DC Showcase Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth! is a 2021 short animated film included in the bonus features of Justice Society: World War II, starring Kamandi and was directed by Matt Peters and written by Paul Giacopo while Cameron Monaghan voices Kamandi.
Years after the Great Disaster killed all of humanity and allowed mutated animals to rise to dominance, the last human Kamandi attempts to rescue his friend Tuftan with help from Ben Boxer. This rescue goes wrong and they are forced by a tripe of apes to participate in several tests to see if they any of them are the reincarnations of the Mighty One.
The short is part of the Tomorrowverse as Kamandi makes an uncredited appearance in Justice Society, having somehow travelled back in time to the 1940s.
DC Showcase: Kamandi includes examples of:
- Acid Pool: Kamandi rushes through a cloud of acid that immobilises Ben, calculating it's a type that works quicker on metal than flesh.
- After the End: The Great Disaster destroyed human civilisation leaving the cities in ruins.
- Bad Future: It's a post apocalyptic future and is implied to be the fate of Earth-2.
- Cargo Cult: The gorillas revere an ancient hero as a prophesied saviour, and have preserved his clothes.
- Composite Character: Since Kamandi appears in Justice Society it appears that Earth-2 (the reality of Justice Society) and Earth-AD (Kamandi's reality) are the same universe in this version.
- Enemy Mine: Kamandi tells Zuma they need to team up to fight the Giant Bug. Zuma responds by throwing Kamandi to the bug to be eaten while he attacks it from behind. When Kamandi saves Zuma later on, the ape is surprised and humbled that Kamandi would do so after what he did.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The final test involves being Fed to the Beast, but once the shock collar is smashed the Big Creepy Crawly just licks Kamandi's face.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Tuftan breaks his leg leaping the chasm, but Kamandi insists on bringing him along even though everyone else tells him otherwise.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: The trials are all designed so that teamwork, compassion, and/or self-sacrifice are necessary to survive them.
- Rat Men: Played straight with them portrayed as the least likable species that have evolved. They try eating Tuftan, and are only there to serve as expendable Red Shirts for the trials.
- The Reveal: The "Mighty One" revered by the gorillas is Superman.
- Secret Test of Character: The real test of the trails is not strength, invulnerability or fighting ability, but wisdom and compassion, the true traits of Superman.
- Shout-Out:
- To Planet of the Apes with Kamandi introduced paddling past a ruined Statue of Liberty, and being captured by apes on horseback.
- In Kamandi's flashback he is shown reading an issue of The Demon.
- Sole Survivor: Kamandi is the last surviving human since his grandfather died. Ben denies being human himself, despite his superficial human appearance.
- Stable Time Loop: This short ends with Kamandi going on a journey to find the "Mighty One" with his costume in a back pack, and Justice Society has a scene where Kamandi has somehow travelled back in time and gives Superman his costume. One of the ape priests even mentions that Kamandi was written of like the Mighty One, suggesting that he knew all along that he's destined to go back in time.
- Talking Animal: As you would expect in a Kamandi story, nearly every character other than Kamandi is one: we have some rats, some gorillas, and a tiger.
- The Three Trials: The gorilla cult puts Kamandi and his friends through a deadly obstacle course. The course includes a chasm that must be jumped, a room filled with wall-mounted guns and acid-spurting pipes, and a small arena with a rampaging giant insect.
