Defendants attempt to avoid the copyright by the old argument that various attributes of “Superman” find prototypes or analogues among the heroes of literature and mythology. But if the author of “Superman” has portrayed a comic Hercules, yet if his production involves more than the presentation of a general type he may copyright it and say of it: “A poor thing but mine own.” Perhaps the periodicals of the complainant are foolish rather than comic, but they embody an original arrangement of incidents and a pictorial and literary form which preclude the contention that Bruns was not copying the antics of “superman” portrayed in “Action Comics”. We think it plain that the defendants have used more than general types and ideas and have appropriated the pictorial and literary details embodied in the complainant’s copyrights.

Which is rather nice description of Superman’s originality, even if the judge felt his comics were “foolish rather than comic”.

I was rifling through the back issue bins at the Birmingham Comic Show (good event, a bit small and more indy than my interests, but fun nevertheless) yesterday when I found this old Earth-One Superman comic from 1979. It’s not hard to find and its not a key issue, but that cover is amazing. It’s signed by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano. The ferocity of Krypton’s explosion with its brilliant-yellow core and the dark-green back-drop of space works brilliantly against the giant spectral figure of Superman. And that rocket design may not be flashy, but its shown to its best here as a bullet firing away from the dying world.

Episode Credits

Quotes

Lois: How could you have lied to me like that?Bruce: Now I never actually said I wasn’t Batman.Lois: <slaps the wound she was dressing> Bruce: Ow!

as the Lexwing explodes with the Joker on boardHarley: Pudding!!Batman: At this moment he probably is.

Synopsis “World’s Finest Part Three”

Previously in Part One: The cash-strapped Joker has hired himself out to Lex Luthor with the promise that he’ll kill Superman using a stolen kryptonite statue. The Batman, as Bruce Wayne, has followed the Joker to Metropolis under the pretence of overseeing a business deal with Lex. Wayne’s romance with Lois Lane does not impressed Superman. In Part Two: The Joker’s first attempt to kill Superman fails when he is saved by the Batman, but the Joker manages to escape with half the kryptonite. Lex and Joker then realise that they’ll have to deal with both heroes. Superman is drawn away with a fake distress call while the Joker ambushes Batman with a Wayne-Lex T7 (a spider-like robot Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor had been co-developing).

Batman uses his rocket pack to dodge the T7′s laser, but his bomblets don’t dent its armour. His luck eventually runs out and the laser destroys his rocket motor forcing him unceremoniously to the ground. He escapes on-top a bus, but the robot spies him and careers through the traffic after him. Batman means to reach the Daily Planet and Superman’s assumed help, but Lois Lane is the only person in the newsroom when he arrives. He grabs her and runs for the stairwell, but she tells him that Superman is still out at sea.

The T7 follows them into the room that houses the Planet’s massive printing presses. Batman’s cowl is ripped off when his cape becomes caught in one of the printing presses. Bruce Wayne retrieves his Batman cowl after disabling the T7, but it’s too late to stop Lois noticing his face. She asks him “So when were you going to tell me? The honeymoon?” The T7 suddenly revives and advances on them, but it is flattened by the newly arrived Superman who innocently asks “Did I miss anything?”

Later, Lois dresses Bruce’s wounds in his hotel suite. He tries to laugh off the revelation of his secret identity (“Now I never actually said I wasn’t Batman”), but Lois is angry. Not only did he deceive her, but she is sitting on the hottest story of the year and can’t report it. Bruce tells Superman that it’s ironic that Lois likes Bruce Wayne and Superman, but isn’t so keen on the Batman and Clark Kent. Being so exposed isn’t easy for Bruce, but he and Superman agree that they need to work more closely if they are to bring Luthor and the Joker to justice.

Luthor’s operators report the T7′s failure to him. He realises that the heroes will trace the robot back to his company so he arranges for the Joker to meet him at his robotics research facility. Once there the Joker realises that Luthor is setting him and Harley up to take the fall for their failed scheme. He double crosses them first and over powers Lex and Mercy. Harley Quinn paints Luthor’s Lexwing to look like a smile while the Joker ducktapes Luthor into the copilot’s seat. The Joker notices Superman and Batman’s approach on radar and orders Harley to join him at the Lexwing’s controls.

The Joker leaves a squad the T7′s larger brothers to deal with the heroes while he fires up the Lexwing for a rendezvous with Metropolis. Luthor has cost him dearly so he will deprive Luthor of everything he has ever built – which turns out to he half of Metropolis. The heroes take down the first two waves of oversized robots with superstrength, heat-vision, and electrified batarangs. They save Mercy (who had been ducktaped to one of the robots) and she tells them of the Joker’s plan. Superman stays behind to deal with the last super-sized robot while the Batman goes after the Joker. However, the Joker has taped the final piece of kryptonite to it. The kryptonite  allows the last robot to pummel Superman. It flattens Superman with a lead-lined door, but the lead creates a barrier between him and the kryptonite radiation. He then uses the door as a battering ram to squash the robot like a bug.

The Lexwing is circling over Metropolis as the insane clown strafes any buildings marked Lexcorp with its missiles. The Lexwing is rocked by an explosion as the Batplane’s own missiles hit it, but they do little to dent on the massive aircraft.  The Joker stabs randomly at the weapons panel trying to find air-to-air missiles to fire at the Batplane. He fires off dozens of poorly aimed missiles until one of them clips the Batplane. The Batman is forced to ejects, but manages to grabs onto the Lexwing with his razer sharp gloves as he falls. He then enters the Lexwing by blowing open an access panel.

The Batman surprises the Joker at the controls of the Lexwing and wrestles him away. The out of control Lexwing plummets towards Metropolis until Superman arrives to push it skyward. The Joker grabs a bag of exploding marbles, but Batman knocks them from his grasp and they are sent rolling across the Lexwing’s flight deck. They explode as Superman rips through the floor. He grabs Luthor (still ducktaped to the copilots chair) while Batman grabs Harley Quinn and they jump out of the hole Superman made on his way in. The Joker giggles insanely as the Lexwing explodes in as a massive fireball.

It seems impossible that the Joker could have escaped, but the Coast Guards never find his body. The D.A. questions Lex over the Joker’s rampage, but no charges are brought. WayneTech and Bruce Wayne then publicly sever all connections with Lexcorp. Alfred packs up the Batman’s gear as Bruce Wayne asks Lois to reconsider her decision to stay in Metropolis. She still loves him, but she doesn’t want to get drawn into Batman’s world. Bruce passes Clark on the way to his plane and jokes that Lois is now solely his problem.

Commentary

Lex Luthor and the Joker

If it seems unlikely that Batman and Superman would team-up then surely its even more unlikely that two inherently uncooperative arch-criminals like Lex Luthor and the Joker would team-up. However, once the heroes began to team-up in World’s Finest #71 (Jan-Feb 1955) it was only a  short leap to World’s Finest #88 (May-June 1957) which pitched Superman and Batman against their “Greatest Foes!” As the Superman Homepage says “The cover to World’s Finest #88 is rather lackluster, not even hinting at the wonderful art inside.” It’s the first page to that story (shown above) which is more famous – a splash of Lex Luthor and the Joker racing away from Superman, Batman, and Robin (always Batman AND Robin in the early World’s Finest).

The villain’s scheme involves the pretense of Lex Luthor apparently going into a legitimate business partnership with the Joker to create a batch of superstrong androids called “Mechano-Men”. It’s telling that in Superman TAS “World’s Finest” most of the last episode/act is a fight between Superman/Batman and Luthor’s robots, yet in that original World’s Finest #88 comic-book the fight between the Mechano-Men and Superman lasts one, maybe two-panels. The first Joker-Luthor story was written by science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, the husband of writer Leigh Brackett who is most famous for writing the screen play for The Empire Strikes Back. Hamilton is also the source of the name for the character, Professor Hamilton, who helps Superman with his science problems.

The second villain team-up in World’s Finest #129 (November 1962) is called “Joker-Luthor, Incorporated!” and features the Joker coming to Metropolis to help Luthor in a convoluted jewellery heist. A succession of Luthor and Joker team-ups followed over the years and they even become a fixture in the Super Friends Legion of Doom. However, there was always something special about the Joker and Luthor teaming-up. This became rarer after 1985 when continuity changes made Lex Luthor a corrupt businessman and the Joker a homicidal maniac. When Superman and Batman did team-up in the 199s for a three-part World’s Finest mini-series (by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rube) it was natural that they should face Lex Luthor and the Joker. The plot of mini-series forms the loose basis for parts of this three-part cartoon story with the Joker.

Notes

• The cruise ship that Superman saves is called the SS Atlantis.
• The Joker looping the Lexwing over the moon to create a smile is an homage of the scene from third-act of Tim Burton’s Batman movie where the Batwing passes the moon in an homage to the batsignal.
• The episode credits duplicate the voice credits for part 2 despite several of the characters not appearing outside of the recap in part 3. Lauren Tom (Angela Chen) is omitted from the credits – that’s if she did indeed voice Chen in this episode.

Opinion

Highlights

Superman’s timing. He’s getting better.

Oddities

Never ask how the Joker survives. He just does, okay.

My Thoughts

The Superman writers had held off on a Superman/Lois Lane romance until immediately prior to this movie. “Brave New Metropolis” started a sequence of stories that explored the issue from a number of different angles. In “Brave New Metropolis”  Lois finally realises how much Superman loves her when she sees what a parallel universe Superman did in her name after his Lois died. Then in “Ghost In The Machine” Mercy’s one-sided affection for Luthor is explored. The route that this move takes, of pushing Lois and Clark even further apart by putting Bruce Wayne between then, is interesting and makes Clark realise that Lois isn’t going to be single forever. For all the action in this episode I really think it’s Dana Delany’s acting as Lois Lane that stands out the most. Her worry as Bruce/Batman goes back into action is palpable. By contrast, the ever so smooth Bruce Wayne looks almost callow as he hands her over to Clark Kent.

As mentioned in the first two reviews, this Batman is drawn with a broader brush that in his own series. He has access to what Grant Morrison once referred in a story as his “sci-fi cupboard” – that strange stash of super-weaponry that he only ever seems to use outside of his own cartoon/comic-book. Examples here include the glove talons and the electrified batarangs. I do wonder, however, where upon his person he kept that massive explosive charge he used to break into the Lexwing. The fight sequence with the robots illustrates part of the problem of teaming these characters. The smaller version chases Batman all over Metropolis, but was no match for Superman. Yet the the larger versions that do give Superman pause are dropped instantly by the Batman’s wonder gadget (which he somehow forgot to use against the smaller robot). Despite that the unevenness of their abilities doesn’t stand-out too much.

I’m conflicted over what rating to give this third part of “World’s Finest”. It’s a great episode, but doesn’t really grab me as much as a single episode as the first two parts did. On its own I give it 3 stars, but I’d given the entire movie 3.5 stars.

Episode Credits

Quotes

Luthor: <chuckling> What makes you think you can kill Superman when you can’t even handle a mere mortal in a Halloween costume.Joker: <menacingly> There is nothing mere about “Bat-mortal”.

Batman: <menacingly> Where’s the Joker?Bingo: Who knows! Making Ha Ha with Harley Quinn! Urk. I don’t know. Honest! I never went back after he muscled in, I don’t want anything to do with that clown.Superman: That’s enough. I think you got your answer.

Synopsis “World’s Finest” Part One

It’s a dark and stormy night as an antiques shop owner closes up. A beautiful young-woman stops him from closing the door and tells him “Hang on their Clyde!” She’s Harley Quinn, the Joker’s girl, and this is Gotham City. Moments later the poor man is lying on the floor, convulsing with laughter from the Joker’s gas, and the Joker himself is prowling around the shop. He spies a very heavy carved statue, “the Laughing Dragon”, which he rips from its base and gives to Harley to carry.

The word on the streets is that the Joker is desperate for cash so the police are surprised that he only took the statue. However, the Batman reminds them that “things are never what they seem with the Joker.” Batman analyses a fragment of the statute in the Batcave and discovers that it is emitting a type of low-level of radiation. The Dragon’s owners have a history of dying mysteriously proving that continued exposure to the radiation is lethal. Batman then quips to Alfred that “Isn’t Bruce Wayne about due for a trip to Metropolis?”

Lois Lane is with the White House press corps on-board Air Force One when it is hijacked by a group of terrorists. Their leader panics when he recognises her as “the one Superman always saves!?” Right on que Superman spins the plane like a laundry machines leaving the strapped in passengers unharmed, but throwing the unstrapped-in terrorists around. Afterwards Lois sheepishly asks Superman if he’d like to meet her socially for once, but their conversation is interrupted by an emergency in the city.

The next day as Lex Luthor is heading to work he discovers that his normally efficient driver Mercy has been replaced by the less controlled, but more enthusiastic Harley Quinn. She takes him to a meeting with the Joker. Luthor blanks the Joker’s banter until the clown makes the connection that they both face an “over grown bully in long underwear”. The Joker’s offer to kill Superman for one billion dollars has amused Lex until he sees the Jade Dragon (Joker: “solid kryptonite!”). Lex agrees to the Joker’s request on the conduction that it can’t be traced to him.

Bruce Wayne’s first day in Metropolis is something of a whirlwind. He’s officially there to review the capabilities of a joint business venture with Lex Luthor (the Wayne-Lex T7, an autonomous six-legged robot that has the ability to crawl spider-like over almost any terrain). Wayne’s arrival at a private Lexcorp Airfield is met by the usual Press throng. Much to Clark Kent’s dismay Lois describes Wayne as “absolutely gorgeous” and becomes uncharacteristic coy around the billionaire playboy. Wayne then asks her to dinner before leaving for his meeting with Lex Luthor.

At Lexcorp’s test facility Bruce Wayen and Lex Luthor watch the T7 clamber up a canyon wall and locate a test object. Both men are impressed with the tests, but they disagree on the T7′s potential applications. Lex had been canvassing the Pentagon’s opinion on a weaponised version, but Wayne flatly refused to allow its development. He tells Lex that “I don’t like guns.” That evening, Bruce Wayne meets Lois Lane at an expensive roof top restaurant. He grills her on how she contacts Superman, but she asks to change the subject. Bruce then sweeps her onto the dance floor.

Even later that night Superman (as Clark Kent) and Batman (in costume) are separately searching for the Joker’s whereabouts. The Joker gased a mafiso called Cesaer Carlini, dumped him in the trash, and then took over his gang. The police find Carlini and it’s clear to Dan Turpin and Superman that the Joker has announced his arrival in town. Batman follows his own leads by tracking down one of Carlini’s employees, an old face from Gotham City called Bingo, to the Rockers Nightclub. Batman throws his weight around panicing the clubbers. Bingo doesn’t know anything, but the ruckus is loud enough to attract Superman’s attention.

The two costumed alpha-males instantly dislike each other. Batman shows off by judo throwing Superman, but get body slammed into the wall as Superman makes his own point. Superman’s opinion of the Batman doesn’t improve after he uses his x-ray vision to find out that he’s really Bruce Wayne (the man currently romancing Lois). Superman tell’s Batman “I won’t have vigilantism in my town”, but the Batman pulls a trump card by showing Superman the sliver kryptonite he found at the antiques shop. Even that small amount is enough to cause Superman to stagger. The Batman warns him that the Joker has twenty-pounds of it and then vanishes while Superman is distracted.

Superman returns to Clark Kent’s apartment. He’s just about to go to bed when Lois Lane calls him to say that she’ll be in late to work tomorrow morning as she’s having breakfast with Bruce Wayne. Clark doesn’t approve, but as they talk he notices a tracking device that the Batman had attached to his cape. After Lois hangs up Clark uses his telescopic vision to find the Batman watching him from a distant rooftop. He smiles and waves to Clark acknowledging that they now know each other’s secret identities. A visibly-annoyed Clark mutters “touché” as he crushes the tracking device.

Commentary

World’s Finest

The title “World’s Finest” refers to the name of a classic comic which started in the 1940s. Back then comic books were anthologies that contained many different stories often pulled from many different genres. At the time DC Comics was loosely split into two companies – DC Comics which published Superman and Batman and All-American Comics which published Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern. All-American had created an anthology called All-Star Comics which it used to highlight its most popular features. However, that anthology rapidly developed into a full blown team-up book with the All-American characters coming together as a team called the Justice Society (which was later revised as the Justice League).

World’s Finest Comics, called World’s Best Comics for its first issue, was an equivalent title to All-Star which was launched by the other half of the company to highlight their own characters. Those 1940s issues included characters like Zatara (the father of Zatanna), the Star-Spangled Kid, and Green Arrow, but the biggest draw were the adventures of Superman and Batman. However, unlike the JSA their adventures remained as unconnected stories. The only place they actually appeared together was on the cover of the comic-book. Readers were treated to vast array of outlandish and strange covers featuring Superman and Batman (with Robin, always with Robin at this time) goofing around.

It was not until World’s Finest #71 in 1954 that there was actually a story co-starring Superman AND Batman. That started an unlikely partnership that lasted for hundreds of issues and well into the 1980s. It was perhaps only during the 1950s that a partnership like this could have started. Batman’s non-superpowered crime comics had become so outlandish that they weren’t entirely dissimilar to Superman’s science fiction comics. You could imagine Adam West’s Batman and George Reeve’s Superman teaming up in an amicable and friendly manner, but you’d have a hard time imaging anything other than animosity between Christian Bale’s Batman and Christopher Reeves’ Superman.

The later drive to make Batman more realistic (“grim and gritty”) really undercut the logic of the Superman/Batman team-ups to the extent that they were all but eliminated in the 1980s. Post-1985 both Batman and Superman’s comics were rebooted and given a make over. In the new altered continuity they were never been friends and were actually quite antagonistic towards each other. Things changed slowly and the characters’ relationship was redefined. In the old World’s Finest days they were best-friends and no questions were asked. The modern take on that relationship was that they were two professionals who shared the common and often lonely experience of being the absolute-best in their own field.

As odd as the pairing of Superman and Batman is the long publishing history of World’s Finest means that it is an idea that is deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the comic fans. There was a three-part World’s Finest mini-series in the 1990s by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rube which influenced the story and feel of this crossover (Bruce Timm mentions it in Modern Masters). That mini-series went for a very classic interpretation and look of Superman and Batman. A lot of its story was based around Lex Luthor moving into Gotham City and the Joker moving into Metropolis. The two heroes prove ineffective against their new, unfamiliar opponents so they switch cities to focus on the enemies they each known best.

The concept of an ongoing World’s Finest title was revived in 2003 as simply Superman/Batman. Its first two story arcs were spectacularly popular and have been adapted for the DC Universe direct-to-DVD features as Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. Both of which were voiced by Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy who first played opposite each other as Superman and Batman in this three-part story.

Producers Commentary

On the DVD boxed set there is a commentary to part one of his story by Bruce Timm (Producer), Glen Murakami (Art Director), Paul Dini (writer), Dan Riba (Series Director), and Alan Burnett (Producer/Writer).

• Bruce Timm’s outfit at WB Animation had switched over from making the Batman: The Animated Series to making the Superman cartoon when Kid WB came to them about the possibility of making more Batman episodes. The result of that was a slightly tweaked format and re-design that sometimes gets called Batman: The New Adventures. It was decided to introduce the new look Batman in a team-up with Superman.
• They relied on TMS to do the bulk of the pre-production design on incidental characters and backgrounds leaving Bruce Timm and his team free to work on the new character designs for the Batman cast. This was the first time they’d seen the new Bruce Wayne and Joker models animated. Wayne looks slicker -  they lost the baggy-Bruce Wayne suit as it never animated very well and went with a “crisper” more “tailored” look. Bruce Timm gave Bruce Wayne bat-shaped eye-brows to differentiate his face from Clark Kent’s face. It was Glen Murakami’s idea not to give the Joker red-lips. Paul Dini complained, but was overruled.
• Alan Burnett and Paul Dini worked hard on this story, it took them three months to just get the outline down. The difficulties arose from getting two very different characters to mesh believably. However, once the detailed outline was done the scripts came pretty quickly. This three-parter may be Alan Burnett’s favourite.
• They picked-up the antagonism between Batman and Superman that had been introduced in the comics. They later did two other Superman/Batman team-ups before Justice League – “Night Time” and the one with Ra’s Al Ghul.
• Dramatic license trumps Physics. Often it comes down to what looks right and not what is scientifically accurate. In the third-part they accentuated Batman’s athleticism far more than they’d ever have done on his own series. Partially it was TMS’s anime stylings, but it was also to balance him against Superman and not make him look too helpless.
• There was a bit in part-two where the TMS storyboards showed Batman flying. This puzzled the Americans. Upon querying it they were told that TMS had just assumed that Batman could fly “because he has a cape.” Apparently a anime trope is that any character with a cape can fly.
• The gangsters are in a Mexican restaurant which explains the animals hanging from the roof. One of the oddities of working with an overseas studio is having to explains concepts like a pogo-stick or a pinyata.
• On the commentary the producers rave about the Nightclub sequence, the use of different gels to colour the scene and the muted pallete for Batman’s interrogation. The idea for Batman throwing the cage with the dancing girl still in it was added to the storyboards at the last-minute. TMS brought the storyboards to show to the Americans and Bruce Timm and co. thought it would be a good idea to use one of the caged girls as a projectile.

Bruce Timm commented on watching Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy working together:

I remember it was very interesting having Tim Daly [Superman] and Kevin Conroy [Batman] in the same room together because I do remember that there was… Tim’s a great guy, a great actor, but his voice doesn’t have a lot of bottom end in it and there were certain times we just wanted him to get really TOUGH and MACHO with Superman. And when he was standing in the room with Kevin Conroy and the first time he heard the Batman voice coming out of Kevin’s mouth his eyes got really big and suddenly Tim’s voice started dropping an octive. It’s like, “okay now I’m MANLY Superman because I’m standing next to REALLY MANLY Batman.” It was cool. So he really bought a good performance out of Tim.

Notes

• The music that the Jack In the Box plays is the Joker’s theme.
• The Joker uses what appears to be an old Bugs Bunny trick to stop Luthor’s car.
• The Joker’s comment about the upholstery in Lex’s car “Oooo… Rich Corinthian Leather!” is a reference to a Chrysler advertising campaign from the 1970s. And just to prove that everything eventually ends up on Youtube here is an example.
• If you recognise the female terrorist who speaks to the President it’s because she’s played by Shannon Kenny who voiced Inque in Batman Beyond.
• When Mercy picks up Wayne from the airport she has a bandage under her hat from where Harley knocked her out.
• The gangster called Caesar Carlini is possibly named after the comic-book editor Mark Carlin. He’s voiced by John Capodice who often plays larger than life Italian American characters. Carlini’s lieutenant Binko is played by Corey Burton who usually provides the voice of Brainiac.
• This three-parter was originally broadcast on October 4, 1997 during as a single block movie. It was released on DVD/VHS back in August 1998 as “The Batman Superman Movie”. The first episode of Batman: The New Adventures / Gotham Knights was shown on September 13.
• Shirley Williams was nominated for a Daytime Emmy, “Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition”, for her work on this show.
• Gordon’s rank is misspelled “Comissioner” rather than “Commissioner” in the titles. The characters – other than the leads – are listed in alternating blocks between the Superman and Batman casts,  e.g. Gotham villain, Metropolis villain, Gotham sidekick, Metropolis sidekick, Gotham police, Metropolis police, etc.

Opinion

I saw this story first when it was released on VHS as the Superman-Batman Movie – I distinctly remember the banter and interplay between the characters. This first part has so much to do. Not only does it have to introduce the guest-stars from another series, but it also has to introduce the an entirely new look for those guest-stars. For the most part this happens effortlessly. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten use to the New Adventures Batman from the Justice League, but his presence seems very natural alongside Superman. I’m not so keen on the Bruce Wayne re-design (maybe because he was rarely used in the Justice League).

Luckily all this shinny-new Batness doesn’t displace Superman’s world from his own cartoon. If Clark does takes a back seat to anybody it’s Lois Lane. On the commentary the producers talked about amping up Batman’s physicality compared to his own show, but I think the entire story has found a tone that allows most situations to play broader than they would in a standalone episode of either series. At lot of that is necessary to accommodate a characters like the Joker and Harley Quinn, but it also plays out in the genre awareness shown by the terrorist leader when he figures out who Lois Lane is.

The trailer is interesting and they obviously have tried to hit iconic beats from the series, but I’m not quite as excited about this one as I have been for some of the their other releases. If I think there is a single problem it is that the trailer makes it look rather similar to the Death of Superman – i.e. a Superman who dies – feature from a few years ago.

All-Star came about after a chance meeting between Superman and Grant Morrison. Grant and Mark Waid talk about their meeting him in this clip from Respect! Films and Sequart’s documentary Talking with Gods – a new documentary about Grant’s work.

The Age of TV Heroes By Jason Hofius and George Khoury – Published by TwoMorrows Publishing – ISBN 978-1-60549-010-6

The first thing to say about The Age of TV Heroes is damn!, that’s a nice cover. Alex Ross renders DC’s four iconic TV heroes – George Reeves (The Adventures of Superman), Adam West (Batman), Jackson Bostwick (SHAZAM), and Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) – so brilliantly that I suspect it’ll be one of the major selling points for this book.

The remit of the book is very tightly focused – this is a book about live action television superheroes, specifically adaptations of comic book superheroes although a few other series get a mention in the extensive time-line that opens the book. Each subsequent chapter focuses on a particular significant character or property so Adam West’s Batman get’s his own chapter, but George Reeves and Dean Cain’s Supermen share a chapter. Interesting Superboy (The Adventures of Superboy and Smallville) is handled separately from Superman.

For reference the chapters are:

1. A Comic Book-To-TV Hero Timeline
2. Superman/Lois & Clark
3. Batman
4. Shazam!
5. Wonder Woman
6. Spider-Man
7. Legends of the Superheroes
8. Captain America
9. Doctor Strange
10. The Incredible Hulk
11. Swamp Thing
12. Superboy/Smallville
13. The Flash
14. Vampirella
15. The Tick

Yes, you did read that right, there is a chapter on Legends of the Superheroes. There are also three “commercial breaks” focusing on the “TV Hero Movie Show Hosts”, “Salute to the Super Heroes” (the water ski show), and The Greatest American Hero. Some of these chapters are more interesting than others depending on your tastes.

The Age of TV Heroes is full-colour throughout and makes excellent use of contemporary photographs (publicity and candid) and occasionally comic-book artwork. Most of the chapters include quotes from interviews with one or more producers/actors from each show. The writers have also tried to shape the development and decline of each show into a narrative. Together this lifts the book above the usual bargain basement TV history books which are usually too cheap to get the creators’ help/input. That said the over all design of the book isn’t terribly consistent and bounces around from style-to-style each time you turn the page. Yet somehow this style does seem to strangely suit the TV superheroes.

Some of these shows have received more press that others. The pathos and tragedy surrounding The Adventures of Superman means that it’s hard to being much new to the topic. Nevertheless, that chapter does benefit with plenty of quotes from a Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) interview. The sections on the Legends of the Superheroes and the Salute to the Super Heroes are probably unique in covering these properties in-depth.

Gog I (Hypertime duplicate of Earth-22)

The disastrous events on Earth-22 were felt throughout the Multiverse. One potential future of Earth-22, beyond even the events of Kingdom Come, saw one of the few survivors of the Kansas Holocaust grow up to become Superman’s most devoted disciple. Minister William worshipped Superman as a saviour. He helped people in hospital, schooled them, and took on the duties of any good pastor. His faith was driven by the belief that Superman was a god who had sent the Kansas tragedy to test the world and to redeem it. William believed he was special because Superman had “spared him” from the tragedy. In a manner it was William’s way of dealing with the horrors he had seen and to try to give a meaning to the senseless deaths around him.

Eventually Clark Kent (who had left behind the Superman costume) was forced to explain to William that he wasn’t a god and that he really should do something else with his life. Matthew’s philosophy was shattered. He torched his church and stumbled through the streets asking people, begging people “Tell me what to  believe!” He was found by the Phantom Stranger who delivered a scroll from a council of cosmic beings called the Quintessence (Ganthet, Zeus, Shazam, and Highfather). The Quintessence gave him power and knowledge of time travel so that he could precipitate the Kansas Holocaust early thus allowing them to manipulate the course of history on Earth-22.

The power unhinged Matthew’s  mind and transformed him into the a demigod monster called Gog. He  murdered the Clark Kent that had just spoken to him and then travelled back in time to the previous day and killed him all over again. He repeat the process day and after day as he slowly worked his way back through time killing Supermen as he went (New Years Evil: Gog #1). Gog’s actions of killing younger and younger versions of Clark Kent should have ripped the time-line apart, but it exposed the existence of something previously unknown to the Linear Men (the guardians of Linear Time). A phenomena called Hypertime that allowed for the existence of multiple, contradictory realities. In essence Gog was jumping between a ladder of universes that were almost identical to Earth-22.

Gog rampaged across Hypertime killing consecutively earlier and earlier Supermen until he reached the Kingdom Come era of Earth-22 and discovered that this Superman had a child by Wonder Woman. Gog kidnapped the child and journeyed to Earth-0 where he hoped to recreate the Kansas Holocaust by killing Captain Atom. It took the joint efforts of the Supermen, Wonder Women and Batmen from both Earth-0 and Earth-22 with the help of Rip Hunter and the grown Jonathan Kent II (the kidnapped child) to stop Gog (The Kingdom #1-2).  Today the events of Gog’s rampage, and even his existence, appears to have been forgotten. The Infinite Crisis reordered the Multiverse and while Earth-22 still exists the Crisis did erased the duplicate Earth-22s whose Supermen Gog had killed.

Gog II (Earth-0, pre-Infinite Crisis)

A second Gog, this time one native to Earth-0 (the foundation Earth), was also the survivor of a tragedy in Kansas. But, this Gog was one of the survivors of the destruction of Topeka during the opening stages of the Imperiex War. He was saved by Superman who said he’d find the boy’s parents, but they were already dead. In the chaos and confusion it was the boy who found their bodies. The knowledge of his saviour and his inability to save his parents would haunt the boy for the rest of his life (Action Comics #813). As an adult he devoted his life to the study of time travel with the intention of saving the rest of his family who had been killed during the Imperiex War. It took him over thirty years, but he eventually discovered a method of time travel.

Cruelly he found that his method would only take him back a short distance in time, not even far enough back to save his parents. He made thousands of attempts over the next two hundred years, but all resulted in failure. Eventually his motivation changed from idolisation of Superman into hatred for his inability to save his parents. In search of revenge he rewrote his own history, imprinting on his child self a new compulsion – kill Superman! (Action Comics #825).

This Gog, or another version of him, appeared in Smallville to ambush Superboy (Conner Kent, a teenage clone of Superman) and his Teen Titan friends in a feint to draw Superman’s attention. Their battle tore through the historic centre of the town with Superman and Superboy drawing Gog’s fire while Kid Flash and Wonder Girl got the civilians to safety. Gog’s teleporting kept Superman and Superboy off-balance and they both took a pounding. Gog cut Superman with his trident and injected liquefied kryptonite into the wound. He then beat Superman until he believed he was dead and then vanished (Action Comics #815-816).

Next Gog recruited a mild-mannered repo-man called Jesse and turned him into a monster which fought the slowly weakening Superman (Action Comics #822-823). The Kryptonite poison caused Superman to become weaker and weaker. After fighting the Kandorian zealot Preus (another of Gog’s lieutenants) Superman was exhausted, but he was confronted by a legion of duplicated Gogs. The future Gog had used his time travel expertise to duplicate himself into an army (Action Comics #824).

Superman’s saviour that day came in the unlikely form of the monster that had once saved him. Doomsday, newly sentient, refused to allow anybody else to kill Superman and waded into Gog’s legions. Even after Gog appeared to capture Superman Doomsday remained in the field. It was inspired by Superman’s courage to mend its ways and to adopt Superman’s colours. Doomsday’s League of Superman battled the Army of Gogs in a single battle that ranged for a century. The prime Gog eventually grew weary and withdrew from the battle to amused himself by torturing his captive Superman. However, even that grew tiresome after two centuries.

Superman and Gog grew old together. For five hundred years the two white-haired enemies were locked in a seemingly eternal game of resolve – the shackled Superman and the inquisitional Gog. With his last breadth Superman shamed Gog and dispelled his hatred. A moment later Doomsday breached Gog’s defences. He could have killed Gog, but the old man convinced him that together they could undo the future they had created. They travelled back in time and undid the actions of their past selves, nullifying their own existence as history was over written (Action Comics #825).

Gog III (William Matthews, Earth-0, post-Infinite Crisis)

The history of Earth-0 healed itself and erased the multiple paradoxes created by the many Gog and Doomsday time duplicates. A Gog still existed, but he only had fractured memories of what had gone before.

The new Gog was William Matthews, an American missionary to Zaire who disappeared for several years after discovering an ancient temple buried deep in the Congo. Inside it he found the remains of the true Gog (a dormant Old God from the Third World which had come before New Gods’ Fourth World) Matthew’s took Gog’s name and staff and sought to kill the false gods who claimed to protect the Earth. Through Gog’s power Matthews glimpsed the Kansas Tragedy of Earth-22 and believed that only Gog could prevent it.  He claimed “I believe that the unification of good and evil will lead to the future. ” and sought to pave the way for the true Gog’s emergence. He used his new superpowers to attacked Superman before vanishing again (a retcon of the Action Comics plotline)

After being driven away by Superman Matthews began hunting super criminals who claimed to be gods or demigods. His murder of the Teen Titan’s villain Goth caught the attention of the new JSA. Starman tried to put out the fire caused by Goth’s death by creating a miniature black hole. In doing so he accidentally created a wormhole between Brooklyn on Earth-0 and the instability created by the explosion on Earth-22 that had killed the majority of its superhumans. The Superman of Earth-22 was pulled through the wormhole and arrived on Earth-0 without any knowledge of how the war on his Earth had ended (Justice Society of America (vol. 2) #9).

The Earth-22 Superman saw the JSA’s world as a Heaven where their efforts to reach out to the younger superheroes was in stark contrast to his own actions on Earth-22. He believed his world had been destroyed and tried to make a place for himself with the JSA (Justice Society of America (vol. 2) #10). Mister America was brought in by the FBI to investigate Gog’s murders. The media had called him the “Heartbreak Slayer”, but Mister America eventually discovered the name of the real killer. The Earth-22 Superman instantly recognised the similarity of the name with his own Magog. His suspicions were confirmed when he and the Earth-0 Superman saved Hercules from Gog’s attack (Justice Society of America (vol. 2) #13).

The Earth-22 Superman and the JSA tracked Matthews/Gog to the Congo, but he attacked them in their headquarters before they could mobilise. The JSA fought the crazed Matthews back to the Gog Temple in the Congo. They watched as Matthews dissolved into energy and was absorbed by a giant Gog head.

Seconds later the head came to life and ripped itself and its body out of the ground. The now awake golden giant told the stunned JSA “People of Earth. I come in pease.” (Justice Society of America vol. 2 #10-15, “Thy Kindgom Come”).

Each of the three human Gogs were driven to an almost insane hatred of Superman by the power they possessed. Yet none of them except Matthew Williams even suspected the true origins of the their name or knew of the entity that had inspired them.

Next: The true Gog.

Quotes

Superman (about Batman): In all our time working together it was the first time I saw Bruce scared. It wasn’t the aliens. Or the diamonds. Or even the Mach 6. It was just the simple and unavoidable realization that there were bigger things on the planet than him. And that’s what terrified Batman. [...] But as he’s done every day since he was eight years old, instead of being ruined by his darkest and most ruthless fears he embraces them.

Wonder Woman: So we’re on again? Once every year?Batman: That’s fine, Diana. But I think we can do better than that. And maybe even invite a few friends along in the process.Wonder Woman: Did you just say friends?Batman: I meant teammates.Superman: We know what you meant, Bruce.

Issue Credits

Writer

Brad Meltzer

Artist

Eric Wight (pgs 1-4), Dick Giordano (pg 5), Tony Harris (pg 6), George Perez (pg 7), J.H. Williams III (pg 8.), Gene Ha (pg 10), Rags Morales (pg 11), Ethan Van Sciver (pg 12), Kevin Maguire (pg 13), Adam Kubert (pg 14), Jim Lee (pg 16)

Penciller

Luke McDonnell (pg 9), Dan Jurgens (pg 15), Howard Porter (pg 17), Andy Kubert (pg 18), Phil Jimenez (pg 19), Ed Benes (pgs 20-24)

Inker

Paul Neary (pg 9), Kevin Nowlan (pg 15), Dexter Vines (pg 17), Jesse Delperdang (pg 18), Andy Lanning (pg 19), Sandra Hope (pg 20-24)

Colourist

Alex Sinclair

Letterer

Rob Leigh

Cover Artist

Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald

Variant Cover Penciller

J. Scott Campbell

Variant Cover Inker

Sandra Hope

Variant Cover Colourist

Edgar Delgado

Assistant Editor

Jeanine Schaefer

Editor

Eddie Berganza

Synopsis “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”

The trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, like other groups of Leaguers, have always met independently of the monthly Justice League meetings. Since their first loss (the Red Tornado against the Nebula Man) they’ve met annually to discuss the state of the Justice League.

Together they’ve seen the highs and lows of each other’s lives, including the wedding of Wonder Girl, the formation of the Detroit League, Batman’s excitement at recruiting the second Robin and punching out Guy Gardner, the pain of Superman’s death and Batman’s betrayal by the other Leaguers and the lengths it eventually drove him to. A year ago Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime’s machinations led to a fracturing of the Justice League and a loss of trust between the its members. Now after a year-long sabbatical the trinity come together to begin its reformation.

The yearly meetings continue into the near future. Together they’ll see Hal Jordan’s wedding, Luthor’s vengeance, the death of Jonathan Kent, the marriage of Diana, the discovery of a second Earth, another loss of trust between them, and the ultimate death of the Batman.

Continuity

• Wonder Woman. Batman, and Superman were all founders of the Justice League.
• Superman’s wedding gift to Donna Troy was making sure nobody threatened her wedding.
• Batman was excited about training Jason Todd.

Commentary

Variants

A variant of this issue was given away as part of DC’s package for Free Comic Book Day 2007.

Press Clippings

At the time I quoted Wizard‘s coverage of this issue… According to Wizard #175 the new series of Justice League will be getting an issue #0 issue.

“A year has gone by with these three not together,” said the writer [Brad Meltzer] of the jump after Infinite Crisis. “This is where we get to see them [Superman, Batman, and Woner Woman] re-emerge. This issue allows us to center the universe of the JLA before moving on to the first true adventure of the new team in issue #1.”

The art will be supplied by League alumni Dick Giordano, Luke McDonnell, Kevin Maguire, Dan Jurgens and Howard Porter as well as Phil Jiminez, Adam & Andy Kubert and Rags Morales.

“You have each artist doing their League,” enthused Meltzer. “When you do a jam issue, usually it’s just a bunch of good artists, but this one actually matters and has a reason behind it.”

Meltzer also revealed that the covers for the new series will be supplied by Michael Turner.

Additionally, on the flash forwards Brad Meltzer told Wizard that:

The true reason is because some of those moments are happening. Obviously I can’t say which ones in the future are happening, but there are ones that are absolutely, 100-percent happening. Some of those I stumbled upon and said, “This is what I want to do,” and Dan (DiDio) told me we were actually doing that. And one of them I said, “Can we do this?! And he said, “That’s a good idea, we should do that.”

The only artist DC wouldn’t let Brad Meltzer approach about drawing a sequence was Simone Bianchi.

League History and the Big Three

The first flashback is to immediately after the events in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #9 (Feb 1962), just after the foundation of the Justice League – February 1959 in the pre-Crisis timeline. As originally told Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), the Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz), Aquaman (Arthur Curry), and Wonder Woman (Diana) individually fought alien invaders from the planet Appellax. They then came together to fight a sixth invader (the famous wood alien) and tracked a seventh down just in time to see it defeated by Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Superman (Clark Kent).

Over the years there have been a few adventures retroactively added prior to that invasion attempt, notably the White Martian invasion revealed in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #114 (Dec 1974) and the disappearance of Triumph in Justice League America #92 (Sept 1994), but the Appellaxian Invasion is still regarded as the definitive origin of the Justice League. However, Superman and Batman’s role in the formation of the League was not that great. Their original involvement with the League was played down as their respective editors feared that they would be overexposed. Even in the comic book origin their involvement is separate from the other five heroes – they don’t fight the wood alien.

We now jump forward twenty-five years to immediately after the Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Comics’s decision to reboot the origins of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It was retroactively decided that these three had never been members of the Justice League. Superman and Batman were removed because they weren’t considered team players and Wonder Woman because she didn’t appear until long after the League debued. She was replaced by Black Canary for a retelling of the origin in Secret Origins #32 (Nov 1988) (by Keith Giffen and Peter David) and for JLA: Year One #1-12 (Jan — Dec 1998) (by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn) a twelve-part mini-series focusing of the League’s early days.

While the replacement of one Diana with another Dinah worked well within the fictional history it didn’t stop the feeling that many people had that the big three should really have been part of the early League. Over the years the timing of Wonder Woman’s debut has slowly slipped backwards in time and flashbacks show her participating in events she wouldn’t have otherwise been around for. Superman and Batman were eventually reintroduced to the League in John Ostrander’s JLA: Incarnations #2 (Aug 2001). The weight of history was slowly reintegrating the trinity back into League history. This was finally acknowledged in Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when the realignment of the New Earth allowed DC to state (as shown below) that the big-three had been part of the League all along.

The flashbacks in this issue are really about re-establishing the big three’s place within the Justice League and adding Wonder Woman to the popular Superman/Batman dynamic – the rekindling of the World’s Finest. However, the split between Superman/Batman and the other Leaguers goes all the way back to the DCs Golden Age. In the 1940s Batman and Superman were run by one half of the company while the other heroes were predominately run by the other half of the company (at one point they were actually two separate companies). That’s why the World Finest were only ever bit part players in the Justice Society, Earth-Two Superman’s involvement with the Justice Society is as much a retcon as Black Canary’s addition to the early Justice League.

It’s interesting to compare the last JLA series by Mark Waid, Grank Morrison, and Joe Kelly with the original series by Gardner Fox and his successors. The modern series really focused on the big-three, particularly with Superman as the permanent chairman and Batman as the Morrison-esque Bat-god. While in the classic series the big-three were just normal members who served their month as the rotating chairman. Of the three it’s Batman who has the biggest League involvement as it’s Bruce Wayne who bankrolls the team and he even quits to form the Outsiders when he disagrees with the direction the League is taking. By comparison Superman’s involvement with the League is almost passive.

Opinion

The pressure on Brad Meltzer to deliver with this new series was immense. As Wonderfly put it on the Toonzone Forums:

Two years ago, Brad Meltzer tore the Justice League apart in the now infamous Identity Crisis miniseries, and now he begins the process of putting them back together.

He set the bar so high in Identity Crisis that I was afraid he’d have been hard pressed to match it. However, match it he does. This zero issue is arguably the best of his run (baring the Eisner winning Vixen/Red Arrow issue). In Comic Bulletin’s review jam Kevin Brown described the issue succinctly,

Meltzer has written a near masterpiece here. He’s done what damn few writers are capable of doing: keeping all of the continuity relevant and not trying to over explain it. It’s essentially one page of “1960,” one page “sometime in the future,” then one page “1973,” and so on and so forth. At first it’s a little disconcerting, but that has more to do with the wide disparity of artwork presented in this issue. Though once you’re able to fully see what Meltzer is doing, you’re totally sucked into the story.

It’s a marvellous trick using the style of each area. Many liked it, but there were dissenting voices like Adam White who argued that

In each era represented Meltzer portrays each of the Big Three with their various personalities from the histories of their individual books; while he does so accurately, all this does is serve to confuse any new readers and frustrate existing ones because the story lacks any real point.

I would agree that its hard to judge this zeroth issue as it’s a bridging piece between the dissolution of the League during the Infinite Crisis and its reformation next issue. In this context the alternating flash-backs and flash-forwards work well and the different artists are a good match to their eras. I particularly like George Perez’s Wedding of Donna Troy and Kevin Maguire’s One Punch. In general the flashbacks work better than the flash forwards, but the second Earth has certainly got by curiosity peaked.

While the story is essentially about the trio, the real focus of the flash-backs and the flash-forwards are Batman and his relationship with the League. Meltzer gives an interesting spin to the evolution of Batman’s character. His excitement and commitment to the League really makes the Identity Crisis mind wipe much more hurtful. The same sense comes through with his excitement about the new Robin. This is a side of Batman that we rarely see, but the fragility of his feelings sets up his reactions to the deaths of Jason Todd and Superman. Handling loss so badly starts to explain why he pushed everybody away from himself and slowly succumbs to the paranoia that plagued his later pre-Infinite Crisis appearances.

The Verdict

Characters

I’ve been a bit fast and loose with the way I list characters. Murray Ward’s original JLA Index series listed seven categories:

The seven character categories are: Feature Characters, characters to whom the title of the features refers; Guest Stars, characters from other comics who have a major role in the story; Supporting Characters, characters who appear frequently in stories with the feature characters; Villains, the antagonists of the feature characters, Guest Appearances, characters from other comics who have a minor role in the story; Other Characters, characters who do not fall into any one of the five previous categories; and Cameo Appearances, characters who do not actually appear in a story but whose images are seen, for example, in photographs, flashbacks, or reminiscences.

I’ve always tried to follow the spirit of that, but the lines behind what is a Guest Star, Guest Appearance and Other Characters have become blurred. This quote appears above as a reminder to me of what I should be working towards.

Feature Characters

Justice League of America (technically still disbanded)

• Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• Superman (Clark Kent)
• Wonder Woman (Diana Prince)

Villains

• Lex Luthor (splash page flash forward)

Guest Appearances

• Donna Troy (flash back to her wedding to Terry Long)
• Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen, flash forward to Hal Jordan’s wedding)
• Green Lantern Hal Jordan (single-panel flashback & flash forward to his wedding)
• Robin I (Dick Grayson, flashback to Donna Troy’s wedding)
• Robin II (Jason Todd, behind-the-scenes, Batman talks about recruiting him)

Other Characters

• Martha Kent (Superman’s adopted mother, flash forward to just after Jonathan Kent’s funeral)
• Terry Long (flashback at his wedding to Donna Troy)

Cameos

• Aquaman, Atom I, Atom II, Black Canary, Captain Marvel I, Cyborg, Doctor Mid-Nite I, Elongated Man, Firestorm I, Flash I, Flash II, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Hawkman I, Hawkgirl I, Hourman I, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Red Tornado II, Sandman I, Spectre I, Starfire, Supergirl II, Vibe, Vixen, Zatanna (single-panel photos or flash forward/back cameos, where not otherwise mentioned above)

Annotations

Pages 1-4: Art: Eric Wight. Flash back 1. Wight began his career in animation, but was enlisted by O.C. writer Allan Heinberg to produce art for a subplot that involved one of the OC’s characters becoming a comic book artist. It was also Heinberg who suggested Wight’s name to Brad Metlzer when he heard he was looking for somebody to duplicate Mike Sekowsky’s style for the opening segment of this issue. It’s implied that the old World Finest adventures are still canon – Superman and Batman know each other’s secret identities and Robin is mentioned despite Batman not recruiting Robin until later in the fictional timeline. These could all be retcons, but it’s just as likely that the flashbacks are being told using the canon that was established when they were set.

Page 5: Art: Dick Giordano. Flash back 2. Dick Giordano was JLA inker during the early 1970s, his professional line lifted many pencillers work and he was the inker of choice for many League covers. His first issue was Justice League of America (vol. 1) #102 (Oct 1972) where the Red Tornado “died” and the issue just before this flashback. It was the League’s biggest story to date and spun out of the League’s one hundredth issue. The Seven Soldiers of Victory were DC’s second superhero team after the Justice Society. In Justice League of America (vol. 1) #100 (Aug 1972) it was revealed that they’d been lost throughout time during an encounter with the Nebula Man. A joint team of the JSA/JLA combined their might to find the missing heroes and to finally defeat the Nebula Man, but the Red Tornado was killed in the conflict. At the time the he was a member of the Justice Society and was not yet a member of the Justice League. The Seven Soldiers team was revived as a connected wave of mini-series by Grant Morrison.

A side effect of adding Wonder Woman back to the start of the League is that it shifts her modern origin back by about five years on the fictional DC timeline. We don’t know what Wonder Woman’s adventures were during that time, but her appearance in the second flashback would imply that some of her pre-Crisis adventures – notably her depowerment as Diana Prince – have been reintroduced to the canon.

Page 6: Art: Tony Harris. Flash forward 1. The Wedding of Hal Jordan. We are not given that many clues about the timing of the flash forwards. The implication is that Hal’s the last one to get married of the old Leaguers. Oliver Queen’s the best man. The bride is blond, but her face isn’t shown. Her skin colour would rule out the Green Lantern Arisia. The caption seems to imply that Clark is left out of the trio for some reason, could a deeper connection been Bruce and Diana be in the works. Joe Kelly and the JLU cartoon played with the idea of attraction between Batman and Wonder Woman, but nothing ever came of it.

Diana mentions Donna’s weddings plural (see below). She also mentions “What Dick did with Harvey” which could mean that Dick Grayson has reformed Two-Face – an allusion to Dick’s recent time with Batman. It matches a similar quip by the Batman of the 851st century during the DC One Million cross-over who says that Batman II reformed Two-Face II.

Page 7: Art: George Perez. Flash back 3. The marriage of Donna Troy (the first Wonder Girl, Diana’s sister) to Terry Long from Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (Feb 1985) recreated here by George Perez, its original artist. This is Donna’s first marriage, her “second marriage” was to the Titan of Myth Coeus. Diana’s mention of Dick not yet surpassing Bruce is a back reference to the first flashback where its implied that Dick has actually surpassed Bruce by managing to reform Harvey Dent, something Bruce recently failed to do at the start of the One Year Later continuity.

Page 8: Art: J.H.Williams. Flash forward 2. Luthor has the kryptonite signet ring. Luthor has two “sons” that we know about. The first was Jerry White, the result of an affair with Perry White’s wife, the second is Connor Kent, the recently deceased Superboy. Superboy was a clone of Superman, but Cadmus scientists couldn’t completely decipher Kryptonian DNA so they used human DNA as a template – Luthor made sure it was his DNA that was used as a template meaning that Superman and Luthor are both Connor’s “fathers.” This confrontation would presumably be Luthor’s revenge against the League for the death of Connor during Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006) in an alternative future where Conner didn’t come back to life (Final Crisis Legion of Three-Worlds).

Page 9: Art: Luke McDonnell and Paul Neary. Flash back 4. McDonnell was the last penciller of the original Justice League of America series during the end of the Detriot era League and Neary was the inker during Brian Hitch’s short time as JLA penciller. The Detroit League was created by Gerry Conway as an early 1980s relaunch of the Justice League. The satellite was destroyed by an alien invasion (that’s why the trio are meeting in Challengers Mountain) that the League barely defeated because members weren’t able to respond. Rotating chairman Aquaman disbanded the League and reformed it with a handful of old Leaguers and four new heroes – Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy, and Steel II (not John Henry).

At the time of the invasion Superman and Wonder Woman were visiting Earth-Two and confronted Aquaman about the change in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #239 (June 1985). This flash back presumably happens shortly after than confrontation. Batman is referring to Vixen when he mentions “only one of them has has training” as she’s the only one of the four to have appeared before joining the JLA. Diana suggests that Batman helps train them. He turns her down here, but changes his mind in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #250 (May 1986).

Page 10: Art: Gene Ha. Flash forward 3. Shortly after the funeral of Jonathan Kent. This scene is based on a mix of old school Superboy and Superman the Movie. In the original comics both Jonathan and Martha Kent were dead. John Byrne’s reboot kept them both alive whilst the movie series only kept Martha Kent alive. The death of Jonathan Kent would move the comics continuity even closer to the movies. The tunnel was built by Clark as Superboy so that he could exit the Kent Farm without being spotted. This is the first sign that it exists post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Jonathan Kent character was still alive when this appeared in 2006, but he died of a heart attack in Action Comics #870 (December 2008).

Page 11: Art: Rags Morales. Flash back 5. The Batcave just after the first appearance of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Diana mentions Donna’s reaction if she ever took on another apprentice, but she’d do that herself years later with Cassie Sandsmark. This scene seems to back up the idea that we’re seeing scenes set in the old continuity as that’s Jason Todd’s pre-Crisis circus costume in the glass case. Pre-Crisis Todd’s origin was a duplicate of Dick Grayson’s circus origin (Detective Comics #526 (May 1983)), post-Crisis he was a just street punk. Todd was killed by the Joker and Batman kept his Robin costume in that case as a memorial. Todd was returned to life as a side effect of Superboy-Prime’s actions in Infinite Crisis.

Page 12: Art: Ethan Van Sciver. Flash forward 4. Paradise Island shortly before the marriage of Diana to an unnamed male. Clark and Bruce are both married. Note the Batman Begins style ribs on Batman’s cape. Diana loosing her immortality by marrying a man is a very pre-Crisis idea, not sure if this has been established post-Crisis. If this really was following pre-Crisis continuity then the only man she could be marrying is Steve Trevor.

Page 13: Art: Kevin Maguire. Flash back 6. The punch that they’re discussing occurred in Justice League #5 (Sept 1987). Batman was leader of the League and Green Lantern Guy Gardner had been constantly undermining his authority. Gardner finally tried to pick a fight, but Batman knocking him unconscious with a single punch.

Maguire was the regular artist on Justice League and illustrates this flashback. If Batman’s pose in the last panel is familiar it’s because its identical to Gardner’s stance moments before Batman punches him. This scene would have had to happen a little while after the real incident as the JLI Embassy(s) weren’t established until Justice League International (vol. 1) #8 (Dec 1987).

Page 14: Art: Adam Kubert. Flash forward 5. Probably the toughest flash forward to decipher. Its a new incarnation of the JLA Satellite, Superman’s alone as Batman and Wonder Woman haven’t turned up. Something has driven a wedge between them again, possibly something Batman’s done. I think the main point of this scene is to tease us with a “New Satellite”. I’m not sure if we’re meant to read something from the Trophy Room, but the items on display are (left-to-right) Aztek’s helmet, a globe (origin unknown), Green Arrow’s arrows, a box of something (wooden splinters from the wood alien?), a Starro fish, an Amazo, Despero’s infamous chessboard, and that looks like Bizarro’s head.

Page 15: Art: Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan. Flash back 7. The Death of Superman. Dan Jurgens was writing and drawing JLA at the time, he brought Superman back into the League after a long absence and tied the title into “The Death of Superman” (which he was also co-writing and drawing). In terms of League history the Death of Superman is important because, in my opinion, it started the slow rot that finally resulted in the franchise being culled and relaunched with the third series. Superman’s tattered cape on the pole is Jimmy Olsen’s iconic photograph and the cover of Superman (vol. 2) #75 (Jan 1993).

Page 16: Art: Jim Lee. Flash forward 6. The discovery of a new Earth. As they note this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered a parallel Earth. The note about the Flash finding the new world is a nod to the first appearance of Earth-Two in The Flash (vol. 1) #123 (Sept 1961). This seems a very generic flash forward, but the League did have their own crossover with the Tangent Universe a couple of years later. It was set-up in issue #16 (Feb 2008) and then followed up by Tangent: Superman’s Reign (2008).

Page 17: Art: Howard Porter & Dexter Vines. Flash back 8. This is a flash back to just after the epilogue to “Tower of Babel” (JLA #43-46 (July — Oct 2000)). Howard Porter was the main artist during Grant Morrison’s JLA and this story (Mark Waid’s first) was the last one he illustrated. Wonder Woman mentions the death of Jason, the second Robin who Batman was so excited about in Flash Back 5. It was his death that prompted the change in Batman’s characterisation to the increasing brutal loner who pushed all of his friends away. His increasing paranoia made him keep secret files on his JLA team-mates. “Tower of Babel” was about those files falling into the wrong hands and the League’s reaction to they’re existence. It many ways it was the first shot in the disintegration of the trio’s relationship that eventually led to the events of Infinite Crisis.

Page 18: Art: Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang. Flash forward 7. This flash forward is an homage to Frank Millar’s The Dark Knight Returns setting – a bleak and dark future where Batman went under ground and was forced to fight Superman. Clark mentions he’s glad Diana came back which could be a reference to the split implied in Flash forward 5. Crime Alley, the setting for their meeting, is where Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered.

Page 19: Art Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning. Flash back 9. The first panel is from Infinite Crisis #1 (Dec 2005) when the trio met in the wreckage of the JLA Watchtower. Panels 3 and 5 are from the end of Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when they decided to each take some time off, Clark had lost his powers, Bruce needed to reconnect with Dick and Tim, Diana went elsewhere, and then meet up again one year later. That skipped year is played out in 52. Jimenez and Lanning illustrated Infinite Crisis. The other two panels are a flash back to the Batcave meeting at the start of this issue.

Pages 20-24: Art Ed Benes and Sandra Hope. The Present. The meeting one year after the last flash back so this is the first meeting after the three “One Year Later” stories by James Robinson in Detective Comics/Batman, Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns in Action Comics/Superman (vol. 3), and Allen Heinberg in Wonder Woman (vol. 3). The photographs scattered on the table are Supergirl, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Vixen, Hawkman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Flash, Aquaman, Power Girl, Zatanna, Cyborg. I think the one on the edge next to Zatanna may be the Huntress.

Episode Credits

Quotes

Dan Turpin: Whoever it is you can bet my Aunt Patty’s pension that they’ll be going down real soon.Angela Chen: Translation, you expect Superman to drop them in your lap like he always does.Dan Turpin: What are you saying?Angela Chen: What I’m saying is that your highly paid department can’t seem to bust a jaywalker without old-blue boy. [Chuckles from the other journalists]

Mannheim: Okay, I want ‘em. What’s your boss want in return?Kanto: Nothing, for now.Mannheim: It’s my experience that nothing can get very expensive.

Turpin: All I know is that that tank had Mannheim’s ugly mits all over it and that this department is going to collar that dog if I have to grab a leash and drag him in myself.

Synopsis

The peace of a sunny day in Metropolis is shattered when a massive armoured tank starts shelling the Metropolis Gold Exchange. Dan “Terrible” Turpin and Maggie Sawyer of the Special Crimes Unit (SCU) arrive on the scene, but the tank trashes their car and is impervious to their small arms fire. Lois Lane leaves Clark Kent stuck in traffic and runs to the scene on foot. Clark follows her as Superman and hauls the tank out of the Exchange. He lifts it up to roof left and drops it. Then he rips the tank’s hatch off and confronts the stunned operators. The SCU breathe a sign of relief that the tank’s been stopped, but Turpin reacts angrily when TV reporter Angela Chen implies that they were just waiting for Superman to deliver the crooks to them.

Gangster Bruno Mannheim watched the assault play out on television and was horrified by the beating that Superman gave his tank. Mannheim’s Intergang has been behind a series of similar crimes using high-tech weaponry, but he is frustrated at losing the arms race against Superman. His rant is cut short by the arrival of a mysterious stranger called Kanto. He doesn’t name his backer, but he offers Mannheim the gift of advanced weaponry. This includes the Armature, a pair of gauntlets that project a pair of massive energy-hands. Kanto demonstrates the Armature by using the energy-hands to crush a safe. He then explains that the weaponry is a “sample” and that the cost and origin of it will be explained in due time. Mannheim accepts his gift and tells his lieutenant to “Call the boys. It’s time for another job!”

Masked Intergang thugs use the Armature to collapse an elevated train track. This causes the Money Train to come crashing to a halt on the ground below. The thugs then use other items from Kanto to melt their way into the train and to disable the guard’s weapons. Intergang are still emptying out the train when Sawyer and Turpin arrive. They shoot the SCU’s car causing it to burst into flame and plunge off a ledge. The car is caught by Superman, but he then finds himself facing the thug wearing the Armature. Intergang escapes when they force Superman to save another train.

Earlier, Turpin had spied on Kanto’s demonstration, but the he vanishes when Turpin tried to follow him as he left Mannheim’s estate. Turpin had told Maggie about what he saw, but she had to warn him about breaking procedure. He is now all for bursting into Mannheim’s estate with the SCU’s own tank, but Maggie point out that they’ve still not got enough evidence for a warrant and that they are still not sure what it is they are up against. Dan is horrified that Maggie wants to officially bring Superman in on the case as this is the one case he wants to bust without superpowered help. He then hands Maggie his badge and walks away. However, Maggie isn’t too worried as it’s a stunt Dan’s fiery temper had driven him to several times before.

Later than night, Turpin scales the walls to Mannheim’s estate and starts to listen in on his conversation. However, he’s discovered and captured when Kanto appears out of strange gateway that vanishes behind him. The trussed up Turpin is there when Kanto gives Mannheim the next set of weaponry, but he still won’t name their benefactor. Maggie is worried when she can’t contact Dan so Superman over flies Mannheim’s Estate. Intergang thugs use Superman for target practise, but their smaller guns only make him angry. Another thug tries to crush him with the Armature, but Superman shows him that damage to the energy hands is transmitted back to the wearer. Turpin warns Superman about a weapon that Kanto claims will kill even the most invulnerable target. However, Mannheim ambushes them and a single blast from the new gun sends Superman flying backwards through an armoured car.

Superman efforts are completely focused on dodging the trigger happy Mannheim. He has the exhausted Man of Steel cornered when he makes a show of dialling the weapon up to full power. However, Mannheim’s shot is spoilt then he is tackled by Turpin. Superman recovers and heats the gun with his heat vision and making it too hot to hold. Superman is angry with Mannheim and scares him by making his eyes glow red. Kanto goes to leave, but Mannheim runs after him. The stranger refuses to help Mannheim any further and walks through about another glowing gateway. Mannheim sees Superman approaching and dives through the closing gateway.

As morning breaks, Angela Chen once again baits Turpin and Sawyer that this was just another case given to them by Superman.  However, this time it’s Superman himself who rebuts her and tells her that he wouldn’t have survived without Turpin’s help. Meanwhile, Mannheim has arrived on Kanto’s homeworld. A hell-like alien world of lava-lakes, fortresses, and blood red skies. He demands that Kanto tell him who he works for, but recoils in horror when he’s introduced to the stone faced figure of Darkseid.

Commentary

Jack Kirby and the New Gods

This episode introduces Jack Kirby’s Fourth World setting to the Superman cartoon. Kirby was one of the all time great comic book artists. His work wasn’t naturalistic or even pretty, but his exaggerated style gave a dynamism to four-colour heroes that has been rarely matched before or since. He worked on a vast range of material and was known for his prodigious output. His most famous work was probably done for Marvel Comics in collaboration with its writer/editor Stan Lee. Together they created the X-Men, the Hulk, and the Fantastic Hour. If you can think of the energy and vitality that Marvel Comics had in the 1960s then you’re thinking of Kirby.

Jack Kirby became increasingly dissatisfied with his place at Marvel as the 1960s went on so in 1970 he crossed town and started working for DC Comics. At Marvel Jack had been working on the adventures of the Nose god Thor. He revisited the idea of the gods for his masterpiece at DC . This was during the time the “Chariots of the Gods?” theories about the gods being alien-astronauts. Kirby postulated that the twilight of the gods had come to pass and that the “Old Gods” had been replaced by a generation of “New Gods” – supergods rather than superheroes. The heroic New Gods were based on the paradise planet of New Genesis and were led by the Gandalf like Highfather. Their evil opponents lived on the hell like world Apokolips and served the tyrant Darkseid (we glimpse both Apokolips and Darkseid at the end of this episode).

This massive new setting first appeared in four linked comic book series written and illustrated by Jack Kirby – New Gods, the Forever People, Mister Miracle and… Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. As unlikely as it may sound, it was in Jimmy Olsen’s title that Darkseid first appeared. It was also from there that the Cadmus Project – the lab which dominates the ongoing storyline in Justice League Unlimited – first appeared. For reasons that few people understand this linked sets of titles has the banner name of the “Fourth World.”

The New Gods were a critical success, but the actual sales figures were disappointing and the titles only lasted a few years. Kirby eventually returned to Marvel, but the characters he left have proven increasingly popular and have been revived time and time again by different writers and artist. The characters he created established the template for many major franchises including the Masters of the Universe (the director of the Masters film tried to dedicate it to Jack Kirby, but the studio wouldn’t let him).

The breakout character from the New Gods was Darkseid. The DC Universe, as a cohesive universe, has few reoccurring villains of any stature. Most of them suffer from villain fatigue – a good first appearance followed up by a string of iteratively less threatening appearances before they finally end up as somebody else’s henchmen. Darkseid has survived by effectively becoming the DC Universe’s devil. And it was Jack Kirby, on a return to DC, who brought Darkseid to prominence by making him the principal opponent for the Justice League during a comic-book mini-series he wrote to accompany the 1980s Super Powers toyline.

Jack Kirby’s work influenced an entire generation of artists and writers, including the producers of Superman and Justice League, who had grown up during the 1960s. The Kirby Collector magazine ask Bruce Timm about that influence:

One of the things we wanted to do with Superman was to kind of “Marvelize” Superman a little bit. That’s why the police don’t just carry handguns, but these Kirby-like weapons. All of the science-fictional elements in this series-whether it’s a tank or something from outer space-has a kind of Kirby feel to it, or at least we try to. Even in the pilot, the origin story, there’s this Brainiac satellite floating around Krypton and we tried for the longest time to come up with a design for it, and we didn’t come up with anything I really liked. I found this Kirby gizmo in one of the Kirby comics and I turned it upside-down and said, “Hey! That’s our satellite.”

There are things like that all the way through the show where we would just find Kirby-ish elements and turn them into things in the Superman show.I also try to do that with some of the villains. A lot of the Superman villains aren’t nearly as interesting as the Batman villains. Batman has the best rogues gallery in comics and the Superman rogues gallery is pretty dull. We would take characters like Brainiac and the Parasite-that are pretty dull looking in the comics-and go, “If Kirby were designing them, what would he do with them?” So we would put Kirby-type costumes and Kirby touches on them to make them more interesting.

“Tools of the Trade” is the first time we see Darkseid in Superman the Animated Series. The next Fourth World episode, “Father’s Day”, is about Darkseid’s son and serves to introduce Superman to his enemy. Even this is just a taster for the big two-parters. I’ll leave the in depth commentary on Darkseid as a character for another day. I find it amazing that they managed to hire a talent like Michael Ironside just to deliver a single line as Darkseid. The producers mention in their commentary that Darkseid’s theme was composed by Shirley Walker rather than Kristopher Carter (who composed the rest of this episode’s score). There is clearly a plan for Darkseid to feature as a reoccurring character. Ironside went on to voice Darksied in his following Superman and Justice League appearances. Elsewhere in the DC pantheon he’s played the 80s Batman in a Batman the Animated Series episode and Lois Lane’s father in Smallville. His most famous genre role is probably Jean Rasczak, Rico’s teacher and superior officer in Starship Troopers.

Producers’ Commentary

• When the Producers approached Superman as a cartoon they had to take a long look at his rogues gallery and realised that it wasn’t as colourful as Batman’s gallery. Once you get past Luthor and Metallo the villains aren’t too interesting. They reimagined some of them, but there was still a need for strong villain characters. Glen Murakami, Paul Dini, and Bruce Timm were all massive Jack Kirby fans so they decided to pull in the characters from his Jimmy Olsen run.
• It was Bruce Timm’s idea of cast Dan Turpin’s visuals as Jack Kirby.
• The writers stuck with the idea from the comic books of Maggie Sawyer being a lesbian. There are a couple of subtle nods to it in later episodes, but the issue wasn’t pushed.
• In both Superman and Batman Michael York plays a lieutenant of a major villain who doesn’t appear in person until the end of the episode. In Superman he played Kanto and introduced Darkseid.
• Part of the appeal of working on Superman was that it presented an entirely new and different science fiction milieu for the writers and artists to play with. It’s also set in broad daylight and has blue skies – something that almost never occurred on Batman. Alan Burnett and Bruce Timm relate how even on Superman they found that the show just looked better when set at night. Traditionally people have been afraid of the colour black in cartoons.
• The general style for the Superman as more streamlined than on Batman – e.g. less details in clothing (folds, bagginess). At the same time they redesigned the Batman models to make them more streamlined and easier to animate (less likely to appear lumpy). The other character designers, Shane Glines and James Tucker, are even more stylised that Bruce Timm’s house style and this began to show through. It eventually came to a head in the redesigns for the New Adventures redesigns for Batman.
• The Boom Tube effect took a lot of work.
• Bruce Timm: “Even besides the specific Fourth World shows, we again early on keyed in on Jack Kirby Tech as a way, of again, separating it from Batman. Whereas on Batman, when we had guns, we tried to make the guns look as realistic as possible, we wanted the villains to have real tommy guns and real .45s. The weaponry in this show just to make it a little bit more fantasy oriented.”
• Intergang was meant to be supplying all the villains in other episodes with high-tech weapons.
• This episode marked the start of Superman facing more powerful weapons.

Mark Evanier

This episode is written by Mark Evanier who, as well as being a notable writer of comics and television in his own right, was a biographer and assistant to Jack Kirby. In his introduction to a collected edition of the New Gods Mark Evanier recalled that,

I was honored to have worked as his [Jack Kirby's] nominal assistant at the time [he was writing New Gods], along with a buddy named Steve Sherman. That’s an enormous brag, of course, but I’m always quick to append that the writing is all Jack, all the time. I may have contributed a whopping twelve words, if that many, to the stories that follow. Their greatness is the greatest undiluted Kirby, his brain galloping in more directions that your basic comic-book page could ever possibly accommodate.

He also wrote a gorgeous coffee-table illustrated biography of Kirby called Kirby: King of Comics. It is rather fitting that Mark wrote the introduction of the Fourth World characters into the DC Animated Universe. Mark’s blog, News From ME, is usually a good read with inside comment about this projects, old cartoonists, and the television industry. His essay on how DC redrew the faces of Jack Kirby’s Superman and his series on Cartoon Voices are good places to start.

Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer

The New Gods title featured a group of humans that were being studied by Darkseid because he thought they each possessed part of a formula that would allow him to dominate all intelligent life (the so called “Anti-Life Equation”). The hard-nosed cop Dan “Terrible” Turpin was one of that group. The character was revived in the 1980s when writer/artist John Byrne, who like Kirby had been headhunted from Mavel by DC, needed police officers to interact with Superman.

Byrne created the idea of the Special Crimes Unit – a specialised unit within the Metropolis police department that was set up in response to new type of crimes Superman’s presence was drawing to Metropolis. Inspector Dan Turpin was the department’s second-in-command. The leader of the SCU was a new character called Captain Maggie Sawyer. She, notably, was one of the first lesbian characters in mainstream comics. That is never commented on or refuted in the cartoon, but there is a scene in a later episode where Sawyer is recovering in hospital and her girlfriend is clearly visible at her bedside.

Dan Turpin is voiced by Joseph Bologna and Maggie Sawyer is voiced by Joanna Cassidy. Cassidy’s genre roles include Dolores, Eddy Valent’s secretary in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the replicant in Bladerunner who tries to kill Decker with a snake.

Other Characters

Kanto is Darkseid’s personal assassin. In this episode we see him dressed as a normal human, but his usual attire is a lot more flamboyant – a cross between Errol Flyn and a Venetian Count (see briefly in the Apokolips scene). In the comics Kanto is a noted swordsman – although he doesn’t show it in the cartoon – so its fitting that he is voiced by Michael York who played D’Artagnan in the 1970s  Musketeer films. York has appeared elsewhere in the DCAU voicing Count Vertigo in Batman: The Animated Series and Ares in Justice League Unlimited. York’s most famous genre roles are probably Logan in Logan’s Run and Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers franchise. Basically, if Hollywood needs a posh English bloke they’ll probably hire Michael York.

This is actually Bruno “Ugly” Mannheim‘s second appearance in Superman. He first appeared in the episode “Fun and Games” which introduced the Toyman. Bruno Mannheim is voiced by Bruce Weitz, a.k.a. Sgt. Mike Belker from Hill Street Blues. He voiced Lock-Up in Batman The Animated Series. The two Intergang thugs, Al and Blaine, are voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and Phil Hayes. Richardson has had made a career out of playing DC villains including Darkseid in the Shadow of Apokolips video game, General Wells in Justice League, Trigon in the Teen Titans, the Joker in The Batman, and a string of badguys in the Brave and the Bold.

Opinion

Highlights

For a comicbook fan it’s got to be the Darkseid reveal at the end.

Oddities

Is it my imagination or does Maggie Sawyer check out Lois Lane when they first meet?

My Thoughts

I find it interesting that Superman doesn’t say much in this episode, it’s really the Dan Turpin and Bruno Mannheim’s show. Lois Lane and Clark Kent don’t really feature prominently in this episode, but Mark Evanier uses them sparingly to periodically remind us that this is still a Superman show. Even then Clark is just a silent foil for Lois as she leaves him in the car, or he arrives late to the police briefing, or she rushes past him at the Planet. Despite that brevity it’s one of the Lois and Clark scenes – Clark’s exit via the out of order elevator shaft – that is one of the high lights of the show. Mark Evanier really captures the old sense of fun that use to inhabit the older Superman comics. Even Superman’s fights are relatively free of banter. It’s one of those episodes rather really resembles the old Fleischer cartoons. Another nice touch is a silence effect used with the Boom Tube.

Having got use to CGI vehicles in the Justice League the tank at the beginning looks rather underwhelming, but the character animation more than makes up for it. This episode is littered with little looks and expressions that could so easily have been lost – Kanto’s bemusement at Mannheim, Lois’s anger at the lift, Superman’s increasing anger at Intergang. That last one is quite noticeable – this Superman is the silent, Siegel and Shuster guy, who doesn’t say much and actually gets angry with his opponents. About the only bit that doesn’t work for me was the end with Superman addressing the press and then the saluting Turpin. It’s the resolution of the Turpin/SCU subplot, but I can’t help but think that in this one the villains are more interesting than he good guys.

[Via: Geek Speak]