The Series
Superman is a typical thirty minute (i.e., twenty-two minute sans commercials) cartoon. The show has a main story in each episode, as well as a four minute segment known as Superman’s Family Album. The Family Album was an interesting concept that plays out kind of like the old GI Joe PSAs, although they’re obviously longer and more involved. The Family Album segments are consecutive and begin with Superman begin adopted by the Kents. The final segment presents Clark Kent as Superman.
Stepping through events in Clark’s life is nice, but the real meat of the show is watching Superman stop the forces of evil. He faces a variety of foes throughout this series, with this arch nemesis Lex Luthor making more than one appearance. Lex Luthor in this cartoon is changed significantly from his rendition in previous media like Superfriends. Rather than being a diabolical mad scientist, Lex Luthor is a corrupt, insanely rich, ever-power hungry businessman that prefers to have his dirty work done for him.
Superman squares off against a army of Luthor’s robots in the first episode of the series, “Destroy the Defendroids.” This episode is complimented with “The Adoption” for the Family Album segment. The other episodes breakdown like this:
-Fugitive From Space/The Supermarket
-By the Skin of the Dragon’s Teeth/At the Babysitter’s
-Cybron Strikes/The First Day of School
-The Big Scoop/Overnight with the Scouts
-Triple-Play/The Circus
-The Hunter/Little Runaway
-Superman and Wonder Woman vs. The Sorceress of Time/The Birthday Party
-Bonechill/The Driver’s License
-The Beast Beneath These Streets/First Date
-Wildshark/To Play or not to Play
-Night of the Living Shadows/Graduation
-The Last Time I Saw Earth/It’s Superman
It’s easy to tell what the Family Album segments are about, but the main episodes aren’t as descriptive from the title (which is fine). Luthor episodes include the “Destroy the Defendroids,” “By the Skin of the Dragon’s Teeth,” “The Big Scoop,” and “Night of the Living Shadows.” Cybron, The Prankster, Zod, and other villains keep things entertaining for us viewers, and troublesome for Superman — but it’s nothing he can’t handle.
The animation in Superman is realistic and fitting for the time (late 70s, 80s animation). The enthusiastic and familiar “Superman March” acts as the theme and is composed by Ron Jones. Meanwhile, Beau Weaver voices Superman with Michael Bell as Luthor and Ginny McSwain as Lois Lane. Several other expected Superman-universe characters are also a part of the show including the Kents, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White, with newcomer Jessica Morganberry, the ditsy assistant to Luthor.
As for extra features, there is but one, a nearly fifteen minute piece on corrupt business. It’s somewhat of an odd extra feature I thought, but the point of it is to press home the Lex Luthor character. Vintage and stock business footage is shown along with a variety of folks from different industries chiming about the changes in corporate America throughout the years and how the 80s were a particularly corrupt and stressful decade. It’s well worth a watch, but I would have been much more interested in a feature that had more specifically to do with this great cartoon series.
To the summary…