Prime Time Geek

Ain’t It Cool News, or AICN.com, is reporting that Warner Premiere’s next entry in their DC Universe Animated line of direct-to-video features after Green Lantern: First Flight, which hits stores this summer will be Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, a direct adaptation of the story originally featured in Superman/Batman #1-6, written by Jeph Loeb (Superman for All Seasons, Batman: Hush) and illustrated by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines (JLA Classified, Hulk: Red Hulk). As with all of the other features in this line, Bruce Timm, the longtime shepherd of all things animated relating to DC and its characters, will produce the project.

This would seem to be a return to the original intent of the product line, which was to adapt popular storylines from the comics into animated form, thereby taking an established property with a built-in fan base and bringing it to that fan base in another form, as well as opening up the property to new, non-comic book reader fans who are fans of the characters. The early releases in the line, Superman: Doomsday and Justice League: The New Frontier, had varying degrees of success in adapting their source material, with most fans, including me, agreeing that the Justice League title was the superior of the two. However, the next three releases in the line, Batman Gotham Knight, Wonder Woman, reviewed HERE just this past week, and the aforementioned Green Lantern: First Flight, deviated from that original intent for the line substantially. Batman: Gotham Knight was a direct tie-in to last summer’s mega-box office hit, The Dark Knight, and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight represent original, origin stories for the characters that were loosely adapted from the current comic book lines.

I daresay that choosing to adapt the initial Loeb-McGuinness story from Superman/Batman is a stroke of genius and, assuming its done right, a step towards getting this franchise back on track. Public Enemies is a big enough story to provide for an exciting animated feature, with lots of action and lots of characters, but it’s a small enough story that adaptation from the source material that made the story so popular can be accomplished without sacrificing too much, as was the case in Superman: Doomsday, where the storyline was so huge that wholesale changes were necessary in order to bring the story to a manageable length, and those changes were satisfying to no one in terms of audience. Public Enemies sold like crazy when it was released in 2003–Loeb and McGuinness are both fan favorites, and McGuinness’ artistic take on so many of DC’s major characters in both Public Enemies and Loeb’s final story arc in the Superman/Batman title, With a Vengeance (issues #20-25) inspired five waves of action figures from DC Direct. The primary challenge for Timm and his production will be how to bring to cinematic life the dual narrative points-of-view that made those early issues of Superman/Batman so distinctive and interesting to read. Loeb’s stories in Superman/Batman featured internal monologue from BOTH Clark and Bruce simultaneously, and the contrast in their perspectives on the action taking place is an important element in what makes those stories so enjoyable. It will be interesting to see also how much the animators choose to draw on McGuinness’ unique style, which is deliberately more “cartoony” and would seem to lend itself well to animation, as did Darwyn Cooke’s trademark style in Justice League: The New Frontier.

I still have great apprehension about Green Lantern: First Flight after watching Wonder Woman, but I must say that this news brightens my outlook on the future of the DC Universe Animated line. Makes me wonder if they’ll adapt Loeb’s second story from Superman/Batman, the one that has had the largest impact on DC’s mainstream continuity, “The Supergirl from Krypton,” which brought back the “true” Supergirl, Kal-El’s cousin Kara Zor-El.