I just noticed that the new direct-to-vid Justice League movie (The New Frontier) is being released on Blu-Ray a good week or so earlier than its DVD counterpart. I know nothing about Justice League and the animation looks kind of harsh, but I still love comics of every kind so I'm admitedly intrigued. However, it strikes me as odd for this to be Blu-Ray first. Is this a normal tactic for straight to video releases now or might it be another incentive to pay more for a version that might now actually look a whole lot better (if at all)?

I'm just curious as I haven't noticed Blu-Rays having priority releases before. Could just be me.

As far as I know they are both being released this coming Tuesday. Where did you see that not the case?

Everywhere I look has the Blu-Ray and DVD release this coming week. They're even in the sale ads that way. You may be confusing it with the HD DVD release. Warner is staggering their HD DVD releases later than the Blu Ray and/or DVD releases. The HD DVD version comes out mid-March.

And I find it hard to disbelieve that you don't know about the Justice League. I'm just an average comic book fan (mostly just watching the movies and/or TV shows, not really reading the comics) and I've heard of the Justice League. Even my wife (who knows nothing about comics) knows of the Justice League (though that may be due to her having nephews who are into it).

Can't speech for New Frontier as I won't see it until next week, but both the original Justice League TV Show and Justice League Unlimited had pretty good animation. The animation process is expensive and they were working on a limited budget, so it isn't Disney quality or anything, but it is still very good. Hell, I wish the cartoons I grew up with were a 1/10 this good.

It's not that I haven't heard of the Justice League, just that I've never seen/read it, specifically.

I guess I'm wrong about the release date; I'm hearing Feb. 26 for Blu-Ray and DVD and March 18th for HD DVD. Which also seems strange considering Toshiba's announcement, but I guess this was all planned a long time ago. I can't imagine the HD DVD being particularly successful.

Anyways, I hope the Blu-Ray includes all the contents of the 2 disc DVD. I might just have to get it.

^yeah, those dates are correct according to DVDEmpire, which indicate the (now) standard Warner three-week HD-DVD delay.

Well for those not in the know, "The New Frontier" in addition to IMO being the best comic story of the past decade is about the paranoia of the 1950's McCarthy Red scare era ending the Golden Age of Heroes (Justice Society of America) to the start of the Kennedy "New Frontier and the reemergence of hope as well as the new Heroic Age embodied by the Justice League Of America.

The series expertly blended a story that combined real history alongside comic book history. Specifically the end of the Golden Age of Comics, the interum in between and the advent of spy, adventure and sci-fi comics and the start of the Silver Age of Comics, in which superheroes reemerged. Along the way it manages to tell a story of the Korean War, the start of Vietnam, Civil rights in the south, the space race (it's quite evocative of "The Right Stuff") and of course the prerequisite world ending threat that only spandex clad superheroes can defeat.

While the video itself is a highly abridged version of the comic, it still is quite good and I highly recommend it. In fact I hope this will inspire people to look up and buy the comic itself.

I highly HIGHLY recommend it.

And no, it has nothing to do with the continuity of either the current DC Universe published in the comics or that of the Justice League cartoon.

Heres' more background if interested: DC: The New Frontier

Just curious - how have people seen this already? You're the third I've heard from.

It's out there. Just in ghastly video quality.

The story itself, again, is a highly condensed version of the comic but Darwyn Cook, the writer, also worked on the cartoon and the spirit of the story is captured, albeit without a lot of the subtext and depth of the original story.

I myself am getting the HD version, barring any stupid decision to pack the SD and make the HD version bare bones.

Ditto, although I can't find it locally for less than $29

Well, Circuit City has a free Green Lantern patch and Best Buy has a nifty Hal Jordan PVC figure. Target's exclusive is a digital download for your PC.

None of the ads I saw mention if any of the exclusives pertain to the Blu-Ray version.

I'm guessing probably not but i am holding out hope that he Jordan PVC is not INSIDE of the SD DVD so I can buy the Blu-Ray and still get the figure. The absolute deal breaker will still be the extras. If the Blu-Ray doesn't have any of the extras that the Special Edition SD DVD has, then I'll just buy the SD DVD.

...and i'll again curse the fact that a lot of the HD movies i want to buy are bare bones.

EDIT:

The Blu-Ray disc does say "Special Edition" over at Amazon so I'm hoping it'll be 100% evrything included in the SD DVD release.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=515788&page=2

All the features are the same, as suggested by the box art.

I went with the SD version seeing as how Best Buy only had that option if you wanted the Hal Jordan figurine.

I haven't got it yet because I couldn't find the Blu-Ray anywhere. The 2 disc SD was only $15, but no figurine and no BR.