Barry Allen (Matt Bomer) is the fastest man alive, he’s also the busiest and between his relationship with Iris West (Ashleigh LaThrop) and his need to be at every life-threatening situation, he’s finding it hard to stand still. Then one day after a picnic with Iris gets interrupted, Barry finds himself accidently thrown back in time to the 1940’s.
World War II is in full force and the United States government has put together a team of earth’s mightiest heroes to help out in the war effort. Hourman (Matthew Mercer), Hawkman (Omid Abtahi), Jay Garrick (Armen Taylor), otherwise known as The Flash and Black Canary (Elysia Rotaru) are led by Wonder Woman (Stana Katic) as a force to be reckoned with. They call themselves The Justice Society of America.
However, when Barry ends up joining the team, they soon realise that there are other things threatening the Earth that they must deal with alongside battling Nazis. Justice Society: World War II is an original animated feature which brings together some of DC Comic’s unsung heroes and puts them in a scenario never seen before in the DC Animated Universe. Presented like an Elseworld’s story, it seems to be all about Barry Allen at first, although once the team are pulled together there are a lot of stories to be told among them.
Justice Society: World War II also has a unique art style which is reminiscent of the cinema style at the time, albeit with a bit of colour underneath the sepia tones. There are also many action set pieces to entertain its audience, although the absence of one character is notable. Particularly when their inclusion would have made the fight much shorter. However, their story arc seems to have been dealt with off screen while the others deal with the villains.
There’s also little time to deal with every relationship, so a rather traumatic scene doesn’t have the weight it probably should have done. Justice Society: World War II is certainly a different take on DC Comic’s history, but with its unexpected villain it feels more like the pilot to a proposed series rather than a standalone feature.
Animation, Fantasy | USA, 2021 | 12 | Blu-Ray, DVD, Digital | Warner Bros HE | 27th April 2021 (UK, Digital), 10th May 2021 (BLU-RAY) | Dir.Jeff Wamester | Stana Katic, Matt Bomer, Armen Taylor
