weapon… and if all it took was Kryptonite to take down Superman then Metallo, Lex Luthor, Intergang, etc. would have all done it long ago. The mere ownership or development of a weapon doesn’t provide for its effective deployment. Superman didn’t give Batman the Kryptonite ring because it would make Bruce any more effective at taking down a rogue Superman than Flash, GL, MM, or Wonder Woman… he gave it as a sign of two-fold trust: first, that Batman would use it when necessary; and second, that Batman would have a plan in using it… not simply showing up with the ring and expecting things to work out!
I get that the point of the story is to exalt Batman and in spirit I appreciate what it is doing, but the actual plans themselves don’t make Batman look like a planning genius at all.
Why bother calling it an adaptation when they are changing big portions of the story.
Because it’s an “adaptation” and not a verbatim recreation.
SOLD! You have my money, sir!
Shame, Aquaman gets the shaft AGAIN.
And what a surprise, more Hal Jordan. Because if there’s any character we haven’t seen enough of, it’s Hal Jordan.