Justice Society: World War II

Something of a return to form for the DC animated universe, Justice Society: World War II forgoes caped crusaders and the Man of Steel to place Wonder Woman front-and-centre in an alternative history take on the Second World War. Diana (voiced by Stana Katic, an actress who previous voiced Lois Lane in Superman: Unbound) leads a team of Golden Age, Allied, superheroes, including Omid Abathi's Hawkman; Matthew Mercer's Hourman; Armen Taylor as a period appropriate Flash; Matt Bomer as a time displaced Barry Allen and (best of all) Elysia Rotaru as a lovelorn but scrappy Black Canary. 

This portrayal of an Axis-bashing superteam has its roots in the comics and serials of the time - the Justice Society itself dating back to 1940's All Star Comics issue 3. The film depicts a real war of occupation, complete with war crimes and extrajudicial executions, being fought by bright, four-colour, American personalities. Unlike the comics Justice Society: World War II adapts, this film takes place after the United States has joined the war, an event perhaps expediated by the fall of this universe's Soviet Union. Not to be outdone in the propaganda stakes, the Rome-Berlin alliance have their own Übermensch in the form of a blonde, brainwashed, Aquaman - the King of Atlantis providing a friendly dock for German U-boats on their way to New York. 

Although taking clear cues from 2002's Justice League season finale The Savage Time, Justice Society avoids replicating Bruce Timm's Alex Toth influenced character designs, opting for a less stylised depiction that instead recalls the light, wooden, caricature of a television series like Archer. Figure outlines in Jeff Wamester's film are thick brackets separating handsome character drafts from their background. Similarly, the meat and potato action sequences have a marionette quality to them - a uniformity of figure that suggests a baked character model being twisted and manipulated rather than an individual piece being animated from scratch. Still, a sequence where Wonder Woman beats up a squad of advancing Tiger tanks - with her bare hands - has more heft and pulverising weight to it than the last half-dozen straight-to-video DC adventures. Justice Society succeeds for similar reasons to 2015's Justice League: Gods and Monsters, it tackles a formulaic story from a less formulaic perspective; a light shake-up confident enough to be mistaken for a feature-length pilot episode. 

Wonder Woman

So far, the loudest voice in DC's most recent push for a Cinematic Universe has been Zack Snyder, the director of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Snyder, working in the thrall of 80s comic book smashes like The Dark Knight Returns and Miracleman, proposed a slate filled with passionate, immoral Gods thrashing around seething CG tableaux. Snyder's heroes are not particularly selfless or altruistic, they're introspective and obsessive. They moon and stew over the kind of problems that swim out into an abstract range of thought.

Dawn of Justice (in its expanded form) is a three-hour epic predicated on Batman's gut feeling that a messianic alien has the potential to turn against the people of Earth. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Bruce halts his war on crime to assemble the tools necessary to kill this Superman. It's a decision that deliberately invites accusations of jealousy. Bruce Wayne has seen a power and strength that cannot be bought or duplicated, feeling inadequate he works towards crushing it, reasserting his standing as the ultimate man. Dawn of Justice is Nietzsche's will to power viewed through the prism of Frank Miller's big feet comics, emboldened by poor box office returns for the two previous Superman films.

Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman then functions as a counterpoint, standing in opposition to all these unregulated, male expulsions. Gal Gadot's Diana of Themyscira isn't ancient and embittered, she hasn't seen her parents bleed out or be whisked away into a tornado. Instead she's from a stable, loving background, raised by a doting mother and an island's worth of adoring warrior women. Snyder's twin superheroes spring from altogether less stable situations - the alien moped around in agricultural misery denying who he was while the child billionaire found himself in a bottomless pit filled with clattering rodents. No wonder they export disaster.

Thanks to several superhero cycles that never found the time to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen, Allan Heinberg's screenplay is allowed to discover her in circumstances that reflect the character's initial creation rather than an angle designed to repackage something people have already bought. William Moulton Marston and Elizabeth Holloway Marston, working with artist Harry G Peter, created Wonder Woman to serve as a powerful, feminine hero who extolled the virtues of love and compassion. William specifically organised his co-creation as a form of psychological propaganda designed to sell readers on the idea of female leaders who ruled without instantly resorting to force.

Jenkins and Heinberg interpret this desire with a hero who approaches the quagmire of the First World War in much the same way as Alexander the Great dealt with the Gordian Knot. Instead of listening to the men who bark orders and limits at her, Diana sees problems then acts decisively, placing herself in the thick of desperate street fighting and frostbitten trench warfare. Diana acts as a leader too - running out into No Man's Land armed with a shield, she soaks up the incoming machine gun fire, allowing the boys that follow enough breathing room to gain precious ground. Her actions invite this collaboration, her strength equalising the otherwise insurmountable danger for her allies.

Jenkins approaches this action atypically, seizing on the regular bulletins as an opportunity to watch and delight in the graceful movements of experts. Gadot and her fellow Amazons are shot in ways designed to capture their power and authority rather than the damage their movements affect. Jenkins isn't interested in the minutia of violence, the destruction and fitful energy of Snyder is tamed here, channelled into brief glimpses of an earthbound Goddess skipping across slate rooftops. It's an action model predicated on delight rather than might, a decision that works hand-in-hand with Mr and Mrs Marston's desire to see unburdened femininity communicated in the language of deification.

Wonder Woman

After two contractual obligations and a misfire, the DC Universe animation imprint brings us Wonder Woman. Although part of DC's holy trinity, Wonder Woman has never come close to matching her compatriots Superman and Batman for big screen interest. Instead Princess Diana's made do with a supporting role in sundry animated series, and a high-camp TV serial starring the extremely photogenic Lynda Carter. Created by woman worshipping psychologist William Moulton Marston to be an ideal of female might, Wonder Woman has always danced a fine line between feminist-ish icon, and light bondage fantasy figure. It is to director Lauren Montgomery's credit that neither portrayal is outright ignored here.

Moulded out of clay by the scorned Queen Hippolyta, Keri Russell's Amazonian Princess longs to ditch her plush paradise island and explore the world of men. An opportunity arises when letchy American super-pilot Steve Trevor drops out of the sky and custom demands he be returned. Male lead Trevor, voiced by the drawling Nathan Fillion, is cast as a flirty foil to Diana. His attempts at wooing wither under a harsh, Amazonian glare. He's as much a plucky side-kick as he is a love interest then. Initially curious, Diana's sojourn into man's world eventually inspires disgust. She is revolted by how fey non-Amazonian women allow themselves to be; brief solace found teaching a little girl how to pulverise her male playmates at stick-fighting. It's not all gender clash comedy though, Alfred Molina's softly spoken Ares, the Greek God of war, is on the loose, eager to bring about the downfall of man.

The most exciting quality of Wonder Woman: The Movie is it never forgets it's riffing on ancient myth-making. The arbitrary rules and petty cruelty of the uncaring Olympian pantheon pulses undercurrent to events, requiring heroes to commit infanticide and returning passed loved ones to hateful, hyper-mobile un-life. Most spiteful of all is Ares' pleading encounter with the revoltingly corpulent Hades. The War God grovelling for his freedom as Pluto heaps on unmentionable affronts. Four films in and the DC direct-to-DVD animation conveyor belt has finally delivered a piece that withstands comparison to the admittedly mighty Justice League Unlimited TV series. Wonder Woman is snappy, playful, and often alarmingly harsh. Next up for an animated origin yarn is Hal Jordan in Green Lantern: First Flight, again courtesy of Montgomery. Can't wait.