Tim Daly – Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent, Bizarro
Dana Delany – Lois Lane
Clancy Brown – Lex Luthor
David Kaufman – James “Jimmy” Olsen
Lisa Edelstein – Mercy Graves
Joseph Bologna – Lt. Daniel “Terrible” Turpin
Joanna Cassidy – Inspector Maggie Sawyer
George Dzundza – Perry White
Mike Farrell – Jonathan Kent
Shelley Fabares – Martha Kent
Nicholle Tom – Supergirl (season 2-3)
 |
| Promo image. |
Having learned a lot from their time on Batman, the producers were able to bring a careful approach to the
show. The biggest challenge: paring down Superman’s powers enough so that
stories wouldn’t be over before they began. Similarly, John Byrne had done such a thing in his
1986 mini-series The Man of Steel and his subsequent run on volume 2 of the Superman title after the DC Comics event Crisis on Infinite Earths
rebooted the entire DC Universe. He could be hurt by large projectiles and
beings with comparable strength, and had trouble lifting an entire plane. However,
making Superman more grounded wasn’t extended to the stories they could tell as
the character allowed them to explore more fantastic elements than they could
with Batman; from the depths of space
to alternate dimensions and timelines.
 |
| The Daily Planet building amongst the Metropolis skyline. |
Initially producer Bruce
Timm wanted to have the show be a period piece set in the 1940s like the
acclaimed Fleischer Studios’ Superman theatrical shorts, or even
the 1950s like The Adventures of Superman live-action series. However, they
decided to set the series in a futuristic present. Superman’s city of Metropolis featured sprawling
skyscrapers reaching the sky amongst many elevated roadways, embracing its
identity as “The City of Tomorrow”. While they used an art deco style similar
to Batman, they focused on a more
“optimistic” version rather than the harsh, angular version from the prior
show. Also differing was the color palette, as the characters and background
were rendered in brighter colors and many of the stories were set during the day.
 |
| Krypton. |
While knowing most people knew the broad strokes of the mythology of
Superman and his origins, the producers decided to begin with an origin story
anyway to establish their world for the audience. The very first episode was
set entirely on the doomed planet Krypton
just before its destruction. Character designer James Tucker was tasked with
designing the alien planet and its populace with the explicit instruction to
avoid using any design that had come before. The result was a Krypton whose
advanced technology allowed the populace to live in harmony with nature,
accounting for asymmetrical building designs that blended into the scenery.
 |
| Brainiac's original form on Krypton. |
While Jor-El (Christopher McDonald, who would
go on to voice an older Superman in Batman Beyond) and Lara Lor-Van’s (Finola Hughes) sending Kal-El
(Superman’s birth name) to Earth in a rocket to escape the planet’s fate is the
long-established portion of the story, producer and story editor Alan Burnett suggested a new
twist: have Brainiac
(Corey Burton, who got the
role for his close rendition of the “control voice” from The Outer Limits intro)
be the cause. Brainiac is a classic Superman villain that had appeared in his
animated efforts before: once as the creation of a mad scientist in The New Adventures of Superman and later as a Coluan with a computerized brain (as
he was in the comics) in the Super Friends franchise. This version was made an artificial intelligence that
operated at the center of Krypton’s systems. He denied Jor-El’s claims about
Krypton’s imminent end in order to save himself and all of Krytpon’s knowledge
rather than waste valuable resources trying to prevent the inevitable.
 |
| Brainiac shows Superman his collected knowledge. |
After saving himself, Brainiac would then proceed to travel from planet
to planet, assimilating their knowledge into glowing golden orbs and then
destroying them in order to make their knowledge more precious; as opposed to
the classic comics where he would shrink
entire cities and preserve them under glass, rendering them “bottle cities”.
Timm, a comic purist, was initially against this interpretation of Brainiac until
he realized that most of the general audience wouldn’t have a problem with the
changes. Eventually, Brainiac would find his way to Earth in a new robotic body
trying to make the planet his next acquisition in recurring appearances.
Superman would save the Krypton orb after their first encounter and place it in
his Fortress of
Solitude, which maintained the classic arctic ice-like appearance, although
its entrance was accessed by his flying through a river rather than via a giant
key only he could lift as in the comics.
 |
| Superman pays Lex a visit. |
Superman’s other constant foe was ruthless businessman Lex Luthor (Clancy
Brown, who actually auditioned for Superman). Luthor was the CEO of LexCorp and the literal architect
of Metropolis. He reveled in the citizenry’s worship of him. However, he grew
jealous of their love for Superman and sought to either have him under his
thumb or dead. Luthor’s personality and appearance was modeled after Telly Savalas’ Ernst Stavro
Blofeld in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Faithfully serving Luthor was his
chauffer/bodyguard Mercy Graves (Lisa Edelstein). Mercy was created for the
show, and was once the leader of a gang of female thieves who attempted to rob
Luthor. Luthor saw potential in her and brought her under his wing. Although
she was loyal to Luthor, she wasn’t inherently evil and occasionally did the
right thing when his actions didn’t sit well with her.
 |
| Lois and Clark talk to Perry. |
As Clark Kent, Superman worked as a reporter for the Daily Planet along with his traditional supporting cast. Rival
reporter Lois Lane (Dana Delany, given the role based on her performance in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) was depicted as Clark’s equal and
competitor, rather than just someone plotting to get Superman interested in
her. She didn’t think much of Clark, but still respected him as a colleague.
Photographer Jimmy Olsen (David Kaufman) was a balancing act to make him hipper
while still keeping a bit of the dorkiness he was created with. While this
Jimmy was still a bit of a goof, he wasn’t afraid to get into the thick of
things to get the photograph to sell the story. Editor Perry White (George
Dzundza) was determined to remain the last honest newspaper man in the
business. While he was a bit loud and gruff, he was more of a father-figure to
his staff than a tyrant. Making his first appearance in animation was Bibbo Bibbowsky (Brad
Garrett), a dock worker who often provided information on gang activity to
Lois and Superman. First appearing in Adventures
of Superman #428 (1987) by Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway, the comic version
was a former heavyweight world champion and Superman’s biggest fan who
attempted to help whoever he could in the seedier part of Metropolis.
 |
| Maggie Sawyer and "Terrible" Turpin. |
Outside the Planet, Superman had Lt. Daniel “Terrible” Turpin
(Joseph Bologna) and his partner, Inspector Maggie Sawyer (Joanna Cassidy).
Turpin was the typical hard-nosed street cop who worked his way up the ranks to
the Special Crimes Unit and felt that Superman wasn’t really necessary.
Turpin’s design was based on and meant to be a tribute to Jack Kirby, who had created the
character as first Brooklyn of the Boy Commandos in Detective Comics #64 (1942), and later as the adult Turpin in New Gods #5 (1971). Sawyer was a tough no-nonsense cop who had
a bit more favorable opinion of Superman and would sometimes actively seek his
help. This was in direct contrast to her comic counterpart that debuted in Superman vol. 2 #4 (1987), who shared the animated Turpin’s
viewpoint. Sawyer’s sexual orientation was also acknowledged on the show when
her comics girlfriend, Daily Star reporter Toby Raynes (Laraine Newman), appeared by her bedside
in the hospital and with her at a funeral.
 |
| Professor Hamilton. |
Professor Emil Hamilton
(Victor Brandt) was
introduced as a way to explain all the science that appeared on the show. As a
scientist for S.T.A.R. Labs,
he was in a position to provide Superman with special suits for his adventures
or help him understand Kryptonian technology. Unlike his comic counterpart,
Hamilton never turned to villainous efforts, but he did come to view Superman
as a potential threat as the series progressed.
 |
| Jonathan and Martha find baby Kal-El. |
Like The Man of Steel comic, Clark’s parents Jonathan (Mike Farrell) and
Martha Kent (Farrell’s real-life wife Shelley Fabares) were kept alive and on
their farm in Smallville.
Superman could always return to the farm to seek solace and advice from the
people who helped raise him into the man he became. Upon first finding baby
Kal-El, Martha suggested naming him “Christopher” or “Kirk”, references to
Superman actors Christopher
Reeve and Kirk Alyn. Clark’s
high school sweetheart Lana Lang
(Joely Fisher, the younger
version played by Kelly Schmidt)
also appeared a few times, having known Clark’s secret since seeing him perform
impossible feats in school. This version of Lana had left Smallville to become
a famous fashion designer.
 |
| Parasite feeds on Superman. |
As with Batman, the show
adapted many classic Superman stories and foes while adding new twists to them.
Amongst Superman’s established rogues were John Corbin (Malcolm McDowell), a
criminal-for-hire enhanced into the Kryptonite-powered cyborg Metallo; Winslow Schott, Jr., aka Toyman (who resembled a human-sized
doll with a child-like persona, voiced by Bud Cort) who used lethal toys
for revenge against Intergang
leader Bruno Mannheim (Bruce Weitz); Rudy Jones, a
S.T.A.R. janitor who was doused with chemicals turning him into the
energy/memory/power-absorbing Parasite
(Brion James); Kryptonian
criminals Jax-Ur (Ron Perlman) and Mala (initially a male Kryptonian’s name,
voiced by Sarah Douglas), who shared
characteristics with General Zod
and Ursa (which was played by
Douglas) from the films Superman
and Superman II; Bizarro
(Daly), a degenerated imperfect clone of Superman created by Luthor; Fifth Dimensional magical imp Mr. Mxyzptlk (modeled after
the Golden Age
version, voiced by Gilbert
Gottfried) and his girlfriend Ms. Gsptlsnz (Sandra Bernhard and Jennifer Hale); and Maxima (Sharon Lawrence), an alien
warrior queen who wanted Superman to be her mate.
 |
| Livewire. |
Newly created for the series were Leslie Willis, aka Livewire (Lori Petty), a Metropolis
shock-jock who held an anti-Superman rally and gained electrical powers when
both were struck by lightning; Edward Lytener, aka Luminus (Robert Hays), an ex-LexCorp
employee and informant for Lois that developed an unhealthy crush on her and
created a suit with various light powers; and Claire Selton, aka Volcana (Peri Gilpin), a pyrokinetic who
was turned into a living weapon by the government.
 |
| Space truckin' with Lobo. |
The producers found that Superman lent himself better to having
guest-stars from across the DC Universe than Batman did. As a result,
several episodes featured team-ups with other characters outside of Superman’s
franchise, including super-speedster Flash (Charlie Schlatter) and his foe, Weather Wizard (Miguel Ferrer, who played a
similar character in the failed live-action Justice League of America pilot), in a recreation of the
classic race story from Superman vol. 1 #199
(1967); the Atlantean king Aquaman
(Ferrer); the Czarnian bounty
hunter Lobo (Garrett); the
mystical sorcerer Dr. Fate (George DelHoyo) and his
assistant, Inza Cramer (Jennifer Lien), against his foe Lord Karkull (Ted Levine); and the first
representation outside of comics of Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern (Michael P. Greco), who was made
a Daily Planet cartoonist, given some
of Hal Jordan’s
origin, and faced off against former Green Lantern Sinestro (also Levine).
 |
| The REAL man of Steel. |
Making his animation debut was the character John Henry Irons (Michael Dorn). Irons was a
designer for LexCorp who was working on a super powered armor for the police.
He perfected the suit with the help of his niece, Natasha (Cree Summer), and donned the new
armor to aid Superman against Metallo as Steel. Steel was created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove for Adventures of Superman #500 (1993).
He originally debuted during the fallout from “The Death of
Superman” storyline in 1993 as one of the four new Supermen that would be
seen around Metropolis until the original’s resurrection. Steel was inspired to
become a hero by Superman in order to get weapons he designed off of the
streets and took up his cape and shield to honor him. Steel would go on to
become his own hero in his own
self-titled series, as well as receive his own movie in 1997
starring Shaquille O’Neil. Although the
producers couldn’t adapt “The Death of Superman” for a Saturday morning
program, it was eventually done as the direct-to-video movie Superman: Doomsday in 2007. It used similar character designs
and starred Adam Baldwin as
Superman (who was the original choice for The
Animated Series but ended up becoming unavailable).
 |
| World's finest. |
The biggest team-up, however, was a recurring one with Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Robin (Mathew Valencia). The success of
Superman: The Animated Series and the
continued success of Batman reruns
prompted Warner Bros. to revive Batman. However, due to a reduced budget,
the series was completely redesigned to be more in line with Superman. The two would meet in the
three-part “World’s
Finest”, which pitted them against Luthor who had teamed-up himself with Joker (Mark Hamill) and Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) to destroy
Superman. They would meet again in “Knight Time,” where Brainiac had abducted
Bruce Wayne and Superman aided Robin in searching for him while disguised as
Batman to keep Gotham City’s
criminals in check. The final time came in “The Demon Reborn” where Ra’s al Ghul (David Warner) sought
to steal Superman’s powers as a solution to the mystical rejuvenating Lazarus Pits no longer
maintaining his youth.
Superman: The Animated Series debuted
on Kids’ WB on September
6, 1996, becoming the second entry of the shared DC Animated Universe.
All three parts of “The Last Son of Krypton” aired on Friday night before
moving to its Saturday timeslot. The show proved a success, and Kids’ WB
decided to double-up on their offerings of the program. For the second season,
they combined reruns of the show with reruns and new episodes of Batman: The Animated Series in an
hour-long programming block called The
New Batman/Superman Adventures. New episodes would air independently just
before the block until joining it for the series’ third season. Along with
Burnett and Dini, the series was written by comic book writers Mark Evanier, Evan Dorkin, Joe R. Lansdale, Steve Gerber, Hilary J. Bader, and Sarah Dyer, as well as animation writers Robert N. Skir, Marty Isenberg, Robert Goodman, Stan Berkowitz and Rich Fogel.
 |
| Timm's end credit image. |
Unlike Batman, Superman featured
an introduction comprised of clips from various episodes due to their falling
behind schedule leaving them unable to create an original intro. Two shots were
new, however: Superman flying at night, and ripping his shirt open for the
close-up final shot of his “S”. Shirley
Walker composed the main theme and the character themes, as well as the
score for six episodes. The rest of the series was scored by Kristopher Carter, Harvey R. Cohen, Michael
McCuisiton and Lolita
Ritmanis with almost every episode having a completely original score. The
image of Superman seen behind the end credits was designed by Timm to bookend
the image seen in the credits
of Batman. He figured it would be a nice iconic image that marketing could
use on various products. However, marketing felt it didn’t look identifiable
enough as Superman and went with a different design.
 |
| Superman and Supergirl. |
The second season was extended by two episodes to allow the producers to have
the animated debut of Supergirl (Nicholle Tom). The original Kara Zor-El first
debuted in Action Comics vol. 1 #252 (1959)
by Otto Binder and Al Plastino after positive
reaction to a story where Jimmy Olsen wished a Super-Girl into existence to be
a companion and aid to Superman in Superman vol. 1 #123 (1958). She was born and
raised in Argo City, which
somehow survived the explosion of Krypton, and was sent to Earth to be raised
by Superman after its destruction was assured by a meteor shower. Supergirl
remained popular, and eventually in 1984 gained her own movie starring Helen Slater. However, over the years,
other Kryptonian characters had come in and out of the various Superman titles,
prompting DC to want to restore Superman’s status as the LAST Kryptonian. As a
result, despite her popularity, Supergirl was killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985)
at the behest of DC’s Vice President/Executive Editor Dick Giordano, who felt
she made no real contribution to the Superman mythos.
 |
| Supergirl model sheet. |
In the interim, Supergirl was revived but was no longer Kryptonian. Lex Luthor,
posing as his own son, created Supergirl, also known as Matrix, in Superman vol. 2 #16 (1988) out of synthetic protoplasm that
allowed her to shape-shift amongst other different powers, and gave her Lana
Lang’s memories. In 1996, Matrix was merged with the human Linda Danvers to
create a new Supergirl as written by Peter
David. Timm and producer/writer Paul Dini were intent on using
the classic Supergirl, but because of DC’s decade-old edict they gave the show
the stipulation that she couldn’t be from Krypton and should possess somewhat
different powers under the yellow sun. They relented and instead of being from Argo
City on Krypton, she was from the planet Argo
that was colonized by Kryptonians some time ago and was named Kara In-Ze (the last name
of the original’s mother). The producers ignored the other stipulations,
however, and left her powers alone. Her costume was based on the Danvers
version that was currently being published.
 |
| Finding Kara. |
Kara was found by Superman in suspended animation as the only survivor
after her planet was thrown out of orbit from Krypton’s explosion, and brought
her back to Earth to be cared for by his parents. She was determined to become
Superman’s partner, but he continually sidelined her feeling that she was too
young and inexperienced. That didn’t stop her from trying her hand at heroing
whenever she could, however. That included becoming friends with and teaming-up
with Batgirl (Tara Strong).
 |
| Darkseid doesn't tolerate DeSaad and Mannheim's failure. |
As everyone involved was a big fan of Jack Kirby, they decided to
supplement Superman’s foes with some of Kirby’s greatest creations from his Fourth World series. Chief amongst them was the evil despot Darkseid (Michael Ironside), ruler of the planet Apokolips. Darkseid was selected
as the perfect ultimate threat to Superman, the producers having a hard time
continually coming up with foes to match Superman’s powers. Darkseid showed up
briefly during the first season, supplying Intergang with Apokoliptic weaponry through
his envoy Kanto (Michael York), but gradually worked his
way up to the big bad in the series finale. Along with him came his son, Kalibak (Dorn); his recruiter and
trainer Granny
Goodness (Ed Asner) and
her Female Furies: Lashina (Diane Michelle), Stompa (Diane Delano) and Mad Harriet (Andrea Martin); and his head torturer DeSaad (Robert Morse). Opposing Darkseid
was the New Gods of Apokolips’ sister planet New Genesis, including Orion (Steve Sandor) the son of New
Genesis’ ruler Highfather.
 |
| Storyboard for Turpin's funeral. |
The episode “Apokolips…Now! Part II” delivers the death of Turpin at the
hands of Darkseid as his parting shot after defeat. In its original airing, the
following funeral scene featured a number of Kirby creations, friends and fans
including New Gods Big Barda, Scott Free and Orion; Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury and Fantastic Four; and Evanier,
painter Alex Ross, Ross’ father Norman,
Stan Lee, Dini and Timm. The
storyboards showcase additional cameos that didn’t make the cut. Subsequent
airings and home video releases would show an altered version of the scene
removing all those characters and substituting them with generic background
characters until the series was remastered for Blu-ray and streaming. The
entire episode was dedicated to the memory of Kirby, who died in 1994.
 |
| Superman of Apokolips. |
The two-part “Legacy” saw Darkseid capture and brainwash Superman into
leading an attack on Metropolis, losing the trust of the populace. Initially, a
fourth season was planned which would deal with the theme of Superman
re-earning their faith, but the season was ultimately nixed in favor of the
team working on Batman Beyond. The
theme of distrust in metahumans would instead carry over into the next DC
Animated Universe series, Justice League.
The show ultimately ended with Lois and Superman’s first kiss; a
development that would have been explored had the series continued. The series
was nominated for a 1997 Annie Award and
for four Daytime Emmy Awards, and
is regarded as one of the best Superman cartoons produced on par with the
earlier Batman.
 |
| Livewire on Supergirl. |
Like the original characters created for Batman, Livewire was integrated into the main DC Comics universe.
She joined in Action Comics #835 (2006) by Gail Simone and John Byrne
where her origin remained largely intact until the New 52 reboot. Batgirl vol. 4 #42 (2015) by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher reimagined her as a
vlogger who was electrocuted trying to reroute all the power in the city in
order to spell out a dirty message visible from space. Livewire was adapted
into live-action for an episode of Smallville, played by
Anna Mae Routledge, in a team
of “meteor freaks” (people empowered by Kryptonite chunks that followed
Clark to Earth) and on Supergirl, played by Britt
Morgan, as a shock jock who was fired by Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) for insulting
Supergirl (Melissa Benoist).
 |
| Mercy Graves: Amazon. |
Mercy also made the leap to comics in Detective Comics #735 (1999). This version of Mercy was blonde
and an Amazon,
and served in the same capacity as Luthor’s bodyguard. After leaving Luthor’s
employ, she briefly tried her hand at being a superhero as a member of Infinity, Inc.
After the New 52 reboot, Mercy was introduced in Justice League vol. 2 #31 (2014) as an Asian-American who
managed LexCorp in Luthor’s absence. A Japanese Mercy made her live-action
debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice played by Tao Okamoto,
although she was killed as a pawn in Luthor’s (Jesse Eisenberg) plot against
Superman (Henry Cavill).
 |
| The comic series. |
As with Batman, DC published a
comic set within the animated universe. Superman Adventures ran
from 1996-2002 for 66 issues. Along with Dini and Evanier, the series was
written by Devin Grayson, Scott McCloud, Mark Millar and Ty Templeton. It largely relied
on the same cast as the series, although it did incorporate some originals such
as General Zod, Bizarro
Lois Lane, Krypto and Sandman. Batman and Superman Adventures: World’s
Finest adapted the three-part
Batman crossover with writing by Dini and art by Joe Staton. David Michelinie and John Delaney composed Superman Adventures Special: Superman vs.
Lobo – Misery in Space, which
had Superman once again teaming-up with Lobo. In 2003, DK Children published The Animated Series Guide and The Ultimate Sticker Book. Beginning in 2009, Stone
Arch Books began publishing a series
of easy reader storybooks utilizing the same art style and character
designs from Superman (only Supergirl
was altered to remove her bare midriff). In 2023, the designs of Superman and Lois
were briefly featured in the “Kiss Kiss Fall In Portal” episode of My Adventures with Superman as one alternate universe representation of the characters.
 |
| Superman 64 box art. |
In 1997, Titus
Software made the first video game based on the show for the Nintendo Game Boy called
simply Superman. It was a side-scrolling action game that tried to emulate the
series’ animation style with its limited technology. Titus then produced the
1999 video game Superman: The New Adventures (also known as Superman 64) for the Nintendo 64. The game used
similar character designs and audio bytes of the dialogue from the various
featured characters. Titus had reported that development of the game was
heavily hampered by DC and Warner Bros.
imposing numerous restrictions on them, resulting in a game largely regarded as
one of the worst of all time. BlueSky Software
wanted to redo the game for the Sony PlayStation
and Sega Saturn, but
Titus’ license had expired, resulting in its cancellation.
 |
| Shadow of Apokolips box art. |
In 2002, Infogrames
Sheffield House produced a game released through Atari for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube called Superman: Shadow of Apokolips. The game featured the return of Intergang who were actually
robots created by Lex Luthor in league with Darkseid. All of the original voice
cast from the show returned to voice their respective characters of Superman,
Lois, Livewire, Metallo, Volcana, Kanto and Lex Luthor. However, Mercy was
voiced by Lauren Tom, Darkseid was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and
Parasite by Brian George, who
succeeded Brion James in the role after his death. The reception of the game
was met with some trepidation considering the previous effort, but ended up
being regarded as a better, if not average, game. A poorly-received prequel, Countdown to Apokolips, was
released the following year for Game Boy Advance
developed by Mistic Software.
 |
| Superman Burger King toys. |
From 1996-99, Kenner
produced four series of action figures based on The Animated Series. The line mostly consisted of Superman
variants, as only Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Darkseid and Metallo were
represented, as well as Supergirl. An exclusive Wal-Mart two-pack featured a Batman and
Superman figure, which was re-released
by Hasbro in 2001. From 1999-2000 three
four-packs were released collecting previously released figures with a theme;
one of which included a new Lois Lane action figure. In 1997, Burger
King featured Superman as one of its Burger King Kids Club meal themes
which included five toys, and then Jack
in the Box had Superman, Supergirl and Steel as part of their DC Super Heroes
Kids’ Meals in 2001. In 1998, Kenner released a 12” Superman doll with a cloth
costume, while Hasbro released a similar Supergirl the following year.
In 2017, a two-pack
featuring Superman and Lois was released by DC Collectibles. In 2020, McFarlane Toys released a Superman, Flash and
black-suited Superman based
on their appearances in Superman.
 |
| Bizarro maquette. |
In 1997, Bowen Designs
released a limited edition Superman
maquettes on an “S” shield base. In 2003, DC Direct began producing a
series of maquettes as part of its DC Comics Classic Animation line which
reproduced the Superman
with a new base, Bizarro,
Kyle
Rayner and Supergirl. In
2015, Diamond Select released
limited edition resin busts of Superman,
Supergirl and Lex Luthor, while
Diamond Select Toys released a PVC
statue of Supergirl.
 |
| The complete series. |
In 2004, Superman first came to
DVD from Warner
Home Video in the collection A Little Piece of Home, which featured four episodes including
the one that gave the DVD its title. The collection was re-released in 2014 as Superman and Friends. In 2005, the first three episodes were
released as The Last Son of Krypton, along with the complete first
and second
seasons. The third
season was released in 2006 and the complete
series in 2009. The first three Batman crossover episodes were released as The Batman/Superman Movie in 2007. In 2013, a series of budget
DVDs were released collecting episodes with a shared theme. DC Super-Villains: Superman – Worlds at War collected 13 episodes from both Superman and Justice League with a
space theme. Superman Super-Villains collected
three episodes for each volume featuring either Brainiac,
Metallo
or Bizarro.
The complete series was re-released
on Blu-ray for the first time in 2023. The series was made available to
stream on HBO
Max, and to purchase on Prime
Video, Vudu,
Apple
TV, Google
Play and Microsoft.
In 2014, La-La Land Records
released a limited edition 4-disc compilation of music from the series. In
2015, Mondo released a limited-edition
record cut into the shape of the “S” shield that contained the themes from both
Superman and The New Batman/Superman Adventures. It came in both a Superman
and Bizarro
edition.
 |
| Metallo strikes! |
For most of their further appearances in the DC Animated Universe, many
of the characters from Superman retained
their original voice actors. However, George Newbern would succeed
Daly as the voice of Superman, Delaney would assume the additional role of
Maggie Sawyer in Justice League, and Phil
LaMarr would assume Steel in Justice League Unlimited.
Most of the cast would be reunited for the critically-panned 2006
direct-to-video movie Brainiac Attacks, which also used similar character models. Daly also voiced
Superman in the movies Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse,
and Justice League: Doom. Delany would reprise her role in two
episodes of The Batman and in the movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. Kaufman would return to Jimmy in Justice League: Doom and Superman vs. The Elite. Brown
portrayed Luthor in an episode of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, The Batman, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and its related
movie, and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (which also featured Gottfried as
Mxyzptlk). In 2013, Conroy guest-starred in an episode of Daly’s web series The Daly Show facing off with each other as their
respective characters.
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