I’ve been disappointed lately by the DC output but this one has brought me back! – Will

Batman discovers a crashed spaceship from Krypton and Superman learns that it’s his cousin, Kara. This also draws the attention of Darkseid who decides that Kara must become the newest member of his team.

Directed by – Lauren Montgomery

Written by – Jeph Loeb, Tab Murphy

Starring – Andre Braugher, Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg, Summer Glau, Julianne Grossman, Edward Asner, John Cygan, Dave B. Mitchell, Rachel Quaintance, Andrea Romano, Salli Saffioti, Tara Strong, Jim Ward, Gregory Alan Williams, April Winchell

This one has been sitting on my shelf since it first came out and I picked it up. I was just so let down by the previous Superman/Batman film, and also the Justice League movie, that I didn’t have much interest in checking this out. I’ll always be a loyal buyer though because even when they’re bad they’re still better than all the other animated crap out there. I shouldn’t have waited so long to watch this one because it was jammed full of amazing action sequences and some great animation that brought Michael Turner to mind since he did the original comic run of this story.

Now you can’t really measure up to Turner when it comes to drawing a beautiful woman but the animators at least come close. The story is a little light but it was made up for with incredible fight scenes and I can forgive any story related mishaps when you’ve got Kevin Conroy as Batman. Basically a meteor crashes into Gotham Harbour so Batman heads out to see what’s going on. He finds a ship with Kryptonian writing on it and shards of Kryptonite scattered around it. A young girl was in the ship and is now running through Gotham without any knowledge of how she got there. As Batman is trying to stop her, Superman shows up and the two of them find out that she is Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin from Krypton. They try to keep her quarantined until she can learn to use her powers but Wonder Woman steps in to take her to Paradise Island where she can be taught properly.

Darkseid also has an interest in her and comes from Apokolips to capture her and make her part of his mob of warriors. Now Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Big Barda, a former member of Darkseids team, must travel to Apokolips to rescue her. That may sound like a lot but they manage to cram all the story into the first half of the film while still including two major battle scenes. Since the films are probably directed to fans of the comics, there really isn’t any need for deep character exploration. I’m happy for that at least because it meant we could get right into the incredible ass kickings that are handed out.

Superman accepts Kara right away but Batman is always suspicious.

The big plus here is Kevin Conroy as Batman. I believe it was the last Justice League film that he wasn’t in that really killed that one for me. It’s really just not Batman without him so I got a little more excited when the proper voice was coming out of Batman’s mouth. I also wasn’t expecting Wonder Woman to appear in this one so that was another pleasant surprise. What really caught me off guard was the insane action sequences. They were very well put together and animated and never seemed off or rough. It all flowed perfectly and showcased just how badass each character can be.

I never realized just how powerful Darkseid was.

This film pushed the limits on what each character can pull off. You rarely see Superman pound the crap out of someone like he does with Darkseid and I’m sure I’ve never seen Wonder Woman display the amount of strength she does in this flick. The action is relentless, encompassing most of the films running time and even when you think they’ve given you enough, they dish out some more. The final battle sequence was probably the most impressive one I’ve seen in a DC animated flick yet. I know they’ve managed to put something great together when even my daughter stops what she was doing to watch. I guess there’s still a little superhero lover in her yet!

I think I had read somewhere before that people had been complaining that this story was a little too different from its original storyline that had been in the Superman/Batman comics but I can’t see how any fan of the DC animated line would be upset with this one. It’s instantly become one of my favorites, although still falling just behind New Frontier. My only regret was that I didn’t watch it sooner so I could share the joy of it with anyone who hasn’t watched it yet.

Under the marquee – Will