The original comic book art was drawn by Michael Turner, an artist with a very distinct style (his art is above), who left the comic book world way too soon. Thankfully, the animation does the source material justice in how it renders everyone from Superman to Darkseid. It still remains one of the best looking animated films that DC Animation has put out.
The plot is a retelling of Supergirl’s story. This time she lands in the harbor of Gotham City and nearly destroys it before being subdued by Superman. Throughout the story, Batman remains suspicious of her, as one might expect, and she’s sent off to live with the Amazons for training.
Enter Darkseid, who is looking for a new warrior to lead to the Furies. He believes Supergirl to be the ideal candidate and sends Granny Goodness after her with a fleet of Doomsday clones. After Supergirl’s capture, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman head out on a rescue mission to save Supergirl. While it’s Superman and Wonder Woman’s job to get to Supergirl, Batman has other plans.
It’s here that the story really begins to shine. Everything up until this point has gone as one might expect. But during the battle for Supergirl, Batman arms all the hell mines — vicious explosives that could end the entire planet. He delivers an ultimatum to Darkseid; give them the girl or the planet goes up in flames. To paraphrase Darkseid, had it been Superman or Wonder Woman who held the planet hostage, and he would have called their bluff. But he believed Batman, so he let her go.
There was something powerful about that scene, that you believed that someone like Batman would actually end an entire planet to get what he wanted. Not only that, Darkseid, a villain who rivals Superman in strength, would bow before his wishes.
Of course, Darkseid is nothing but vengeful, and having lost the battle of wits with Batman sets his sights on Earth and Superman. So begins one of the best action sequences in DC animated history as Superman is allowed to unleash his full strength on someone. It’s rare that we get such a true display of Superman’s strength.
Voiced by both their animated series counterparts, Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly deliver the performances you would expect. Even Summer Glau as Supergirl does a wonderful job bringing the character to life. The only exception is Andre Braugher as Darkseid. As one of the few newcomers, he had big shoes to fill in Michael Ironside’s version of the character. Unfortunately, he falls a bit short of them.
Overall, SUPERMAN / BATMAN: APOCALYPSE is really good adaptation of one of the best Batman and Superman stories and is definitely worth a watch.
Written by Peter Freeman, TV & Animation Beat Writer -- Click to read Peter's posts
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