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Monday, October 8, 2012

Superman: Doomsday (2007)

DC follows in Marvel's footsteps with this straight to video movie, and it really is a nice first outing. It is also the first PG13 rated Superman cartoon and it really shows as the violence and collateral death is quite a bit more than one is accustomed too from watching Superman: The Animated Series, and really the whole look of it is quite different from the series. And it's not just the look that is different but the voice cast is all new with Adam Baldwin doing an excellent job as Superman, Anne Heche holding her own quite well as Lois, and though James Marsters is no Clancy Brown he still makes a good Lex Luthor. My biggest criticism of show is the character design of the Man of Steel himself because for some bizarre reason they added weird ass cheekbones to his face.

Story wise it isn't anything like the comics, not even a little bit, with only the fight with Doomsday himself that remotely seems familiar. In this version it is Lexcorp that uncovers and accidentally releases Doomsday, and once we have the titanic fight between Superman and Doomsday it becomes entirely a different entity. There is no "Funeral for a Friend" as not one single hero from the DC universe makes an appearance, there is no Eradicator, Cyborg, Steel, or Superboy instead we have Lex Luthor creating a Superman clone to help bring order to lawless Metropolis (in the comics it was Cadmus that created the Superboy clone), and of course Lex has more nefarious agenda for his Superman than just being a big Boyscout.

The fights are really superbly done, the acting overall is excellent, and though the story changes are vast even a comic purist like me can really enjoy what they've done here. The DVD itself is loaded with cool extras; commentary track, "Behind the Voice" featurette, a sneak peak at the upcoming Justice League: The New Frontier, but the best extra is the 45 minute documentary "Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives" which is look at how the whole Death of Superman story came to be.

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