Pulp Comics

If Superman & Batman animated series have an ‘art deco’ style,  Superman Batman:Public Enemies is more like the ‘pulp’ style of the golden age.

With DC’s established successful structure of Bruce Timm, Andre Romano, and Dan Didio this new original animated movie is directed by Sam Liu who recently did the 2 ‘Hulk Vs’ features for Marvel. Andrea Romano is the voice director which means all the voice talent is spot on and some of the best in the business; Clancy Brown, Kevin Conroy and in this case Tim Daly (and not George Newbern doing his best Tim Daly-esque JL version). Metallo is not played by Malcolm McDowell… John C McGinley has those 4 lines instead, but Smallville fans will enjoy Allison Mack as Power Girl.

You want realism, watch Dark Knight. Superman Batman:Public Enemies is chock full of comicbook action goodness. Jeph Loeb’s original story provides a great vehicle for pitting our heroes against a slew of heroes and villains alike for some over the top Supes & Bats action. Officially, anything with a Superman vs Captain Marvel (Shazam, to non-CBGs) fight is worth watching or reading… even if it does feature Super-Dimension-Mecha-SupermanBatman-Happy-Turbo ending.

Superman Batman:Public Enemies

Both comic companies are making PG animated flicks. While Marvel leans toward a slightly lighter side of PG, DC seems to be trending toward the darker, closer to adult-oriented comicbook flicks. Similar in tone to JL:New Frontier and Superman:Doomsday, SB:PE might be a little intense for the little ones, unless you’ve already had the talk about ‘escaping from graves’ (rated PG)

Special Features:

Blackest Night with Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi – Great overview of the comic series, for the Blackest Night uninitiated.

‘Making Of’ features for title and each of the recent DCU animated flicks; Wonder Woman, Justice League: New Frontier, Green Lantern:First Flight, and Batman:Gotham Knights.

Original Books wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman/Batman

Superman/Batman is a monthly comic book series published by DC Comics that features the publisher’s two most popular characters: Batman and Superman.Superman/Batman premiered in August 2003 and is an update of the previous series World’s Finest Comics, in which Superman and Batman regularly joined forces.

Superman/Batman explores the camaraderie, antagonism, and friendship between its titular characters. Jeph Loeb, the series’ first writer, introduced a dual-narratortechnique to present the characters’ often opposing viewpoints and estimations of each other, which subsequent series writers have maintained. Prior to the 1985limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the two iconic characters were depicted as the best of friends. Frank Miller’s landmark series Batman: The Dark Knight Returnswas the first DC story that depicts the heroes at odds with each other, as opposed to Pre-Crisis incarnations. This dynamic became DC Universe canon with John Byrne’s The Man of Steel, a Superman reboot published in 1986.

With the exception of the first thirteen issues, most of the story arcs are independent and self-contained from the ongoing or crossover storylines in the other Batman and Superman comic titles.^[1] Superman/Batman #26, Loeb’s final issue, features a story plotted by Jeph Loeb’s son, Sam Loeb, who wrote it prior to his death from cancer in 2005 at the age of 17. Twenty-six writers and artists who knew Sam worked on the issue, donating their fees and royalties for the issue to The Sam Loeb College Scholarship Fund.^[2]