"Harley Quinn," Year Three, and "Battle of the Super Sons"

Spoilers for the first two seasons of "Harley Quinn" ahead.

I've liked the animated "Harley Quinn" series pretty well up until this point, but I feel like the series has turned a corner that wasn't in its best interests.  We've moved past Harley wanting to prove herself as a supervillain and trying to get past her ex, the Joker.  Now she's officially hooked up with Poison Ivy and is facing a new set of problems - being in a new relationship, Poison Ivy's burgeoning megalomania, and some confusing encounters with Batgirl (Briana Cuoco) and other members of the Batfamily.

Maintaining an anarchic, subversive comedy program that also has a lot of continuity and sincere character progression can be a tricky balance, especially in later seasons.  The fun of the more mean-spirited humor starts to wear off, and B-villains making sarcastic, self-aware quips feels old hat.  "Harley Quinn" has never had the dramatic underpinnings of something like "Rick & Morty," so when it tries to have its main characters do some real soul searching, it can feel out of character.  Ivy developing a taste for world domination after two seasons of being relatively chill is probably the season's biggest blunder.  I think the larger problem is that the show's initial premise has run its course and some of the characters really don't have anything to do.  There's a whole subplot involving Clayface impersonating Billy Bob Thornton for a James Gunn movie that doesn't really work.  Frank spends most of the season as a kidnapping victim and MacGuffin.  Joker's continuing adventures as an upright citizen are starting to come across as a little bizarre.  

Fortunately, we spend a lot more time with the Batfamily this year, and they're revealed to be as dysfunctional as the villains.  This is relatively uncharted territory, so most of the jokes still land.  Bruce Wayne (Diedrich Bader) is especially screwed up, in an unhealthy relationship with Catwoman (Sanaa Lathan), and still obsessed with his dead parents.  Easily the best episode this season is when Harley gets to go spelunking in Batman's psyche, and remind everybody that she used to be a psychiatrist.  I think Harley growing up a little more and sorting out her priorities this year worked fine, but the show is juggling so many other characters now that she's gotten a little lost in her own show.  There's still plenty to love here, especially for the DC nerds, but "Harley Quinn" is running out of steam.       

Over in another corner of the DC animated universe, Warner Animation's direct-to-video animated features about DC universe superheroes have been quietly proliferating since 2007, and now there are nearly fifty titles.  I've seen a handful of these over the years of varying quality.  They're much closer to the DC comics continuity than most of the other film and television adaptations, and they've done direct adaptations of famous stories like "The Death of Superman," "The Long Halloween," and even the notorious "The Killing Joke."  Many of these are aimed at more mature fans, but one of the latest is very kid friendly and surprisingly entertaining: "Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons."

In case you weren't aware, Batman and Superman are both fathers in the DC comics.  Superman (Travis Willingham) and Lois Lane (Laura Bailey) are the parents of Jonathan Kent (Jack Dylan Grazer), a rambunctious kid who learns that he has superpowers and a superhero father on one very special birthday.  Unfortunately, this also happens to be at the same time a mysterious alien force is threatening Earth.  So, Superman and son end up in the Batcave consulting with Batman (Troy Baker).  The latest Robin is Bruce Wayne's son Damian (Jack Griffo), an edgy little ex-child assassin who is still adjusting to being one of the good guys.  Naturally, Jonathan and Damien have to team up, when their fathers are put out of commission.  

"Battle of the Super Sons" is a nice entry point to get to know this set of characters.  It's an origin story for Jonathan, and offers an introduction to Damian without getting into his complicated history.  The cel-shaded CGI animation looks pretty close to feature film quality, the actors are all solid, and the fight scenes are especially cool.  I could easily see "Super Sons" as a jumping off point for a series or many further direct-to-video outings.  Frankly, the premise is so good that I'm surprised Damian and Jonathan haven't found their way into any of the live action adaptations yet.  On the other hand, the second that they do, they probably won't be allowed to be half as much fun as the versions we see here.  

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