Batman: Hush (2019)

Director: Justin Copeland

Cast: Jason O’Mara, Jennifer Morrison, Geoffrey Arend, Jerry O’Connell

Have I Seen it Before: I’ve certainly read it a couple of times.

Did I Like It: Really, truly, an adaptation of the Hush storyline from the Batman comic books of the is a wonderful idea, not necessarily because of the events surrounding the new enemy Hush, but because the sprawling storyline manages to make the lions share of the Dark Knight’s rogue’s gallery vital supporting characters to a larger story.

But that story took the better part of a year to tell correctly and give everyone their due. Jamming it all into a package less than 90 minutes allows for the film to go through a halfway decent plot synopsis, but the magic of those books is gone.

This has been an ongoing problem with the ongoing slate of direct-to-video DC animated films. Hush suffers from many of the same problems that dragged down both The Death of Superman (2018) and Reign of the Supermen (2019), and it’s no wonder why, as this appears to be a spinoff of those two films, featuring much of the same cast reprising their roles. The film also wastes several minutes of its screen time apparently setting up some Ra’s al Ghul storyline for a future film that—by the time it becomes available for streaming on the DC Universe app—I’ll have long since cancelled my membership. As it turns out the brief turn into the world of the Lazarus Pit turns out to be a quick way to tie Hush, the Riddler, and the final act together in as few minutes as possible.

Unlike the wobbly and problematic adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016), this film can’t even offer voice talent that has become ubiquitous with DC animation over the last thirty years. All of those present are game and give the characters the needed distinctive tone, but I’d be far more forgiving of the film if Kevin Conroy played Batman and Mark Hamill returned to play Joker. Granted, the Clown Prince of Crime is not much more of a cameo role in this story, but it would have given Hamill far more to do than he had in either Star Wars – Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) or Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). It doesn’t help matters much that the actors who are playing the roles are trying their best to sound like the people who have been iconic in the roles in the past.

Every time Warner Bros. announces an adaptation of one of these beloved storylines, I allow myself to get a little bit excited by the prospect. As I type this, The Long Halloween is in development. I should probably surpass my inner Charlie Brown, opt not to kick Lucy’s proffered football, and just re-read the original comic book instead.

Reign of the Supermen (2019)

Director: Sam Liu

Cast: Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson, Cameron Monaghan

Have I Seen it Before: In all the very loose adaptations of The Death of Superman, WB and DC have never really leaned into the other half of the story. So, no I guess I’ve never seen it.

Did I Like It: It’s exactly what it promises to be, if a little slight.

Gotta admire a movie that takes the piss out of its long-running title in the first opening minutes, especially as it tries to move beyond the similarity between the original, more Nietzsche-esque elements of the character’s prototype. I’m a little less sure if I admire the choice to make Superboy (Monaghan) as 90s radical as he was in the source material, although they do manage to include a whiff of Bieber-esque celebrity for the character that is a little more now.

Is this the first review—or even first piece of writing at all—that features both the terms “Nietzsche-esque” and “Bieber-esque” in a single paragraph? God, I hope so.

The animation is a little cheap in places. Not sure if we can expect much more from a Warner Bros. direct-to-disc production, but a boy can dream. Also, the story wraps itself up far too quickly. Trying to jam in nearly a year of comics into a movie just slightly over 80 minutes long seems like a flaw inherent in the form. I’m not sure I can fully recommend it, but then again it’s not the worst adaptation of the resurrection of Superman that’s ever floated across our screens.

A couple of weird nitpicky things that I can’t quiet get completely over:

Having a world where there is both Cyborg (Shemar Moore), a member of the Justice League and a Cyborg Superman (Jerry O’Connell and Patrick Fabian) feels like some muddled story-telling, even if they hang a lantern (ha) on it. I guess, that’s just what the League brand is now.

Having Batman—even halfheartedly—suggest Green Lantern take a shot with a bazooka at Superboy feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of the character, but then again, this isn’t Batman’s movie, so I guess I can allow it.

While having a Hillary-esque woman be POTUS is certainly a world I would prefer to live in. And yet, it feels sort of an easy shot, but then again our wolrd is one full of easy shots.

Death of Superman (2018)

Director: Sam Liu, James Tucker

Cast: Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson, Nathan Fillion

Have I Seen it Before: I’ve seen this story, before yes. And read it, in both comic and novel forms. How I ever got married is beyond me.

Did I Like It: Yeah. Why not?

By my count, this is—excluding the Super Nintendo game from the early 1990s where the whole point of the first level was to die—the fourth adaptation of the Death of Superman. Like the others, it reflects a Justice League of its time (i.e. Batman has a son, which was unthinkable in the pre-Nolan era, and everyone has a smartphone) but it hews closer to the original source material than any of the others. Excluding possibly the abandoned Tim-Burton-directed-Nicolas-Cage-starring movie from the late 90s that lives on in our hearts for how weird it could have been.

Interesting gambit, casting a married couple as Superman and Lois Lane. I’m not sure if Jerry O’Connell has the essence of Superman down as much as some other actors, nor do I think that Rebecca Romijn quite has the energy of an ideal Lois Lane, but they are both flying circles around Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth, so as with most Superman adaptations, all is improved when we grade on a curve. While Rainn Wilson wouldn’t look the art in a live action production, his voice works. Then again, Eisenberg didn’t even have a voice that worked. So, there you go.

Does manage to grab the Superman-as-Kennedy motif that the comic reached for more effectively than any of the other adaptations. While I’m more excited about the followup Reign of the Superman (2019), Bibbo is there, and he’s the character I’ve been waiting for the movies to get to. Everything good about Superman can be found in Bibbo. If you don’t know who Bibbo is, it’s entirely possible that this move may not be for you.

Ultimately, the structure the movie has more of a feeling akin to part one of a multi-part TV episode, which is not the greatest sin in the world. Additionally, we’re so far from the days of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) to expect that much out DC animated movies.

It’s damn sure better than Justice League (2017) or Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and that’s saying something.