Warner Brothers Animation Gives You The Man of Steel
One of the best adaptations of the last son of krypton comes courtesy of “Superman the Animated Series”. Produced by Warner Brothers Animation this cartoon was primarily aimed at children, soon developing an adult fan base as well. Given its well-developed plots and engrossing dramatic theme variations you can see why it would garner a more mature following. Superman in this animated portrayal comes as close to perfection as you could want when one considers the limitations of live action depictions at the time. The series had its debut in September of 1996 on the WB television network and ran until February 2000.The Destruction of Krypton and Arrival on Earth
This series was inspired by its colleague program “Batman the Animated Series”, which also was renowned for its dramatic thematic variance and engrossing plot lines. Given the breath of material to draw from in the DC comics archives these shows had a virtually an endless supply of content to use in there episode developments.The story opens on the planet Krypton where Superman’s father Jor-El tries to convince the ruling council of Krypton that recent seismic activity threatens to destroy their world. It turns out information that might aide Jor-El in proving his point has been hidden from the populous by the super computer Brainiac who does not want to be inconvenienced by having to come up with a plan to evacuate the population of the planet before it explodes.
Instead Brainiac is more interested with saving himself so that he can become a repository of Krypton’s history. This is one of the plot variations conceived by producer Bruce Timm. Timm also incorporates some of the changes in Superman’s power penned by comic book writer John Byrne who in his depictions of the man of steel he has to struggle to pull off some of his super feats of strength giving him a degree of vulnerability. Jor-El decides to place his son Kal-El in a rocket built for one and send him to earth. There his space craft is retrieved by “Martha and Jonathan Kent “who raise him as their own. Ultimately he discovers his powers and becomes Superman.
Voice Characterizations From Top Stars
As a child I truly enjoyed the Superman comics and “the Adventures of Superman” that stared George Reeves in the title role shown in rerun. Max and Dave Fleischer’s animated Superman series was also great and inspired the producers of “Superman the Animated Series” to develop their version. The title role of Superman is voiced over by actor “Tim Daly” who it's debatable the best voice over of Superman I’ve heard in animation. Much like his voice over counterpart “Kevin Conroy” who does the voice over of Batman in the animated series these actors really gives their respective characters strength and depth.The series has a large cast of characters played with equal range and variation by some well-known actors. “Dana Delany” portrays Lois Lane, “Clancy Brown” gives life to Superman’s arch enemy Lex Luther, “Malcolm McDowell” plays the robot Metallo and “Michael Ironside” plays the malevolent and despotic Darkseid who is quite a fearsome character. One particularly poignant scene occurs with the depiction of the funeral of SCU LT. Daniel Turpin played by “Joseph Bologna”, who is killed by Darkseid. The funeral displays aspects of Jewish culture and quite moving.
Here Is A Synopsis of Some of My Favorite Episodes
Let me give you a bit of a preview of a couple of my favorite episodes:The first one is a three part episode titled “World’s Finest” Batman appears in this compilation and comes to Metropolis tracking the “Joker” portrayed with fiendish wit by “Mark Hamill” and to conduct a business venture with Lex Luther. Anyway Bruce Wayne/Batman arrives at Metropolis Airport where he’s greeted by Lois Lane and Clark Kent, there’s an immediate attraction between Bruce and Lois and they arrange to see one another for diner, much to the chagrin of Clark.
Subsequently while on the trail of the Joker, Batman and Superman have an initial confrontation where by Superman uses his x-ray vision to see that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one in the same. Batman upon having his identity revealed to Superman quips “you peaked”. Batman responds by placing a tracking device on Superman’s cape and follows him to the apartment of Clark Kent. While changing out of costume Superman notice’s the tracker and looks out the window. At a distance he sees Batman watching him through binoculars whereby Batman gives him a salute to acknowledge he now knows his secret identity. Superman says out loud at this point “touche“. Throughout the episodes there’s an underlying tension between the two that manifests itself through the occasional sarcastic remark. Much of it is over Lois Lane. But ultimately they form an alliance to thwart the plans of Lex Luther and the Joker.
The next is a two part episode entitled “Apokolips… Now!” its focus is on an invasion of Earth by evil Darkseid of the planet Apokolips who is bent on world domination and the control and subjugation of Superman.
When Darkseid sends his initial attack force they are repelled with the aid of Orion of the planet New Genesis, who happens to be Darkseid’s son who was exchanged for the son of the leader of New Genesis at part of a peace agreement between the two warring planets.
Darkseid gains the upper hand in the attack until Orion comes back with forces from New Genesis to create a stalemate as Orion announces that the earth is under the protection of the Highfather of New Genesis and that a continued attack by Darkseid would result in a breach of the treaty between Apokolips and New Genesis. Darkseid ultimately withdraws but not until he kills Daniel Turpin who had mocked Darkseid seeming defeat. I have the complete series and consider it a prized possession. This is comprised of 7 disks, I enjoy it I think you will too!
You Can Pick Up This Collection Of The Man Of Steel Here
