Hero Profile: Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm)

He's a king of the sea in training.

Up next, we’re going to talk about Kaldur’am, aka Aqualad. I’ll be doing this one slightly different than normal. Why? Because this version of Aqualad was created specifically for the television series Young Justice, and the TV series Kaldur bears only a passing resemblance to Jackson Hyde, his comic book counterpart, and Kaldur is the one I want to talk about. I’ll also go over Jackson, but in the more heavily summarized section that I usually use for out of comic appearances. Also, like most of my character profiles, I’ll talk about his history in his chronological order not necessarily by how the events transpired in the show. Have I explained my madness well enough? Sure! Let’s get to it.

This is his serious face. Get used to it, he uses it alot.

 Aqualad aka Kaldur’ahm, or the simpler Kaldur to his friends was born in the Atlantean city of Shayeris, where he was raised by his mother Sha’lain’a and his dad Calvin Durham. His dad was originally one of Black Manta’s henchmen, whom was genetically altered to have an Atlantean physiology as part of a plan to infiltrate and destroy Atlantis, but he eventually gave up his mission upon meeting Sha’lain’a. Kaldur was trained from a young age for combat, joining the Atlantean military at 12 as part of his training and mandatory military service. He spent some time training at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis to further expand his skillset. One day, Atlantis was attacked by Ocean-Master, and forced his brother Aquaman to battle him. During the battle, Aquaman was wounded and at his brother’s mercy. Kaldur and his friend Garth leapt up to protect their king, using Kaldur’s fighting skill and Garth’s magic. The boys were pretty easily defeated by Ocean-Master, but they distracted him long enough for big brother Aquaman to recover and defeat him. After Ocean-Master scampered, Aquaman offered both boys the chance to work under him as his sidekick. Garth refused and went back to studying, while Kaldur took him up on the offer, becoming Aqualad.

Oh, and I should note that he’s played by Khary Payton, known for playing another popular DC character, Cyborg.

He served under his king for two years before the start of the series. On July, 2010, he helps Aquaman battle the villainous Killer Frost as she attempts to freeze Pearl Harbor. They defeat Frost, and Aquaman is finally able to get Kaldur to admit he’s excited for their next appointment. What appointment? The induction of the “sidekicks” Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Speedy into the Justice League. They’re brought into the Hall of Justice, where things are pleasant until Speedy learns they aren’t actually getting to see anything more than the opposite side of the glass of a tourist trap. Speedy leaves in disgust, as he isn’t interested in a glorified backstage pass. The others, meanwhile, learn about a fire at Cadmus Labs, a lab that Batman had been suspicious of. When the League is called away on a more pressing mission, the boys decide to investigate Cadmus on their own initiative.

So... from nearly shaved head to mop-top? How odd.

On the way in, Kaldur helps several scientists escape the blaze with his water manipulating powers before the group travels deeper into the lab. They find a highspeed express elevator and miles of underground lab and genetic monster wandering around. As they dodge around the creatures, Genomorphs, they discover Cadmus’ biggest experiment, project KR, the Superboy. Cadmus’ head scientist Dr. Desmond discovers their infiltration and uses Superboy to capture the teen heroes. While Superboy does capture them, the boys are able to convince Superboy to switch teams and escape with them. They’re able to battle their way through Cadmus Labs and stop a mutated Desmond just before the League arrives. Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy and Matian Manhunter’s niece M’gann M’orzz agree to join a new covert ops team. A team that they never seem to name. Sorry, years later and it bugs me their group is never officially called Young Justice.

After fending off an attack by the evil Mr. Twister on their new base, they go on their first mission to Santa Prisca. The Team has issues, as they aren’t used to working as a unit. Well, four of them aren’t. The other issue is that Robin is so used to working with Batman that he expects the others to work without him actually giving orders. They’re able to discover that the Cult of Corba had taken over Santa Prisca and were producing a new stronger version of the drug Venom. They also determine that Kaldur should be team lead, as he was the only one working to keep the heroes working together while everything else was going haywire. Kaldur claims that he’s merely holding the position until their Team is ready for Robin’s leadership. Humble fella, is this Kaldur’ahm.

Kaldur leads the team on several more missions, helping ship the pieces of the Amazo android to STAR Labs, investigating the disappearance of Kent Nelson aka Dr. Fate, welcoming their sixth member Artemis, and stopping the League of Shadows from using a weaponize nanite mist called The Fog.

They've learned the 1000 yard stare from 3 masters.
For Superboy it must just be genetic.

A short time later, Aqualad majorly flubs a mission the Team takes to defeat Clayface. He was distracted by thoughts of a girl back home. Batman is forced to step in, defeats Clayface and reprimands Aqualad for his obvious lack of commitment. He orders the team to take some time off, and Aqualad returns to the sea to visit home. While there, he attempts to kindle a romance with his old friend Tula, only to learn that she’d started seeing their mutual friend Garth while he’d been away. His heartbreak is interrupted by Black Manta attacking Atlantis. Kaldur is able to help beat Manta back along side his king, and returns to the team with a renewed sense of purpose.

He leads the team on several more missions, including battling the Injustice League, battling Red Tornado’s evil robotic siblings Red Torpedo and Red Inferno and later Red Volcano, and stopping several Ice Fortress’s from freezing America.

Aqualad is force to lead the Team against the whole Justice League when all the members of the organization are mind controlled by the villainous Light organization. They gather their allies, including Speedy now going by Red Arrow and who was recently discovered to be a mind controlled plant by the Light, Zatanna Zatara, and Rocket (not Raccoon) to battle the League. They’re able to stop the Light’s plan, although all their operatives escape.

We then skip forward five years. In that time, the League and Team have expanded drastically. Unfortunately, Kaldur is no longer apart of it. See, in the intervening years, Tula and Garth joined the Team, which was good, but Tula was unfortunately killed during a mission. And, to make matters worse for Kaldur, he discovers that his dad, Calvin, isn’t his Father. No, his biological Father is none other than Black Manta himself. I’ve yet to discover if his conception was a “happy” encounter or very awful one for Sha’lain’a. Angry at the death and being lied to for most of his life, Kaldur joined Black Manta’s forces and quickly became his #2.

Kaldur leads a group of Manta’s men to stop a communications satellite between Earth and Mars from launching. During the fight, he stabs and kills Artemis, and the satellite is destroyed. This turns out to be a fake out, though. Kaldur is just using his familial connection to Manta to spy on him and the Light and their “new partner.” A position made even more useful when Manta is promoted to the Light’s ruling council in place of the captured and disgraced Ocean Master. The Team faked Artemis’s death to prove his commitment to Manta, and then has Artemis take up the persona of Tigress to act as his own subcommander.

Water swords are so cool.

Things go well with their plan, until M’gann catches up to Kaldur during a mission. Seeing the friend that betrayed their Team and murdered someone they loved, M’gann attacks Kaldur with a telepathic blast that leaves him catatonic. She unfortunately learns the fact her friend was on a deep cover mission while shattering his mind telepathically. Tigress arrives and escapes with Kaldur. Manta attempts to use another Telepath named Psimon to fix Kaldur, but Tigress disables him and lies about M’gann leaving mental booby traps to protect her and Kaldur’s mission. Manta then later capture M’gann and “forces” her to reconstruct Kaldur’s mind. She does so, with more gusto than she might have having discovered Kaldur’s true nature. She eventually restores his mind, but Kaldur plays possum while the try to get M’gann out of there, as everyone is aware that Manta won’t let her escape alive. The opportunity arrives when Tigress’ (Artemis) sister Cheshire and their father Sportsmaster attack Manta’s ship to get payback for “killing” Artemis. Cheshire from love, Sportsmaster to restore his rep after his daughter’s death. They use this distraction to extract M’gann, and to further ingratiate Kaldur to Manta, tricking the villain into thinking that Kaldur’s devotion to his father was the final piece to freeing his mind.

Kaldur ultimately reveals his allegiance when he helps the team infiltrate a meeting between the Light and their Partner, the Reach. The various young heroes attempt to capture as many of the villains as they can. In the ensuing chaos, Kaldur is forced to confront his father. He admits to being conflicted with battling Manta and tries to convince his father to repent. Manta refuses, he’s enraged by this betrayal and swears to make Kaldur Ruthless, even “if I have to pound (the lesson) into your Skull!.” Kaldur is forced to knock him out and capture him. They’re able to capture the Reach’s Ambassador as well. He then helped the Team stop the Reach’s final contingency plan. He then is given command over the Team again, as NIghtwing needed some time off.

And that’s all I’ve seen thus far. I do know that in season three Kaldur officially succeeds Arthur Curry as the new Aquaman, but that’s about it.

Kaldur’am is a half human-half Atlantian. He can survive in both the depths of the ocean and on land. He can swim at incredibly high speeds, breath underwater with his gills, is incredibly strong and durable, and also largely resistant to poison. He’s also an expert hand to hand combatant, thanks to his military training. His powers are enhanced by Atlantean sorcery. He’s not incredibly gifted in that category, but specializes in using hydrokinesis (manipulating water with magic) and generate electricity, he generates it through the eel tattoos on his arms. He also uses two Water-Bearers, hilts that can take water and solidify it into various weapons. He specializes in making water swords that he can twist, bend and extend at will. They use this to fake Artemis’ death, as he bent his sword around her torso close enough to look like it pierced her abdomen. When he takes up his position as Black Manta’s number 2, he’s given a Manta suit like his father’s, which includes a helmet beam cannon.

A separate version of Kaldur’ahm was introduced in the DC comics to coincide with his Young Justice reveal. This version is Jackson Hyde. Jackson lived in Silver City, New Mexico, where he was taught at a young age to fear the water. He lived in isolation until he was tracked down by Aquaman during the Darkest Night event. He discovered his true parentage, and explored how to use his powers with Aquaman for several months. He was written out of continuity during the “New 52” continuity, but returned after the “Rebirth” event. 

Aqualad had a non-speaking appearance in the DC animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox alongside Garth and Aquagirl as they attack Lex Luthor’s boat and battle Deathstroke. He’s seen again during the battle of London, but is presumed dead before Barry could re-reset the timeline.

I loved Kaldur during Young Justice. He was largely stoic, but that made his occasional emotional outbursts all the better. He was summed up really well in his first few minutes, where while battling Killer Frost, he insisted on focusing on the mission, despite Aquaman’s gentle ribbing about whether he’s excited for the Justice League induction later that day. And once Frost is finally captured, he does smile and admit he’s excited. He works hard to keep his team together and is incredibly loyal. It takes a man of extreme loyalty to play double agent, especially when the guy he’s working against is his own biological father. I even enjoyed seeing Kaldur work with Manta in season 2. They made it clear that while Kaldur’s loyalty to the Team doesn’t waver, that he is torn with what to do about his father. Makes me assume that his mother’s time with Manta wasn’t terrible, despite her quick rebound to Kaldur’s Dad Calvin. To each there own. Again, I really enjoyed Kaldur and hope that he pops up in a few more projects later to come. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Review: Aquaman

It's an old tale, brothers fighting over which one mommy loved the most. That's what it boils down to.

Let’s be real, The DC film Universe hasn’t been doing super well. Justice League and Suicide Squad were both lacking in pretty much ever regard, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman were at best okay but flawed, and the only undeniably good one has been Wonder Woman. Let’s see if Aquaman follows Diana’s example or falls into the pile. Let’s get to it.

Mamoa finally has a proper trident. That
five pointed trident was driving me nuts.

We open with a quick summary of the making of Arthur Curry. His father, Thomas, was a simple lighthouse keeper until the night in 1985 where he discovered a woman washed ashore. Said woman, as it turns out, is Atlana, princess of the lost civilization of Atlantis. The two are rocky at first, with Atlanna eating one of Thomas’ goldfish and wrecking his TV by throwing her Quaddent into it. But, somehow these two crazy kids make it work, and have a son that they dub Arthur. Things were pleasant, for a time, until Atlantis’ commandos found her and demand that she returns to her kingdom under the sea. She parts with her family with a heavy heart. As Arthur grew up, he learned that he seemed to have a mental connection to all beings of the sea, and spent his formative years training under his mother’s trusted advisors Vulko. A lot of that was feed piecemeal throughout the movie, but it seemed more efficient to info dump it here.

In the modern day, it’s been a year since the Justice League battled Steppenwolf and his Paradeamon forces. Things have more or less returned to normal. We open on a Russian Submarine being attacked by a group of pirates. The group is lead by it’s Captain Jesse Kane and his son David. They’re attack is interrupted by Arthur, who smashes into the sub and beats the snot out of the entire crew. David tries to fight Aquaman one on one, but it’s like when Aquaman tried to fight Superman in Justice League, there’s just no way this ends well for him. He takes an RPG from Jesse, which causes the sub to sink. Jesse Kane goes down with the boat, as he was pinned under a heavy torpedo and Aquaman refused to help David save him.

Arthur returns to his father’s lighthouse, and the two Currys go unwind at a bar. They get drunk, hangout with some bikers and just have a wonderful time.

Under the sea, Arthur’s half brother and current king of Atlantis, Orm, is meeting with King Nereus of the Xebel tribe. Right, should probably explain this, Atlantis is the nation but it’s separated into seven smaller tribes. There’s Atlantis, Xebel, The Brine, the Fishermen, The Kingdom of the Trench, The Lost Tribe, and the Deserters. Orm is angling to get Nereus to ally with him in a bid for Orm to become the king of all of Atlantis, the Ocean Master. He needs at least four kingdoms to side with him, and since the Deserters died out, the Lost tribe is Lost and the Trenchers are a bunch of crazed cannibals, he needs all of the still functioning kingdoms behind him. Their deal is interrupted by a sub attack. Orm, Nereus and their forces beat it back and agree to work together.

It looks like someone spilled red wine on him.

We’re later shown that this was in fact the sub that Kane and his crew attacked. Orm hired them to steal a sub and us it to fake an attack. David tries to refuse the payment to him in exchange for a chance to fight Aquaman, but Orm dismisses him.

While trying to lug his drunken father home, Arthur is approached by Mera, the Xebel princess. She’s trying, implied not for the first time, to convince Arthur to come to Atlantis with her and challenge Orm for the throne. Why? To stop the younger son of Atlanna from starting a war with the surface world. Arthur tells her to piss off, as he’s had no love for Atlantis since discovering his mother had been executed for birthing him. Not going to lie, I side with Arthur on this one. He’s forced to come with her, though, as Orm performs his opening attack, summoning an enormous tidal wave that knocks out trash and aquatic weapons from the sea. Mera helps Arthur save his dad from drowning, and the two head to Atlantis.

Under the sea, Mera takes Arthur to a rendezvous with Vulkon on a sunken ship. They keep it in an air-bubble, to keep the wildlife and most Atlantians out. Turns out, amphibious adaptation is something that only the royal bloodlines got to keep. Vulko tells Arthur that they’d recently uncovered an artifact that could lead them to the Trident of Atlan, an ancient Atlantian artifact that is essentially their Excalibur. Super magical and all you need to declare yourself the king of your nation. Their plan is interrupted by an attack by some Atlantian commandos. Arthur is captured, but Vulko and Mera escape unnoticed.

Arthur is brought before his brother literally in chains. Orm mocks his half-breed half-brother into challenging him into a trial by combat. The deal is that if Arthur wins, he’s king of Atlantis and can do whatever he wants. If Orm wins, same thing. Their battle is in an undersea area encircled by rivers of Lava. Despite never having fought underwater like this, Arthur puts in a valiant effort but is ultimately defeated by his brother. Who shatters his Arthur’s Quaddrant, a gift of their mothers, with his Trident, a gift from Orm’s father. There’s probably some symbolism in that. Arthur would have been killed, but he was saved by Mera, who zooms in in her sub, and escapes with Arthur. After faking their deaths, by crashing the sub into a lava pit, they agree to work together to find the Trident.

Mera and Arthur first travel to the Sahara and the ruins of the Deserter tribe’s capital. They’re able to power up some old tech and see a message from King Atlan, who points them to Sicily.

I really want to know why he decided a helmet was better
then a gun, other then because Black Manta has a death
beam helmet.

Orm, who realizes that his brother is still alive, but isn’t able to move against him and Mera directly, hires David Kane to do it for him. He outfits the pirate with some Atlantian tech, including battle armor and a plasma death ray. David immediately takes the plasma ray and reworks it into his iconic helmet. Really wish I could have seen his thought process in turning a gun into a helmet that shoots Cyclops eyebeams.

Arthur and Mera make it to Sicily and find the next clue to the Trident. They use an old school bottle they found in the Deserter Capital combined with an old Statue to find their heading. They’re attacked by the newly dubbed Black Manta and a crew of Atlantian commandos. Arthur and Manta battle while Mera fights the commandos. She makes short work out of the goons after getting to a source of liquids, a winery, and kills all but one of them. The last guy’s reverse-scuba suit was damaged and he had his head in a toilet at the time. Arthur has a harder time with Manta, being severely injured by the plasma beam and Manta’s Atlantian steel blade. They finally knock him off a cliff after destroying his jets, to his apparent death.

After Mera patches him up a little, the two head to the Trench, the final stop on their quest. The Trench is filled with Trenchers, Atlantians that had regressed into a pack of cannibalistic monsters that attack anything that moves. They fight there way through several hundred of the monsters, into an underwater typhoon that leads them to the Hidden Sea. To everyone’s shock, they find Queen Atlanna. She’d apparently survived the Trenchers by diving into the same wormhole-sea-storm thing, and lived the last few decades there. Why? Because the only way out is with the Trident, and, apparently, she isn’t worthy to grab it. Arthur goes in and faces off against he Kraken. I mean the Karathen. It’s a very similar monster, if I’m being honest. He intitially is kicked around by the Karathen, but is able to push the beast back using his aquatic lifeform attuned telepathy. He claims the Trident.

Which is good, because while he was away, Orm had conquered the Fishermen, arrested Vulko for secretly helping Arthur, and prepared an all-out assault on the kingdom of the Brine. Aquaman will need his allies and the Trident to force back Orm’s desires to be the Ocean Master and conquer the world.

So he is justified for hating the Surface for ruining the ocean
He is not justified in hating Arthur, as his only crime was
mama loved him more. Just saying.

Okay, so the good first. Jason Mamoa is probably the best part of this movie. He’s a somewhat anti-social version of Aquaman, who’d much rather swim around and occasionally help people then be the actual king of the sea. He’s angry at his mother’s death and blames all of Atlantis for it. I like Amber Heard as Mera. Sure, she seems stuck as the “I-hate-him-but-secretly-wanna-bang-him” love interest. But then, she’s also shown to be insanely powerful in her own right, using her power over water on more than one occasion to save Aquaman’s ass. Patrick Wilson was good as Orm. His background was actually very similar to the Orm of Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. In both, Orm is the less-loved (at least in his own mind) younger son of Queen Atlanna that orchestrates a war between the surface and Atlantis. The big difference is he’s motivated to kill Arthur because of their mother’s death, Orm isn’t the type to blame his jealous insane pops for ordering her death, instead of the cause of his mom’s death. Yeah, the animated movie has Orm run his mother through with a trident. Just saying. In this movie, though, he’s the bad guy that has at least some justification for his actions. Yeah, we on land have royally screwed up the sea. Murdering all of us feels a little extreme, though. This is also a DC movie that found a good balance between the serious tone they’re trying to foster and the levity one needs with a comic book movie. They have a number of fun little gags sprinkled in to break up the tension. Like when Arthur is about to fight Orm, we see 10 seconds of a billboard summing the half-brothers up. Orm has things like King of Atlantis and War Hero. Arthur has only a couple of dashed lines in pros, and his con list includes being a filthy half-breed and a drunk. I chuckled a few times.

The bad is there. But thankfully it isn’t as in-your-face as some of the other DC projects. Black Manta is some what underused, but then they set him up as the villain of the sequel so I guess that isn’t too bad. The romance between Mera and Arthur feels really forced. I’m not the biggest fan of the hate/love relationship style myself, so that’s kind of a taste thing. The CGI was rather streaky in this one. Some bits look fine, like the animation of the different Atlantian races, or on the Karathen. Other things look down right silly, like when Arthur spins his trident around at high speed. It’s looks like he’s waving his hands back and forth while standing in front of an airplane propeller. One moves completely independently of the other. And finally, their quest was kind of wonky. So, after finding an ancient video recorder and going to the ancient Atlantian city, they find a literal message in a bottle and have to travel to ruins in Italy? And the bottle, which I’m shocked Atlantians were manufacturing like 3000 years before anyone else, is instrumental in leading them to the Trenchers… Wait, they already knew where the Trenchers were. It’s kind of vague, but I got the implication that the magic that sunk the nation is what turned some of them into fish, crustaceans and ravenous monsters, so the Trenchers were probably around when Atlan was around.  Wouldn’t that alone prove enough of a safeguard then the unnecessary Sicily stop? “You want my Trident?” Atlan asked, “Just swim down into the depths of the sea filled with Piranha men. Good luck!”

Overall, this is a B+ movie. It is far superior to Justice League, Suicide Squad, and Batman v. Superman but still has some room for improvement. I’m hoping that the fellas in charge of DC’s Movie Universe are taking notes. Because the directing and writing for this film kicked the ass out of the other DCU movies. If this film had come out before Justice League, things might have ended up working more smoothly. Just saying. I’m hoping to see more of Mamoa’s version of Aquaman and see how Black Manta will try to get his vengeance next time. Fingers crossed. Have a good one!

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Review: Justice League

Swing and a miss.

I’ll start this post off with a little personal background info. In school, I sucked at Math. Not worst in the class, didn’t understand it at all sucked, just, rarely got the correct answer sucked. I’d learn a formula, or something, seemingly understand it fine, but when I executed it, I’d forget a key step and thus fail miserably. I imagine that my math teachers from, I’d say, fifth through twelfth grade all had the same thought. “He’s trying, but is just not getting it.” And that’s how I feel about Justice League, it seems like everyone involved is trying, but somehow just not getting what is needed for a smash hit. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Not shown: Superman
The guy that ends up doing 90% of the work.

We open to a quick montage of people missing Superman. Since his death, crime has apparently steadily risen, and a number of smaller time heroes have disappeared. Batman, meanwhile, has noticed something worse is rising. He runs down some no name thug, and then dangles him off a roof. Why? To draw out his quarry. Apparently, the fear stink of the thug is strong enough to draw an insect like monster, a Parademon. After a quick scuffle, Batman gets it stuck on a chimney, which causes the monster to self-destruct. Halfway around the world, Diana Prince is forced to stop a terrorist group from bombing the heck out of local bank. Like Batman, she seems uneasy about what might be about to happen.

As if on cue, a guarded treasure of the Amazons began to react. The treasure, a Mother Box, reawakens, and calls out to it its master, an alien conqueror called Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf arrives via a Boom Tube, a portal in space time. Steppenwolf plows through the Amazonians, quickly stealing the Motherbox despite the Amazon’s best efforts. After gloating to the surviving Amazonians, Steppenwolf escapes through another Boom Tube. Queen Hippolyta, realizing that the earth is pretty much boned if Steppenwolf gets what he wants, sends a warning to Diana, via a magic burning arrow.

Realizing the danger, Diana rejoins Bruce. She explains what they’re facing. Steppenwolf invade Earth thousands of years ago with his Parademons and three Mother Boxes. The Mother Boxes were used in a ritual called the Unity, which combined them together and cause a chain reaction that wipes out all life on the planet. Steppenwolf was pushed back by an alliance of Amazonians and Greek Gods, Atlanteans, and mankind. They got a little back up from the local Green Lantern, but Steppenwolf kills him really quick. Once Steppenwolf and his forces were removed from Earth, the Boxes were divided amongst Earth’s champions. The Amazons and the Atlanteans kept their Boxes in guarded chambers, while humans, in classic human fashion, elect to bury it so no one can have it. Realizing getting the metaphorical band back together is kind of impossible, getting the all the nations of the human race together alone is kind of a tall order, the heroes elect to make their own team and handle things themselves. The two heroes set about recruiting the other metahumans they’d learned about from Lex Luthor’s files to their team. Bruce goes for Arthur Curry aka Aquaman, and Barry Allen, aka the Flash. Curry isn’t interested, not too subtly telling Bruce to piss off, but Barry is open to saving the day. He, and I quote, “needs more friends.” He and Bruce make it back to his makeshift Batcave. Diana tries to talk to Victor Stone, aka the Cyborg, but the young man also isn’t interested in helping. At least, he says he isn’t, he changes his tune when he learns that his father, Silas, had been kidnapped by Steppenwolf.

Ciaran Hinds, maybe you and Nick Cage just shouldn't do
Superhero movies. It just never seems to end well.

Under da sea, Steppenwolf attacks Atlantis to get the second box. He defeats the Atlantian guards, but is slowed down by Aquaman joining the fray. He gets his hands on the box, though, and teleports away. Aquaman is confronted by Mira, a servant of his late mother, who convinces him to take action.

In Gotham, the three heroes are drawn to the top of the Gotham City Police Department, and get intel from Commissioner James Gordon. He shows them a map of recent missing persons. They’re all S.T.A.R. Labs employees, but nothing else connects them, nor can they figure out what the focal point of the attack is coming from. Cyborg joins them, and is able to pin point that Steppenwolf is hold up under Gotham Harbor. The team gathers up in Batman’s ride, a vehicle called the Crawler, and travel through the abandoned facility beneath the Harbor.

Using the Flash’s speed, and the others firepower, the group is able to save the kidnapped employees. Unfortunately, Steppenwolf floods the room before using another Boom Tube to escape. They’d probably all drowned, but Aquaman uses the hole to get into the facility and uses his water powers to hold the flood back as they escape. After that, Victor grabs the final Mother Box, which he’d hidden from his father. Victor explains that his father, in a rather insane attempt to save Victor’s life, used the Mother Box on him. The energies of the device healed Victor’s injured body, but also transformed his body into living machinery. Batman theorizes that, simply, the energies that the Box puts out could revive or heal just about anyone, but the energies are just too intense for human bodies to survive. But… what about someone stronger? Someone who’s cells could take repeated abuse on a colossal scale. Someone who was, in a way, already made of Steel. Diana and Arthur are against the plan, as they’re worried bringing back someone from the dead is not only ghoulish, but highly dangerous. They worry that, Superman may return, but he might leave a little of himself… back where he’d been resting. Batman assures them that he will have a contingency plan should Superman return broken.

They exhume Superman’s body from the Kent family plot, and bring him to the crashed Kryptonian ship. Using the incubation chamber in the ship, the Mother Box, and an electric jolt from Barry, Superman is revived. Clark Kent rises, literally, but isn’t completely there. He’s confused, and…irritable after his nap. He attacks the team, humiliating the other heroes. He’s stronger then Aquaman and Wonder Woman, more than durable enough to take Cyborg’s firepower, and can even keep pace with the Flash at his highest speed. Batman arrives and tries to talk him down, but Superman only seems to remember that they had had… issues. He nearly heat-visions Batman to slag, but is stopped by Batman’s contingency, Lois Lane. Superman calms down, but then flies off with Lois, back to Smallville. While all that had been going on, Steppenwolf Boom Tubes in and takes the last box back to base.

In retrospect, using minions that mindlessly
attack anyone that is afraid is kind of a
stupid idea, isn't it?

Despite being outclassed, outnumbered, and underprepared, the group track down Steppenwolf and prepare to attack. He’d set up out in the most rural of Russian villages, beneath a former nuclear silo. Can the team stop Steppenwolf and save the world? We’ll see.

The good section is short, unfortunately. The actors are all top tier, I love everyone in their parts, from Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck and the other returning cast, to the newbies like Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, J.K. Simmons, and Ray Fisher. Ezra Miller in particular is phenomenal as the most comedic member of the group, often breaking up more intense scenes with some levity. There are few scenes sprinkled throughout the film, bonding moments that are done really well. For example, Barry and Victor are tasked with getting Clark’s body. They have a moment, where Barry points out how creepy it is to rob grave Mother Trucking Superman, and he and Victor bond a little as the least experienced heroes. There’s also a good moment where Bruce, after getting tossed around by Superman, is setting his dislocated shoulder. Diana joins him and helps him pop the bone back into place, and the two have a moment. Some of the effects were good. I liked the Boom Tubes’ effect, seeing one of the most iconic means of transport in the DC Universe brought to life was pretty cool.

This guy right here is one of the best elements
of this movie.

Now that we’ve gotten the good out of the way, onto the bad. Most of the effects are terrible. Particularly on Superman. For those who don’t know, post production of Justice League was handled by Joss Whedon, who took over for Zack Snyder after Snyder took a leave of absence following his daughter’s suicide. Whedon completely reworked and added in several scenes. This called for Henry Cavill to do some reshoots. Unfortunately, he was working on Mission: Impossible 6 at the time which called for him to have a scruffy mustache and beard. Paramount Pictures refused to allow Cavill to shave, as it would put production of their movie behind. Since Superman doesn’t really do facial hair, the guys upstairs decided to just digitally remove the hair. The end result is bad, like really really bad. Like, Grand Moff Tarkin’s CGI face in Rogue One bad.  It’s just… unnatural. Same goes for the motion capture effects used to turn actor Ciaran Hinds into Steppenwolf. It looks unnatural, and at no point did I believe that Steppenwolf was in the room with anyone. Steppenwolf kind of has the same issue as Ares had in Wonder Woman. Both characters are played by respected actors, but neither Ciaran Hinds nor David Thewlis could physically portray their character when the fighting started. So, they try to overcome it with Motion Capture for the close ups, and CGI for the far away stuff, but the result is that I don’t believe the character is in the room. I especially find it funny that they reworked Steppenwolf’s appearance so heavily. Just do a quick Google search, Steppenwolf DC, and you’ll see what I mean. For those that don’t want to, New Gods come in all different shapes and sizes. Some, Like Darkseid, his son Kalibak, and chief adviser and backstabber Desaad could not pass as human. Others, like Darkseid’s heroic son Orion, the equally heroic Scott Free, the deceptively named villainess Granny Goodness, and, yes, Steppenwolf could easily pass for mortals. In looks, not when they show off their powers. I just don’t understand making more work for yourself like that.

The final massive negative is the plot. It’s littered with plot holes, and unexplained circumstances. Like, a huge thing in the finale is Batman using a noise that attracts the Parademons to make a hole in the forces for the others to slip passed. How did Batman learn about this noise? Never explained. Or there’s Steppenwolf’s return. So, he was kicked off Earth and waited millennia for another crack at it, which came when the Boxes called out to him after Superman’s death. So… why didn’t the Boxes call out sooner? Like when Ares went insane and killed the other Greek Gods? Or when the Atlanteans were driven under the sea? Or when the “Tribes of Men” got too big, prideful, smug, stupid, lazy, shortsighted, pigheaded, stupid stubborn to ever work together again? Seems like there was ample opportunities to come back and conquer between when he was kicked off the first time to the five years Superman was running around. The Dark Ages for example, or during WWI or WWII. Just saying. And there’s a lot of cringe worthy info dumping. Like when Aquaman and Mera are talking after the attack on Atlantis. We get a painful three-minute-long back and forth where we learn about Arthur being left on his father’s doorstep, the trust issues he has because his mother clearly didn’t want anything to do with him, Mera explaining why Atlana did that to her boy, and that he needs to step up and be King. Which is weird, since that implies either no one is in charge of Atlantis right now, or Orm aka Ocean Master is. Either scenario doesn’t lend itself to the idea of guards being posted around the ancient relic. Just saying. Barry and his backstory about trying to help his falsely convicted father, he was framed for murdering Barry’s mom, also has this problem, but to a lesser extent. I can see a father telling off his kid for putting too much effort in a lost cause more than I can see a guy telling a strange woman about his mommy issues. And on a similar note, there’s a lot of telling not showing. We’re told things are getting worse. We’re told Superman’s death has people shaken up. We’re told that some characters are having specific issues. But there’s little showing. Other than the opening montage, and a short bit with Lois Lane and Martha Kent sprinkled in the action, we see very little turmoil. There’s a bit where Diana claims that Bruce had been baiting her to get angry, using her lingering grief over WWI era love interest Steven Trevor’s death, so she’ll step up and lead… but I didn’t get that at all in context. I just thought Bruce was feeling like an ass.

Overall, this is D list movie. A good cast and okay effects cannot ever make up for a lackluster script, the vast majority of the CGI and Motion Capture being dog poo, and just being dull. Seriously, in the climax, Batman separates from the group in the Batmobile to draw off the Parademons. The others save him and point out that a suicide run isn’t the way to lead a team. And it’s only then that I realized that it WAS a suicide run. At no point was I fearful for Batman’s survival, or the least bit concerned that someone might get hurt or die. I just thought he was going to draw off the Parademons and then dip, you know, because Batman. I hope we get more DC movies, I really do, but they NEED to change SOMETHING. One out and out good film, several okay movies, and whatever Suicide Squad and Justice League end up being remembered as, is not a winning line up. All I’m saying.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/15967091
Twitter: @BasicSuperhero

https://www.warnerbros.com/justice-league
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppenwolf_(comics)
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dccu/images/1/17/Parademon_JL.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171008222323

Review: Justice League: Throne of Atlantis

One more DC related post before yet another Marvel theme week. Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is the direct-to-DVD sequel to Justice League: War. It introduces us to the New 52 version of Aquaman. The most notable change being that now, instead of sharing a father, Aquaman and his half-brother Ocean Master share a mother. So, since Aquaman's mother was the always the royal one, Orm now has a legitimate reasons to complain about not getting the top spot. Without further ado, Throne of Atlantis.

What's a Flash got to do to get on the cover?

The movie opens simply enough, with a submarine being attack by a group of aquatic warriors. Hey, it’s simple for a comic book. After the entire crew were slaughtered by the Atlanteans, we jump to Victor having a pleasant dream about being completely organic again. He’s rudely awakened by his cybernetics, badly flirts with one of his technicians, and is tasked with checking out the sub being sunk. So, you know, a usual Tuesday for Cyborg. He also tells his superior, Colonel Steven Trevor, that despite what he and the world seem to hope, the Justice League really isn’t a thing. Way to be a Negative Nancy, Cyborg. We jump to Superman and Wonder Woman having a date in Greece and contemplating their similarities and differences to Gods. So, yeah, we’re wasting our limited Justice League hour on this again. We then jump again to Arthur Curry, future Aquaman, drinking heavily at a seaside pub. He’s chatting with a lobster in a tank about his woes, chiefly that his Dad had just passed away. When someone tries to buy and eat said lobster, Arthur kind of flips out and a bar brawl ensues. Arthur’s half Atlantean physiology helps him beat the snot out of the five guys he was fighting with relative ease. The entire time he’s observed first by a red headed woman at the bar and then a scientist on the street. The main thug tries to knife Arthur when his back was turned, but unfortunately for him the knife snapped on his body. Arthur frees the lobster, and as he walks away, the woman in the trench coat drops it, reveals her Atlantean garb then jumps into the ocean.

We then join Cyborg as he begins checking out the submarine. He hacks the system, learning that the missiles he was sent to retrieve are missing. He’s then attacked by several Atlantean warriors, just barely escaping the group. Back with Arthur, he enters the lighthouse, bemoans his father’s death again, and drunkenly walks past several photos of his father, including a shot of his parents. We jump again to Cyborg and the only two Justice League members to respond to his summons, Shazam and the Flash. Flash then quickly gathers the rest of the League, by ruining Green Lantern’s attempts to score a date, and interrupting Superman and Wonder Woman’s civilian date. GL flies off when he finds out Batman didn’t show up, and helps Batman capture a group of henchmen working for the Scarecrow. Batman’s less than thrilled, because he was planning to scare the urine out of the henchmen and threaten them for information. Batman’s kind of a jerk.

She and Aquaman have about three conversations with each other.
Which, obviously, leads to the two of them becoming a thing.
Just like in real life... Right?

We check back with Arthur again, who is rather bizarrely crying over the one picture of his parents that he has before the lighthouse light. It’s pretty dang weird. Back with the League, they’re investigating the sub that they somehow pulled out of the ocean. They’re rather shocked to learn that the fish people are involved. Wonder Woman explains the Amazon’s old legend of Atlantis, how the ancient city’s citizens were saved when the city sunk by their king’s magic trident. Shazam suggest they look into a Dr. Shin, who has some bizarre Atlantis  theories that Cyborg thinks could be helpful. Batman and Superman go to check it out, while the rest of the League is tasked by Batman with finding Atlantis. Dick move, Batman. We jump back to Atlantis, where Arthur’s half-brother Orm is plotting with Black Manta. The two villains reveal they preemptively struck the sub while going to an audience with Orm’s mother. Mommy dearest is less than thrilled with Orm attacking the sub. Orm angrily berates his mother for not getting payback for the death of his father. The previous King of Atlantis having been killed in a volcanic explosion, caused by Darkseid’s invasion. Queen Atlana won’t have it, and orders her son to sit down, shut up, and do as he’s told. But more politely. Atlana reveals to her chief guard, Mera (the red head from the bar) that Arthur is to be king and sends Mera to collect her first born.

We flashback to Arthur’s childhood, where he remembers seeing his mother in the ocean. With her trident. Scary awesome mom. She gives him a loving kiss on the forehead before casting him back to the lighthouse. Thomas Curry is less than thrilled to hear this, but assures Arthur he’ll always be there for him. A hung over Arthur wakes up, and depressingly shaves. Such a sad sack. Well, we jump to Dr. Shin, who is excitedly discussing his work with his assistant, whom is revealed to be Black Manta. Manta loads up his sub with the stolen missiles, cloaks it to look like an American sub, and sends some Atlanteans to kill Shin and Arthur. While that’s going on, Black Manta attacks Atlantis in the cloaked sub. Jerk. Arthur holds his own against the Atlantean hit squad, but Atlantis doesn’t fare so well against the “attack.” Arthur is overwhelmed by the Atlanteans, but he’s saved at the last second by Mera. Can you guess where this is going? Bow chica wow wow.

Sigh... is there a fictional royal family that doesn't try to kill
each other?

Jump again, I'm starting to feel like some sort of flea or jumping bean, we see Batman and Superman enter Shin’s home. Together they learn that Shin’s work was centered on Arthur. Dun Dun DUUAAA! In Atlantis, Queen Atlana works to keep the peace, while Orm keeps trying to start a war. Atlana shuts them up using the magic trident, and decrees that she’ll broker a peace with the Justice League. In the ocean, Mera explained a bit more of Arthur’s background. Apparently Atlana was forced to leave Thomas and Arthur, princesses can’t marry peasants regardless of realm I guess. She outfits Arthur in some old Atlantean armor. Meanwhile, the Justice League searches for Atlantis, before being sent to find Arthur. Arthur tries to run from his destiny, before being attacked by sea-beasts. The two are able to hold off long enough for the Justice League to show up and even the odds. Arthur and Mera have moment, and then the Justice League agree to help them save Atlantis.

In the throne room Orm and Black Manta have an argument, and then try to again convince Atlana to attacking the surface. Atlana reveals she knew that Manta and Orm were behind the attack on Atlantis, and Orm stabs his mother in the back. Dick move, Orm. The Justice League is attacked in Atlantis, and meet Orm, now in his Ocean Master gear. He boasts about murdering his mother, sick weirdo, and about his plans to conquer the surface. The race is on to stop the insane Orm and his plans for conquest.

The good first, as always. The animation on this movie is beautiful. Stuff moves in the water like it’s supposed to, and the various energy/magic bolts are really well done. They throw in some CGI animation towards the end, for some of the troops marching and the Atlantean war machines, but it doesn’t look that out of place. Voice acting is top notch, with just about all of the JL members being returning cast members. Arthur is also pretty well done as the depressed hero, being forced to not only deal with the loss of the only family he’d ever known, as well as the pretty big shocker that he’s only half human. Kind of a lot to deal with in a week.

Team gets a bit bigger. Now they have TWO magic guys.

The bad is pretty minimal, again. I really don’t understand why they seem to insist that these movies are only a little over an hour. It really forces them to rush a lot of plot and character development. Particularly with Orm, who starts off as an evil whiner and really doesn’t go anywhere.  Adding another fifteen-twenty minutes to these movies would really clean up that particular problem, among others. Again, I felt that Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship is kind of stuffed in there. Doesn’t really add anything, other than to give the two of them more screen time. Guy’s like Green Lantern and the Flash could have used a little more screen time, but since they weren’t a huge part of the comic story, I can’t be too mad about it.

I give this one a B+. I dropped the grade down a bit from the last time, chiefly because that short run time still really makes it hard to cover everything in the timeframe. You can only do so much in an hour, and it's hardly enough time for a movie. Heck, it's more of a two part episode of a very short lived TV show. It's still an enjoyable introduction to one of DC’s most powerful heroes, Aquaman, and a good continuation of the story started in Justice League: War. Next time, we start another theme week, for the Fantastic Four. Whoopee. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_League:_Throne_of_Atlantis#/media/File:Justice_League_-_Throne_of_Atlantis.jpg

 http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150114141534/marvel_dc/images/4/4d/Mera_Throne_of_Atlantis_0001.jpg

 http://dcmovies.wikia.com/wiki/File:Justice_League_Throne_of_Atlantis_-_14_Queen_Atlanna.png

 http://www.comicvine.com/reviews/justice-league-throne-of-atlantis/1900-3799/