So the latest DC Universe animated Direct-to-Video film has come out, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, which of course is taken from the Supergirl From Krypton storyline in Superman/Batman #s 8-13 written by Jeph Loeb and art by the late Michael Turner.
I went in this with some low expectations, considering the way the “ripped from the comics” (Superman: Doomsday, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Batman: Under The Red Hood) had left me a bit lukewarm in terms of how they dealt with what needed to be changed in order to fit a narrative that needed to be told. For example in Under The Red Hood, not that I’d want the infamous “Superboy Prime Time Wall Punch” to ever be referenced in anything ever again, but I found it annoying that Ra’s al Ghul was shoehorned to be involved completely with Jason Todd’s death and resurrection.
So I went into this film with the idea of just taking it as a film, rather than trying to pick it apart in terms of faithfulness to the source material that it was to be based off of.
Well, what I got was a 99% beat by beat retelling of the 6 issue storyline!
The only thing they actually changed was what ultimately happens to Darkseid at the end of the story and the final scene. The latter kind of bugged me because it was worded the same, but the location was different and the people Superman was talking to were different. I’d preferred it if they did have the giant group shot of various superteams (JLA, JSA, Titans, Teen Titans, etc) as Superman is revealing Supergirl to them rather than the Amazonians on Themyscira. I really don’t understand the change as it’s not like they would have had to have the characters speak, or even be animated. But I guess the people in charge of animation didn’t have a George Perez on their team.
Once again members of the old 1990s-mid 2000s “band” is brought back together, which was nice in a way. Kevin Conroy’s Batman is certainty a “voice” many readers must hear when reading out in their heads lines Batman and Bruce Wayne say in the books, especially back in 2004 when the source material was hitting the market. The rest of the “Big Three” is kind of a mash up though as Tim Daly did not voice Superman during the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series and Susan Eisenberg started her run as Wonder Woman, which in fact is Wonder Woman's debut in the “DCAU” with the first episode of Justice League.
Summer Glau did a nice job as the voice of Kara and it appears she will be doing Kara’s voice in the DC Universe Online game, so that will be a neat piece of “continuity.” Andre Braugher also brought it as Darkseid, and speaking Darkseid, you can’t get much better in animated fights than the one Superman and Kara had with him at the end.
In all, this was a quite an entertaining flick.
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
