DC Animated: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

[Mystik]

well according to the book pressure points helped

[stumpy]

My copy arrived today, so I just watched it and it was pretty good. I haven't watched the special features yet, but the main story was pretty well done and followed what I recall of the arc in the comic. It was great to hear those voice actors again, though I did miss Eric Roberts as Mongul. And the action was quite good, though the fights didn't quite pack the punch we saw in Superman: Doomsday.

I generally like the character models. There were no weird, craggy lines on Superman's face and the features were distinctive enough, not generic-looking, especially where it counted. There is a scene where Batman is posing as someone else and the jawline was good enough to tell it was him.

One character model issue I had was was Power Girl: Her eyes were too big. No, really, her eyes. They were almost like the stylized eyes characteristic of some Japanese cartoons. And, that's okay when technique is used on all the characters. But, when everyone else is drawn more normally, the effect is off-putting. I know she is supposed to be young and wide-eyed, but this comes across as just... alien. Same deal with Amanda Waller. For whatever reason, I don't recall any of the other woman (Lois, Killer Frost, etc.) with that weird look.

BTW, this is the first animated feature I've watched on Blu-ray and I really liked the crispness of it. There was an early scene where they pan to a newspaper front page of Luthor's election victory. It's the sort of shot where normally you can read the headline and see the picture and, maybe read the sub-headline. On this one you can easily pause and read the whole article. Sort of a trivial thing, but pretty cool and the overall difference between normal DVD and Blu-ray really comes across. There is a trailer for Superman: Doomsday on the disk in normal definition and it looks a little grainy or blurry by comparison.

Also, FWIW, I agree that Batman taking down Grundy like that wasn't especially convincing.

[bat1987]

just bought it and really liked it.wondered how batman whipped grundy though.was it the bat gas?

In the comic, it was explained that Batman hit his pressure points.
How can a zombie have a pressure point is beyond me...

[herodad1]

i know its a comic but batman couldnt knock grundy out with feet and fists.pressure points or not.i'm not UP on dc universe but i did watch/collected the JLU cartoons and grundy was portrayed as their HULK.bullets bounce off him, how would his fists compare to that.even with gas they would have no effect.the gas would take him out.he also went through bane too fast also.something else...what did hawkman hit superman with and...did powergirl help them beat up hawkman and cap marvel or did she show up and convince them to help supes and bats?to take down capt marvel they would all have to jump him.again, another mystery for me...where does batman keep all those explosives and batarangs?twice he was holding what looked like 5lbs of plastic explosives.help me out on these questions?all things aside though it was a great story.best yet!well..close with the GL movie.

[BentonGrey]

Herodad....give us a break, man!  Use spaces and captialization!  You're killing me!   Responding to what I can make out, Grundy's power levels have fluctated pretty wildly.  He's been Superman level at one time, and Blockbuster level at another.  This is explained by his constant returns from death, with each incarnation being distinct from those previous, with its own power level generated by whatever outside (or inside?) stimuli happened to apply in that particular case.  Even in JLU you see two different versions of Grundy, as one was just sub-Supes, and the latter, mindless one was superior to the combined forces of the League.

[herodad1]

sorry benton! i get so much whirling around in my melon sometimes it all runs together. what did hawkman hit superman with?   they thanked powergirl for helping with hawk and marvel.what did she do?  i havent read the books.

[Trelau]

In the book hawkman hits superman with what is called the claw of horus, his magical gauntlet. if i remember right, he tells superman that he is basically hitting him with the earth itself (it's a gravity trick or something, i'll have to re-read it...).

And also, powergirl has no role whatsoever in the book, they decided to go with her as the "who should i be loyal to" character (captain atom had this role for himself, and still has it a little in the movie).
To beat marvel, they play dead. they let themselves get beat up, and when marvel and hawkman let their guards down they take them down by surprise (stealing their outfits in the process)

The passage i miss the most is the bat-family (nightwing-robin-batgirl) and supes-family (superboy, powergirl and maybe krypto) attacking the white house together to "save" batman and superman. That was a nice moment, too bad it wasn't in the movie.

edit: oh and by the way herodad, if you can get a hand on those book, i highly recommend them. Superman/Batman was really great in the beginning (now it's still very good but some issues feels kinda...off)

[BentonGrey]

Heh, it's okay HD.  I spend all day looking at painfully bad papers from students who have somehow come through at least 12 years of schooling without learning how to write a simple sentence....so seeing something ELSE that is incomprehensible just makes my eyes bleed.

Hawkman hit Supes with a Thanagarian weapon that basically uses a planet's gravitational field as a weapon (assuming it is the same as the bood).  He tells Supes in the trade, "I basically just hit you with the planet."

[herodad1]

Cool stuff! Thanks guys.

[BWPS]

Heh, it's okay HD.  I spend all day looking at painfully bad papers from students who have somehow come through at least 12 years of schooling without learning how to write a simple sentence....so seeing something ELSE that is incomprehensible just makes my eyes bleed.

I was able to read it just fine.

[Podmark]

The passage i miss the most is the bat-family (nightwing-robin-batgirl) and supes-family (superboy, powergirl and maybe krypto) attacking the white house together to "save" batman and superman. That was a nice moment, too bad it wasn't in the movie.

edit: oh and by the way herodad, if you can get a hand on those book, i highly recommend them. Superman/Batman was really great in the beginning (now it's still very good but some issues feels kinda...off)

Yeah I missed that part too. Was probably my fav part in the whole story. It was just cool seeing all those characters working together and drawn by McGuinness.

I had some issues with the comic version of this story, primarily I didn't like how Luthor got the boot from the Oval Office. But the film was fun.

[Midnite]

Superman/Batman sequel

[BWPS]

Does MTV and DC really have much crossover in their fanbase?

[marhawkman]

Enh, it'll probably be worth watching.

[docdelorean88]

Bought it blind and loved it! Can't wait for Two Earths its gonna be great!