When Marvelous Man (Will Yun Lee), the world's most powerful superhero and leader of superhero team the Guardians of Justice, commits suicide on live TV the world is thrown into chaos. As the world mourns the loss of Marvelous Man rumors begin to swirl that Marvelous Man's suicide was staged and was in fact a murder leading to Guardian of Justice, Knight Hawk (Diamond Dallas Page) to unveil the true culprit.
Guardians of Justice comes to us from producer Adi Shankar's Bootleg Universe, a series of one shot fan films Shankar produces featuring copyright characters or properties in strange but interesting takes ranging from 5 to 25 minutes long with notable entries such as The Punisher: Dirty Laundry and Power/Rangers receiving positive attention in both fan niches and mainstream. Initially developed for HBO in 2015, the show instead has come to Netflix where Adi Shankar has produced the critically acclaimed Castlevania animated series (with a forthcoming spin-off in the works) and has further series based on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, and Devil May Cry planned. Unfortunately Guardians of Justice is not on the same level as Shankar's other Bootleg Universe projects and overstays its welcome from the first episode.
The Guardians of Justice is a very thinly veiled satire of "dark and gritty" superheroes with Zack Snyder's stylistic approach to the DC Universe a clear target. The thing is though, people pretty much already know the issues of DC properties going super dark because these problems have been ingrained with the company's handling of their superhero properties since the miniseries Identity Crisis in 2004 where they retconned the plot point of Dr. Light raping Sue Dibny which spring boarded the DC Universe towards darker subject matter. Add to that the superhero deconstructions like the Amazon adaptation of Garth Ennis' The Boys which is now three seasons and a spin-off deep and the short lived series Jupiter's Legacy there's really not much Guardians of Justice can say that hasn't already been said. So what does Guardians of Justice bring us? It keeps shifting styles every three minutes. The show uses a mixture of traditional animation, 8-bit sprite animation reminiscent of old video games, and traditional filmmaking that makes the show feel like a lower tier version of one of Arrowverse's superhero shows. The style changes are incredibly irritating with the show's tone all over the map and the aggressively dark subject matter mixed with hammy overdone deliveries just left me exhausted from watching it.
I've only seen two episodes of this show, but that was plenty enough for me to say this was one of the worst shows I've seen of recent memory. Adi Shankar is a fantastic producer and from his work on 2012's Dredd and the excellent Castlevania animated series you can tell he's passionate about gaming and comic media, but the Guardians of Justice is just a terrible misfire. It regurgitates commentary on the tonal and creative direction on the past 15 years' worth of DC Comics media but can't say anything new and throws a bunch of random styles at the wall hoping something, anything, will stick. The Boys and Jupiter's Legacy both make the same points, but they're also entertaining and engaging. Guardians of Justice is a sad entry in the Bootleg Universe and pales in comparison to other Bootleg Universe productions by Shankar.
Guardians of Justice comes to us from producer Adi Shankar's Bootleg Universe, a series of one shot fan films Shankar produces featuring copyright characters or properties in strange but interesting takes ranging from 5 to 25 minutes long with notable entries such as The Punisher: Dirty Laundry and Power/Rangers receiving positive attention in both fan niches and mainstream. Initially developed for HBO in 2015, the show instead has come to Netflix where Adi Shankar has produced the critically acclaimed Castlevania animated series (with a forthcoming spin-off in the works) and has further series based on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, and Devil May Cry planned. Unfortunately Guardians of Justice is not on the same level as Shankar's other Bootleg Universe projects and overstays its welcome from the first episode.
The Guardians of Justice is a very thinly veiled satire of "dark and gritty" superheroes with Zack Snyder's stylistic approach to the DC Universe a clear target. The thing is though, people pretty much already know the issues of DC properties going super dark because these problems have been ingrained with the company's handling of their superhero properties since the miniseries Identity Crisis in 2004 where they retconned the plot point of Dr. Light raping Sue Dibny which spring boarded the DC Universe towards darker subject matter. Add to that the superhero deconstructions like the Amazon adaptation of Garth Ennis' The Boys which is now three seasons and a spin-off deep and the short lived series Jupiter's Legacy there's really not much Guardians of Justice can say that hasn't already been said. So what does Guardians of Justice bring us? It keeps shifting styles every three minutes. The show uses a mixture of traditional animation, 8-bit sprite animation reminiscent of old video games, and traditional filmmaking that makes the show feel like a lower tier version of one of Arrowverse's superhero shows. The style changes are incredibly irritating with the show's tone all over the map and the aggressively dark subject matter mixed with hammy overdone deliveries just left me exhausted from watching it.
I've only seen two episodes of this show, but that was plenty enough for me to say this was one of the worst shows I've seen of recent memory. Adi Shankar is a fantastic producer and from his work on 2012's Dredd and the excellent Castlevania animated series you can tell he's passionate about gaming and comic media, but the Guardians of Justice is just a terrible misfire. It regurgitates commentary on the tonal and creative direction on the past 15 years' worth of DC Comics media but can't say anything new and throws a bunch of random styles at the wall hoping something, anything, will stick. The Boys and Jupiter's Legacy both make the same points, but they're also entertaining and engaging. Guardians of Justice is a sad entry in the Bootleg Universe and pales in comparison to other Bootleg Universe productions by Shankar.