Hello, my friends. From one alternate member of the Trinity to another, I welcome you back to another installment in the series known as…
It’s all about the supplemental and expansive materials that explores certain parts of the DC Universe Animated Original Movie line that the normal flicks can’t get to. Once again, we take a look at another episode in the series…
Last time, we saw a much different side of Batman as he tangled with a mass-murdering psychopath who has a sick taste in humor. Spoilers: It wasn’t the Joker. This time around, we have the second member of this particular World’s Finest as this Man of Steel faces a certain crisis in the episode, “Bomb” (originally released on June 10, 2015).
We open to a city (which turns out to be Metropolis) in the midst of a massive crisis. As vehicles are tossed around, buildings are crumbling and the citizens are fleeing for their lives, a newscaster (which turns out to be Lois Lane, voiced by Paget Brewster) reports on a massive disturbance originating in Weisinger Square.
Over at the White House, we have U.S. President Amanda Waller (voiced by Penny Johnson Jerald) discussing with Doctor Sivana (voiced by Daniel Hagan) on how to take care of the growing situation. We learn from him that the massive disturbance is actually Brainiac and it was built by the government in order to keep a certain Man of Steel in check. However, it’s now out of control and has continually gained power to the point where not even tanks are able to stop it. As such, he suggests that a small nuclear warhead be dropped onto Metropolis in order to take care of the situation. Waller is against the idea, since innocent lives would be lost in the blast. However, Sivana says that if they don’t do it soon, then the entire eastern seaboard will ultimately be eradicated. With her Aide (voiced by Josh Keaton) unable to reach the Man of Steel, Waller calls up the Pentagon to give the order.
We then cut to a stealth fighter plane where the pilot is preparing to drop the nuclear warhead onto the city. Just then, he hears a loud scraping. He’s stunned to suddenly see Superman (voiced by Benjamin Bratt) using his finger to scratch a message onto the window: “Give Me Five Minutes”. Upon getting the go-ahead from the pilot, he flies down into Metropolis to take care of the situation.
Upon arriving, he’s confronted by the swirling winds extending outward from the massive energy build-up. Fortunately, Superman is able to make his way through the maelstrom as he punches massive amounts of oncoming debris as he hopes to prevent the loss of innocent lives.
He ultimately makes it to the heart of the ever-growing destructive field. As such, he reaches out towards the pink energy dome and manages to make his way inside.
Upon Superman’s entrance, it turns out that Brainiac (voiced by Tara Strong), the main cause of this massive destruction, is actually a small kid. Despite the Man of Steel’s efforts to have him get his power under control, the sobbing mechanization continually says that he can’t. At Brainiac’s consent, Superman proceeds to use his Heat Vision.
Thanks to his action, the energy field subsides as the conflict is finally over. However, Episode Two ends on a distraught Superman as he ended up saving many innocent civilians, but at the cost of the child-like being.
Upon my initial viewing, I thought that Supes was originally using his Heat Vision to nullify the part of Brainiac’s mind that allowed the young being to have this uncontrollable power, yet was somewhat turned off by a morose ending where Superman killed off a child-like figure just to save innocent civilians. However, upon a repeat viewing, it’s almost like the ending to “Man Of Steel” where he’s put in a terrible spot and is unable to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis. After all, he does feel bad about what he did, though not to the emotional level that Henry Cavill displayed after killing his adversary. With Brainiac, it obvious that he was built by the U.S. Government since they don’t completely trust Superman and would only unleash their creation as a last resort. Of course, any testing that may have happened with Brainiac never prepared them for this moment. More than likely, the main film would explore why this universe’s American Government has deep-seated fears for this Man of Steel, since it would explain how this episode came to be.
Overall, this episode is halfway decent. This somewhat-rougher Superman is likable enough, the animation is very fluent, and the situation can be tense. However, this feels like the climax to another story where the characters were fleshed out by this point. I’m not entirely sure if this was the proper way to introduce this universe’s Superman, since he pops up a third of the way through the short in order to take care of the crisis and doesn’t have much else to go with outside of that. Sure, he wasn’t happy with what he had to do in order to save Metropolis and the entire East Coast, but we don’t get much out of this version of Supes, at least not yet. It would have also helped if we knew the moment that made the U.S. Government decide on a radical contingency that ultimately ran out of control. Still, I’m holding out towards this kind of explanation in the main film. It’s still enjoyable for what it is. Anyway, that’s all for this entry. Next time, we wrap up the Chronicle’s first season as a different kind of Wonder Woman gets her chance to shine. See you next time.
Superman (created by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster) is owned by DC Comics.
