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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 28 29 30

World's Finest Part 1, 2, 3

 

It should have been a feature film! The three-part epic where Batman meets Superman is pure brilliance.  The joker steals a jade statue that’s actually kryptonite and solicits Lex Luthor.  Joker agrees to kill Superman for one billion dollars.  Luthor agrees to the deal.

 

Meanwhile Batman is on the case and Bruce Wayne travels to Metropolis to do some corporate team-up with LexCorp while doing Batman shenanigans at night.  Batman is causing havoc trying to track down the Joker.  In one of the most epic appearances ever, he crashes straight through a glass ceiling.  It’s the biggest F-you to the Fox censors the writers ever dreamed up.  Fox Kids were known for their restrictive rules in children’s programs, worse than government regulations.  One of the big rules was no crashing through glass.  Hence the weird animated sequence in the BtAS episode I Am the Night.  Since Superman was now on Kids WB that rule was gone and Batman crashed through glass in as epic a fashion as creators could ever imagine.

 

Superman arrives as Batman is interrogating a mobster for information.  Batman uses some judo moves and tosses Superman across the room.  That just pisses Superman off and he strong arms Batman and uses his x-ray vision to discover he’s Bruce Wayne.  A serious violation of the superhero code.  Batman whips out a small shard of kryptonite and messes up Superman’s mojo then tells him Joker is trying to kill him with a much larger piece.  

 

Superman returns home and discovers a homing device on his cape.  Batman is watching from a rooftop across the way.   Point to Batman!  They each know one another’s identities promising mutually assured destruction if either blabs.  

 

A few days go by, Bruce Wayne is dating Lois Lane because Superman never makes a move and she doesn’t even acknowledge Clark Kent exists.  The Joker shows up, causes problems, kidnaps Lois Lane because he knows it will draw Superman out.  Bruce Wayne is unable to stop it, he puts in a good effort though.    

 

Superman shows up after the excitement, while Bruce Wayne is giving a police statement.  Bruce warns Superman of the trap but Superman has to save his girl.  Superman traces them to a LexCorp lab but is wearing his toy selling lead suit.  Joker sprays it with acid because the suit is always destroyed when kryptonite is involved, (so why even have the suit? Oh yes, to sell toys).  The kryptonite is revealed, and Superman’s allergy acts up.  Batman shows up and destroys the kryptonite.  Superman gets his strength back and flies Lois and Batman out as Joker blows the building up.  

 

Lex is pissed Joker used a LexCorp location to attempt his murder and their partnership is crumbling.  An awesome chic fight between Mercy and Harley is happening in the background while Joker and Lex negotiate new terms.  

 

Batman pays a visit to Lex Luthor while he’s sleeping in bed trying to shake him down for information.  Mercy sneaks up behind him and Batman punches her out with the most awesome back hit you can imagine.  Batman makes some threats and leaves.  This freaks Luthor out so he ups his game.  

 

Joker creates a distraction for Superman while he sends the Wayne/Lex T-7 to kill Batman.  Batman is outmatched so he heads to the Daily Planet in hopes of finding Superman, only to find Lois Lane there.  At which point Batman is stuck trying to save both of them from the killer robot while trying to hold out long enough for Superman to show-up.  In the chaos Batman gets unmasked and Lois Lane learns his secret identity.  Superman arrives to destroy the robot.  While in Lois’ apartment she’s super pissed off but states she won’t reveal Batman’s secret because she’s in love with Bruce.  Batman is off to save the day again and Lois is upset because she doesn’t want to be with a guy who can die trying to save the world.  I guess Superman is exempt for some reason…The best part of their relationship is Dana Delaney was also the voice of Andrea Beaumont in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.  It’s as if her and Kevin Conroy are destined to be voiceover “tragic lovers.”  It’s a great dynamic between the two of them.

 

Once Luthor realizes the Joker failed again he goes to kill him but Joker and Harley are able to turn the tables and anarchy ensues.  We get more killer robots, a giant plane, the city is going to be wrecked.  While Lex and Joker’s relationship falls apart, Superman and Batman’s becomes stronger, they are able to team up and stop all the destruction and save the day.  Joker is presumed dead until he reappears again.  

 

Lois states she can’t be in a relationship with Bruce because of his nightlife and they part ways.  Bruce and Clark come to an understanding and depart one another’s company as friends.  

 

Everything about this is done right.  The entire meeting, the characters, the story, the epic battles.  The creators got it perfect.  It takes the two biggest characters in DC comics and tells one of the greatest stories.  They aren’t friends right away but they come to a mutual respect for one another.  If a live-action film just copied this story it would be the best comic movie ever made. A can’t miss even if you skip the rest of 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 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

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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

Maxine Vandate - Madness

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 25

Monkey Fun

 

This is another a good episode, it’s another Lois Lane central episode.  We get to learn about her childhood.  We meet her sister and father.   It’s lighthearted but still exciting.  As an eight-year-old child Lois had a chimpanzee named Titano that her military dad was caring for.  Titano is being used in the space program for testing.  Despite her dad’s assurances nothing would go wrong, something goes wrong and Titano is believed to have died in space.

 

Twenty years go by and we learn Lois Lane is 28 years old.  Superman is working with his buddy Professor Emil Hamilton to stop some asteroids from causing problems to a space station.  He discovers Titano in suspended animation.  They bring him to Earth, he’s bummed out, sees Lois and gets happy again.  Everyone accept Lois thinks it’s a good idea for her to care for Titano.  The chimpanzee wrecks her apartment, she scams Jimmy Olsen into chimp sitting while she gets a massage.  The chimp starts growing in size and becomes the size of a building. 

 

Superman and Professor Hamilton discover this is occurring during their research of Titano’s condition. Superman rushes off just in time to save Jimmy Olsen as he causes himself to fall out the balcony of Lois’ apartment.  Titano gets the blame for that but Jimmy was running away from the supersized chimp toward the balcony, slipped and fell. 

 

Titano runs around Metropolis causing problems and fighting with Superman.  Eventually the Special Crimes Unit (SCU) shows up along with recurring cops Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer.  They come up with a plan to gas the monkey.  A bunch more action occurs, Titano gets gassed, STAR labs stops his growing issue, and he is safely taken to an island where he can roam around with no issues. 

 

In the comic book it is based off of they had to kill Titano.  Since this is a cartoon for kids they couldn’t do that.  So Superman saves the day with a happy ending.  Apparently cartoons have no problem with the planetary genocide of Krypton and its billions of people but killing extremely large chimpanzees is not allowed.   

 

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 24

Solar Power

 

Edward Lytener bust out of prison and starts calling himself Luminus.  He turns the sky red via hacked LexCorp satellites to make the atmosphere like in Krypton and Superman starts losing the power he gets from the yellow sun.  That’s a brilliant plan; power Superman down.  Superman losing his powers still decides to help which is really what makes him Superman.   Anyone who’s invincible can fight bad guys.  A real hero does it when he isn’t invincible.  One of the rare occasions Superman is in actual danger and not just pulling his punches. 

 

The plot is stretched thin a little when it’s revealed Lex Luthor is in on the plot to depower Superman.  Lex had originally fired Lytener for being a whistle blower. It is likely Lex hates Superman more than Lytener and decided the enemy of my enemy is my friend.  So he hooks Luminus up with a bunch of tech, helps him bust out of prison, gives him access to the LexCorp satellites to take out Superman. 

 

Superman struggles through Luminus’ hideout, over comes the booby traps, eventually takes him out.  The episode ends with Superman getting his powers again.  This is the second time a villain in Superman starts out as a regular guy then ups the antagonist to get revenge on Superman.  Metallo started out as a regular guy then got super powers, Lytener was attacking Lois then enhanced his powers via tech to take out Superman.  It’s a logical concept that people who cross paths with Superman and lose learn from it and try to level up to take him out.  Very smart of the creators to keep raising the stakes when utilizing foes for Superman.

 

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

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