At Comic-Con International in San Diego DC Comics CEO and Publisher Paul Levitz announced a joint effort involving DC Comics, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Home Video to produce animated direct-to-video DVDs targeting the DC Comics fan base. Unlike the DC animated series running on the Cartoon Network and the Kids' WB, these new projects will take a more mature approach, and rather than aping anime (as in the Cartoon Network's Teen Titans), these series will take their visual cues from the original comic book art.
Three projects have been announced so far:
- A version of Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier
- A Superman/Doomsday saga directed by Bruce Timm (who will oversee all three films)
- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract written by Marv Wolfman, who penned the original Judas Contract saga during the 1980s.
DC's initiative can be seen as a riposte to Marvel's successful introduction of a similar sort of direct-to-DVD animation (see 'Avengers First in Marvel OVA Series'), which was announced two years ago. By all accounts Marvel's animated Avengers DVD sold well -- it was rated in the top 10 in Amazon's list of best-selling DVDs, and the response of fans to seeing a PG-13 animated superhero saga rather than the usual Saturday morning reduced-violence video pabulum was generally positive.