Superman: Doomsday

Where were you on November 18, 1992?

For some people that day may not have as hugely significant an impact as, say, November 22, 1963 or September 11, 2001, but for others it was quite a dark day – at least in the world of comic books. For those like me who remember it well, it was the day that Superman died.

Of course, it was all part of a ploy on the part of DC Comics writers, artists, and editors working on four separate titles – “Superman”, “The Adventures of Superman”, the then-recently launched “Superman: The Man of Steel”, and the flagship title of the comics industry, “Action Comics” – who were looking to breathe new life into a franchise that for many intents and purposes had started to grow a little stale. The film series was in a state of limbo after four big-screen installments, and the television incarnations were also in a period of dormancy at this time (it would be another year before "Lois and Clark" would hit the airwaves). So the question was posed: what if Superman actually died? The end result was a seven-part storyline entitled “The Death of Superman”, which saw the Man of Steel fall at the hands of an unstoppable monster of unknown origin dubbed Doomsday, culminating in the landmark 75th issue of “Superman” which, as a result of numerous printings and limited edition versions, sold over four million copies alone. The growing anticipation of the storyline made headlines worldwide over the months leading up to the event and dominated the news over anything else at the time.

This led to two continued storylines over the next year, “Funeral for a Friend” (which dealt with Superman’s funeral and burial, repackaged as “World Without a Superman”) and “The Return of Superman” (which, after several months on hiatus, saw the Last Son of Krypton return to discover four separate and distinct offshoots in the world, each one claiming to be Superman reborn). Note the Christ-like similarities in this tale, which are further explored in the paperback book “The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero”, written by Stephen Skelton – I highly recommend this book.

From there the Superman line would be re-energized, bringing in new readers as well as bringing back long-time readers. Eventually writer/artist Dan Jurgens returned to familiar territory with “Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey”, a three-part sequel to the “Death of Superman” trilogy which explored Doomsday’s horrific origins on Superman’s home world of Krypton and pitted the two beings against each other in an epic return bout.

As a result of the success of the “Death of Superman” trilogy, word soon began to buzz about a possible return to television, culminating in September 1993 with the premiere of “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”. BBC Radio faithfully adapted the trilogy into a three-hour radio drama entitled “Superman Lives”. DC writer Roger Stern penned an epic novelization called “The Death and Life of Superman”, which became a New York Times bestseller for a number of weeks. Skybox cards reprinted the artwork from the tale into two limited edition trading card sets, “Doomsday: The Death of Superman” and “The Return of Superman”. Warner Bros. and producer Jon Peters began considering a film adaptation of the story, with numerous script treatments penned and none of them meeting muster with studio executives and fans alike. (The worst of the lot, a complete and heartless piece of s--t entitled “Superman Lives” [no relation to the well-made radio drama], written by that damn moronic idiot Smith [who needs to go back to his mother’s basement and smoke pot with his girlfriend], almost got made by director Tim Burton with Nicolas Cage in the title role, and the studio actually spent [translated: blew] $30 million in pre-production on this piece of crap? No wonder it got shelved – thank goodness for Bryan Singer!)

Warner Home Video and DC Comics has launched a series of direct-to-DVD “DC Universe” animated productions, and the first installment in the series is none other than “Superman: Doomsday”, a 75-minute adaptation of the “Death of Superman” trilogy that gets to the heart of the story itself. Right now I can tell you that it’s not the most letter-perfect adaptation of the tale, as many events had to be abridged or even eliminated in favor of the main tale, but it’s certainly a decent attempt.

In this new animated feature film, employees of LexCorp accidentally uncover a mysterious vault and unleash the destructive might of Doomsday upon the world. Of course, it’s up to the Man of Steel to stop Doomsday at all costs, but as the fight gets more and more intense, Doomsday’s strength grows at an alarming rate. As with the multi-chapter storyline, the battle winds up on the streets of Metropolis, where Superman makes the ultimate sacrifice in stopping Doomsday’s rampage at the cost of his own life. As the world mourns its fallen champion, Superman’s enemies rejoice, all but Lex Luthor, who unknowingly sets off a chain of events that even he couldn’t have foreseen.

Certainly, the “Death of Superman” storyline is one of epic storytelling, which makes it extremely difficult to condense the entire saga into a single 75-minute film. As I stated earlier, many story elements had to be condensed or even outright eliminated in favor of a story that stayed true to the essence of the original tale. Gone from this tale are many of the repercussions that followed Superman’s death, among them the emergence of four separate Superman impersonators, each claiming to be the Man of Steel reincarnated. Instead, we now have only one Superman impersonator – and it’s not who you think it is – and it’s this good Superman/bad Superman battle reminiscent of the showdown in “Superman III” that takes up the latter part of the film. Also gone are many of the wonderful personal moments that made up the “Death of Superman”, “Funeral for a Friend”, and “Return of Superman” storylines, including Superman’s journey to save his dying adopted father Jonathan Kent (who's mysteriously absent from this adaptation), a young family affected by Doomsday’s rampage, and some of the epic events in the final third of the trilogy. For that matter, the issue of Lois and Clark’s engagement (which was put on hold for the duration of the trilogy) is also eliminated from the film, leaving her romantic attraction toward the Man of Steel intact. Rather than a single 75-minute movie, this epic tale should have been adapted into three separate animated films a la the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to get everything appropriately covered.

The voice talents behind the scenes bring a new sense of perspective to the Superman characters not previously seen on the WB animated series. Adam Baldwin (from “Independence Day”) brings a new sense of vulnerability and strength to the Man of Steel and delivers a pitch-perfect balance between the good Superman and the evil Superman in the latter part of the film. Anne Heche (of such films as “Volcano” but most notably known as Ellen DeGeneres’ ex-girlfriend) brings a combination of strength and personal vulnerability to Lois Lane. James Marsters (of “Buffy”, “Angel”, and “Smallville” fame) brings an even more sinister sense to Lex Luthor than we’ve seen previously in the many film and TV incarnations.

However, that's where the praise ends and the rant begins. Halfway through the film, someone with a lack of brain smarts not only decided to stick a Smith in-joke in the film, they also got that bottom-feeder to do a voiceover as well! Who in the hell is responsible for that crappy decision? And why does he think he has to stick his nose in Superman's business - and everyone else's business - for that matter? Why doesn't he go back where he came from and stay there? That alone was enough for me to get turned off on "Superman: Doomsday" right then and there.

But just because this is an animated film, which was produced, co-written, and co-directed by Bruce Timm (of the “Superman”, “Batman”, and “Justice League” animated series), don’t think for a second that this is standard kid fare – it’s far from it. This is an extremely intense animated film with a lion’s share of action violence, particularly in Doomsday's rampage and mindless killings, the titanic battle, and the dark Superman's penchant for murder, which earned the film a PG-13 rating, so it’s definitely not for the kids. Also, while much of the look of the film is played off the “Superman” animated series format, it’s separate from the animated continuity.

The DVD presentation of “Superman: Doomsday” is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format and in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, with optional English subtitles. The print is crisp and free of blemishes, and the 5.1 track is hard-hitting all around, especially in the battle scenes throughout the film.

Also included on the single-disc release are a nice collection of extras that take viewers further into the storyline. First off we have a running audio commentary with Timm, writer Duane Capizzi, voice director Andrea Romano, and executive producer Gregory Noveck, who discuss the problems in adapting the “Death of Superman” storyline into animated form and the creative decisions they made in abridging the epic tale into a single film. This was a decent listen, right up until Timm decided to mention the crappy-ass Smith in-joke. I had to check it three times to make sure, and then I went, "Oh no you didn't!"

From there we have “Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives”, which is a 43-minute retrospective documentary on how the DC Comics team decided Superman’s fate. We have new interviews with the key participants who all collaborated to pull the trigger – including writer/artist Dan Jurgens (who penned and illustrated the landmark 75th issue of “Superman”) and collaborator Brett Breeding; writer/artist Jerry Ordway (who worked on “The Adventures of Superman”); writer Roger Stern (who eventually adapted the trilogy into his bestselling novel); writer Louise Simonson and artists Jon Bogdanove and Tom Grummett (from “Superman: The Man of Steel”); DC editor Mike Carlin; current DC president and publisher Paul Levitz; and former DC president/publisher Jenette Kahn – and made comic book and news history in the process. Included in the documentary are scenes from the DC Comics trilogy and their animated comparisons, which bear startling similarities to each other at times and no resemblance at other times. Most interesting is vintage video footage from the early 1990’s of the “Super-Summit” meeting, which at the time was a standard regular meeting with all the creative talents of the Superman titles to keep the storylines consistent from one book to the next, since at the time the books were interconnected with one another (it’s a shame that in this current trend the books are not interconnected at all). You get to see the plotting and scripting process each writer, artist, and editor brought to the tale, and how all played a part in making this the most important event in comic book history. We also have vintage footage and news reports from November 1992, where fans lined up in droves to turn out for the landmark event. Clearly, this seemed to be far from the gimmick designed to increase reader turnout due to sagging sales; this event took on a life of its own. It’s quite a fascinating look inside the comic book industry, to say the least. The documentary is divided into five chapters and can be viewed in its full-length form or through the individual chapters.

We also have “Behind the Voice”, which is a quick five-minute look at the voice talent of “Superman: Doomsday”. Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano, as well as Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, Ray Wise (Perry White), Swoosie Kurtz (Martha Kent), and Adam Wylie (Jimmy Olsen), discuss how they contributed to the development of each character’s vocal portrayal. There is also “Superman’s Last Challenge”, a set-top interactive game where viewers can play as the Man of Steel in stopping Doomsday. We also have a 10-minute preview reel for the next DC Universe animated film “Justice League: The New Frontier” (adapted from the graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke) which stars Kyle MacLachlan (“Twin Peaks”) as Superman, Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”) as Wonder Woman (one of my perfect choices for a live-action feature film version of the character), and David Boreanz (“Angel” and “Bones”) as Green Lantern – no formal release date has been announced yet, but look for it later this year. Finally, we have a trailer gallery for different film and DVD projects, including “The Last Mimzy”, “Spawn: The Animated Series”, the “Blade” TV pilot, all six seasons of “Smallville” on DVD, and the “Dangerous Days” teaser for the upcoming “Blade Runner” 25th anniversary edition on DVD, among others.

In addition, for Best Buy customers Warner Home Video has included a miniature comic book of "Justice League: New Frontier" in select copies of the DVD. A copy of this bonus book was unavailable for review.

“Superman: Doomsday” is not the most perfect adaptation of the landmark comic book tale. Attempting to squeeze a year’s worth of tales into a single 75-minute film is definitely problematic, which is why various script adaptations in the past have always missed the mark. Squeezing everything out until all you have left is the bare bones of the story doesn’t always work, and that’s one of the main problems going into “Superman: Doomsday”. I only wish that, like the comics trilogy, this was the first installment of an animated Superman trilogy to follow in coming months, with each installment running much longer than 75 minutes apiece. While it doesn’t stay exactly true to the original comics, at least the essential core is intact. And the extremely excessive violence and that crappy-assed Smith cameo was enough for me to turn it off completely. I can't give it the most wholehearted recommendation, and that's saying a lot for me as a Superman fan - even my wife was turned off by the idea - and I remind you that this is not for younger kids to watch. I know I won't be watching this again.