‘Justice League Dark: Apokolips War’ Brings the DCAMU to an Epic Close

It came as a shock to me when it was reported that the newest DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) installment, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, was going to be its final one.  For seven years, the DCAMU has maintained an effective shared universe, and has been a quality source of adult-oriented DC animated content.  I don’t necessarily love all of its installments, but having followed it from day one, I’ve come to love the franchise in general.  Thus, it ending has kinda gotten me a bit emotional.

Anyway, in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Darkseid leads his army of Paradooms (hybrids of Parademons and Doomsday) toward Earth to conquer it once and for all.  In response, the heroes head toward Apokolips to launch a pre-emptive strike, but Darkseid has been apparently one step ahead of them all this time.  They are routed, and those who aren’t killed are enslaved by the Lord of Apokolips.  Subsequently, Earth falls.  Two years later, a remnant of heroes and rogues band together to mount one last, desperate assault on Apokolips, and free Earth from Darkseid’s clutches.

This movie is technically the sequel to 2017’s Justice League Dark, but it doesn’t really need to.  After all, the whole thing is essentially a crossover between all of the previous teams we’ve seen in the DCAMU throughout its run – the Justice League, Justice League Dark, Teen Titans, and Suicide Squad.  Why single out just Justice League Dark?  Sure, one can argue that this is somewhat justified since the story is headlined by John Constantine, the de facto leader of that team.  On top of that, other members also pop out during the course of the narrative.  But still, the movie doesn’t show these Justice League Dark characters assembling into a team at any point.  Moreover, the primary matter at hand isn’t the kind they fundamentally deal with, which is the supernatural (although there’s one subplot that involves Trigon).

Regardless, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is utterly gripping from start to finish.  As a finale, it truly comes off as a permanent conclusion to a saga.  It doesn’t hold anything back, and it fully commits on definitive, irreversible developments.  Its runtime is only 90 minutes, but because of its jam-packed, emotionally-draining plot, it feels like you have binged an entire TV series in the end.

In relation to this, Apokolips War is also by far the darkest DCAMU film ever (maybe that’s why the studio decided to make this into a Justice League DARK movie?).    As a movie that features war, it encapsulates war.  And in war, there’s much pain, horror, despair, chaos, and death.  High-profile characters get broken, violated, mutilated, or killed in this movie.  Even though the story ends with the good guys technically winning, it doesn’t feel like a victory at all.  The losses they suffer are tremendous, and the outcome they get is still generally tragic and heartbreaking.

All things considered, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is actually pretty depressing.  But at the same time, it’s also quite outstanding – one of the franchise’s best.  Visceral, absorbing, and daring, it serves as an epic finale to the DCAMU.

Miscellaneous musings (with SPOILERS):

• Will the DCUAOM label have a new shared universe series as replacement for the DCAMU?  Or will it have just standalone projects moving forward?
• Based on the ending – the Flash rebooting reality once again – it seems like that there’s going to be a new shared universe franchise.  However, unlike 2013’s The Flashpoint Paradox, this movie didn’t offer a glimpse of how the new universe would look like.  So, it’s still uncertain what the case would be.
• The Suicide Squad really shone in this movie.  They were awesome, especially Harley Quinn.
• Lady Shiva was killed in such a way that I found disrespectfully unlikely and inappropriate for the character.
• Superman finally getting some licks in on Darkseid was so satisfyingly cathartic.
• This film’s storyline reminded me of JLA #13 (“Rock of Ages, Part Four: Wasteland”), wherein Darkseid has taken over the Earth in an alternate future.  For the record, Grant Morrison’s late 90’s-early 2000’s JLA run is one of my most favorite stretches of Justice League comics.

• “Batgod” – Batman sitting on the Mobius Chair – happened in this movie! This development was a major reason why The Darkseid War was one of my favorite comics of the year it came out.
• Still, although Batgod was cool and all, I think Batman was more badass in JLA #13.  In that issue, he displayed remarkable mental and physical toughness when he somehow endured getting tortured for years by DeSaad (Darkseid’s disciple).  Eventually, he found his chance to pounce.  He defeated his tormentor in a battle of wits, and then took his place by masquerading as him, putting himself in the position to help the good guys defeat Darkseid.
• I thought something similar to that was going to happen in the movie. I thought Batman was just pretending to serve Darkseid while actually plotting his downfall in secret. Unfortunately, that wasn’t so. Batman really got brainwashed, and it took an encounter with Robin (Damien Wayne) to turn him back. I guess the movie wanted to make a dramatic callback to Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin.
• I wish there was a detailed rationale given to why and how Batman hinged “Plan B” on Constantine.
• Thank you, DCAMU!