Superman: The Animated Series
I feel like this is the moment we have all been waiting for ever since the Kents mentioned Batman back in the premiere trilogy of episodes. Batman finally makes his appearance and the two meet face to face for the first time. I remember shortly after these episodes aired they were edited together and released on DVD as "The Batman/Superman Movie." Let's get to it.
Superman: "I won't have vigilantism in my town."
Batman: "You'll be rid of me as soon as I find the Joker."
Superman: "That may not be soon enough."
[Batman takes out a sliver of Kryptonite]
Superman: [recoiling] "Unh."
Batman: "It doesn't take much, does it? The Joker has 20 pounds more where this came from. Thought you might like to know."
The Joker and Harley Quinn rob an antique store in Gotham City. They make off with a "laughing dragon" that is actually made of Kryptonite. This brings Batman to Superman's city. The Joker makes a deal with Lex Luthor to use the Kryptonite to kill Superman for 1 billion dollars. Can Batman and Superman team up to take down their greatest foes?
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| BFFs |
From start to finish, this is just a great episode. It sets up the meeting between two of the greatest superheroes in the DCU really well. From the cold open to the final moments, this has everything that fans of these characters could want.
The opening with Joker and Harley is great. It sort of calls into question the timeline of things. These episodes aired around the time of "The New Batman Adventures" when Harley had reformed, but clearly these episodes are before this? It doesn't really matter. This is classic Joker and Harley. Joker gassing the antique store worker and forcing Harley to lug the giant statue out of the house.
We get a classic Superman scene. Lois is on Air Force One with other reporters when it is hijacked. It's best not to think to hard on how this hijackers got on the most secure plane on the planet. It's hilarious when one of them realizes it's Lois after she tries to call for help. Yes, this is the Lois Lane that Superman routinely saves. And he shows up to save the day here. I love these scenes where heroes rip the doors of airplanes and de-pressurize them. I feel like this would not be a great thing to do in real world.
This whole episode feels very cinematic. This scene with Superman and Lois and the airplane. Lois trying to get the nerve up to ask Superman out on a date. It's not a surprise that it was released as a straight to DVD film and I could see it playing in theaters. There are so many firsts in this episode. The first meeting of Superman and Batman. The first meeting of Joker and Lex. The first meeting of Harley's fist and Mercy's face.
There are so many great little moments. There is the Joker showing off his legs in heels to hitchhike when Harley is careening through the streets of Metropolis in Lex's limo. Lois being unimpressed with Bruce Wayne until she actually gets a good look at him. And getting a date with him. Bruce and Lex working together on a deal and Bruce shutting down Lex's suggestion of military applications. The actual meeting between Batman and Superman is perfect. Batman brings his unique form of vigilante skills to Gotham, roughing up some gangsters before Superman shows up. Batman is able to judo throw Superman but the Man of Steel retaliates. Batman is not shy about using that sliver of Kryptonite on Supes.
I loved Superman using his X-Ray vision to find out Batman's identity and it tracks that Superman would do that. Batman isn't going to be outplayed by a boy scout though and puts a tracker on Superman's cape. Batman watches from a building outside Superman's apartment as he reveals his identity as Clark Kent. A great way to end the episode and set up part two.
Grade: A
Superman: "Thank you. I couldn't have saved Lois without your help."
Batman: "I'm aware of that."
[summoning the Batplane, he fires his grappling hook and flies away]
Lois Lane: "Bruce! Bruce Wayne, he was with me when Jokers... is he all right? Do you know?"
Superman: "he's fine. Just fine."
While out on a date with Bruce Wayne, Lois is kidnapped by the Joker as bait to lure Superman out and into his trap. Superman goes after her in his lead lined armor and it looks like Joker may be taken out easily, the Clown Prince of Crime has more tricks up his sleeve. After shooting the armor with acid to make Superman susceptible to the Kryptonite, Batman shows up. They get away but the Joker and Lex aren't done with the world's finest quite yet.
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| A meeting of the female minds. |
Now that Bruce and Clark know each other's secret identities, it adds another layer to the precedings. When Bruce comes to pick up Lois for their date, he is definitely rubbing things in Clark's face a bit, particularly since he knows that Lois was carrying a torch for Superman. I love the coded conversation the two have before Bruce and Lois leave.
Watching Lois and Bruce have this romantic date is super weird but also kind of interesting. I can't help but think about some alternate reality where Lois Lane and Bruce Wayne got together. It's strange, but not completely terrible. The Joker and his goons show up to kidnap Lois. Bruce fights back. I love seeing Bruce use his Batman skills without his costume on. This is a pretty harrowing sequence for the billionaire. He gets tossed off a balcony onto a window washer's gurney. That gets shot out from under him and he barely saves himself. It might have been lights out but the Joker has to abscond with his hostage.
This episode has more action than the first one which is appreciated. The middle part is basically one long action set piece with Superman flying in to try to save Lois. I enjoyed the Joker fake out and using his acid flower to melt away some of Superman's Anti-Kryptonite suite and make him vulnerable. The animated series doesn't always lean into the more sadistic side of the Joker, but there is some of that. Joker dancing around Superman kicking him and shocking him.
Batman shows up and using sulfuric acid to melt the Kryptonite gets Superman up on his feet. He saves Batman and Lois from the Joker's death trap, but the Joker won't be taken down that easy. He uses a bag of exploding marbles to destroy where he was holding Lois, which just so happens to be a LexCorp factory. This doesn't please Lex, who shows up to dissolve his partnership with the Joker. One of my favorite moments from the episode is Mercy and Harley beating the crap out of each other while Joker and Lex parley.
Now that they know that Lex is for sure in cahoots with the Joker, Batman breaks into Lex's penthouse to interrogate him and to deck Mercy Graves. She cannot catch a break. Lex doesn't give anything up but Batman is undeterred. Lex and Joker come up with a strategy to divide and conquer and as the episode ends things aren't looking great for either hero.
Grade: A
Harley Quinn: [after the Joker has supposedly died in an explosion] "PUDDIN!"
Batman: "At this point, he probably is."
The team-up between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel comes to a head. After a divisive attack that involves a cruise ship and one of the robots that WayneTech and LexCorp built, it is time for the final confrontation between the heroes and villains. Everything is coming to a head. Lois finds out Batman is Bruce Wayne. The Joker double crosses Lex and is using his own technology to destroy what he's built.
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| The real Dynamic Duo |
This is a great conclusion to three really good episodes. I feel like I've spent most of the episode just praising it, but I feel like it is time to talk a little bit about the one thing that I don't think really worked overall. And that is the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane.
At first, it was all in good fun and it was kind of cute. It was like a little diversion and it was making Clark jealous. And it was causing fun little friction between the boys but in this episode things maybe go a little too far. In part two, Lois is talking about leaving Metropolis and transferring to the Gotham bureau of the Planet. That feels crazy to me. They have known each other a few days and she's ready to uproot her whole life for him? She knows his reputation. How does she know that he's going to still want to be with her. He is a billionaire playboy. It's just strange to me that she is so gung ho about all this and they are in love with each other. Out of everything that happens in these episodes, that feels the most unrealistic to me.
The rest of the episode is a great conclusion to this first team up of superheroes in the Timmverse. There are more fantastic action sequences. Batman vs the drone he helped to design is probably the highlight for me. It goes from the rooftops of Metropolis and then to the Daily Planet where Lois is the only one there. In the printing room, Batman's cape gets caught in the press and gets yanked off revealing his identity to Lois. This drone is like a villain from a horror movie. It's basically Michael Myers. Each time you think that Batman has taken it down it is still going until it's finally destroyed.
I enjoyed how Joker knew that Lex was going to double cross him and immediately turned on him. There needs to be a YouTube montage of all the times that Mercy Graves gets hit in the face because it is genuinely hilarious. In this episode, she gets beat up and tied to a robot where she almost gets killed. But, you kind of have to give it up for Mercy, because she gets the last laugh when Harley is carted off to Arkham after the Joker is presumed dead... well, kind of.
The last act is basically a large chase/action sequence with Lex, Harley and Joker in the Lexwing and Batman following. It have to say that I love Batman's claw gloves. Those are so dope and I don't think we've seen them before. Joker's tricks are his demise as a second bag of exploding marbles are what causes the Lexwing to explode. The episode ends with Lois breaking things off with Bruce as he returns to Gotham. This episode is great and sets up the "Justice League" series that happened a few years later.
Grade: A-
Next up, Bizarro returns and fresh from "Black Adam" Doctor Fate meets the Man of Steel.
I loved these episodes. Clearly. How did you all feel about them? Let me know in the comments.
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