This is a Dynamike Network podcast.
Hi and welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films
and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based
battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. And in this episode
we are going to review the latest DC animated release, Justice League War World. It's the
latest movie in the Tomorrowverse series of animated films. And you know what? I did not
like it. but Jonathan says that if you watch it three times, it becomes good. So we're gonna
learn all about his thoughts on the movie later on this episode. I mean, not great, but not
the worst either. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting at the very least. Before we talk about the
film, we're gonna go into the latest comic book movie news that came out from the past week,
of which there's only one news item, and that is the Loki season two official trailer. As
always, we list our segment times in our episode description. so feel free to check out the
show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. And as our listeners may know, our Dual
Simulator is so advanced that it's gained sentience and has named itself the Artificial Lifeform
for Running Extensive Duels, just a rather very intelligent Simulator 9000, or Alfred Jarvis
9000. He has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. Why hello there. Do you love
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Thanks AJ9K, and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune in to the Max
Destruction Podcast on August 9th, that's tomorrow. to see who would win between Indiana Jones
versus Jack Sparrow. This is a big one, guys. I'm really excited about it. I'm really pulling
for Jack Sparrow on this one. You know what would have been a good matchup? Jack Sparrow
versus Mera from Aquaman. No, I feel like that match would have shit the bed. Ha ha ha. Also,
anime fans should check out the Dynamike Network's newest show, Senjou World, a battle podcast
featuring your favorite anime characters. Yeah, debuted last week with three episodes including
Yusuke from Yu Hakusho vs Tanjirou from Demon Slayer, Natsu from Fairy Tail vs Suna from
Hitman Reborn, and Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul vs Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan. Yeah,
this Thursday, host Zack is going to pit Escanor from The Seven Deadly Sins against Black Clover's
Marieliona Vermillion. Make sure to tune in. Yeah, to listen to any of the Dynamike Network
shows, click on the link in our show notes or... visit dynamicpodcast.com to see all the shows
in our network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize! The no prize is an award
Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award
that we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter for the person that we feel gave the best answer
to our question of the week. Last week's question was, who is your favorite Spider-Man or woman
across the comics multiverse and why? And that was coming off the news regarding Sony's indefinite
delay of the Across the Spider-Verse sequel, Beyond the Spider-Verse. We got a lot of great
answers here, so let's go ahead and break down our three honorable mentions as well as the
no-prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Colby Hentges, who said, Hey boys,
Colby Hentges. My favorite Spider-Man Across the entire multiverse is in the 616, the original
recipe Peter Parker body but brain controlled by Otto Octavius. The Superior Spider-Man was
such a good run. The Goblin Army versus Spider Army, just the way he pissed off the rest of
the Avengers, it was great. Yeah, the Superior Spider-Man was a great arc in the Spider-Man
comic books, largely because I think in some ways, Otto Octavius was a better Spider-Man,
not like morally or anything, or as a hero, but the ideas that he brought to the character
of the Spider-Man mythos, all the technology and upgrading Peter Parker to the head of his
own corporation and everything. All that stuff I thought was really cool. Yeah, it's Spider-Man
as I've always wanted Spider-Man to be. He just looked super cool. I've always had problems
with Spider-Man's costume, and I thought the superior Spider-Man costume is the most superior
Spider-Man costume probably ever. It did a good job of kind of showing Peter Parker's weakness
as like a science guy, you know, because after he invented the web shooters, for as smart
as he is, he should have gone on to invent a lot of other cool shit for himself that he
just never did that. Otto really introduced to the character. So great answer Colby, our
next honorable mention goes to Christopher Minotti who said, Hi guys Christopher Minotti. My favorite
Spider-Man is probably Spider-Man Noir. I love this character, I think he's great. His whole
demeanor is really cool and his, I think his world is really interesting. I know this isn't
comics but I really liked him in the first Spider-Verse movie as well. He was very funny and an interesting
character. Not to mention he does remind me of Batman and Rorschach. And I love those characters,
too. Yeah, Abner O'Terry gave the same answer. And I have to agree, if you want to make Spider-Man
cooler, make him more like DC characters. You can't deny it. Better, but I would say, you
know, unique and different and interesting. Spider-Man Noir is cool. The comics version
of the character is not like the into the Spiderverse version voiced by Nicolas Cage, but the character
itself is a lot of fun. making Spider-Man more of a pulpy hero and setting it during the early
20th century, I think is a really cool sandbox that they've come up with a lot of awesome
stories for. Great answer! Our final honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon, who said, Hey
guys, it's Travis. My favorite Spider-Man related character would definitely have to be Silk.
I think she's a very underrated character, especially nowadays, since everybody kind of
that she kind of gets the short end of the stick for fans. So for me, I definitely say Silk.
Silk is my favorite and hope they do more with her in the later future, either in Sony or
in the MCU. Yes, Silk is Cindy Moon. She's the Korean American Spider Woman who was bit by
the same radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker after it had bit him. It fell to the ground
to put her on the ankle. And then she was kind of locked away for a decade by Ezekiel, it's
a whole story there. but she is a fantastic character, Silk. And yeah, it would be really
cool to see her get her due in the same way that Miles and Spider-Gwen have. Yeah, I don't
know much about the character, but she does have a cool look from what I've seen. She has
a great costume, yeah. One of these days we'll do a duel with her, although it took us a long
time to get to Spider-Woman eventually, which we did within the past couple months, but we'll
get to Silk eventually. We wanna give a quick shout out to everyone who took the time to
visit our website and record an answer, including Matt Estes, Connor Pierce, and Alex Wong. But
the winner of this week's no prize is Anson Millard who said, Hey, what's up? This is Anson
Millard. My favorite Spider-Man from the Spider-verse is the Spider-Man that appears in the 90s animated
cartoon. The voice actor in my mind is the voice of Spider-Man. That cartoon was really awesome
and it was in large part because of the character. He was a Spider-Man that could balance the
humor. but then also the more serious moments you need to have as Spider-Man, so I think
he's the best. And purely for nostalgic reasons, I'm giving this answer the no prize win because
like Anson said, it was a great version of the character. To this day, when I read Spider-Man
comic books and I read that dialogue, I still hear it in the 90s animated Spider-Man's voice.
It was iconic for me in the same way that like Kevin Conroy's voice will always and forever
be Batman. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know the actor's name for the 90s cartoon, but he absolutely
pulled off. the humor and fun of the character. Yeah, nailing the emotional beats as well,
and like the hopefulness, I think, that should be behind Peter Parker's voice. I really hope
they bring him back for like Beyond the Spider-Verse, just as like a cameo, that'd be really cool.
That would be everything, that would be incredible. That needs to happen. But great answer, Anson,
you win this week's No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay
tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now
that that's done. Lots of the news!
Alright, this past week we got the official trailer for Marvel Studios' Loki Season 2,
which will be debuting on Disney Plus in a few months. Loki is definitely one of the better
Marvel Disney Plus television shows. Season 1 was really good, so I'm really glad that
we're getting a Season 2. And the production quality that was all over Season 1 seems to
be even more incredible here. The look and feel of the Loki television series is just incredible,
and I'm so glad that that's staying consistent. Oh, yeah, just the color palette of the show,
like the orange and green with a little bit of splash and purple whenever Kang is involved.
It's just really well done. The color palette, the sets, the cinematography, the special effects.
It all just looks so incredible, better than a lot of movies, honestly. I think we've said
that on the show before. That was my first impression watching this trailer was, damn, everything
still looks good. I would say this is probably Marvel's best. television series not only because
you know Tom Hiddleston is great and the show is just really well written But I also really
felt like it moved the narrative of the MCU forward in a way that a lot of MCU Movies and
shows don't really feel like they're doing great now Yeah because Loki season one kicked off
the whole multiverse thing that wasn't really revisited again until The recent Ant-Man and
the Wasp quantumania movie where we got to get our introduction to King the Conqueror And
we're gonna see him again in Loki season 2 It should definitely shepherd along the whole
multiversal saga and bring us closer to the next Avengers movie, which is going to be The
Kang Dynasty. But the trailer starts off with Mobius, played by Owen Wilson, and Loki, played
by Tom Hiddleston, going to visit, and I'm going to butcher his name, Kehui Kuan, the recent
actor who won Best Supporting Actor for Everything Everywhere All at Once. It's so cool to see
him here playing a member of the TVA who witnesses Loki. time-slipping which is supposed to be
impossible in the TVA. The chemistry between these three characters, you can already tell,
it's just, it's gonna be fascinating. I think Owen Wilson is probably underrated in terms
of the balance and laid-back feel that he brings to the proceedings. I'm really excited to see
him show up in the Deadpool movie, which is rumored to happen. I think confirmed to happen,
but either way, that'll be really cool. Loki explains how he's getting pulled through time,
through the present and the past. We see come back in this season. She has a really dumb
haircut. I wonder what's going on with her character because we see her like all over the place
too. Like in one universe she's like in a record store and the other one she's like behind the
register at a fast food place. Eventually we do see her kick ass in a few shots so we know
that whatever happens she returns to form from season one but she gives a pretty good line
exchange with Loki. in the trailer where she says we can't play God and he's like we are
gods. You know, the problem is choosing who lives and dies, you know. I think it's a great
concept for this upcoming season. Yeah, Sylvie was one of my favorite characters in season
one. So, it's great that they found a way to have the actress return, if not that specific
version of the character. I think one of the other main things I took away from this trailer
was that the action looks pretty good. Tom Hiddleston kind of seems like a badass, you know, between
like the cool suits that he wears. His wardrobe is fantastic. but he also just carries himself
really well as Loki. He has this greater confidence, it seems, about him within this season, now
that he's kind of become more accustomed to this TVA time spy role. The season looks incredible.
It looks amazing. I hope it lives up to the hype that I feel from watching this trailer,
but I guess we'll know starting October 6th on Disney+. We'll probably get another trailer
before then, but speaking of season two of Loki, that brings us to our question of the week.
Besides Loki, what other Disney Plus Marvel television series that has come out do you
most hope gets a season 2? Yeah, Disney Plus has had quite a few other Marvel television
series come out. Loki is the only one that's gotten a season 2. There's not really been
any word on any other series getting a season 2, but if you could pick one to get another
season, which one would it be? Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone
button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. which will prompt you to leave us a
voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in
case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a
Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer
before August 12th.
But I think that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and get into
our main event, where we review the latest DC animated film to come out, Justice League War
World.
Alright, Justice League Warworld is DC's latest direct-to-video animated film set in the same
animated universe established by the film Superman Man of Tomorrow, known as the Tomorrowverse.
Warworld is the seventh film set in the Tomorrowverse after prior films set up Superman, Batman,
the Justice League, the Legion of Superheroes and the Future, and an alternate history slash
dimension with a version of Wonder Woman in the Justice Society, during World War II. Justice
League Warworld, like every single other film in the Tomorrowverse, has an incredible premise,
though only half of those films, in my opinion, have been able to stick the landing well enough
that I would recommend them to others. The Tomorrowverse is pretty hit or miss in terms of storytelling.
So how did Justice League Warworld fare? Regrettably, I'd call it a miss, because while the idea
of the film is fantastic, the execution, not so much. If you, the listener, do plan on checking
the film out, maybe when it's on Max or something, stop listening now because there is an overarching
mystery across the film and we will be getting into spoilers. Yeah, if you're not going to
watch this film, why are you even listening to this review? You know, I guess if you want
to know like what the movie is about, listening to this review is probably a more understandable,
coherent experience in watching the film itself. So if you want to stick around for that, yeah,
keep listening. I imagine a majority of the people who watch the movie are going to be
amongst the most diehard DC fans, which is good, because anyone else I think is going to be
considerably lost due to the film's fairly experimental nature. You know, it doesn't have your standard
three act structure, and it plays out initially more like a series of anthological Elseworld
shorts, which is what I wish this actually ended up being in the end. are essentially DC's version
of what if, though like Elseworlds are a lot better. Like I'm almost embarrassed for Marvel.
I'm not, and that's surprising that you're saying that, considering the quality of this DC film.
I'm embarrassed for DC. No, I'm saying that the- Why are you trying to talk shit about
Marvel when this movie sucked? Is what I wanna know. It didn't suck that hard, I mean, come
on. Elseworlds are a way for DC to tell stories within new genres and time periods. and it's
a chance to re-explore and re-examine characters that are familiar to us, such as Superman being
raised in the Soviet Union, or Batman in a Tale of Lovecraftian Horror. Elseworlds are some
of my favorite DC stories, so I was pretty excited when the trailers for Justice League Warworld
showed us that DC's trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman would inhabit these alternative
worlds. And exploring those worlds were the best parts of the movie. Wonder Woman as this
nameless, gun-toting badass cowgirl in a western worked surprisingly well, Batman as a Conan
the Barbarian analog in a swords and sorcery fantasy adventure was cool as hell, and Superman
as a government agent dealing with a potential alien threat in a Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi
horror was pretty crazy. Each of the different genres we encountered contained an interesting
premise and a fair bit of action. Though if audiences weren't expecting something of an
anthology in this film, they were probably really confused. Yeah, also because there were no
real transitions between each act as well. Yeah, you're right, no transition whatsoever. Now,
you and I are no stranger to DC's animated anthological shorts. We've reviewed several collections
of them on this podcast, including Superman Shazam, The Return of Black Adam, Batman Death
in the Family, and Constantine the House of Mystery. They're interesting. I enjoy most
of DC shorts, as I did here in Justice League Warworld, even though they weren't technically
shorts. It was the connective tissue between the individual tales that made things a little
confusing for me in this film, and by the time we learned that, oh, it was all a dream, it
was all an illusion, it wasn't quite the satisfying or clever reveal that I think the filmmakers
intended. Yeah, the answer is that we did. ultimately end up getting weren't quite satisfying given
that for a vast majority of this film, like two thirds of this film, we're stuck in this
mystery that employs a lot of dream logic as it were. There's a lot of things that happen
here that don't actually matter, that are confusing. And then once you realize what's actually going
on, it's like, well, that was like a waste of time. It kind of felt like, you know? Yeah.
100% I agree with you. I think the most confusing and frustrating aspect of the conclusion to
me was just how rushed and vague it was. Like, so much of the Tomorrowverse happens off-screen,
like the formation of the Justice League or how Mongol captured Superman, Batman, and Wonder
Woman to begin with. We don't know how or why Warworld established a telepathic link with
Mongol, and it's super unclear to me as to whether or not the Lobo and Martian Manhunter in this
film are the same ones from Superman Man of Tomorrow or if they're from another universe
within the multiverse. Now, I kind of got the impression that Warworld was able to traverse
multiple dimensions. Right, exactly. Now, we know Superman and Batman have met each other
in the Tomorrowverse, but again, we're not entirely clear as to whether this version of Superman
and Batman have met before. And Wonder Woman was really confusing because in the Tomorrowverse,
Wonder Woman... was part of the Justice Society. We hadn't even seen her in the modern times
yet, but she was talking to Clark like she knew him. Well, Superman was in the final battle
of Justice Society. That's right. It was a different version of Superman though. Yeah, one that
manifested during World War II, as opposed to the Superman that was in Man of Tomorrow who
debuted in modern times. Yeah, that's why Wonder Woman in this movie said that he looked so
much younger. I see, yeah. I felt like the whole film was really not only a setup for Crisis
on Infinite Earths, but a way to get Wonder Woman into the same universe as Superman and
Batman. But it just was a really stupid way to do that. I'm like, couldn't you just use
DC's animated film for next year, Crisis on Infinite Earths, to introduce the World War
II Wonder Woman to the main timeline? Like, was Justice League War World even necessary?
Or was it just an idea that no one said no to? Because that's what it feels like. Absolutely.
I think you're spot on right there. They're like, dudes, what if like Wonder Woman used
her lasso like a cowboy? And the other person was like, yeah, man, I'm so fucking high right
now. And what if like Batman was like Conan? Whoa. And what if like we're all aliens? Oh,
that's an idea for a Superman story. There you go. Yeah. It's not a great way to develop a
story for sure. And I'm absolutely convinced that's how this movie happened. It was cool
that we got to see these obscure characters, but almost all of them, except for Warlord,
were arguably handled somewhat disrespectfully. Jonah Hex was made a villain, Batlash was killed,
Mashiest was killed, Snapper Car and the Langs were aliens, King Faraday was a hostile maniac,
and even the White Martians were essentially laser d***. gun-toting fodder for the heroes
to punch, which should have been a huge red flag for the filmmakers. Like, why do white
Martians need to carry laser guns? They're fucking white Martians. Right? They have Martian vision.
I mean, would any fans of these characters appreciate the way any of them were handled in this movie?
I would argue probably not. The one good thing I could say about this film and all Tomorrowverse
films is that the animation and character designs are a sight to behold. I think Diana definitely
wins the award for best dressed in this film. Whether it's as a star-spangled cowgirl, a
fierce damsel in a fierce bikini, or a spectacled and modest secretary, she looked great. It
was cool seeing the three characters and how they exist within these three separate worlds.
Visually, the film does have a lot going for it. Yeah, yeah. With Bruce in his story, I
thought the Conan look was a little on the nose, but the bat helmet was cool. If not short-lived.
I do wish he got to keep that bat cape a little bit longer. That would have been awesome. Yeah,
yeah. Mongul's design was the only one I was iffy on. Like, it wasn't terrible. I think
they may have been trying to differentiate him a bit from like a yellow dark side, but I wish
he looked a little less shriveled. Yeah, he looks kind of scrawny here. I think he's usually
more bulked up than that. But I might just be used to like Ed McGinnis's style of drawing
the character and Ed McGinnis draws everybody really poofy. Yeah, no, that's how the character
normally is depicted. Okay, okay. Now we've talked a little bit about some characters'
appearances, but let's dive a little bit more into them in our character breakdown. Now Diana
Prince, AKA Wonder Woman, was voiced by Stana Kanick, who lends a strong and exotic presence
to Diana's character. And she did back in the first film she appeared in, Justice Society
World War II. For sure, she's incredible. I thought she did an even better job in this
movie. than she did in her debut voice appearance, and that was amazing too. Martian Manhunter
at the end of the film revealed what he learned from each of the protagonists. From Diana he
said he learned not to give up. Dedication, as it were, as we see Diana dedicated to the
townsfolk despite the fact that they had broken the law because they were the ones in need
of physical protection. It's often said that Wonder Woman is a tough character to tackle
because she's a Warrior of Peace, which is contradictory, but I thought this was a great showcase of
the caring and loving nature of the character and how she will defend those she cares about
without hesitation or limits. Yeah, the movie was definitely rated R. I definitely remember
being blown away by the level of violence in her Wild West story. In a Western film, you
tend to see people get shot in the head. Moving on to Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, he was voiced
by Jensen Ackles,
to ever voice the character. He does a fantastic job. What he lacks in like, Kevin Conroy's
deep, gruff perfection, I think he adds in character. I agree with you. Jensen Ackles, I think, has
been the second best. I really like his Batman performance. Now from Batman, Martian Manhunter
said he learned courage, which I think everyone displayed on the world of Skartaris. It's a
dangerous place, but Bruce's true courage was tested when he made the decision to stand up
to Deimos by refusing to kill Diana and Moriah, especially after revealing earlier that he
felt, essentially, that everyone was evil and that evil was unstoppable. Warlord responded
that while that may be true, good men stand up to the darkness within them and fight evil
for those who can't, regardless of whether they can win or not. Bruce would have died for defying
Deimos, But his courage to stand up for what he felt was right in the end was rewarded by
Warlord when he saved Bruce from Deimos' bullet. Speaking of that, I thought it was weird that
Deimos was firing a gun to begin with. He was a sorcerer. There's some weird choices made
through that. That's in keeping with Skartaris, though. Skartaris is like the center of the
world. It's like world at the core of the planet. But things from like the Bermuda Triangle get
sucked into there. So Warlord uses a gun quite frequently. Really? That I did not know. OK,
we'll have to do like a duel episode with Warlord at some point. But yeah, it just seemed like
a weird hodgepodge of elements going on within this. What I thought was a swords and sorcery
type world and actually turns out to be quite a myriad of things. Yeah, that's kind of what
makes Scartaris unique from other swords and sorcery worlds, isn't the fact that the sorcerer
can find a fucking gun and be like, I'm going to use this as like a magic wand. But like,
why shoot a gun when you can turn into a giant snake though, am I right? Or do both, why not?
Hahaha Moving on to Clark Kent, aka Superman, he was voiced by Darren Criss, who did a great
job voicing the character in Superman Man of Tomorrow, and here as well. I don't know what
it is, but he just sounds like a good, optimistic man. I think he might actually be the second
best Superman voice after Tim Daly, from the new Superman Adventures. I buy it. Yeah, now
from Superman, Martian Manhunter said he learned faith. I thought for a character that's an
alien, Superman was perfect to do a 1950s sci-fi story with, as those often revolve around paranoia
of the other. This was during the time of the McCarthy hearings and general public mistrust
of anyone different or foreign, which in the melting pot of America, was hard to tell visually.
But Superman represents the very best of American values, and in spite of everyone's mistrust,
Clark refused to kill out of fear because he had faith that those people, no matter what
they looked like or said, were good. And not just Bruce or Diana, but even Martian Manhunter,
an alien that Clark didn't recognize. The movie proved and reinforced that Clark and Bruce
are opposites in that sense, because Clark believes that everyone's good, and Bruce believes that
everyone's evil. But if you're a white Martian, though, he won't hesitate to kill your ass.
I mean, they attacked him first. Sort of. One of the guys was reaching for his gun. Right,
right, right. So those were the three protagonists of the movie. There's some other characters
that I want to touch on, including Martian Manhunter. We last saw him during a cameo in Green Lantern.
Beware my power. Apparently, perhaps sometime after that, he was kidnapped by Lobo and imprisoned
on Warworld. We have no idea if Superman or Batman were kidnapped at the same time or when
Wonder Robin was taken from her universe, particularly because Martian Manhunter said it took him
lifetimes to psychically reach them. Now he could mean like animated short lifetimes or
he could be a Martian Manhunter from a completely different universe who's been trapped a very,
very long time. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter because he seemingly sacrifices
himself in the end. to destroy Warworld after he merges with a white Martian. If this was
the main tomorrow vs Martian Manhunter, at least he went out like a boss though, because he
was mentally manipulating everyone, not just the Trinity during the illusions, but also
Lobo, Mongul, and some random white Martian in the end. Yeah, it was quite the telepathic
feat they had going on. I think if he is gone, that's kind of a waste because he's such a
quintessential part of the League. Or at least should be. Right, exactly, I think that's one
of the reasons why I think he might be a multiversal Martian manhunter. Again, not 100% sure on
that though. I guess we'll have to see how Crisis on Infinite Earths plays out next year. I also
wanted to touch on Mungo. He was the biggest disappointment for me in the movie. I was looking
forward to him because he hasn't made too many appearances in the cartoons or anywhere outside
the comics really, but he's a pretty powerful badass villain.
enslaving their citizens and pitting their best warriors in gladiatorial matches. That was
nowhere to be seen here. Instead the writers made it so that Mongol and the planet were
empowered by negative emotions, which was a weird decision. I thought that was really weird.
I feel like we never got a great sense for the power of Warworld as a weapon. It's a planet
covered in planet destroying energy cannons. And we never got a good look at it. Like the
whole concept of war world was super vague, which I feel was like a super mistake on behalf
of the filmmakers. Like what were the stakes? We were told that war world was the ultimate
weapon in the universe, but it was never shown. And in a film, you should always show, not
tell. Yeah, the only time we got a good, like perspective of the entire planet and the scale
of it was when it blew up. And at that point, who gave a shit? Exactly. Even after watching
this movie, I don't even really know what Mongol does. I know he has an energy staff that he
can threaten people with. But I don't know if it's just a glow stick, if it even fucking
works. What can he do? He didn't do anything in this movie. I mean, he's kind of like dark
side light. You know, he's strong, he's fast, he's pretty much invulnerable. He could teleport
and he could like shoot out energy beams. He's also really smart. But yeah, I don't think
you got a sense for really any of that in this movie. He was just a guy who couldn't follow
through on his threats, got his ass beat by Lobo, and then got blown up. Weak ass villain.
And it was really unclear too as to whether or not, like, he was the one in control of
Warworld, or Warworld was the one in control of him. He kept referring to Warworld as a
she, which was kind of confusing. That's not from the comics? I don't believe so, not that
I know of. Hmm. But let's get into the story highlights.
The first act is a western. It follows Wonderoman, a nameless cowgirl who wanders via horseback,
into a town whose citizens are holed up in a run-down church by hired law enforcement led
by Jonah Hex. After an altercation at the local saloon between Wonderoman and one of Hex's
men, Wonderoman learns from Hex that the entire townsfolk had their land repossessed after
failing to make payments while searching for gold. The townsfolk together then robbed the
bank to get back the gold they used to pay for their stakes. As Hex asks Wonder Woman to join
his team, other members brutally murder a young girl's parents as they attempt to flee. Wonder
Woman saves the girl and joins the side of the townsfolk, defending them from Hex and his
men. When she learns via her lasso of truth that Hex plans on blowing the rest of the church
up with the people inside, Wonder Woman hijacks the train carrying the explosives while the
townsfolk evacuate. Despite Wonder Woman blowing up the church and the gold stashed inside,
ridding both sides of it, Hex still kills one of the townsfolk's other defenders, a man named
Batlash. Wonder Woman nearly beats Hex to death before writing off on her own. I thought this
was a pretty cool act, actually. I think it was the best out of the three stories, largely
because the action, Wonder Woman was really badass with her lasso and she was a great shot.
Yeah, I thought this was a great story, too. I'm really torn as to which of the three is
my favorite. I actually think the Batman one is my favorite just because it does so much
justice to the character of Warlord, whereas I really didn't care for what they did with
Jonah Hex in this story. Like, they never told his backstory in this movie, maybe because
it's so tragic and it would have made him sympathetic and they just needed him to be the bad guy
here. I'm not sure. I thought it was weird how Wonder Woman had to divert the train in order
to hit the church when the train was initially supposed to hit the church anyway according
to Jonah Hex's plan. I don't think it was supposed to hit the church. I think they were just going
to blow it up when it got near the church. Probably like light the fuse and then jump off the train
or something like that. But it's fucking Wonder Woman. She has a better way. I thought that
was actually cool for you because there really was no good side here. There was just one side
that was oppressive and one that was not. Moving on to Act 2, that's a fantasy adventure in
the world of Skartaris. It follows Batman, a sword wielding mercenary, who is part of a
failed attack on the kingdom of Shambhala, which is led by the king known as Warlord. When Batman
offers to take Warlord and his men to the evil sorcerer who hired the mercenaries, Deimos,
in exchange for his freedom, Warlord accepts the offer. The group is attacked by dangerous
Skartarin wildlife on their journey to Deimos' castle and suffers several casualties. Batman
and Warlord are the only two to make it inside the castle where they have to outsmart booby
traps and outrun a Minotaur. After Batman tricks Warlord into freeing him from his chains, he
abandons Warlord to be killed by the Minotaur and makes his way to Deimos alone, where he
finds Moriah, Warlord's ally who was lost during the journey to the castle, and a confused Wonder
Woman. Deimos reveals that he hired Batman to bring Warlord to him before ordering Batman
to kill Moriah and Wonder Roman. When Batman refuses, Deimos attacks him, but Batman is
saved by Warlord, who managed to kill the Minotaur. They all gang up on Deimos, who flees. Warlord
asks them to join his cause against Deimos, but Batman and Wonder Roman decline and depart
via a portal. Like I said, this is probably my favorite of the three stories. Not just
for Batman, although Batman is cool in it, but primarily for Warlord. The world of Skartaris
is just intense and I thought they did a good job of capturing that. I thought it was really
out of character when Batman abandoned Warlord to be killed by the Minotaur. And, you know,
it turns out later that he was hired to let Warlord die, but then at the end he ended up
fighting alongside him, so it felt kind of flippy floppy in that regard. I'm surprised actually
that Warlord didn't just straight up murder Batman. for betraying him like that earlier
in the story. Well, I think it's because he saw that he wasn't gonna kill Mariah and Wonder
Woman, that he realized this guy has some good in him. And I agree, Batman is definitely out
of character in this story. I don't even almost see it as Batman, it's pretty much Conan. But
I'm just a sucker for good fantasy action, I guess. Act 3 is a paranoid sci-fi thriller
that follows Agent Clark Kent of the Central Bureau of
interrogate a group of six people being held at a 1950s diner after they witnessed a UFO
sighting. While asking the people questions, Clark uncovers their fears that one of them
may be an alien in disguise controlling their thoughts, with the Foreign Secretary Diana
Prince and the Highway Patrol Officer Bruce Wayne being among the chief suspects. As tensions
rise, Clark begins to hear music. When Bruce and Diana privately reveal to Clark that they
also hear the music, they accidentally touch, flooding each other's minds with strange visions.
In the chaos, Faraday pulls his gun on Bruce and Diana, accusing them of being the aliens,
and when one of the people, a trucker named Potter, reaches for Clark's gun, Clark shoves
him away to defend Bruce and Diana, accidentally sending Potter flying into a jukebox and breaking
his neck.
are white Martians, who attack Faraday and chase Clark, Bruce, and Diana. As the three flee
in a car and fend off attacking white Martians, they eventually reach a barn with a large spaceship
crashed on top of it. Upon entering the ship, they find a green Martian, as does Faraday
shortly after when he catches up with them. After Clark knocks Faraday out when Faraday
shoots him because he thought he was an alien too, the spaceship fades away to reveal Warworld,
which also looks like the inside of a spaceship. It was kind of interesting watching this after
our review of Secret Invasion, which was supposed to be a paranoid sci fi. But I think this short
did a much better job of making the viewer feel the paranoia of like, who's an alien, who's
not, then Secret Invasion did. For sure. Yeah, I thought it was a great twist when we see
the guy with the broken neck. say, oh, I guess I'm the alien. And then all of a sudden, everybody
was the alien. I was like, oh, shit. I thought this third story was OK. I think it was largely
hampered by its need to actually progress the story into World and transition into that last
act. Whereas the previous two acts were largely standalone. Right. Yeah, that's fair. I did
enjoy seeing Clark, Diana and Bruce just like as civilians taking on these Martians, though.
That was pretty cool. Like Bruce with the whole knocking off the cap of the fuel truck and
Clark firing the flare gun. That was cool. It's like I need to remember that for the zombie
apocalypse. I also thought it was interesting that the reason they justified the black and
white coloring of the story was so that Warworld could keep Superman away from light and therefore
his powers. Yellow light, yeah. In Act 4, we learn from the Green Martian, revealed to be
the hero Martian Manhunter, that they're all currently on Warworld, and that Superman, Batman,
and Wonder Woman have been living telepathic illusions forcibly cast by Martian Manhunter
as a result of torture in order to stir negative emotions that energize Warworld. Martian Manhunter's
plan to call out to the Trinity to save him worked, though the bounty hunter Lobo finds
and subdues the heroes before they can escape. Just when I thought we had gotten all the answers,
the whole mystery aspect of the movie keeps going with Lobo's introduction. Cause like
literally he comes out of nowhere and he's really vague by saying like, oh, aren't you the cutest
or something like that. And then like they wake up elsewhere on the war world planet and stuff
and you have no idea what happened. You're still not getting all the answers you need. It's
quite the frustrating film I found. Even after we thought we were getting a grasp on what
was going on. movie still kept up the confusion but not like in an interesting way. It was,
I just remember being really frustrated. Yeah it was definitely frustrating, definitely not
intriguing in any way. Lobo was a surprise, I don't actually remember him from the trailers
although he may have been. The Trinity awakens alone on Warworld and discovers that the people
they interacted with in their visions were clones of people that had been captured by Warworld.
They find their superhero costumes and decide to rescue Marshal Manhunter. who's been taken
to Lobo to Warworld's leader, Mongul. I kind of wonder how each of them knew which costume
belonged to them. I wonder if Diana reached for Batman's costume first or something like
that. It would have been interesting for sure to see Batman wear Wonder Woman's costume.
Ha ha ha. Mongul reveals to Martian Manhunter that millennia ago, Warworld established a
telepathic link with him, promising him power. After killing its former inhabitants, the Largus,
Mongol found he was unable to activate Warworld's weapon systems, though Warworld told him the
key lied within the Martian race. Mongol and Warworld traveled the multiverse in search
of Martians. They found white Martians, though they needed Lobo's help to find the last green
one. Still unable to find the key, Mongol used Martian Manhunter's telepathic powers to fuel
more negativity for Warworld, though he decides in the moment to kill Martian Manhunter to
instill planet-wide despair. I don't know, Mungle's motivations are just kind of weird here. It
doesn't make sense to really kill your most powerful fuel source for this weapon that you're
trying to activate, as well as, you know, kill the one being that may be able to unlock the
power of the weapon you're holding. Just a lot of weird motivational stuff. It was really
weird that he would decide to do that. He needs Martian Manhunter. So why would he kill him?
Just, it's just bad writing. Before Mungle can kill Martian Manhunter, Loba disables his bonds.
so that Martian Manhunter can kill Mongol instead and Lobo can take over Warworld. As Superman,
Batman, and Wonder Woman reach them and begin fighting off White Martians, Martian Manhunter
disables Mongol and reveals that the key to Warworld is a merged green and white Martian
because those races have been at war with each other forever and the Largus believed that
they would never work together. After merging with the White Martian, Martian Manhunter activates
Warworld and turns its weapons on itself. Before Warworld explodes, a mysterious harbinger arrives
and teleports the Trinity to safety, telling them that the lives lost on Warworld is nothing
compared to the threat of an upcoming crisis. Now talk about Deus Ex Machina. Absolutely.
So dumb. There was no reason why they couldn't get to a Zeta Beam transporter and get themselves
to safety. It was all just so rushed and unnecessary. I absolutely hated the fourth act of this film.
None of it was good, in my opinion. No, I mean, I thought the last few minutes of Secret Invasion
were bad. This one was even more abrupt and just out of the blue. I just remember thinking
like, is that it? Like, there's got to be some kind of like after credit scene or something
like that. But there wasn't. No, no, there's no resolution. And I really hate when films
do this. They'll end the film just to set up the next film and not have a resolution. It's
not a good way to do your film. Like audiences need that story resolution. It's fine if you
set up another one, but make sure that you at least see the bad guy die or something like
that, you know? Right. Exactly. And who is Harbinger? Can you tell me? Because I've never read Crisis.
She was like a messenger for Pariah in Crisis on Infinite Earth. Like she's the one who helped
him rally all the heroes together to face the oncoming threat. Hmm. Although she looks way
different. than they depicted her in this movie. Talk about character design. Besides Mongol,
this has to be the worst adaptation from the comics that I've ever seen. It looks more like
Nova from Marvel. That's what I thought. Yeah, I was like total ripoff. The final act did
have some decent action on behalf of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It was cool to see
them kick ass and stuff. I did think that. Lobo turning on Mongol was a little bit convenient
until I realized that he was actually being manipulated by a martial man hunter And then
it's kind of seemed to make more sense But I mean even that played largely into like my
frustration with the story Like a lot of it on first viewing feels very empty and strange
motivation wise until you get more information But you know the answers all come in piecemeal
and they're not satisfying I guess the action at the end was good again the whole time. I
was just wondering like Why aren't the white Martians bigger threats for a Superman, Batman
and Wonder Woman? They should be. Absolutely. Well, Batman had fire. True. That actually
was cool how he used that. But I don't know, the whole end just felt so cheap because it
just felt like I was watching a really bad trailer for the next movie and not even a trailer,
just, you know, like as a setup for something else that I'm not going to be able to watch
for another year. It was a commercial. It was an advertisement. And I feel like robbed. Like
this whole thing was just a gimmick to plug the next movie. Yeah, I think that Tomorrowverse
could definitely have gone without this film. It seems like the most inconsequential DC animated
movie ever. As I mentioned earlier, I would have been much happier if this was just an
anthology collection featuring Elseworld shorts. Overall, the film's anthological approach to
story structure and genre is interesting, but ultimately the film's disappointing and convoluted
final act diminishes the film's overall appeal. It's hard to knock the film too much because
I would say three out of its four acts were fairly good, but the final act just really
ruins it. And because of that, I'm giving this two and a half stars out of five, a rotten
rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, I think if the movie had done a better job of setting
up early on some foreshadowing or hints as to what exactly was going on here. kind of clued
audiences in better along the way as we go through these other interesting stories, I think it
would have been much more successful. I also think, you know, they could have done a much
better job with Mongol in the ending, of course, but the individual anthology stories, I think,
mostly hit the mark they were trying to. So I agree. Two and a half stars. It was an interesting
idea at the very least, and maybe worthwhile to explore. Hopefully next time, though, they
do a better job if they do something like this again. Right, right. But that does it for this
review. Let us know what you thought about the movie by writing to us at dynamicduelpodcast
at gmail.com or by visiting us on Instagram or Twitter X. I don't know what the name of
it is now. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show notes or
visiting our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our website, you can also find a link to
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up for our e-newsletter also at dynamicduel.com. Or you can also rate the show on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. Our next episode is going to be dual episode that is
leading up to our team duel for episode 350 where we're gonna pit the Doom Patrol against
the Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah, next week we're gonna learn who will win in a fight between
Dorothy Spinner, the Chief's daughter, against Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Yeah, that should
be interesting. You know, Dorothy Spinner has the power of imagination. She creates all these
monsters to fight on her behalf, essentially. And Moon Girl has her own monster in Devil
Dinosaur. So I think this is gonna be a fun matchup. Yeah, for sure. I'm looking forward
to it. I loved Dorothy in season 2 of Doom Patrol. But that does it for this episode, we want
to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Sturowski, Zachary Hepburn,
Dustin Belcombe, Miggy Matten-Geehan, Brandon Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Nick
Obanto, Austin Wazilowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, and Adam Spies for helping make this
podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.
World, good god y'all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.