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Monday, January 4, 2016

So I Like the Big Blue

You know I keep forgetting how much I like Superman. And I think that's because I grew up in an a weird time when he was everywhere. I mean he's everywhere. It's Superman we're talking about, but when I was a kid there were almost always at least 3 or more shows airing that were must see TV for my sugar rushed brain. So  let's gab.

Lois and Clark

One of the big complaints about Man of Steel was that The Daily Planet crew were just sort of there. For better or worse though this show is just as much about Lois Lane as it is Superman which means Perry and Jimmy get a lot of screen time. And since it was serialized they got a couple of decent through line stories too.

The DC Animated Universe

You know growing up my parents would always chide me for still watching cartoons but now in hindsight I have the perfect rebuttle. Bruce Timm was writing the modern playbook for how to adapt superheroes for a modern audience. The incite came to me after watching an interview about the Batman Beyond Episode, "The Call" and he's discussing stuff that seems like it would be foundation of any superhero team battle filmed, which is now the bread and butter of Hollywood. How do you gauge how long to spend on each character so each one gets a moment but the audience doesn't get bored? How do you plot out the space to keep in editing continuity who's where. How do you visually differentiate the characters so the audience knows who's doing what?

I'm not saying Bruce Timm was the first to do large scale action but you bet your ass a lot of the editors on The Avengers probably studied a few JLA battles.

But that's not why we're here. We're here for the Boy Scout. Well like I said the Timmverse was probably the best at the time at distilling these timeless characters into some of thier most recognizable traits. Where it's hard to not think of Bruce Timm's Superman as just Superman. And everytime Tim Daly voices another version that feeling just gets ... more.

Young Justice

You know people complain about Superman being a bit boring. And yeah I can see it. Good guys win bad guys lose. We all know the drill. A lot of adaptations try to fix this by making him darker or grittier which is code for asshole.

Nope Young Justice did it best. Just give him a problem his superpower tool kit isn't equipped to handle. Make him a deadbeat dad.

To be fair Connor is the result of government cloning experiments done against his will but damn Clark that's cold.

Smallvillle

Smallville is problematic. It came out in a time where people felt they had to explain everything about superheroes so it always feels compromised. It's Superman. If you were born between 1940 and now you know what his basic deal is. And don't get me started on what they did to poor Mr. Mxyzptlk. They couldn't even spare some silver age goofery for him. Half of the episode will be spent explaining how the monster of the week can exist rather than doing something.

But before Iron Man, Arrow, Gotham and the current explosion this did feel like the best we were going to get for a while. And in some ways it was. Sure it always felt like a half step but short of the cartoons but the show was packed with DC universe arcana.

And it was nice seeing a live action Cyborg.

And I still say that the witch act they did in season 4 was the closest anybody came in recent memory to dealing with the fact that Sup's is weak to magic. Yeah I said it. Isobel could have mopped the floor with him. 

The Legion of Superheroes

The legion is kind of a injoke among comics fans because its history has been unwritten, rewritten, and retconned so many times that nobody has any clue how they work. Have I said enough that time travel makes my brain hurt. Anyway for some reason they make for pretty entertaining cartoons.

A couple of backdoor pilots in the other DC animated universe shows and boom there you go. And to top it off they always had a pretty strong affinity for the Superman family so whenever they show up you know either Clark or Kara's going to get involved speaking of which I really should check out Supergirl already.

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