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The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

 Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 12

Tools of the Trade

 

Bruno Mannheim is back and we finally see his connection to Intergang.  He’s the leader of Intergang who’s being “funded” by a mysterious benefactor.  This benefactor is using Kanto as his liaison.  Intergang uses their hi-tech weapons to pull off robberies.  Superman stops them but the weapons are an obstacle for him.  

 

Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer are on the trail of Intergang.  They are part of a super powered crimes division in Metropolis.  It’s actually a very clever department to have in a city that’s constantly getting attacked by aliens.  Maggie Sawyer wants Superman to help them, Dan Turpin is against it.  

 

Turpin goes off on his own to bust Intergang and performs an illegal search of Mannheim’s property in order to catch him doing illegal stuff.  Since he had no warrant, anything he saw would be inadmissible in court. Superman is looking for Turpin but ends up in a fight to the death with Intergang, during the battle Turpin helps, possibly saves Superman’s life. 

 

Kanto runs away via a boom tube, Mannheim follows him through the portal.  More cops and reporters show up.  Superman tells the press Dan Turpin saved his life.  Turpin thinks Superman is cool and because of that they’re now friends. 

 

The big reveal in the episode is Mannheim ends up in Apokolips and we learn Darkseid was manipulating the events to try and destroy Superman so he can invade Earth.  The first true start of an established story arc in the DCAU.  This isn’t a two-parter episode, or follow-up to an introduction episode.  Darkseid’s appearance was deliberately planned out in stages to culminate into an invasion of Earth.  Lex Luthor was Superman’s greatest everyday villain.  Darkseid is the big bad who Superman grows to hate.   A solid introduction episode for a major villain in the DCAU.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 11

My Girl

 

What we have here is an episode that focuses on a personal relationship between Clark Kent/Superman and his high school girlfriend Lana Lang.  The villain is inconsequential in the story.  Yet, somehow the villain is the driving force for the entire plot.

 

Lana Lang is a top brand fashion designer, because that’s the only successful thing women are allowed to grow-up into on television/film.  Lana Lang is dating Lex Luthor.  During a big fashion show which Lois and Clark are covering, Lana get’s kidnapped/robbed by two women.  One is a large thuggish lady, the other more traditional looking.  The ladies want the diamonds on Lana’s dress.  Instead of just ripping the diamonds off Lana’s dress outright, they take Lana and say they are going to take her somewhere private to change into cheaper clothing.  Their entire plan doesn’t make sense because she was alone in the dressing room.  They could have just held her down there and swiped the diamonds instead of dragging her to an exterior elevator.  

Of course Superman shows up.  The crooks toss her out of the elevator, he swoops down and saves her, then rips the elevator out of the building and ties it with the ladies inside to a bridge.  Let’s break this down. She’s thrown out a glass window and he flies down to save her, that’s all good.  He can’t control the bad guys breaking stuff.  Then he ruins the entire elevator on a large skyscraper by hanging it on a bridge with people inside.  How much destruction did that cause?  The elevator which needed a window repair now needs an entirely new elevation, new wires.  Tons of money in either insurance premium or outright cash afflicted on the building owners. Leaving them hanging off a bridge requires emergency crews to rescue hostile criminals who are willing to kill people to avoid capture.  So the fire department has to risk their life to get these bad women off an elevator stuck on a bridge, risk getting harmed by them in an attempt to escape.  Emergency services are now distracted rescuing these criminals when the resources could be spent putting out fires, capturing other bad guys.   Superman could have absolutely apprehended these women in a less severe manor which involved less property destruction.

Why go though all this, well for starters, the female criminals were a writing device because network standards and likely the creative team themselves didn’t want men man-handling women in a children’s cartoon.  Lana gets tossed around pretty hard.  You really don’t want a man doing that in front of children, even bad guys.  The same rule applies to Superman.  He can’t rough up these bad-women to immobilize them.  Therefore the solution is to rip the entire elevator off the building and hang them from a dangerously high bridge. 

 

After the heroic save Lana revels she knows Superman is Clark Kent.  Superman is shocked by this.  For an investigative reporter, he’s a bit clueless.  Why wouldn’t his teenage girlfriend who witnessed him doing some crazy superhero stuff put the pieces together? Even though she’s dating Lex, Lana wants to rekindle her romance with Clark.  Clark isn’t interested in her in that way and really just wants her to stay away from Lex Luthor because he’s a huge jerk.  As Superman flies off, Lex’s bodyguard Mercy Graves suspects they have a fling going on.  She narcs to Lex who doesn’t want to believe it but sees the proof with his own eyes.

Lex shows some genuine loss in this moment.  He really seemed to care for Lana Lang.  The dude is a billionaire and it’s probably hard finding a woman he thinks is actually into him and not just his money.  As we saw in the Metallo episode, The Way of All Flesh, Lex can get hot girls but they are company, not keepers.  Lana Lang is a millionaire in her own right, established career woman, strong willed, smart, super hot.  It’s a personality Lex Luthor would be attracted too.  He also briefly dated Lois Lane before the start of the series who dumped him for reasons unknown but we can surmise it’s because he’s an arrogant jerk.  Lois is smart, established, good looking.  She’s not a millionaire but certainly well off and successful in her career.  Lex has a type.  It’s apparently the same type as Superman. Lex’s reasons for his taste in women appear to be much deeper than Superman’s.  Superman seems to just want to save all his women.  Lex likes a person that challenges him.  

 

When Lex discovers the betrayal of Lana he is truly upset by the loss.  Since he’s a super villain, it’s his obligation to have her killed and not just break it off with her.  If Lana fell for anyone other than his mortal enemy, he probably would have taken it better.  Also Lana is spilling trade secrets about Lex’s illegal activities to Superman.  You just can’t do that.  

 

Lana gets kidnapped again, her life is in danger again, Superman shows up and saves her again.  The episode wraps up with Clark and Lana agreeing to be friends.  Lana is going to Europe for an undisclosed amount of time to promote her fashion line.  There’s a joke about Lois Lane being his true love.  Here endeth the episode.

Putting aside the jokes about the plot, this is a great episode.  It has action, great characters, good jokes.  Using Lex as the villain, giving Superman a personal problem to attack is brilliant.  Superman easily saves Lana throughout the episode but he needs to find a way to establish a platonic adult relationship with his high school girlfriend.  The best minds can’t navigate that problem.  The happy ending truly belongs to Superman because no other person could ever accomplish that balance in life.   

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Black Adam - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Black Adam

2022

Director: Juame Collet-Serra

 

The film opens with a prologue about slavery and freedom and how what turns out to be Black Adam’s son got his powers from the Wizard Shazam.  We’re then brought to present day in a fictional Arabic city which represents all the crappy Arabic cities in the world.  It is run by Intergang which has financial backings from Apokolips in the comics.  Black Adam is resurrected and crazy action goes down.  He takes out an entire army in seconds.  

 

Amanda Whaler pops on screen and starts talking to Hawkman about the Black Adam appearance.  We then get the boring ass DC ensemble cast introduction of the Justice Society.  For some reason DC is obsessed with character introductions whenever Amanda Whaler is a character in their films.  Why, why, why do they insist on doing this? It’s absolute torture and ruins films.  Stop dumbing down your story for the audience.  If you’re writing is good, they’ll figure it out as the story progresses.  

 

There’s a bunch of slow exposition which is vaguely attempted as character development.  The director does his best to try and keep in interesting by moving the characters and actors around.  It’s flashy smoke and mirrors trying to distract from poor writing. 

 

The Justice Society shows up and squares off against Black Adam while he’s doing his anti-hero thing.  Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman is a complete copy of Anthony Mackie’s Falcon from the MCU but let’s not dig too deep into that.  The Mackie impersonation makes Hodge’s character very likable.  The people of the city side with Black Adam instead of the Justice Society which makes sense because he’s actually fighting Intergang instead of saving them. 

 

Throughout the film we’re riddled with this annoying kid Amon Tomaz who basically reminds Black Adam of his son.  So Black Adam keeps saving him.  Also, Tomaz mother has some crown which will resurrect some evil yada yada McGuffin.  Every time Black Adam saves him, the kid appreciates it but has to toss some criticism at Black Adam.  Maybe don’t put yourself in danger all the time and Black Adam won’t have to save you, ever think of that dumbass? 

 

The film does not disappoint with the action which is what makes this a fun watch despite some weak story telling.  Amon Tomaz gets kidnapped.  Black Adam works his anti-hero mojo to try and find him and it pisses off most of the Justice Society.  They find the magic crown in the process.  The crown is to be offered as a trade from Amon Tomaz, during the exchange crap goes down and Amon Tomaz gets hurt but he’s basically okay.  This leads to the full backstory and we learn Black Adam’s son was the true hero and he gave his power to his dad which resulted in his son’s death. Black Adam bugs out, kills his oppressors, gets imprisoned by the Shazam wizards.  

 

Black Adam agrees to go into captivity via the Justice Society but the bad guy hasn’t been defeated yet.  So we all know he’s going to bust out and comeback to save the day. The question is how clumsily will this derivative plot point occur.  The evil King Sabbac rises up and the Justice Society cannot handle it.  Dr Fate sacrifices himself and convinces Black Adam to bust out of the cage he’s been in for like 15 minutes and fight Sabbac.  

 

Black Adam and Hawkman fight Sabbac together and destroy him.  The city is saved.  Black Adam vows to protect the city.  The credits roll, the mid credit scene Amanda Whaler has things to say to him about bullshit which doesn’t matter.  Henry Cavil’s Superman makes a cameo, instead of just his stunt double in a suit like in Shazam, implying we’d have some cool showdown between the two in another movie.  It never happens.  Instead it’s the last appearance to-date of Henry Cavil as Superman since DC decides to burn off their next few films and reboot their franchise from scratch at its conclusion.  

 

Black Adam certainly has its flaws but overall it’s not a terrible film.  The theme of having a hero who needs to do bad things is a horrible theme.  That’s what hurts this film.  The message is hard to support and also so heavy handed.  You can respect an anti-hero like in The Suicide Squad but having the need to justify a character’s actions makes for poor writing.  Bad guys can be bad and do good things.  If Black Adam was just a guy who distributed justice on his own terms without a boring lecture on his need to do so, it would have been a much better film for it.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 10

The Main Man Part 2

 

The follow-up episode is far superior to the origin episode.  Superman and Lobo are held captive by the Preserver since they are the last of their kind.  Superman tries to talk his way out but the Preserver refuses.  Superman is weak from the simulated red sun but uses his wits to break out of his cage.  Lobo begs for his help, Superman refuses but eventually agrees as long as Lobo doesn’t attack Earth ever again.  Lobo agrees to the terms.  

 

While navigating the ship they come across different perils and come up with creative ways to overcome them. Lobo is late on his initial bounty so a posse shows up to kill Lobo.  The Preserver lets them on the ship thinking it will work to his advantage.  

 

Superman bust into an enclosure which houses the dodo from Earth, get’s his strength back and beats up everyone.  As Lobo and Superman enter the ship hanger, the Preserver flips out and tries to kill them.  He’s insulted because they don’t want to live as captives on his ship forever.  The Preserver transforms into a huge monster, Superman and Lobo defeat him and go their separate ways. 

 

Twist(ish) ending, Superman takes all the creatures the Preserver had and keeps them in the Fortress of Solitude.  It’s supposed to be a sweet ending but there are a lot of undiscussed darker story elements that are glossed over.  

 

The Preserver has good intentions by taking creatures who are the last of their kind and keeping them safe on his ship.  As his name indicates, it seems like he preserves them, doesn’t collect them.  He wants to keep them safe.  He absolutely crosses a line by taking sentient beings.  When he’s killed by being thrown into the cold vacuum of space the creatures are left with no caretaker.  Lobo wants to abandon them.  Superman agrees to care for them.  Most likely guilt for his part in the Preserver’s death.  

 

Unfortunately by taking on these creatures, Superman doesn’t know their diets or habitat requirements.  It’s doubtful he can translate the Preserver’s language and get the data needed from the ship.  Where would Superman get the money for the food these animals eat? This is assuming he can find Earth food that can work as a dietary supplement.   He also has to fly to The Fortress of Solitude everyday to feed these creatures.  Some might not need to eat every day but that certainly doesn’t apply to all of them.  How does he cleanup their alien poop?  What does he do if one of them gets sick?  He’s brought foreign contaminants onto the planet Earth.  If they get free it could be catastrophic to the planet.  Which actually happens with Starro.

 

This episode is the first appearance of Starro who goes on to becomes a villain in an episode of Batman Beyond.  As we will see, StAS certainly had a lot more seeds planted in the bigger DCAU than BtAS, even though it had more episodes.  This is likely to Superman’s larger than life persona.  The creators had to use larger more galactic level villains to fight him.  

 

Also, what happened to the Preserver’s ship?  Where is it?  We never see it again.  Superman may have salvaged some of the parts for his fortress and enclosures for the animals.  He also likely stripped its food supply to continue to feed the animals but that only works for the short-term.  He didn’t strip the entire ship and food would run out eventually.  The logistics of keeping these animals isn’t realistic.  Therefore, we’re left to believe a lot of these animals died under the care of Superman.  Superman never had an Alfred or any type of helper which could allow him to manage this.  It’s a poorly hashed out plot point to give people a happy ending.  BtAS had no problem with grim endings but Superman was supposed to be a lighter show and thus needed happy endings, which don’t really work when closely examined.  

 

Even with the DCAU plot issue, the episode is great.  We see Lobo, the Fortress of Solitude gets a deeper purpose, Perserver was a solid villain.  It had great action and solid characters. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

 Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 9

The Main Man Part 1

 

This is one of those episodes where the second part is much better and this is just a build-up to the cliffhanger.  Superman is testing the ship he came to Earth in as a baby in an effort for WB and DC to sell more toy merchandise.  Superman has some dialogue with Professor Emil Hamilton of Star Labs who is one of Superman’s biggest allies as the series progresses.  Superman does express some distrust with Professor Hamilton when he starts asking questions Superman doesn’t want to answer. 

 

Meanwhile to flesh out the episode, the show cuts to Lobo an alien bounty hunter doing his job.  In the middle of an assignment, he’s recruited by the Preserver to capture Superman.  The Preserver collects the last of species from planets all over the universe and keeps them safe.  He wants the last Kryptonian.  Lobo agrees to capture Superman for a big payday.  

 

Lobo basically attacks Earth until Superman shows up and they fight.  The fight dips into space and Superman gets captured by the Preserver.  Superman is placed in a cage under light that simulates a red sun that takes away his powers.  Lobo is about to leave when the Preserver decides to kidnap Lobo too, since he’s the last Czarnian.  Cue the “To Be Continued” text.

 

A solid introduction to Lobo and a great way to get him to Earth to fight Superman.  After his two-parter in Superman we don’t see him again (minus a quick cameo) until Justice League.  As far as villains go, he’s strong enough to go head to head with our hero.  He’s also an opposite of Superman which ensures they won’t get along.  Since Lobo is more of an anti-hero, they can’t make him evil which waters down the tension between the two.  Lobo is more of an annoyance for Superman than an actual villain.  This “annoying villain” archetype is repeated when Mxyzptlk makes his appearance.  The writer’s logic is if you can’t out brawn Superman then annoy him to death. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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