How Would You Improve Superman: The Animated Series?

[Amadeus Arkham]

It’s been a fun conversation, but we’re veering out of topic. So we’ll have to end it here, lol.

[marhawkman]

At any rate... DCAU had Superman wear space suits, soo... the question of how long he can survive in space is seemingly different here?

[Sacred Knight]

Just better character work on Superman was really all that ever needed. Its only flaw in my eyes was that Superman himself was the least interesting character in it. It just happened to be the biggest flaw you could have, unfortunately.

[Amadeus Arkham]

At any rate... DCAU had Superman wear space suits, soo... the question of how long he can survive in space is seemingly different here?

That’s one version of Superman, out of many iterations in which he’s been shown to survive in space with no space suits so....


Anyway, let’s retire this shall we? The thread is about improving an animated show not a Goku and Superman thread. I’m not really sure it’s the best idea to compare Goku who only has two versions with one writer writing him to Superman who has multiple versions, multiple writers and artists who contradicting & and conflicting ideas on the character.

[marhawkman]

That’s one version of Superman, out of many iterations in which he’s been shown to survive in space with no space suits so....

Yes, but we're talking about the way DCAU Superman was portrayed, and that portrayal involved him wearing space suits.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

There are moments in the DCAU where Superman goes out in space without suits. Such as when Luthor hacks the Watchtower's laser and Superman flies out of the Watchtower satellite to the laser canon without waiting and prompting to try and stop it on time, and then the canon blasts anyway and Dr. Light(the good version) brings him back inside.

So Superman does have resistance that can help him in space longer than a human but for longer travel he needs suits.

And that's fine for me. I don't know why it's so important to many people. Obviously the space-suits helped create merchandise for the character.

[marhawkman]

There are moments in the DCAU where Superman goes out in space without suits. Such as when Luthor hacks the Watchtower's laser and Superman flies out of the Watchtower satellite to the laser canon without waiting and prompting to try and stop it on time, and then the canon blasts anyway and Dr. Light(the good version) brings him back inside.

So Superman does have resistance that can help him in space longer than a human but for longer travel he needs suits.

And that's fine for me. I don't know why it's so important to many people. Obviously the space-suits helped create merchandise for the character.

Also the Argo episode pointed out that the suit was more than just an air supply, it also had lead to protect him from Kryptonite.

[DochaDocha]

Obviously the space-suits helped create merchandise for the character.

Since it was a kid's show, it's hard for me to be too cynical about writing the show around marketing opportunities, but by the time we got to JLU, every time Superman wore a spacesuit I couldn't help but sarcastically make cash register sound effects.

Edit: Whoops, wrong thread!

[Alan2099]

The spacesuits thing always bothered me.

Generally though, I think what the series needed was a lot more silver and golden age weirdess. Less attempts at making him more down to earth and more "Superman is randomly flying through space and meets funky aliens," or red kryptonite turning his head into a lion's head.

[superduperman]

Posted on the wrong thread. Sorry!

[LastSonOfShaolin]

I'm surprised people had a problem with the art style being identical to Batman. I thought Superman had an amazing atmosphere and look.

[marhawkman]

I'm surprised people had a problem with the art style being identical to Batman. I thought Superman had an amazing atmosphere and look.

I agree. I never found a fault with the tone of it. IIRC there was actually an interview where the art team explained that they wanted to making Gotham and Metropolis look different, and mainly did it with lighting.

[Falcon16]

I don't know. It's perfect in every way. Only thing I would've asked for is to have Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer write more episodes, including an episode with Brainiac, and have them sneak Chad Ghostal into a crowd scene or something.

[daredevil1]

It was pretty lifeless and had no depth or characterization. Everyone is just kind of the stereotypical version of themselves. Of course, Batman sometimes gets overrated beyond anything it deserves for having false depth, but at least we had the illusion of getting in the characters' heads. I always roll my eyes when people complain endlessly about Spider-Man TAS and overpraise the DCAU... if you want characterization, Spider-Man had it in overabundance. People complain about the animation in that one- but the DCAU had horrible animation sometimes. The non-TMS episodes of this are pretty stinky. I would've liked to get into Clark and the villains' heads more. But season 2 had so much random crap like the Prometheon or the non-Phantom Zone criminals or the Chthulu thing, and they were all boring to the extreme. They should've either completely leaned in to the Silver Age elements and gone bonkers, or, made every episode darker and pushed the envelope like Legacy. It's too much of a half-and-half like "here's Mxyzptlk, give us nerd points for honoring tradition" while at the same time kind of half-rolling their eyes at it and trying to make it "grounded" as if their take was so much more reasonable. Batman really grated when it did this too.

[Hypestyle]

... 50 more episodes. bring in Dwayne McDuffie as a writer/editor.