DC Animation

[mharr]

Oh. Very possibly not, there's a lot of Harley properties around recently.

[KingRoyal]

It is that show, which is actually really good. The thing to keep in mind is that it's written and produced by Jewish people. That's just kind of Jewish humor, think Mel Brooks.

[Thad]

I'd argue that the first season, and half of the second, leans way too hard into being edgy and "adult", which mostly means bad-taste stuff like blood and cursing and a bunch of Jewish stereotypes that lean more toward cringe than good-natured Mel Brooks goofballery. I found it compelling enough to watch, in a sort of morbid-fascination way, but I didn't think most of it was very good. (Great cast, though, and some good character beats here and there; "Harley is a screw-up but wants to be better" tends to make for a pretty good hook for any given episode.)

I'd say the show gets a lot better about halfway through season 2, and that this happens, not coincidentally, when it finally decides to acknowledge the two leads are queer. I suspect part of it is that, based on the production timeline, they were probably halfway through writing season two when season one started airing, and this was their first chance to course-correct based on reviews and feedback from the audience. And part of it's probably that every show takes awhile to figure out what it is, and most shows have first seasons that aren't a close match to the later ones.

But yeah anyway all that to say the Harley Quinn cartoon is good now.

[mharr]

Okay, good info! Jump in at... S02E05 ? That one looks like a bunch of key plot points.

[KingRoyal]

It's worth noting that both seasons were ordered and developed at the same time. HBO ordered 26 episodes which were split into the first two seasons. The first season is about Harley's emancipation from the Joker and search for self-identity, the second season is about her relationship with Poison Ivy. But that stuff is very much present in the first season, as well, the season where she dyes her hair bisexual colors. The first season also has more Alan Tudyk which is a definite bonus.

And yeah, it does kind of lean into the edgy humor more in the first season, but it also has insane Jim Gordon and treats the DC Villains as more of a social circle that blends modern Batman with Batman '66 of all things.

Season one also has some great Bane bits

[Thad]

Young Justice: Man, I was worried for a minute there that season 4 episode 13 was really the season finale, with no season 5 pickup (as yet). That is a lot to leave unresolved, between Superboy being dead, whatever the hell the Legion is doing in the present day, the guy they're after who apparently killed Superboy, and Gar's addiction to sleeping pills. Let alone the Darkseid plot that's been simmering since season 2, all the unresolved Markovia stuff from season 3, and the post-credits scene of Mary Marvel hearing the voice of Granny Goodness in her head.

But I looked it up and apparently it's just the midway point; there's more season 4 to come. Given that what we've seen so far are 3 arcs featuring founding members of the team -- Miss Martian and Superboy, Tigress, Zatanna -- I'm guessing the back half will be split up amongst the remaining (surviving) members of the original team (/ characters in the opening titles), ie Nightwing, Aquaman, and Rocket.

Of the season 1 cast, Rocket joined last and has gotten the least screentime, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in particular. I know Milestone a little bit but not as much as I should; I've kinda got an idea about what Icon and Rocket's deal is but I'd like to see more of them. (And hey, maybe work in some other Dakotaverse characters; Static's already been a major character on the series, but I wouldn't mind seeing Hardware or Xombi. Given how much this show likes to just drop obscure characters in media res with no explanation, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them.)

On a related note, Milestone Compendium One is due out on February 1 (for Black History Month) and collects the first year of the original Milestone comics (Blood Syndicate #1-12, Hardware #1-12, Icon #1-10, Static #1-8, Xombi #1-8, and Shadow Cabinet #0). I think the only one of those I've actually read is Hardware #1. It was good stuff; Dwayne McDuffie/Denys Cowan. Kind of a riff on Iron Man, except instead of a power fantasy about a rich white guy who escapes with a high-tech suit of armor he created in a POW camp, it's about a genius inventor who's Black, gets screwed by his bosses, and "steals" the suit of armor he created for the company that ripped him off. A good hook by talented creators.

There were a lot of talented folks involved in the original Milestone -- MD Bright, John Paul Leon, ChrisCross, Tommy Lee Edwards, JH Williams III, Robert Washington, Jamal Igle, Humberto Ramos, John Rozum; not an exhaustive list. I need to pick that collection up.

You know what else this season has me jonesing to pick up? The Demon. That's another book that I have a passing familiarity with but have never actually read. DC's been putting out some lovely Kirby paperbacks over the past couple of years (I was just talking about how I picked up the recent OMAC reprint collection and how much I'm freakin' loving it), so I'm guessing it won't be long before The Demon and Kamandi are back in print; I'll need to keep an eye out.

[Thad]

"That's my wife and my husband!"

I've been consistently impressed with how the two most recent seasons of Young Justice have made a conscious effort to be as inclusive as possible.

And hey, nice to see things worked out okay for Lagoon Boy after his breakup with Miss Martian.

[Thad]

Holy fucking shit Young Justice isn't just the continuation of one beloved DC animated series that was canceled in March 2013, it's the continuation of two. The latest episode picks up from the ending of Green Lantern: TAS.

[Thad]

I mean a big part of watching this show is being surprised and delighted by unexpected references to other bits of DC lore but I don't think any of them to date have put this big a smile on my face and keep in mind I'm saying that right after an arc that had Topo and Lori Lemaris in it.

[Mongrel]

aw man, no way

[Thad]

[beatbandito]

twoface doing that is on brand batman villain, and making/approving the offer is just a real world bank

[Thad]

Young Justice is still great.

I like the bit with Dick pretty much immediately figuring out what the Legionnaires' deal is and then adding "The main thing is, we can trust Bart." It's such a perfect little moment showcasing how much he's like Batman and how much he's not like him -- he's got the detective skills but not the trust issues.

[KingRoyal]

Really, when you think about it as a powerful foe who continually torments the offspring of one particular family throughout history, it becomes necessary to understand Superman and Zod as the original JoJo

[Mongrel]

Damn!



I know the Fleischers were amazing, but I'd always assumed they'd half-assed the Superman cartoons because they were so unenthusiastic about making them. Especially since you'd see DVDs of them turn up in bottom-of-the-barrel bargain bins.

[Thad]

I feel like the Fleischers, while revered by fans of classic animation, don't get the same kind of love or recognition among the general public that the old Disneys, Warners, or MGMs do.

And those Superman shorts are the most technically impressive of the lot. They'd better be, considering their budget -- the Fleischers intentionally highballed Paramount, requesting a budget of $100,000 per episode on the assumption that Paramount would reject the offer outright; instead, Paramount talked them down to $50,000, which was still way too good to pass up.

The first one (the one in the tweet) is the only one that actually wound up with a $50K budget; subsequent shorts had a $30K budget. Which was still significantly more than what they were getting for their Popeye shorts.

[Thad]

Okay I'm a little behind on Harley Quinn but damn season 3 is great.

[KingRoyal]

Probably one of my favorite takes on Joker in recent memory

Never would have guessed that the thing to spice up the Joker would be "Make him a family man"

[Thad]

Or that the antidote to a bunch of chuds insisting he's the good guy was to make him the good guy.

[Mongrel]

Oh man.

"GARY! Dammit!"