"Superman Unchained" -- Great action and animation

The latest Man of Steel animated video, "Superman Unchained" rates an A- grade ... four stars!!!
It was nearly perfect ...
Plenty of action, as well as dialogue, the new voices for Superman, Lois Lane, Supergirl and Brainiac were excellent.
Without giving away much, the story does differ quite a bit from the past comic book story it is based on, but that just makes it fresher.
For the $7.99 I paid (on an Amazon pre-order months ago) that was less than half the Wal-Mart in-store price, counting tax.
I received the video just two days after its official release date too.
For 75 minutes, this animated production was simply excellent -- and now hopefully the "Man of Steel" live action movie will measure up that well next month.
DC does seem to know how to make BETTER animated movies than Marvel, so will they ever learn how to make better live action movies? One can only hope.

NOTE: If you watch "Superman Unchained," you also need to keep watching for a minute AFTER the credits begin. DC has learned from Marvel in this regard.

New Origin For Superboy ...

There are spoilers ahead ...

The origin story for Superboy has changed.
Originally, Superboy was just a younger version of Superman.
However, about 1993, following the "death" of Superman vs. Doomsday, Superboy became a clone -- with DNA from both Superman and Lex Luthor.
Enter the "New 52" in 2011 and Superboy looked for like just a rogue experiment with Superman's DNA.
However, issue No. 19 of "Superboy" has changed that now.
This story titled, "Unreveling the Secret Origin .. of the son of Lois Lane and Superman," was definitely a surprise.
It falls under a rather complicated story, but the sad part is that I had to suspend one of my core beliefs of Superman for the story to work ....
I fail to see why Superman (and Lois Lane) would leave their seemingly dead, 4-year-old child's body unburied, or taken care of -- before they disappeared for good.
I just don't see that happening with ANY version of the Man of Steel. He would not leave with that undone -- no way, period.
His body would have been protected, guarded at the least.
So, the three writers of this comic, Scott Lobdell, R.R. Silva and Diogenes Neves totally failed in that storyline.
How could DC's editors also have missed this key shortcoming?
No, this is one reason why the "New 52" isn't working out for DC Comics as well as they had hoped.
You can't change the core values of Superman like this and expect strong sales and good reactions. Fans, like me, are upset over this.
Lex Luthor stole some DNA in the previous incarnation of Superboy, buy I don't buy that Superman didn't go to the ends of the universe to try and save, or bring back his dead son!
DC is also trying to elevate a new villain, "Harvest" in all this.
Actually, the current Superboy may be a clone of Superman and Lois' son -- and their original son may also be re-animated if Harvest has his way.
A pretty good story, but not when you have to suspend a core value of Superman for it to work.

Superman vs. Green Arrow -- A Lack of Comic Book Continuity

So I've watched a few of the battles in the "Gods Among Us" series in the Injustice Battle arena.
The Superman vs. Sinestro fight was excellent.
However, watching the next match was a joke -- it was Superman vs. Green Arrow.
I mean in comic book sense, Superman should have been able to take the Arrow out with one single punch, but no!
At one point, the Man of Steel smashed Green Arrow from orbit into the Earth and yet Green Arrow still stands up after hitting the ground!
Superman wins the fight....
Yet, what's the "realism" here in the comic book sense? There is none, it would seem.
Voting by fans seems to be all that matters here,
--UPDATE: Batman beat Superman in the finale. Very, very dumb to see him defeat Superman, when he didn't even have any kryptonite.
Superman hit Batman so hard at times it would have shattered his skeleton -- armor or not. So much for comic book realism in this aspect of "Gods Among Us" -- votes mattered, actual power didn't.

Superboy and Other "Supers" Underplayed On Teams

I just watched the new "Young Justice" episode (March 9). It was well-written and brought together some imaginative sub plots I didn't see coming ... too bad the show is being canceled.
However, Superboy has been totally underplayed as part of the Young Justice Team.
I mean at one point in that latest episode, timeless villain Vandal Savage states that it will be easy to take down the young heroes, except Superboy.
Then, I see Superboy get punched by Black Beetle once and that's it -- he does nothing else and is basically a non-character.
Superboy has NEVER done anything super in Young Justice!
I've seen similar things happen to Superman in the Justice League, both in print and in animated adventures.
I'd rather see the "Supers" not even in a story, if they are going to be so underplayed.
The Young Justice writers ought to be ashamed that they have not used one shred in creativity with Superboy in their stories.
Is that one reason why the show is being cancelled? Could be.
What does anyone else think?



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Superman is NOT Super in the Justice League

OK. We are to issue No. 15 in the Justice League and with the exception of the first issue, I've seen nothing from Superman to warrant him being the most powerful hero on the planet.
In the latest issue, Aquaman throws him for a loop and he disappears for pages.
Then, he gets zapped by lighting and is imprisoned in water.
Can DC's writers come up with nothing better than that?
De-power Superman, that's the writers' angle to handling the Man of Steel in the JLA.
At least the writers are being somewhat creative with Shazam in the back up story, but Superman aside, the main stories in the JLA since the first several issues have not been exciting or imaginative.

The Worst Animated Movie With Superman

What is the worst-ever animated movie/episode that Superman has been in?
Without question it is "The Savage Time" (2002).
Superman's powers -- strength and invulnerability were laughable here.
Women Woman did far better.
Superman would have been better to have been written out of this plot completely.
Bullets stunned him. He could barely smash through a thin steel wall.
His heat vision wasn't strong enough here to melt chocolate.

Butch Lukic, who directed "Savage Time," did redeem 

himself somewhat a year later when he directed another 

continued series of episodes, "Hereafter," that starred 

Superman and Vandal Savage. That was ironically one of 

the best of the "Justice League" animated series 

productions.

Yes! Truth, Justice and the American Way in Pure Form

A review of "Superman vs. The Elite," a new DVD/animated movie, June 2012 ---
Yes! Truth, Justice and the American Way is back!!
Thumbs up to this new movie, that remains perfectly true to Superman's self-proclaimed mission of Truth, Justice and The American Way.
Counter to what DC Comics has done in recent years, this storyline was an inspiring pleasure.
Any Superman movie where I leave feeling I can tackle the world and do just about anything is what they can and should all be about.
This new movie is four stars in that regard.
I just love that "The American Way" was not deleted.
Sure you can knitpick and say the Man of Steel's jaw is weird looking, or that you don't care for Pauley Perrette voicing Lois Lane (though I thought she surprising worked out well), but this is the Golden Age Superman in the 21st Century.
Based on a past Superman comic story, there were some clever twists and turns in the movie and none that seemed out of place.
I felt I got my money's worth and more on this one.
The storyline even contains some deep implications about society.
I'm just hoping in just less than a year now that the new big screen Superman movie story is as good and uplifting.
This DVD is a must for every Superman fan.

I'm still waiting for DC to hopefully animate "Secret Identity" too, by the way.