Justice League: Doom is DC’s newest animated superhero film. It is based off Mark Waid & Howard Porter’s infamous Tower of Babel storyline from JLA (issues #43-46 to be exact). However, this basis is very loose at best, with really only minor concepts and the basic plot carrying over. Never-the-less, it is one of the more brilliant DC animated films put out to date.

Written by Dwayne McDuffie, shortly before his passing in February of last year, this adaption contains a very new and altered look at the well known JLA story. The story still carries over some of the more important elements, such as Batman’s paranoia creating a series of plans to take down every member of the Justice League, but also veers into completely new territory. For one, there is sadly no Ra’s Al Ghul in this adaption of Tower of Babel, trading in that immortal for another. Now we have a rather odd Legion of Doom, run by the evil Vandal Savage. The Legion consists of a rather motley group of villains that each have a bone to pick with the current Justice League. While the League is comprised mainly of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and the Flash; the Legion has the somewhat surprising counterparts of Bane, Metallo, Cheetah, Ma’alefa’ak, Star Sapphire, and Mirror Master. Now as great as John Ostrander’s era of Martian Manhunter can be, when you’re pulling out Ma’alefa’ak you’re really reaching for obscurity.

Thankfully, there is no obscurity in the familiar cast of voices for the film. Reaching out for the best voice actors DC has used for each superhero in the League, we get the valiant returns of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tim Daly as Superman, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, and more. The surprising bit is Bumper Robinson as Cyborg. Bumper has voiced several DC characters in the past for different animated features and shows, but Cyborg was definitely not a character in the original Tower of Babel storyline. This inclusion of the cybernetic superhero is likely a change brought on by DC’s New 52 and its addition of Cyborg to the original Justice League of America. Surprisingly, the addition fits into the film rather smoothly, with only a few moments where fans might be left to ask “Really? Cyborg is in this??”

Opening with one of the best intro credits scenes I’ve seen in superhero films, we get a full rundown of the Justice League members, their background, and who is voicing them as if loaded from the Bat Computer itself. From there it’s an instant dive into action with the Justice League fighting a redesigned, and very anime-esque, Royal Flush Gang. The Royal Flush Gang aren’t the only characters that see an anime-esque redesign in this film, but thankfully the new character designs aren’t so unbelievably Easternized that they can’t be enjoyed. If anything I must admit being somewhat impressed by how much I enjoyed the redesigns, despite not liking the concept of “Japan-ifying” Western comic characters.

With the changes to the Tower of Babel story, the members of the Justice League are still defeated by Batman’s schemes, yet now the schemes revolve around certain villains from the Legion of Doom. Sadly, these schemes are also quite different from the ones Mark Waid created in JLA. While Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter face plots fairly similar to Waid’s story, the other heroes are up against plots that could be considered as thin as tissue paper. Batman and Green Lantern specifically should have easily (and basically did) over come the ploys to defeat them. Of course, any 10-year old who has ever read or watched a Batman story could likely have come up with a more devious method of capturing Batman than burying him alive.

Despite some weaker plot points, the movie is brilliant and flows greatly thanks to the amazing dialogue. Honestly, I have never seen the DC characters voices captured so brilliantly in their dialogue than I have in Justice League: Doom. This goes with extreme credit to McDuffie, who made the superheroes not only sound like they do in the comics, but interact with one another like you would dream they would. Better yet, the dialogue is funny too! From exchanges like Batman revealing he’s kept count of how many times he’s saved Green Lantern, to Superman admitting embarrassment about once being sucker punched by Ace of the Royal Flush Gang. I have never enjoyed comic dialogue this much outside of the pages of an actual comic. That said, I think the best line might’ve gone to an exchange between Superman and Batman, where Superman suggests that maybe he could save the world by moving Earth out of the way of a solar flare. Batman, in true cynical form, tells Kal-el “If we had a week, I couldn’t list all the reasons that won’t work.” The dialogue of this film is definitely the movie’s selling point and a great way of remembering how brilliant McDuffie was as a writer who truly understood and cared about the comic characters he wrote.

On the note of McDuffie’s legacy, the film also features a pre-credit scene noting Dwayne McDuffie’s unfortunate passing last year, stating “In Memory of Dwayne McDuffie (1962-2011)”. It was a very nice and fitting touch on DC and WB’s behalf that adds even more enjoyment of the film to any fan of McDuffie.