Shorts that are Sweet

Asking for more after you’re done watching any type of film is a good thing, but in the case of “Superman/Shazam: Return of Black Adam,” DC comics does an excellent job of providing an excellent origin story and quickly leaving right after the best note has been struck.

However, there’s more than meets the eye here. Less than a half-hour long, this DVD is more about the second rung of heroes in DC comics than Captain Marvel himself, containing three other tales that encompass the whole collection.

Fast-paced and fun, the four animated shorts on this DVD definitely don’t waste anytime, quickly leaving after their climax.

And that’s a good thing.

Nothing against the characters featured here, but their fan bases are different from most and in order to get the mainstream comic fan and animation geek interested, DC had to play it smart.
In this case, that’s exactly what they did.

While the Superman/Shazam short takes up most of the space on the DVD, shorts featuring the Spectre, Green Arrow and Jonah Hex are all featured here and do an excellent job of bringing out the characters involved. Stellar voice acting by a myriad of stars such as Malcolm McDowell, James Garner, Thomas Jane and Alyssa Milano bring these characters to life, wetting the audiences palette for something bigger to be created in the future.

However, the best part of the DVD is the distinctive visual look every short has.

A rock-em, sock-em adventure from start to finish, Superman and Shazam has the look of an anime, while the Spectre’s tale is an ode to Don Siegel’s work on the “Dirty Harry” films. While the overall look of Green Arrow is similar to the Superman/Shazam short, the witty catchphrases and witty one liners Oliver Queen utters throughout give the short a Saturday morning cartoon feel, geared towards older viewers. Lastly, a cross between Vampire Hunter D and the look the comic had during its heyday, the Jonah Hex short is darker than the others and brings this brooding protagonist to life much better than the theatrical film that bombed in theaters this fall.

You might even be able to make the argument that had this short been turned into a full length production, it could have done better with fans and newcomers to series.

Even though this pieces are short, the top-notch animation, entertaining dialogue and more than solid voice cast do the almost impossible: making the second-tier stars of DC comics look and feel as important as the heavy hitters.

For that, this DVD deserves a look.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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