Superman The Animated Series: Volume 1

-Warner Brothers (1996)

Summary:

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Superman! No wait, I’m sorry, it was a bird.

My Thoughts:

I grew up a Marvel kid reading any adventure of Spiderman or the X-Men I could get my hands on, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Superman. What’s not to like about him? The guy is nearly a god. Sure Wolverine is cool, but if I could be any superhero my pick would be Superman solely based on his awesome powers and that had sex with Teri Hatcher on a regular basis. Despite my love for the character, I’ve found myself drawn toward him in every medium aside from his comic book adventures. Almost every Superman comic I’ve ever read was completely retarded. How about this example? The Newsboy Legion. Case closed. In Bruce Timm’s follow up to the most excellent Batman: The Animated Series, the likely named Superman: The Animated Series features one of the better incarnations of the strong moral pillar of superherodom and a version of the man in blue I always thought should exist, but never saw myself.

The first episode begins with a bang (quite literally) and does something that most Superman origin stories don’t by giving Supe's origin story a bit of a twist. The pilot episode depicts a conflict between Jor-el and the computer program Brainiac, who really had nothing to do with Krypton in the comics. In this episode Jor-el kicks way more ass than the more famous Marlon Brando version from the 70s Superman films as he fights Brainac to get his son off Krypton before it blows up. There's also another reason why this episode is great if you look closely. There’s a cameo from everyone’s favorite super powered dog Krypto in his super cute puppy form. Awesome.

The other two origin episodes briefly cover the young Clark Kent in high school (how the creators of the show Smallville managed to make the most boring part of Superman’s burgeoning career as entertaining as they have is a mystery to me). Soon, Superman is in his familiar red and blue underwear. The rest of the episodes are fun and exciting romps as they pit Superman against many of his most deadly foes including Lex Luther, Metallo, and Brainiac (I bet you saw that one coming). One of the reasons why I prefer Superman’s outings over to Batman’s is the super powered battles have the man of steel knocked all over Metropolis as well as having him dish some pain back that would make Batman go crying home to his butler.

The worst episodes, with one exception, are the two that feature Lobo. The Wolverine wannabe provides enough stupid jokes and even worse slapstick to last a lifetime. The main problem with having the Poochie of comics in this series is that aside from Lobo sucking in general, he’s pretty watered down compared to the comics version of him where he kills anything that moves. In these episodes he just punches Superman a lot and fires his gun into things that aren’t people, which is pretty pointless. Still, the four Lobo fans left over from 1989 won’t be disappointed to see that their favorite stupid anti-hero has his retarded space motorcycle. You know for a character that was basically created to make fun of Wolverine he’s been around far too long. Isn’t it ironic that a parody became what it was parodying in the first place? I think my brain just exploded. The Lobo episodes would easily be the worst in the series if it wasn’t for the Livewire episode that’s even more stupid. It seems like an attempt to make a Harley Quinn for the Superman series and it’s a miserable failure. 

I found the episodes featuring a General Zod knockoff (the rights to the character must have been taken) with his evil female sidekick Mala to be a couple of my favorites. There’s just something about the possibilities of Superman facing off with his equals, after all its one of the reasons why Superman II is one of the best Superman films. The episode featuring the Flash is also a highlight for the series and it was a great taste of things to come for the later Justice League series. I remember when I first saw this episode I went ape shit, since the only other acknowledgement that there were other superheroes in the series was a throw away line about a “nut in Gotham City”.

Tim Daily, famous for roll on Wings, sounds pretty good as the man in blue although sometimes he comes off like he's bored. I also found myself enjoying the characterization and voice acting of Lois Lane. Normally, I find Lois to be an annoying jerk in the films and comics, but this Lois is actually an enjoyable. Everyone’s favorite droog Malcolm McDowel makes an appearance as Metallo. Anyone that gives McDowel work is awesome in my book.

On the whole the style of animation and character design works for the Superman series just as well as it did for Batman. The notable and welcome exception is Superman features a brighter color scheme that better suits the character. The animation quality is good, but not up to the par now set by Justice League: Unlimited or even the Batman series at times.

This DVD edition is a little on the lackluster side because the film print is rather grainy and full of scratches. The colors are nice and sharp, but the quality of the picture with its numerous particles really make the episodes look kind of crappy. If you are purchasing this set for the kids then I don’t think it will be a problem, but if you’re a videophile it will really irritate you. Superman: The Animated Series also suffers in the sound department by not featuring a 5.1 mix.

Extras:

There are a few nice extras on this edition, though nothing to make it very super. The best feature is the commentary tracks found on a few of the episodes. The creators have a great report with each other and are fairly entertaining to listen to aside from all the great trivia and behind the scenes info you’ll get. For those of you who need to know even more trivia there is a little trivia track that plays during one of the episodes. “Superman Learning to Fly” is a min-doc that is another neat look at the series from the creators. It’s not the best doc you’ll ever see, but it’s a good watch for anyone who’s a fan of the series.

Score:

Episode Average: 8.0

Extras: 7.0

Edition: 6.5

Picture quality drops this set down a few points. For anyone who loves the series this is a must own if only to get a collection of the series on disc.

 -Paul

    Click here for a review of Volume 2.