Monday, March 12, 2012

Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000)

Tagline: More powerful than a locomotive! Not as cool as Batman!

Curiosity: Bruce Timm followed up his brilliant Batman adaptation with this spin on the Superman mythology.

Plot: In the city of Metropolis lives Superman (voiced by Tim Daly), the last known survivor of a planet called Krypton. Powered by Earth’s yellow sunlight, Superman can fly, see through anything other than lead, and use super strength and heat vision to combat those who would threaten his adopted home. And there are many, ranging from the murderous, god-like conqueror Darkseid (Michael Ironside) to the bizarre Toyman (Bud Cort). Luckily, Superman has a bevy of buds on his side, like ace reporter/love interest Lois Lane (Dan Delaney), budding photography Jimmy Olsen (David Kaufman), and the superhero Steel (MOTHERFUCKIN’ MICHAEL “WORF” DORN).

Anyway, Superman spends his days catching cars and going on space adventures and fighting dinosaurs. How the hell is he not as popular at Batman?!

Thoughts: Batman: The Animated Series is an amazing piece of superheroics and noir darkness. It’s a really, really good show. But if I had to compare it with Superman in terms of consistency, I’d say Supes got the better show. Batman ran for a while before Timm got the scripting and animation up to a high quality. Superman benefited from being his second show. While it never quite matches Batman at its best, there’s a more open world, filled with a sense of gee whiz adventure, prevalent in Superman that makes it a thrilling watch.

It’s also straight up a more ambitious show. Batman tried really hard to tone down DC’s dense comic book history for kids; Superman combined the Silver Age and John Byrne eras, threw in obscure heroes, and even had the guts for two-, even three-part epics. The very first pilot episode barely even has Superman in it! It’s all about his dad Jor-El! While the writers had trouble generating tension in their stories (Superman is just about impossible to defeat), Superman as a whole is a wondrous, stunning show to behold.

Put it another way; when I finished watching Batman, I was sad, but still very satisfied with the run. Superman, though, only ran for 54 episodes before Timm moved on to Batman Beyond. And it ends on such a downer! I didn’t realize it when the show originally aired, but you know that episode where Darkseid brainwashes Superman into attacking the Earth and scaring the shit out of everyone? And then Superman finally kicks the shit out of Darkseid but it doesn’t matter because everyone is afraid of Superman now? THAT’S THE LAST EPISODE. That’s such a downer ending. Holy shit you guys. I just… wow.

Top 10 Episodes:

  1. Legacy Parts I-II
  2. The Last Son of Krypton Parts I-III
  3. Apokolips…Now! Parts I-II
  4. The Late Mr. Kent
  5. World’s Finest Parts I-III
  6. Knight Time
  7. A Fish Story
  8. Heavy Metal
  9. Feeding Time
  10. Monkey Fun

Reflection: Who am I kidding? Of course I still like Batman more.



5 comments:

  1. I like your blog theme. I want to use it on my blog.
    Can you please tell me from where I can download these theme?
    burun estetigi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000) it is the siries what is the best of blogs Amazing post which provide really knowledge and many important terms which are very useful to get traffic………Nice Blog, Lee, thanks! I'm new to Adsense and just started putting ads
      on my site estetik

      Delete
  2. This is a great post it was very informative. I look forward to reading more of your work. So I made sure to bookmark your site so I can come back later. I enjoyed every minute of this reading

    Yüz Germe

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting blog. It would be abundant if you can board added abstracts about it. Acknowledgment you
    Bulk SMS provider in Bhubaneswar

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome, this was a absolutely superior post. In approach I'd like to address like this too - demography time and absolute accomplishment to accomplish a acceptable article... but what can I say... I adjourn alot and never assume to get something done.
    infant costume

    ReplyDelete