The Best Justice League Movie Everyone Missed
So... why did Warner Bros. pull the plug on Gods and Monsters?
Marvel may rule the skies as far as live action is concerned, but ever since Batman: The Animated Series first aired in 1992, everyone knows how DC has managed to own the medium of animation.
The brainchild of Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett and later Dwayne McDuffie, the DC Animated Universe defined the Distinguished Competition's universe for an entire generation of fans, with shows like Static Shock and Justice League echoing BTAS' commitment to blending light and dark together effortlessly to impart a mature - albeit kid-friendly - impression of DC Comics. All boasted a sizeable influence in granting that perception, but visually speaking, DC animation owes it all to Timm.
Since the decline of the DCAU, however, Timm's influence on Warner Animation has slowly waned. The studio's decision to switch to 'Animated Original Movies' necessitated a change in art-style, and Timm - synonymous with those earlier shows and films - decided to step down as a supervising producer with the release of The Dark Knight Returns.
Fortunately you can't keep a good creator down, and he returned to WB just a year later, announcing plans for three principle projects. One was an adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke, the second would become Batman and Harley Quinn, but the other - an Elseworlds-esque tale revolving around a completely new Trinity - sounded the more promising of the trio.
Dubbed Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Timm's vision would depart from the traditional League to tell a brand new story about a new version of DC's Trinity. It would be violent, depart from the established canon, and feature whole new designs of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Naturally such a big departure would also present a riskier prospect for WB to contemplate, and though they pursued the idea to its natural conclusion - releasing a film in 2015 - it underperformed, which led to a planned sequel and spin-off series being scrapped.
Timm has since gone on to helm further forays into the DCAU with Batman and Harley Quinn, and Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, but it's still the case that Gods and Monsters is something of an overlooked gem amongst DC's animated films. It's bold, daring, and exemplifies why fans love that corner of DC so much, but with its web-series now offline and the film itself rarely a topic of conversation, it's perhaps little surprise that the film is somewhat underrated.