With 'Justice League Dark: Apokolips War' releasing soon, it's time you caught up with DC's animated films
The trailer for 'Justice League Dark: Apokolips War' has released. This brings a major crossover event to the animated DC universe that has slowly been building up under the radar over a series of animated movies that are culminating in a major war with Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips, bringing it all back to the beginning with 'Justice League'.
The first real DC Animated Universe (DCAU) really began with 'Batman: The Animated Series'. This expanded into a Superman series, 'Batman Beyond', 'Justice League Unlimited' and one or two other animated films before coming to a halt. The DCAU is still lauded today for being some of the best storytelling done with DC characters across any medium. It skipped past the conventional method of giving every new character introduced to the canon an origin story, introducing new characters from the comics to the series fully formed: costumed, powered and ready for battle.
The DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) had a more back-to-basics approach, inspired by the 'New 52' model of DC Comics that erased much of its history following the 'Flashpoint' storyline in an attempt to make their stories more accessible to new readers. In the comics, this approach upset fans, leading DC to attempt to backtrack with its 'Rebirth' relaunch. The DCAMU, however, kept their tone and revamped continuity consistent through its films.
Starting with 'Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox,' which saw Barry Allen revamp the timeline and continuing with 'Justice League: War', the DC animated movies built upon the biggest storylines to have spun out of the New 52, while employing their own twists to the tales. As the line expanded, they included their own spins on more classing tales with 'Batman vs. Robin', 'Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay' and 'Teen Titans: The Judas Contract' — all stories that were set firmly in the past of DC comics, but were updated for the new DCAMU continuity.
It's all coming together for 'Justice League Dark: Apokolips War', which seems to be taking its cue from 'Justice League: Darkseid War' by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. 'Darkseid War' was really the last of the major DC events before 'DC: Rebirth' and the movie appears to be the culmination of the DCAMU line of films as well. The movie was teased in the post-credits scene for 'Reign of the Supermen', teasing the return of Darkseid. This is especially significant, given that Darkseid has not been seen in the DCAMU since 'Justice League: War', which saw this continuity's Justice League unite for the very first time.
Putting their own spin on the storyline, the 'Dark' of 'Justice League Dark' seems to imply that John Constantine, and magic in general, will have a big part to play in the Apokolips invasion. Constantine will be voiced by none other than Matt Reeves, who has been portraying the character both in the animated movies as well as live-action in 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' and 'Constantine'.
You can watch the trailer here:
'Justice League Dark: Apokolips War' releases on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital in Spring 2020.
