Do you want to see something amazing that you will never forget? Do you know the first live action version that the Justice League had?
It’s not even remotely League of Justice from the DC Extended Universe. Neither did Smallville or the 1997 TV movie (which was a pilot for a series never made, maybe I’ll talk about it another time). None of them is the first, for that you have to travel to 1979 and to the production company Hanna-Barbera, yes, the same one that was responsible for the Super Friends drawings (or any of the various names these drawings had). It was then when a double television special called Legends of the Superheroes was made and broadcast, which went largely unnoticed, and which today is largely ostracized, but which meant being able to see the Justice League live for the first time, with real actors and facing their villains. Plus the return of Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin! (Which for me was the only reason to see it and even more so to buy it on DVD).
It cannot be said that there was budget, quality or even an understanding of what was being done (but it was done anyway). The creators’ idea was to transfer the spirit of the ’66 Batman series to a whole team of heroes, taking advantage of the success they were already having in cartoons, but they were only on the surface and did not understand the satire and comedy of that product (more or less like the misfortune that was made in 1998 in The Avengers by the hand of Jeremiah S. Chechik). We must praise the audacity to launch into it, it continues to be a milestone in the world of comics, or of their audiovisual adaptations. The entire Justice League was there, from the Black Canary to the Flash through the Huntress and a very well chosen Hawkman; as well as a large group of villains with Mordru, Solomon Grundy and even the Riddler with Frank Gorshin himself returning to green tights and mad laughter. We must also applaud the value of making a direct translation of the uniforms they had in the comics, although the result is more comically pop than anything else, but there are Sinestro and Sivana being a carbon copy of the cartoons. And I recommend you watch it? Let’s see, it’s a pretty forgettable special (even more so its second chapter). With a practically non-existent script and some actors who didn’t seem to be very clear about what they were doing there, but knowing this, go for it. For better or for worse you will never forget it, although it is possible that Hawkman’s bird cry will replace the whale in your nightmares.
