Honorable Mention: THE ADVENTURES OF TARZAN (1921)

• film serial (silent)
• released 12/1/1921
• directed by Robert F. Hill & Scott Sidney
• produced by Great Western Producing Company

CAST (boldface denoted character directly lifted from comic or source material)

Tarzan  (Elmo Lincoln)

Jane  (Louise Lorraine)

Clayton  (Scott Pembroke)

Rokoff  (Frank Whitson)

Monsieur Gernot  (Zip Monberg)

Queen La of Opar  (Lillian Worth)

Sheik Ben Ali  (Charles Gay)

Prof. Porter  (Charles Inslee)

My impressions:

The third and final appearance of Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan is a loose adaptation of the Burroughs novels The Return of Tarzan and Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. And I'll probably never bother seeing it as the only available print has chopped the original 15 chapter serial down to an incomprehensible 60 minutes.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE FLASHPOINT PARADOX (2013)

• direct-to-video animated feature
• released 7/30/2013
• directed by Jay Oliva
• produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation
• based on the DC Comics "Flashpoint" maxi-series

CAST (boldface denotes a character directly lifted from comic or source material)

The Flash / Barry Allen  (Justin Chambers)

Professor Zoom / Eobard Thawne  (C. Thomas Howell)

Cyborg / Victor Stone  (Michael B. Jordan)

Batman / Thomas Wayne  (Kevin McKidd)

Etrigan the Demon / Top / Canterbury Cricket  (Dee Bradley Baker)

Lex Luthor / Captain Thunder  (Steve Blum)

Batman / Bruce Wayne  (Kevin Conroy)

Superman   (Sam Daly)

Lois Lane  (Dana Delany)

Nora Allen / Young Barry Allen / Martha Wayne  (Grey DeLisle)

Aquaman   (Cary Elwes)

Green Lantern / Hal Jordan  (Nathan Fillion)

Iris West / Billy Batson  (Jennifer Hale)

My impressions:

Haven't seen this one yet, but I will because I have great faith in WB Animation and their treatment of DC Comics' great treasurehouse of characters. Even when they fumble the ball, the end result is always worth seeing because they put in the time. They care and it shows.

Here's the imdb synopsis:

An alteration of the timeline for the superhero, The Flash, creates ripples that disastrously alters the Universe. The Flash must team with other heroes to restore the timeline while the Earth is ravaged by a war between Aquaman's Atlantis and Wonder Woman's Amazons.

Honorable Mention: THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920)

• feature film (silent)
• released 12/5/1920
• directed by Fred Niblo
• produced by Douglas Fairbanks Pictures
• based on the novella "The Curse of Capistrano" by Johnston McCulley
• the first Zorro adaptation in any medium
• in later versions of Batman's origin story, this is the film that Thomas and Martha Wayne took young Bruce to the night of their tragic murders

CAST (boldface denoted a character lifted directly from comic or source material)

Don Diego Vega / El Zorro  (Douglas Fairbanks)

Capitán Juan Ramon  (Robert McKim)

Lolita Pulido  (Marguerite De La Motte)

Bernardo  (Tote Du Crow)

Sgt. Pedro Gonzales  (Noah Beery)

Don Alejandro  (Sidney De Gray)

Fray Felipe  (Walt Whitman)

My impressions:

First, allow me to celebrate with you the first break in the reign of Tarzan. No offense, I love the Lord of the Jungle, but it's about time another heroic archetype was represented. And here he is!

As entrenched in the collective unconscious as he has become, Zorro, the champion of the peons of Old California, might have faded as quickly as he arrived. The creation of a pulp novelist with a very shaky knowledge of the actual history of 19th century California, Don Diego Vega's (sometimes named "De La Vega") debut adventure in All-Story Weekly happened to catch the idle eye of one of Hollywood's biggest stars, the dynamic Douglas Fairbanks who was looking for a new action property to bring to the big screen.

The film, The Mark of Zorro, is one of the most successful silent films of its time and certainly influential. It holds up today with its kinetic pace and amazing stunts as designed and performed by Fairbanks himself. And the character he delineated - both the laughing, masked daredevil "El Zorro" (The Fox) and his public face, the outwardly foppish Don Diego - went on to influence every super hero with a dual identity that would follow.

Highly recommended!