DC Showcase: Animated Shorts (2010—)

DC Showcase: Animated Shorts (2010—)

The DC Showcase original shorts are, as the name implies, short animations that feature DC characters. They tended to be mostly 'extras' on disc-based releases of longer works, but in some cases the short was better than the main feature; I'm thinking specifically of Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (2019).

Given my feelings about how visually bland most animated movies made digitally are, I'll likely never see all of the shorts, so expect the following list to have gaps and omissions. I'm not a completist, so it is what it is, but I'll add to it as and when I see any more and if I've anything to say about them.

NOTE: the runtime values given below are all approximate, obtained from a mix of Region 2 PAL DVD and 1080/24p Region B Blu-ray. Remember also that about 2-3 minutes of each time quoted is opening and closing credits, not actual story. [1]

01. The Spectre (2010)

Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos | 12 mins | Originally released on JLA: Crisis on Two Earths

It begins with Los Angeles detective Jim Corrigan investigating the murder of a Hollywood movie producer. But later the green cloaked spooky Spectre takes over, exacting revenge on the people responsible, in a suitably gruesome style. The Spectre isn't a superhero in the traditional manner, he's a supernatural entity, but that just makes him even more badass than usual.

Gary Cole provides voice work in an excellent hard-boiled style. He's good. Very good. And visually it's a joy to watch, with just the right amount of post-production jiggery-pokery to make it seem like it was shot on cheap 1970s film stock; the grain and dirt making the golden sunlight of L.A. even more beautiful. The music, also reminiscent of the era, is a perfect accompaniment.

The story is pretty basic and Spectre's origins are left a mystery, but the tone and way everything feels complementary and aligned make it one of the better shorts mentioned on this page.

02. Jonah Hex (2010)

Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos | 12 mins | Originally released on Batman: Under the Red Hood

Short #2 takes us to a Wild West setting for a tale of bounty hunter Jonah Hex. It begins in the time-honoured way: a stranger rides into a mining town, enters the saloon through swing doors, causing a hush in the clientele, etc; it's clichéd but beneficial to the mood. And while we learn very little about the titular character, he nevertheless manages to hold the attention well. It never hurts to leave the audience with a little bit of mystery to mull over after the credits roll.

It's a simple story that's told well, with good pacing and beautiful hues in a palette that favours golden-browns and bronzed sunlight. It was a success. I liked it.

03. Green Arrow (2010)

Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos | 12 mins | Originally released on Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Oliver Queen (Neal McDonough), running slightly late, arrives at an airport to meet his significant other at a time that coincides with a "royal" arrival. Things go south, unexpectedly, and Oliver's romantic reunion becomes more of a heated rescue mission.

It makes sense that Green Arrow's costume be green in colour, but its liberal use elsewhere is perplexing. There's a scene on a baggage carousel in which everything is various shades of green, including the clothing worn by the thug whom Green Arrow is struggling with.

Overall, it's mildly entertaining, but not something that I'll be in a hurry to watch again.

04. Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010)

Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos | 25 mins | Originally released as the main feature on DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection

Super bad guy Black Adam (Arnold Vosloo) crashes to earth and begins to tear the place apart, then he begins to stalk a young kid called Billy Batson; not very suitable behaviour for a full grown man. Billy (Zach Callison) is a good kid; poor in pocket but rich in kindness, he stands up to the bullies even though he knows it might mean he gets an ass-whoopin'.

It's essentially a Captain Marvel (Jerry O'Connell) origin story with Superman (George Newbern) along for the ride, which ends up in a three-way testosterone battle.

In my experience, Captain Marvel was good fun in comic book form, and he's made the transition to animation beautifully. There's a thoughtful side to the youth's story, a history of hardship and loss, but the fun is present, too. There's some quick but well-timed musings on morality, and even a short lesson about karma. It's the lengthiest of the shorts so far, lasting about the same as an episode of Superman TAS or Justice League, but it never feels like it's gone on too long.

05. Catwoman (2011)

Dir. Lauren Montgomery | 15 mins | Originally released on Batman: Year One

It's the goggles-style Catwoman, if that's your thing. Two thugs with guns chase a cat, which encourages Catwoman to jump in, again voiced by Eliza Dushku. Rough Cut is the villain. It culminates in a car chase (well, one is on a motorcycle). I hated it. I saw nothing of value in it.

06. Sgt. Rock (2019)

Dir. Bruce Timm | 15 mins | Originally released on Batman: Hush

I've no prior knowledge of the Sgt. Rock character, in comic books or otherwise, so had no expectations and no clue as to what to expect. My only hope is that it would be good.

It was well-animated, which wasn't a surprise, given the quality of the same in the shorts thus far, but the story was so uninspired that I'm surprised it ever made it past the script stage.

The US Sergeant (Karl Urban) is given command of an unusual trio of soldiers, who together must stop Nazi scientists from creating a secret weapon. I can't even hint at what's unusual about the trio, because of how well-known they are, but will say that their inclusion makes the 'shock' ending as predictable as butter on hot toast. Fans of wartime action, and perhaps a certain genre of video game, may feel differently, but I was bored from beginning to end.

07. Death (2019)

Dir. Sam Liu | 19 mins | Originally released on Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (not on DVD vers.)

The Sandman universe is a strange bedfellow to the wider DC world, but Death's outing is the crowning glory of the Showcase Shorts. It's the only reason to own WoWo: Bloodlines.

It follows a struggling artist named Vincent, shown first as a boy with optimism glowing fervently behind his youthful eyes, then to an adult painting symbolic steel bars in a grey world, losing himself in the mundane. He exists, unfulfilled, mocked by personal demons. Defined by his lack of success, he drinks alone at the bar. Writer J.M. DeMatteis' characterisation is top class.

Death looks great, a pale and alluring muse with a subtle level of interconnected detachment and sympathy present in her words. The whole venture is heightened with a perfectly complementary and understated score by Frederik Wiedmann.

In a perfect world we'd have had more Sandman shorts, one for each of the Endless. It's how the books should be done onscreen. It shits all over the awful Netflix live action series.

08. The Phantom Stranger (2020)

Dir. Bruce Timm | 15 mins | Originally released on Superman: Red Son (not on DVD vers.)

A hippy van carries what resembles an alternative 1960s Scooby Gang on weed to a house in California. Along for the ride is new girl Marcie (Natalie Lander), hoping to find something she can believe in, although she's no idea what that 'something' might actually be.

The Phantom Stranger (Peter Serafinowicz) appears soon after; he's thematically dramatic, like from a TV series, not a theatre, with a slightly cheesy nature that seems entirely intentional. He appears and disappears mysteriously, as befitting his moniker.

There's a lot of crap in what follows, including a bizarre psychedelic dance scene that's reminiscent of low budget drug culture movies from the era, but it's ultimately a good versus evil story, with Phantom Stranger functioning as the good, in an oddly undefined way.

09. Adam Strange (2020)

Dir. Butch Lukic | 16 mins | Originally released on Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

I'd no prior knowledge of the Adam Strange character, so went into it as a blank slate. It's more graphically violent than DC usually gets, but I don't know if that's typical of his adventures or if it was simply a lazy way of making it seem more 'adult-orientated'.

The story is told partly in flashback. Now a bearded drunk on a deep-space mining colony, we learn that he's been there many years, waiting for an event that's yet to happen. In that time, he's fallen into apathy and torpor. There are some basic parallels and juxtapositions between his past and present, until it all goes a bit Starship Troopers (movie) and more violence breaks out.

I got the feeling that it was some kind of set-up for a later appearance, perhaps one of redemption, but that in itself didn't make me want to learn more about the character. It's officially the first entry in the Tomorrowverse continuity. Maybe he turns up in that.

10. Batman: Death in the Family (2020)

Dir. Brandon Vietti | ?? minutes | Released as Batman: Death in the Family (2020)

I gave this one a standalone post a while back, before I decided to make a page for the Showcase Shorts. I'll summarise below. Clink the link above if you want to read it in full.

If you ever felt the need to change how Under the Red Hood (2010) played out, now's your chance. DitF is one of those 'choose the outcome' scenarios, with footage branching to reflect the viewer's choice. Sometimes it's an entirely new sequence, but at others it's new intercut with existing animation from UtRH. Each path takes around 20-30 minutes to conclude.

11. Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth! (2021)

Dir.  Matt Peters | 18 mins | Originally released on Justice Society: World War II (2021) and later added to Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

Kamandi was created by Jack Kirby sometime in the early 1970s. That's important to know because the animation pays respect to both of those things in its art style and colour palette, being heavily inspired by comic books from the era of 'King' Kirby's DC output.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic world populated by anthropomorphic animals that talk, very like Planet of the Apes (1968) but with more species than just ape. Kamandi and a small group of animals are forced into various endurance trials that function also as a test of character.

There's not much to the plot — it feels even more like a prelude to something else than the Adam Strange short did  — but voice work is good and I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time with it.

12. The Losers (2021)

Dir. Milo Neuman | 16 mins | Originally released on Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021) and later added to Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

It begins with a storm of gunfire amid a storm at sea, as a bunch of US Marines fight something unusual. Not long after, they do much the same on a tropical island. There's the usual squad talk and acts of heroism that one often sees the USMC do in a WWII movie setting. It's meh.

13. Blue Beetle (2021)

Dir. Milo Neuman | 15 mins | Originally released on Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021) and later added to Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

It's good to see WB taking risks with the Shorts. The BB one is a loving homage to 1960s era TV shows, specifically things like Batman and Green Hornet. Everything about it both ridicules and celebrates the format. You don't need to love the 60s style, but a nostalgias for it will be helpful. Personally, I liked it a lot, but I can understand how it might be polarising for younger folks.

14. Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

Dir. Matt Peters | 27 mins | Originally released as the main feature on Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

This one got a standalone post, too, because it was released on disc as the main draw alongside a few previous shorts. As before, I'll summarise. Clink the link above if you want to read it in full.

C: HoM is a kind of epilogue to the Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020) movie, showing what happened to John Constantine after he made his fateful decision therein. He's now in the House of Mystery and, as is normal for the cocky magic user, his luck is mostly bad. But he's not alone. Many of his friends are there, too. That's good, right? Right?

The story is a 'time reset' scenario, wherein we witness the same starting event more than once, but it moves at a speedy pace and there's a level of dark humour throughout that helps it not feel repetitive. If he's to escape the cycle, he'll need to use his trademark cunning and cynicism.

It ends on a cliff-hanger. It'd be a perfect opportunity to kickstart a full Constantine animated TV Series from, but that's as likely as heavy snow in Cairo, alas.

[1] For the benefit of people who aren't format nerds, a PAL image is generally superior to a NTSC image. The trade-off is that PAL speeds run about 4% faster than NTSC speeds, which results in a slightly shorter runtime and raises the pitch of the audio track a little. Folks with pitch-perfect hearing may be able to discern a difference, particularly in music that they know well, but the vast majority of the viewing populace won't notice. In a perfect world I'd have the 24p version every time, but I'll take the PAL DVD format over NTSC any day of the week.