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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 27

Ghost in the Machine

 

This has one of the most impactful moments in the DCAU and you’ll miss it if you blink.  Brainiac is back after uploading himself into LexCorp system before getting destroyed in his last appearance.  He screws up some test Lex Luthor was running and Superman saves the day. Lex is super pissed and starts investing what happens.  He discovers Brainiac is rebuilding himself and needs Luthor’s help for the final touches.  

 

Clark Kent grows wise to Luthor’s disappearance and uses his sleuth reporter skills to inform Mercy Graves, Lex’s bodyguard.  Then Superman is on the case and is working with Mercy to find Lex.  Superman tries to convince Mercy to ditch Lex because he’s a total douche.  Mercy makes a plea that Lex is awesome and brought her up from nothing.  

 

They find Lex in a closed off section of LexCorp.  Superman busts in and does his thing.  He fights an incomplete Brainiac.  While the structure is collapsing around them Lex and Mercy make a run for it.  Mercy gets trapped and Lex leaves her to die.  Mercy gives Superman advice on how to take out Brainiac, he uses some special weapon kills the robot in a horrifying fashion (since there are no standard and practice rules on the death of robots), saves Mercy from being trapped, saves Lex while climbing a ladder. 

 

Mercy goes back to work for Lex like someone trapped in an abusive relationship.  Lex learns nothing from his experience and is only concerned about harvesting all the Brainiac tech which was built with LexCorp supplies. 

 

It’s a great episode, one of the best. Lex gets shot with a blast from Brainiac.  It actually injects him with nanites that gradually influence his thinking until in culminates into some awesomeness in Justice League Unlimited. That’s years away though.  The main issues is how Lex left Mercy to die after being trapped.  Lex Luthor is far from a coward but he is callous and selfish.  This moment made him look more cowardly but one could argue he calculated her odds of survival and determined she was a lost cause.  Either way, Lex is a douche and the bitter ending of Mercy still working for him after that is so exponentially a Batman: the Animated Series ending, it is what makes the episode amazing.  

 

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 26

Brave New Metropolis

 

It’s a Lois Lane centric episode and a good one.  Lois gets sucked though a portal to another dimension where that Lois died and resulted in Superman teaming up with Lex Luthor to rule over Metropolis as a dictator.  The appearance of Lois Lane throws the entire world into chaos.  Eventually Lois comes across Superman and convinces him to become a good guy again.  They join forces and defeat alternate dimension Lex Luthor who is exactly like the real Lex Luthor.  

 

The “what if” scenario is a great episode, the world Lois ends up in is never explored again or really mentioned but the entire concept is recycled in Justice League with the Justice Lords.  Then Justice Lords is heavily referenced in Justice League Unlimited and drives the entire Cadmus plot.  

 

These alternate versions are always fun, especially when the traditional version is firmly established.  Not to drift into other Superman media but the problem with Zach Snyder’s DC film world was he embraced the “what if” scenarios too much instead of giving audiences a more traditional approach.  Snyder’s DC was too fanboy.  StAS (which appeared before Snyder’s work) makes revisions to Superman but it all fits with the narrative.  They kept the classic lore intact.  Outside of the comic, Max Fleischer’s Superman set many of the standards for Superman lore.  Christopher Reeves’ Superman did not alter those hard coded rules but told its own story.  StAS can have a “what if” episode but they can’t devote an entire series about Superman going bad.  This concept will be explored more in the review of the series finale.

 

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

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review

Welcome to the start of a weekly series where we review the entire DC Animated Universe every Wednesday.  We will encompass TV shows, tie-in films, and extended media we feel fits into the narrative of the universe.  We’ll also be reviewing the shows/films in the best viewing order to truly enjoy the universe.  You can find countless websites that list how to watch the shows in chronological time but that doesn’t have a satisfying narrative.  Especially since the last episode chronologically is from The Zeta project and ends with an unresolved cliffhanger.  Yes, there is Epilogue from Justice League Unlimited but to close out with that episode after all the Justice Unlimited story details that occurred before would also be unsatisfying.  

There are also lists on release/airing date, and production order.  But that can still create narrative gaps.    

 

Therefore this review will tackle the episodes in the order we feel they should be viewed.  This isn’t a release order, or production order.  It’s the best order to watch all the shows and films in the universe and capture the best narrative impact the creators intended for their stories.  

 

We’re not concerned about exact timelines with this episode order. So Batman: Mask of the Phantasm might fit perfectly between some random mid season episode, it really doesn’t affect the story or characters, so we’re not worrying about the exact date the episode falls on in the chronological time.  The review follows all the characters and stories in a way that makes sense.

 

The view order is below.  There are some unique choices that other fans wouldn’t agree with.  We’ll detail the reasoning for those inclusions when that individual review comes up.

DC Animated Universe Watch Order
Show/Film	Episodes
Batman: The Animated Series	Episodes 1 - 56
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm
Batman: The Animated Series	Episodes 57 - 85
Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
Superman: The Animated Series	Episodes 1 - 41
The New Batman Adventures	Episodes 1 - 19
Superman: The Animated Series	Episodes 42 - 52
The New Batman Adventures	Episodes 20 - 24
Superman: The Animated Series	Episodes 53 - 54
Batman Short Film: "Chase Me"
Batman: Mystery Of The Batwoman Movie
Gotham Girls	Episodes 1 - 30
Batman Beyond	Episodes 1 - 47
The Zeta Project	Episodes 1 - 7
Batman Beyond	Episodes 48 - 51
The Zeta Project	Episodes 8 - 12
Batman Beyond	Episodes 52
Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker Movie
The Zeta Project	Episodes 13 - 26
Static Shock	Episodes 1 - 24
Justice League	Episodes 1 - 28
Static Shock	Episodes 25 - 42
Justice League	Episodes 29 - 46
Static Shock	Episodes 43 - 52
Justice League	Episodes 47 - 52
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Justice League Unlimited	Episodes 1 - 39
Batman & Harley Quinn
Justice League Vs The Fatal Five

 

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