There’s no denying that Marvel has been on their non-print media game recently. Marvel studios will certainly be one of the biggest and most profitable film producers over the coming years, I think they’ve got something like 12 projects on their docket for the first half of this decade. But y’know what? I’m a DC man. Though they’ve got some movies in production (Green Lantern whatup), they’ve actually been putting most of their attention towards something else: animation.

Call me a purist, but I think there’s something about the animated form that just lends itself to comic book adaptations more than film. There’s the obvious artistic similarities, but I find it also gives the creators free reign to be more fantastic, more, for lack of a better word, comic book-y. Of course, there are some superhero films which are awesome, but we all have to admit that a grown man in brightly colored spandex sometimes just looks weird when translated into the real world.

Animation has allowed DC to put out a lot of quality product, and faster too. In 2010 they’ve release 3 full length films (Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, Batman: Under The Red Hood, and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as well as four other half-hour pieces which showcase lesser known DC characters (The Spectre, Jonah Hex, Green Arrow, and Shazam/Black Adam). I’ve seen almost all of them and find them to be, well, awesome.

The animation is all really good, and the voice work features favorites like Kevin Conroy, Neal Patrick Harris, Bruce Greenwood, and even Michael Motherfuckin’ Rooker. Perhaps the part of these that I like the most is that all the storylines are directly based on those characters’ recent arcs from the comic books. It’s a really good way to keep abreast of what’s going on in the DC Universe without having to hunt down hundreds of single issues.

They’re also nice and PG-13, which is pretty much as intense as you’re gonna get for comic book stuff. But since it’s animation, that rating actually lets them get pretty grim at times, both visually and content wise. Under The Red Hood in particular is pitch dark. Some of the others though are really fun and upbeat, which is also real good, and something I think has been missing from DC’s films. Basically, they’re all a quick, fun watch. Check ‘em out!

- Whole Milk