Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own
Review of Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths—Part One (2024) can be found here!
Okay, so, what we learn in Part Two is that wave that was destroying all realties was not a one time event, now there are many waves coming unexpectedly and at varying intensities, which means every Earth who has one of them towers constructed on it, to phase through it, has to be on alert to activate it at the drop of a coin. Another problem, the towers need repair from time to time. We also learn, thanks to Question, well, more theorizes, these waves are the creation of a sentient being. That theory will eventually be validated when Psycho-Pirate is kidnapped and confronted by a menacing unseen being that eventually comes to the conclusion it’s the Anti-Monitor, and a plan is hatched between these two villains where Psycho-Pirate will help it end all realities and in return it’ll create one where he’s a God.
This installment comes with two backstories: the first is Supergirl, and her connection to the Monitor, as he ends up kind of becoming her step-dad after his monitoring of the destruction of Krypton brings her to his attention. These are all events happening pre-Crisis. He raises her, teaches her, and then lets her go into her own life, events which lead her to The Legion Of Super-Heroes (2023) movie, but he brings her back when that wave materializes and begins wiping out creation. Here we get to see her origin of how she become Harbinger, and her task to bring all heroes and villains to the Monitor.
The second origin tale we get is of Psycho-Pirate, and his is chronicled all the way back to childhood and into who he is now as a super villain who can control people by manipulating their emotional states. There’s a ton of rather shocking death in his origin tale. We saw a little bit of him of in Part One when Harbinger brought him to the space station.
This installment doesn’t have a central point where the tale weaves out from; The Flash was that point in Part One, instead we get subplots involving Batman and his Bat-family reuniting on an Earth to keep its tower from being destroyed by Joker. But the Batman we’ve been following in this Tomorrowverse chapter of DC’s animated movies is a loner, and has a tough time understanding why another Batman would take these people under this wing; another subplot involves Wonder Woman helping out an Earth full of Amazons; other briefer ones involve Kamandi and Superman.
The monkey wrench we see working it’s way into all these subplots is Psycho-Pirate taking advantage of his situation. Before that he was actually helping the Monitor using his powers to keep everyone calm on the various Earths but he just doesn’t have the strength to manipulate that many people at the same time, and he baits Monitor into doing what he did to Supergirl that made her Harbinger—give him a little bit of his power, and now we get to see the various heroes manipulated and pitted against one another as this Anti-Monitor sends shadow demons to destroy the towers.
I didn’t put it together until this installment that that old man transient from Part One was Constantine; his mind’s been wiped of who he was, and a battle with Green Lantern jogs some of those memories loose. The last time we saw him was in the short film Constantine: House Of Mystery (2022) where he met a terrible fate. I’m assuming this was his fate, to have his origin wiped from memory and take up residence on every Earth about to be wiped out of creation.
I enjoyed this part a tad less than Part One, but the animation style and fights were amazing as always. Action animation could have used a bit more zip in some scenes, since there are a few moments that looked a little stiff, but in the end it was all good.
Warner Brothers Home Entertainment releases Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, Part Two (2024) in separate blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD (steelbook) editions that you can buy now on Amazon!
Video/Audio/Subtitles: 2160/1080p 1.78:1 Ultra High Definition Widescreen—5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio, 5.1 French Dolby Digital, 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital—English SDH, French, Spanish Subs
Extras Included . . .
- Voices In Crisis (8:19)
- The Bat-Family Of The Multiverse (8:25)
- Part Three Sneak Peek (1:19)
PHYSICAL MEDIA LIVES AT . . . 