Best Superman Cartoon?

[Kuwagaton]

It's kind of a genius move, albeit with inherent flaws. Superman is an extremely versatile character who just isn't as popular in certain times with certain demographics. So, hire people who are in that demographic or work for that demographic to aim at it.

So you get a Superman with Batman's deco seasoning. An extremely weak (weaker than the Fleischer version?) Superman who can be used to sell merchandise, tell a wider variety of stories, and team up with others in a way that ironically doesn't lowball him. That last part was crucial for a bridge to JL/JLU. Streamlined versions of supporting cast and story arcs... the fact that they did Dark Side (as Legacy) relatively new was a cool opportunity, for one thing.

Tim Daly is a hard voice to get out of my head, Clancy Brown is downright irreplaceable

[The Frog Bros]

Both Fleischer and STAS were amazing at playing up what made the comic eras fun while enhancing the stories with sound and motion. Although you can say the simplicity in both also tended to play up the cons as well.

The Fleischer cartoon can be binged twice over in a sitting which is nice. No idea which would be the best format for watching.



I'd love to see if I can finally track down World's Finest. There's a lot I don't remember all these years later and some stuff I actually didn't see.

Best format I ever saw one on was the big screen. Anniversary theater release of Superman the Movie played Mechanical Monsters before the film. Would love to do that again. Meantime I suppose I’d have to settle for the dvd/blue ray.

Thought I recall hearing they remastered them in Ultra 4K to boot.

[K7P5V]

Best format I ever saw one on was the big screen. Anniversary theater release of Superman the Movie played Mechanical Monsters before the film. Would love to do that again. Meantime I suppose I’d have to settle for the dvd/blue ray.

Thought I recall hearing they remastered them in Ultra 4K to boot.

Sounds Awesome. Heard there might be problems, though...

[Jim Kelly]

My knowledge of all the cartoon shows isn't that great. The two I know best are the Fleischer cartoons and the Fiilmation cartoons. While I may have seen some of the Fleischer Superman when I was very small, it's Filmation's THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN from 1966 that I remember. In fact, I was watching those before I started buying the comic books.

Those might have been the most faithful cartoons in adapting the comic books of their time. Bud Collyer voiced Superman/Clark Kent and Joan Alexander voiced Lois Lane just as they had in the 1940s. The designs were all based on Curt Swan's Superman work. The mythology was exactly the same as it was in the 1960s comic books. Superman was even Superboy when he was younger.

The quality of the animation, given it was just a Saturday morning show, wasn't superior. But otherwise, it was my Superman. I think the people at National Periodicals had some input on the stories, as well. It was a perfect introduction for me into the Superman world and I could pick up the comics knowing what I was going to get.

It seems like every other adaptation is never exactly the same as what's in the comic books--which must confuse kids. They see one version of Superman on T.V. and then they pick up the comics and have to make an adjustment. From what little I know about the Ruby-Spears Superman, it seems to be an amalgam of the Christopher Reeve Superman and the post-Crisis comics, but not exactly faithful to either.

I never got to see very much of the Bruce Timm Superman. I do remembering expecting it to be like the Fleischer cartoons, because Timm's Batman was inspired by those. I imagined his Superman would be like that even more so. Yet it wasn't. And I'm not a fan of that overly big Superman design. I did like Tim Daly voicing Superman/Clark Kent and Dana Delany voicing Lois Lane. And I absolutely loved the comic books, THE SUPERMAN ADVENTURES--I loved them more than the official continuity comics at that time. In my book, Mark Millar's best writing was for those comics.

[The Frog Bros]

Sounds Awesome. Heard there might be problems, though...

Well that’s a bummer. And good to know too!

Thanks for the input, all!

[Agent Z]

I agree about STAS. It was clearly a Superman show written by Batman fans and made for Batman fans. It is funny when people consider it their definitive Superman when he is barely a character in his own show, and his supporting cast and villains are never really fleshed out.

I think Mark Waid also mentioned that when he visited the writers' room of STAS, he saw that everyone was a Batman fan and they considered writing Superman akin to "homework". Bruce Timm also expressed his dislike of Superman's villians and considered Superman himself "intrinsically dull". Basically everyone working on the show was just wishing they were doing a Batman show instead, which shows in how Superman is treated.

Considering the writers themselves didn't have much love for the character, I suppose the cartoon was decent by those standards. The best thing to come out of the show was the Superman Adventures tie-in comics because it actually had writers who enjoyed working on Superman.

Timm has pushed back against this claim.

https://www.reddit.com/r/superman/co...mm_lambasting/

[manwhohaseverything]

Timm has pushed back against this claim.

https://www.reddit.com/r/superman/co...mm_lambasting/

i still don't understand what makes batman intrinscally cooler..is it all the blackness?

[Laser_Man]

Timm has pushed back against this claim.

https://www.reddit.com/r/superman/co...mm_lambasting/

Actions speak louder than words and the quality of STAS is damning proof. There is a reason why Bruce Timm had to even release this statement because people noticed a pattern.

Presenting Superman as a stoic and aloof hero, Lois and Jimmy being pushed to the background and becoming irrelevant, Superman playing second fiddle to Batman in his own series whenever they teamed up. These were all interesting choices and it showed a level of disconnect the showrunners had with the character.

For the record, I don't think anyone working on the show had any "hatred" for Superman. It's just that they did not have much interest in the character, which showed in how little research they did into the Superman mythos. In the end it was job for them. WB wanted a cartoon for their second most popular character and Bruce Timm took it up. Doesn't mean he loved Superman or hated him, just like not all of us love or hate our jobs. We just do it.

[godisawesome]

STAS still has the best villains and villain stories by far, and the first season is good, with a bright spots like The Late Mr. Kent being all time greats… but on rewatch, it’s actually somewhat weird how little the series did with the Lois they’d perfectly cast and how the second and third season were generally quite a bit weaker.

[Agent Z]

STAS still has the best villains and villain stories by far, and the first season is good, with a bright spots like The Late Mr. Kent being all time greats… but on rewatch, it’s actually somewhat weird how little the series did with the Lois they’d perfectly cast and how the second and third season were generally quite a bit weaker.

I think it's the only Superman adaptation made after the 70s in which Lois doesn't learn Clark is Superman.

[CosmeticSkull]

My Adventures with Superman

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[Celgress]

I'd still argue that STAS handled the villains better than anyone else, and that The Late Mr. Kent is an all-time great Superman story... but I'd agree that the Fleischer cartoons were generally more reliable when it came to quality and handling Lois and Clark.

Same here, plus it introduced Livewire arguably the best female Superman villain (and no, I don't count Maxima as a villain she is more of an anti-hero).

[Laser_Man]

I think it's the only Superman adaptation made after the 70s in which Lois doesn't learn Clark is Superman.

Somehow she does find out Bruce Wayne is Batman though. Weird how Batman's romance with Lois is more fleshed out in 4 episodes than Superman's romance with Lois in the whole series.

But then again, no one accused DCAU writers of being unbiased.

[Agent Z]

I suppose this is relevant.

[superduperman]

Watched that last night.