Review: JUSTICE LEAGUE ACTION Premiere

The League is finally back! For the first time since 2006 the Justice League has a new animated show. The Justice League Action premiere was a series of episodes connected together to create one over arcing story. The show starts off with Batman on patrol. Right from the opening shot you can tell this shows takes itself more seriously than Teen Titans Go!, the animation is good and Kevin Conroy is (always) great as Batman. The main villain of the story was Black Adam. He wants to take Shazam’s (the wizard) power. The only one capable of taking on Black Adam is Captain Marvel. Batman, Shazam and Captain Marvel are able to defeat Black Adam, but he manages to unleash five demon-like creatures into our world. This is the main plot of the episode(s).

As the story progresses we get to see Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Arrow, Swamp Thing, Plastic Man and John Constantine and more. What we’ve learned here is that the League is massive, you might even say… unlimited (sorry). The team works pretty well together, and I enjoyed most of them. The humor in this show is very forced. It wasn’t funny and the delivery mostly fell flat. I’m not sure what they’re trying to do with this show. At times the stories are very good and fun to watch, but other times the humor just doesn’t work. It feels like a mash-up of Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans Go!, once they find their identity hopefully it becomes more consistent.

One of the positives of the show is the animation. The art style is really good, and fits that fun tone they were going for. The optimistic tone makes it something most kids will enjoy, but it’s probably something older fans won’t be too interested in. The stories are good but they don’t have time to develop. One of the strongest parts of the older DC shows was the story telling. JLA tries its best to tell good stories but they can’t fit them into 10 minute episodes. This is probably why Teen Titans Go! went the comedy rout. You can easily get a few laughs within a short period of time, but its harder telling an action story.

Justice League Action is a good show. It might be geared towards younger DC fans, but it’s something that the whole family can watch and enjoy. It’s animated well, the characters are fun, and the stories are good enough to keep you entertained.