On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the DC Animated Universe version of Superman?

For me, the overall score would be 3/5. But I should say my opinion on this specific version of Superman varies a lot based on the show in question. To break it down:

Superman: The Animated Series: 3/5. An alright, serviceable take on the character. Has too limited an emotional range, gets beat up too much, and his relationships with other characters aren't developed enough. Has some good moments and is okay overall, but feels like he could be a lot better. Also, I like Tim Daly's voice a lot (though George Newbern is fine).

Justice League Season 1: 2/5. Comes across as even more of a jobber than in S:TAS. They also made the dumb decision to make him look older than the rest of the Justice League, even though Batman should probably be older than him, which they thankfully reversed in the next season.

Justice League Season 2: 4/5. Great, solid take on the character with believable emotions and a genuine-feeling personality.

Justice League Unlimited: 1/5. The actions this version of the character takes makes it pretty much impossible for me to like or respect him. His fight with Captain Marvel was an absolute disgrace, and in the last story arc of the first season, he comes across as having a nasty authoritarian streak. Obviously they wanted to make him more similar to Justice Lord Superman for story reasons, but that kinda makes him rather unsympathetic, ya know?

He also has more of a temper than I consider acceptable for someone of his power level. In this clip, he harshly throws down a heavy object and crushes the top of a steel chair just because he's angry at the Question finding out and talking about some information he didn't want him to.



If all that wasn't enough, there's his awful jobbing to Darkseid in the series finale so that Lex Luthor, the true main character of JLU, can save the day with a deus ex machina. (Yeah, normally I wouldn't consider losing to Darkseid "jobbing", but the DCAU is another story. Plus, even if it was "fair", the context just makes it sting.)

Technically, the average of my scores would be 2/5, but I think 3/5 is more representative of my opinion because his appearances in JLU doesn't constitute that much screen time compared to the rest. Also, I didn't bother covering the shows where he just appears for an episode or two.