Batman the Animated Series is beloved, we all know that. Justice League is well liked and so is Static Shock. But Superman the Animated Series, is mostly deemed for “completionists only”. Why is this? You could call it the sophomore slump, but that is just an excuse. There are major problems within this version of Superman. Despite major changes to the lore, Supergirl is a better Superman show (even if some changes frustrate and confuse me).
Batman the Animated series drew from many sources of inspiration. This is often touted as one of its great virtues, it drew from all of Bat-mythos. It drew so much inspiration it took some from Superman and gave it a lick of Bat-paint. Most obviously (and admitted by Bruce Timm) is that the look of the show is inspired by the Fleischer studios theatrical shorts from the 1940’s. Batman the Animated series’ Gotham is a mix of Tim Burton’s Gotham city (from the movies) and Fleischer’s Metropolis. It wasn’t just the visuals that got Bat-pilfered, stories did as well. Some that work better as Batman stories like the Jail-master. He works better as an antagonist for Batman because the Gotham police department and Mayor are recurring characters in the series (the only cop that is notable in Superman comics is Maggie Sawyer). “Joker’s wild” is another example of a Super-story turned Bat, in the Superman comic The Joker is mad because some business man in Metropolis is selling Joker toys without his permission. The Animated series changes it to a Gotham gangster starts a Joker themed casino which annoys the clown prince of Crime.
Some of Superman’s rogue’s gallery ended up not making the leap because of them being sloppy seconds. The Prankster is essentially every Silver-Age Batman villain, Roxy Rocket stole Terra-man’s mode of transport a giant rocket. Terra-man did later make it to Justice League Unlimited but just as a cowboy themed villain (losing both his mode of transport and eco-terrorism). Silver Banshee had a similar fate but this wasn’t because of Batman, a quote about the Disney series Gargoyles from Bruce Timm explains why she was cut. “Gargoyles it’s trying to Batman the Animated series but with lots of gay celtic mythology”. So the Irish super-villainess was cut due to Timm’s prejudices. The biggest victim of Bat-theft was Winslow Scott the Toyman. Even in the first season Toyman’s stories were being stolen from him, his gimmick was stolen in the Gray Ghost episode by a villain voiced by Bruce Timm. The Clown prince of crime got his revenge on the Toyman for stealing his place in the legion of doom (in Super Friends) by stealing the story where he kidnaps rich children. But Edward Nigma would steal more from Scott, the reimagining of the Riddler has The Toyman’s back story of a disgruntled toy designer. The Riddler’s 2nd outing in the series was ripped almost wholesale from the Toyman, with The Riddler using his fame to market Toys (something the Toyman has done many times).
Despite running for 3 Seasons many of Superman’s villains didn’t appear. Vandal Savage, The Ultra-Humanite (Superman’s first arch enemy) Mongul got introduced in the following Justice League series. Mongul’s late appearance confuses me, while a lot of Vandal Savage’s plots could move to Lex Luthor as they’re both earthbound, millionaire, evil geniuses. The Ultra-Humanite has been struggling for relevance, desperately trying to be memorable. Ironic because you’d think a super-intelligent albino gorilla would be memorable. Mongul’s first appearance was straight adaptation of Action Comics Annual from 1989 and Superman 35, with Martian Manhunter added. This storyline from the comics was the 2nd introduction of Mongul. His first introduction story did have him try and pit Superman against the Martian Manhunter but this is not the story they chose. They chose to adapt the one that is a Superman solo story.
Batman the animated series for it’s 4th Season had its budget cut leading to all the characters being redesigned. Superman the animated series started with the lower budget. This probably lead to the mindset that if Lex Luthor could be behind it then he should, because then they wouldn’t need to design a new character and cast somebody new to voice them. So this led to; Vandal Savage, Colonel Future, The Ultra Humanite, Victor Volcanum, The Planter, Morgan Edge, the original Atomic Skull and more villains who try to defeat Superman with intricate plots not appearing. Lex Luthor is over used, he’s responsible for making Bizarro, Metallo and Parasite despite in the comics only being responsible for Bizarro. Metallo was actually improved by this change, but being voiced by Malcolm MacDowell probably didn’t hurt. However, this an oddity, in an attempt to make this series’ Harley Quinn new female characters were added and none of them lasted in the comics. The least successful was Volcana who was so forgotten that in Emperor Joker, a new fire based villainess called Scorch was created completely stealing her niche. Mercy Graves Luthor’s personal driver has her fans, and she has reappeared in Titans. But in Superman comics she had a moment, including an addition to her back story of her being a disgraced Amazon (similar to the villain Artemis). But most popular was the writer’s mouthpiece Livewire.
Livewire with the ear-grating voice of Tank-Girl herself Lori Petty, embodies my next point. The series actually hates Superman deeming him uncool, Batman the animated series never did this Batman. Livewire only does one thing and talk about how lame Superman is. This would be fine for a villain if the universe didn’t seem to back her up. The two best examples of this would be Superman saving kids and then them calling him a loser and the Maxima episode. Maxima in the comics antagonises Superman because she wants to have his baby deeming him the only man worthy of her. The Animated series version didn’t get this memo, because her episode ends with her running off with the new cool kid Lobo. Lobo was then the most popular character but now he can’t maintain an ongoing series. But how are we supposed to root for a hero if the whole series calls him a loser?
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