Hello again D.. wait.
oh? Good, good.
Hello again DCAU! Previously, we saw the far end of the continuity. Today we have the formative element of that continuity, the earliest bits of Superman. The differences in approach between this and Batman are obvious from the outset, and takes a lot of clear lessons from the third season of that show (or were they concurrent? Eh, either way). Superman actually starts with the origin story, something that is revealed quite a ways into the first season of Batman. Hell, the only thing that makes it obvious the first episode of Batman is the first episode is the "I am the Night!" speech. Episode one of Superman meanwhile has toddler Kal-El.
Wait, let's move on.
But honestly my first inclination is just to talk about the historical relevance of the show because it just feels sorta dated mostly. In much the same way the Last Son of Krypton three-parter lays most of the seeds for basically the whole show (Supes' relationships with Brainiac, Luthor, and if I'm not mistaken the first hints of Apokoliptian influence on earth are all established out of the gate), so this show contains most of the most important threads that were ultimately woven into Justice League. Batman might be the cover boy, but it's Superman who's at the heart of DC, and his rogues and plots are the ones that can carry a full Justice League.
Just as a show unto itself it's... quite watchable, but only occasionally brilliant. And really.
Best Episode- The Main Man (Part One). I remember watching the show in first run (which would be about 13 year old CK) and thinking it was kinda funny. As an adult with many dozens if not hundreds of hours of super hero action to compare it to, the sheer outlandishness of Lobo stands out so much more. And it's amazing. The fact they were able to render something so accurate to the comics Lobo in a kids show is noteworthy as well; you can feel Brad Garret timing the REAL profanity so it was juuuusssttt off-screen.
But while the show does get a smidge better as it goes ('Volume 1' contains what the wikis tell me is actually all of Season 1 plus five episodes from season 2, and four of the five season 2 episodes are just palpably better than most of season 1), on the whole most of it fails to rise above kinda entertaining. Granted on the other hand I'm having trouble singling out a weakest episode.
Weakest Episode- Probably the Promethean. While timing hurt here, I actually fell asleep the first time through and had to watch it again. And almost fell asleep that time. It's not THAT bad but it's just not a terribly exciting concept. Random alien thingie lands on earth, tries to eat heat. We freeze it. The end.
But that would rate, like, a 4 if I were doing individual ratings for episode by my usual scale. Nothing really bad crops up, and very few episodes don't offer at least something. Show just kinda feels aged.
Grade- 6/10
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