[...] is Clancy Brown, “the definitive voice of Lex Luthor”, who also played the character in Superman: The Animated Series. Here, Superman is played by Travis Willingham; Christopher Corey Smith is a dynamite Joker; and [...]

[...] Superman: The Animated Series episodes — “The Last Son of Krypton, Part 1”; “New Kids in Town”; and “Little Girl [...]

[...] Tim Daly (The Animated Series, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Superman/Batman: [...]

[...] Two episodes from Superman: The Animated Series: “Blast From the Past”, parts 1 & 2, which feature Kryptonian [...]

[...] of how superheroes age. It’s fully justified in being considered an equal to the Batman, Superman, and Justice League [...]

[...] originally played her in four episodes of Superman: The Animated Series and two episodes of the various incarnations of the Justice League cartoon. He’ll be [...]

[...] provides the voice of Supergirl, and seven-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (Up) reprises his Superman: The Animated Series/Justice League role as Granny Goodness. [NB from Johanna: Yay! That's one of the best examples of [...]

When the animated Superman came along, I felt like it was missing the boat a little. The surrealism of Batman becomes redundant when you have characters with literally fantastical, SFnal powers (yes, I know some aspects of Batman’s world employ comic-book science, but it was always seriously underplayed on the show) and the Superman show seemed to be compensating with blandness. I’m not one of those guys who says “Superman is boring ’cause he’s a boy scout” but based on the three-part pilot, the animated folks did seem to have a bit of trouble striking the same compelling tone they had for Batman. So I skipped it.

After over a decade of becoming a more serious comics nerd, I recently caught up with S:TAS and found it to be wonderful. I still find the pilot a little bland, but the show found its feet fast. I was impressed to find them applying the same level of wit and shrewdness to the mythology of Superman that they did to Batman, allowing a lot of characters to work in ways that they didn’t on the page. Props in particular to Toyman, who’s legitimately creepy, and Mxyzptlk, who was used almost perfectly. And their take on Bizarro was genius (though I did miss the “opposite speak”). Having Kandor be a virtual reality construct was a masterstroke as well. And, and, and…the Fourth World characters. I don’t think anyone who isn’t Kirby is ever going to properly do justice to them, but this show came darn close. Anyway, a wonderful late discovery for me.