You know what I love? Actors with versatility. An actor that can embody any given character and bring them to life seemingly with little effort is astonishing to me. One such actor that I truly admire is Neil Patrick Harris. Now, I'm sure most of you reading this are going "What? Really?" But yes . . . Really! Arguably, Harris's two most famous roles are Doogie Howser of Doogie Howser, M.D. and Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother. One was a boy genius that became a doctor, which seems completely ridiculous and the other is a shameless womanizer, which seems rather ordinary in today's world. What you may not know is that Neil Patrick Harris has actually voiced quite a few comic book characters over the years on various TV shows and animated films. Every time I see Harris's name in the credits, which sadly is fewer these days, I get excited. I'm confident that he will bring that character to life and I won't be thinking of Barney or Doogie. What characters has he played you may ask? Well . . . I'm glad you asked! Well ok . . . I assume you asked . . . Whatever, you're reading it so here it goes . . .
JUSTICE LEAGUE - RAY THOMPSON
In one of the most memorable, if not somewhat frustrating, episodes of Justice League, a few members are transported to an alternate Earth that's protected by the Justice Guild of America. I say it's frustrating because apparently the producers were not allowed to use the Justice Society characters. Which is . . . fucking stupid. I mean . . . Really. ANYWAY! In the episode the Justice League starts to suspect that something is fishy on this parallel Earth. They soon discover that the JGA was killed decades ago and the city they're living in is a fabrication created by a little boy. The boy, Ray Thompson, was horribly deformed during a nuclear war but was also given psychic abilities. He's recreated the world from when was a child where the heroes save the day and everything is perfect. Hard to blame him, isn't it?
Harris plays the part of Ray Thompson. In the first part of the episode, he's a normal looking boy. He's pretty much the mascot of the Justice Guild. Later, when it's revealed that he's turned into a monster, his entire demeanor changes. Harris effortlessly switches from earnest young lad to psychotic, desperate monster. It's actually pretty frightening to listen to when watching the episode. Like I said, I love the versatility. Truthfully, when I first watched the episode I had no idea it was Neil Patrick Harris. I was totally blown away. That's the mark of a good voice actor!
SPIDER-MAN - PETER PARKER / SPIDER-MAN
This one may come as a shock to you seeing as how there's a good chance you've never heard of this series. The animated series premiered on MTV in summer 2003. It was meant to follow the first Spider-Man film, which is why not many of Spider-Man's usual rogues appear. However, it did have the awesome idea to recast the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin. The show only lasted 13 episodes. In my opinion, the show was very good, even if the animation was really weird. It was trying to have a traditionally animated feel but it was a CGI series. Looked odd to me. Perhaps it was a little ahead of it's time. If it were to premiere this year as a live action TV series I'm sure it would be a hit. Sadly, we may never know, even though I'm constantly saying Spider-Man should totally get a TV series.
Something like this!
Harris played the title role and absolutely killed it. He's got that innocent quality to his voice that's perfect for Peter Parker. But when he puts on the suit he becomes super-confident and shoots out quips as fast as he shoots webbing. Harris is the kind of actor that can do both of those things. Sound innocent and still confident I mean, not the shooting webs part (so far as I know). Again, like I said, perhaps the show was a little ahead of its time. It was on MTV and tried to be more mature than the usual cartoon follow up. Basically, it was a live action series disguised as animation. At the time, people probably weren't ready for that. Hell, we just became OK with things like Arrow, the Flash, and Daredevil for crying out loud! Oh well . . . Maybe one day Harris will get another crack at Spidey. In my opinion, he was perfect in the role.
DR HORRIBLE'S SING A LONG BLOG - BILLY / DR HORRIBLE
Quite literally one of Joss Whedon's greatest creations, Dr. Horrible was one of the very first low budget web series made by famous people right around the time when iTunes and YouTube were starting to really become normal things people used every day. If you've never seen it, and if you haven't stop what you're fucking doing right now and watch it, the basic plot is that an up and coming super-villain is trying to make his way into the Evil League of Evil. His plans are constantly thwarted by the egotistical hero Captain Hammer and Horrible's crush on Penny, who he sees every week at the local laundromat.
It might be a lot to say that Harris gives a "career best" in this series, given that he technically worked for free, but I'd be willing to at least throw that notion out there. He has to play evil genius, innocent, love smitten young man, to everything in between. By the end, it's fair to say that the Dr. Horrible we met is not the same man. Although the last frame does leave a lot to the imagination. Plus, Harris gets to sing! Something you may not know about me is that I'm somewhat of a theatre buff. I did a lot of plays/musicals in high school and college. I have a great fondness for actors that can dance, sing, and act all at the same time. Harris is one of those actors and any time he gets to sing makes me so happy. I doubt I could ever be at his level but he's someone I definitely look up to as an actor. VERSATILITY!
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER - BARRY ALLEN / THE FLASH
Based on one of DC Comics' most popular graphic novels, The New Frontier is basically the story of how the Justice League came together. Written and illustrated by the late, great Darwyn Cooke, the story takes place during the 1950s after the Korean War. The government has stopped trusting superheroes, effectively banning The Justice Society of America. Heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, unless they work with the government, are seen as outlaws. When a new threat emerges it's up to a new generation of heroes like Martian Manhunter, the Flash, and Green Lantern to stop it before the world is destroyed.
In Cooke's mind, the Flash would be a very insecure young man. Sure he's very fast and therefore very powerful, but he feels nothing compared to the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman. Harris captures that perfectly in his performance. He plays Barry as a young man trying to do good in a world that seems filled with hate and distrust. One of the best parts of the comic and in the film is when the Flash faces Captain Cold for the very first time in Las Vegas. You get to see Barry's cockiness come through as he fights his foe. Harris does a great job of giving Barry that tough sounding voice but it's laced with Harris's usual innocence. It makes for a great performance and, at that point, not seen yet in a Flash performance. I'm always hoping that he'll get to play the character again because, in my opinion, he was one of the best Flashes.
ROBOT CHICKEN - TWO-FACE
I admit, I'm not a big Robot Chicken fan. Most of the time, the bits aren't that funny to me. However, when they do the longer form episodes like the DC Comics Special or the Star Wars parodies I think they're a lot funnier. Harris has played Two-Face in a few episodes and he's actually quite funny in them. Like I said he's a versatile actor! He can play a serious version of the Flash and then easily switch to a Two-Face parody. That's gotta be a fun job . . . Sigh . . .
BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD - THE MUSIC MEISTER
While some super villains are trying to steal a satellite, the Justice League shows up to stop them. Suddenly, everyone bursts into song. They've come under the influence of the Music Meister! He's a brand new villain capable of controlling anyone within range of his singing voice to do his bidding. It's up to Batman to stop him from using the satellite from broadcasting all over the world, giving him control over everyone on the planet!
Remember when I said I look up to Harris and his wonderful singing? Remember also, in a past post, I said that the best Batman stories are tragedies? Well . . . we get a little bit of both in this episode. Harris gets to sing ridiculous, yet catchy songs while Batman chases him. The tragedy is that Black Canary confesses her love to Batman and he turns her down due to his ongoing mission of fighting crime and preserving justice. Seriously, this might be my all time favorite Neil Patrick Harris performance. It allows him to sing like there's no tomorrow while playing a totally over the top, campy Batman villain. There are rumors of Harris reprising this role in the upcoming Supergirl/The Flash crossover (with Joss Whedon directing). That would simply be sublime. I mean . . . I can't put into words how excited I am about that. The Music Meister is such a great villain, simply because it's so ridiculous but Harris really nails it. Mainly because he's literally one of the greatest singers ever. Doogie Howser, this guy ain't!
BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD - DICK GRAYSON / NIGHTWING
Based on the graphic novel of the same name, Under the Red Hood tells the story of the return of Jason Todd, the second Robin, to Gotham City. He has turned himself into the Red Hood and is hell bent on getting his revenge on the people that wronged him, namely Batman and the Joker. This definitely goes back to the theory that the best Batman stories are tragedies. Lucky for us, Neil Patrick Harris is there to lighten the mood!
While the rest of the film is very dark and depressing, as it's supposed to be, there is some comic relief in the form of Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing. Unlike his roles as Spider-Man and the Flash, we don't hear Harris's trademark (?) innocence. Nightwing is 100% confident. Harris even goes so far as to speak in a lower voice than he is normally known for. This definitely adds to the character. This version of Nightwing is mature and somewhat arrogant. However, more than once, he proves himself to be Batman's greatest ally. Plus, it's believable that Nightwing would be one of the few people that can (playfully) bust Batman's chops and get away with it. It's great!
As I said, Neil Patrick Harris is one of my favorite actors. I remember hearing that he was on How I Met Your Mother and thinking that it was funny that Doogie Howser grew up to be such a douchebag. Also he's a total womanizer, but in real life he's homosexual. It was such a funny juxtaposition to me. After watching many episodes of HIMYM I started to appreciate how much he was adding to the character. Quite a few of the Barney centric episodes became favorites of mine. It probably helps that I saw him as The Flash from the New Frontier before I became a fan of HIMYM. Who knows! Either way, I certainly hope that Harris is not done playing comic book characters because, as this list as shown, he's fantastic at it.
Seriously - he needs to be the Music Meister in real life. That would make my life. Or maybe . . .
But that's a post for another day ;)
Till Next Time!
JJ - the Comic Junkie!
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