Superman - The Animated Series, Volume Two (1996)

Superman Vol2 Animated Series

This is a great addition to the whole Superman series. Tim Daly is a great voice for Superman! July 30, 2008

It's a nice night for flying!

I applaud this wonderful release of "Superman: The Animated Series - Volume Two". The first volume was great, but the second is wonderful. Better writing, action, and even more villains. I did not think it could get any better, but it definitely has. Below is a list of episodes contained in this two-disc set.



1. IDENTITY CRISIS

2. TARGET

3. ACTION FIGURES

4. MXYZPIXILATED

5. DOUBLE DOSE

6. SOLAR POWER

7. MONKEY FUN

8. BRAVE NEW METROPOLIS

9. GHOST IN THE MACHINE

10. WORLD'S FINEST (Part I)

11. WORLD'S FINEST (Part II)

12. WORLD'S FINEST (Part III)

13. FATHER'S DAY

14. THE HAND OF FATE

15. BIZARRO'S WORLD

16. PROTOTYPE

17. THE LATE MR. KENT

18. HEAVY METAL




SPECIAL FEATURES
Menaces of Metropolis: Behind the villains of Superman - the origin and evolution of Superman's adversaries
"Mxyzpixilated" video commentary by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Dan Riba, and Jason Hillhouse
"Brave New Metropolis" audio commentary by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Glen Murakami, and Dan Riba
"World's Finest" (Part I) audio commentary by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Glen Murakami, and Dan Riba








THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO ANYONE, LIVING OR DEAD, INVOLVED IN THE PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE "SUPERMAN" UNIVERSE. June 30, 2008

Very Nice

Nice to have but dont buy Superman Batman the movie if u have this season because it is included!Dont waste your money guys as I did!Somebody has to tell you! May 13, 2007

Superman, Volume 2

Well for anyone who enjoyed this series back in the 90's this is a must have. And if you really like Superman this is a must, must have! I grew up watching this show and since I am a huge fan of Superman once I had a good job and therefore money, I decided to get this series on DVD and I sure wasn't dissapointed. This Volume introduces some great villains and is full of awesome episodes with some interesting bonus material as well. March 9, 2007

A fun and worthwhile revisioning of Superman - although the main character is often Lois Lane

There are a number of criticisms of the Man of Steel, most notably that he's so powerful there can be little suspense in his battles. Therefore, there are really only 2 types of battles in the Superman universe - those with villians as powerful as he, and those involving kryptonite (his Achillies Heel). The producers of the Superman: the Animated Series know this, and wisely introduce a number of innovations in order to keep the stories fresh.

The most important, from a storytelling perspective, is that the stories often centre on Lois Lane instead of Superman. This also allows the writers to give the Clark Kent personna lots of screen time, as a sidekick to Lois. The two best episodes of this season are examples of this: In "Brave New Metropolis," Lois is teleported to an alternate universe where Superman is a vaguely fascist policeman (the S on his suit is a stylised Nazi-SS lightning bolt) in Lex Luthor's dictatorship of Metropolis. The best episode of the series is called "The Late Mr. Kent," wherein Clark is hot on the tail of a sensitive story that results in a car bomb being detonated under him. Of course, Clark as Superman is unhurt, but Clark the human could never have survive the blast. This leads to the very entertaining and interesting storyline of Superman trying to figure out how to bring Clark back to life. (In the best scene in the season, the police are baffled that Clark's mom doesn't seem concerned that her son has just been killed. "Ma'am, are you sure you understand the implications of what I've just told you?")

Of course, there are also some knock-down, drag-out fights with some of Superman's arch enemies. Here, though, the series is not at its finest, although it's through no fault of its own. Superman simply doesn't have the cast of villians of, say, Batman. Even the most casual fan would be able to name several Batman villians (e.g., Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Mr. Freeze). After Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk (the latter of whom is a one-trick pony), there are no real first-line villians in Superman's pantheon. This show did introduce a new villain named Livewire (with a high-octane voice by Lori Petty), and this season does feature Darkseid in one episode and Brainiac in another. But, as expected, the vast number of shows are variations of some Lex scheme to destroy Superman, or take over the world, or whatever.

The highlight for many (and the reason I bought this disc) will be the 3-episode crossover with the Batman universe titled, appropriately, "World's Finest." Joker finds a large piece of kryptonite and offers to kill Superman for Lex Luthor. The friction common between Batman and Superman is evident, this time brought on by the neat twist of ahving Bruce Wayne date Lois Lane. Overall, it might be the most enjoyable multi-part story in all of the Superman/Batman animated series. January 29, 2007

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