Superman: Doomsday

Superman: Doomsday
Directed by	Bruce Timm Lauren Montgomery Brandon Vietti
Written by	Duane Capizzi
Produced by	Bruce Timm
Starring	Adam Baldwin Anne Heche James Marsters
Music by	Robert Kral
Distributed by	Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Animation Warner Premiere DC Comics
Release date	September 18, 2007
Running time	78 min.
Language	English

Superman: Doomsday is an original direct-to-video animated film adaptation of the popular DC Comics storyline The Death of Superman focusing on the supposed death of the superhero Superman. The film is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for action violence and is the first in the DC Universe Original Animated Movies line released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. It was followed by Justice League: The New Frontier. The film was released on September 18, 2007. Before the DVD release, the movie was first screened at the San Diego Comic Con on July 26, 2007. It made its U.S. broadcast premier on the Cartoon Network on Saturday July 12, 2008 at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Despite similar animation styles, the film used new animation models, and is only loosely based on the DC Animated Universe that lasted from 1992-2006, with a few allusions to the older series, as well as the Fleischer Superman series, found in the Fortress of Solitude.

Plot

The film opens with images of Superman doing heroic deeds and Lex Luthor narrating, explaining how people look up to him like he was a god on Earth. Before the credits begin, he says "Enjoy your reign while you may, Superman. For as surely as night follows day, there comes a time when even gods must die."

Lois Lane and Superman are romantically involved. Lois is unsatisfied with the arrangements of their relationship. Superman insists that they keep it a secret from the public by limiting their encounters to the Fortress, and he has not yet confided in her that he is actually Clark Kent, although she already knows.

File:Warner Premier - Superman Doomsday screenshot.jpg

Superman fighting Doomsday in the middle of Metropolis.

Workers from LexCorp unearth a spaceship while digging for one of Lex's projects, inadvertently releasing the genetically-engineered creature Doomsday. Doomsday kills the entire digging crew and begins a bloody rampage towards Metropolis. Superman meets the monster there and the two engage in a devastating battle. Superman bleeds for the first time without being weakened by Kryptonite or red solar energy. He kills Doomsday but dies shortly thereafter. The world collectively mourns their fallen hero, and Metropolis honors him with a memorial. Lex orders his assistant Mercy Graves to cover up LexCorp's involvement in releasing Doomsday. Once she does and reports back to him, he shoots Graves in the head, killing her.

Superman's friends cope with his death in various ways. Jimmy takes a job at a seedy tabloid newspaper called National Voyeur; Perry becomes an alcoholic; Lois visits Martha Kent for counsel. Lex grieves over Superman's death, though only because he was not responsible for it: "I wanted a winning strategy. Instead, I've been cheated of the victory I planned for years by an intergalactic soccer hooligan!"

In Superman's absence, the police find themselves overwhelmed by crime. Toyman uses a giant mechanical spider to hold a bus full of students hostage. Lois, still grieving, decides to fight the villain on her own. As she does, Superman digs out of his grave and apprehends Toyman. However, he does not seem quite the same, missing Lois' apartment as he flies her home and acting surprised when she kisses him. She dismisses it as shock from his supposed "death". However, when she receives a call from Martha wondering why Clark has not called home, Lois becomes suspicious.

This resurrected Superman is revealed to be a clone created by Lex via a blood sample retrieved from the battle site. As such, he lacks all of the real Superman's memories, including those of his relationships. Lex is keeping Superman's body preserved in a tube for his personal amusement. He doesn't realize that Superman is still barely alive. A robot from the Fortress of Solitude recovers the body and begins restoring Superman to health.

Meanwhile, the Superman clone's attitude darkens when he hears about Toyman killing a four-year-old girl. The clone finds him being led into the police station. After flying him high over Metropolis, the clone lets Toyman plummet to his death. The city is stunned, and Lois suspects he is not Superman.

Upon returning to Lex, the clone is berated for his behavior. Lex orders him to find the real Superman's corpse and threatens to kill him if he erorrs again. After leaving, the clone goes to a barbershop and uses x-ray vision on himself. Finding a piece of lead-shielded kryptonite in his brain, he pulls it out. At the same time, Lois meets with Lex under the guise of wanting to move on, but first wants to know how he corrupted Superman. Leaning in to kiss him, she stabs him with a tranquilizer and begins looking through his files with Jimmy's help. She and Jimmy discover that Lex is cloning an army of Supermen. After Lex awakens and threatens them, the original clone arrives and destroys the facility. Unable to kill the clone, Lex tries to hide in a lead-lined, red-sunlight room, only to have the clone lock him inside and toss the entire room to the street. This latest presumed murder triggers military action. Again, they cannot harm Superman.

File:Warner Premier - Superman fights Superman.jpg

The real Superman (in black solar suit) fighting his evil clone upon returning "from the dead."

Hearing the news, the real Superman resolves to help, even though his powers are not yet fully restored. To improve his odds he dons a black sunlight-absorbing "Solar Suit" and brings a kryptonite gun developed by Lex. The two engage in a massive battle, with Superman's kryptonite gun failing to hit the much faster clone. Jimmy and Lois grab the kryptonite gun to help Superman, though still unsure if he's the real deal or not. The fight culminates at Superman's memorial, where Lois manages to hit the clone with a kryptonite blast. The clone destroys the gun, leaving only the kryptonite canister. As the two Supermen continue their battle, the canister sticks to the clone's chest, and Superman vaporizes it with his heat vision. The clone, overcome by the kryptonite gas, falls under the rock he was carrying. Before dying he tells Superman to protect the people. Lois is sure of the real Superman once he kisses her, and the crowd is similarly happy to be rid of the clone.

At Lois's apartment, Superman sees that she misspelled "resurrection" in her article. He mentions winning a spelling bee at Smallville Elementary, revealing himself to be Clark Kent. Lois is caught off guard, but the two share a smile and she happily embraces him. At LexCorp, an injured Lex narrates the ending, saying how gods can die but can also return from the dead. He smiles to himself, saying, "It would seem you can't be destroyed after all, Superman. It would seem..."

Cast

Voice actor	Character
Adam Baldwin	Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman Dark Superman
Anne Heche	Lois Lane
James Marsters	Lex Luthor
John DiMaggio	Toyman Various
Tom Kenny	The Robot Various
Swoosie Kurtz	Martha Kent
Cree Summer	Mercy Graves Various
Ray Wise	Perry White
Adam Wylie	Jimmy Olsen
Kevin Smith	Grumpy Man
James Arnold Taylor	Mayor of Metropolis Officer Tucker
Kimberly Brooks	Murphy
Townsend Coleman	Drill Operator
Chris Cox	Damon Swank
Hettie Lynne Hurtes	Newscaster
N/A	Doomsday

Comparisons with the comics

File:Luthor with Gauntlet.JPG

Lex Luthor with a gauntlet full of Kryptonite.

As explained by Bruce Timm, the film focuses on the events of The Death of Superman, World Without a Superman and the Return of Superman comic book story lines, but does not use several of the subplots and secondary characters for story and time reasons. Significant differences from the comic into the movie include:

• The comic Doomsday was a eugenics experiment gone awry. The film Doomsday is a Doomsday device cybernetic soldier originally programmed to slaughter the "enemy", but which somehow lost the ability to tell friend from foe and was buried/hidden on Earth in its distant past by its creators.

• In the comic, prior to the Death of Superman arc, Lex Luthor supposedly died of kryptonite poisoning and his son, Lex Luthor II, who had long hair and a beard, appeared, though in reality Luthor cloned himself, had his brain placed into the clone's body, and posed as his own son. In the movie, Luthor appears in his classic bald appearance.

• In the comics Clark revealed to Lois that he was Superman long before the Doomsday storyline.

• Doomsday was clothed and buried underground and punched his way out into the open by himself. In the movie, it is Lex Luthor's team that unearths him and then he breaks free but he is not in the Calaton burial suit as he was in the comics.

• The Justice League, known as Justice League International at the time, fought Doomsday with Superman. They are omitted in the movie, as are others like Supergirl and Batman.

File:Death of Superman contrast.jpg

A comparison between the Death of Superman in the comics and those in the animated movie (right).

• In the comics most of the battle took place in the outskirts of Metropolis (at daytime) slowly leading up to it. Superman gets cut many times and most of his shirt gets ripped off, and the only civilian casualties took place at a construction site and a couple of buildings that Doomsday destroyed from underground; whereas in the film, the entire fight took place in Metropolis (at nighttime), Superman only retained cuts to the face and only a bit of his shirt gets damaged, and there were many more on screen civilian casualties.

• Superman and Doomsday died by hitting/punching each other at the same time with their last strengths (with Superman using both hands). In the movie, a severely wounded Superman takes Doomsday into outer space and re-enters the atmosphere in a kamikaze dive, having the extreme heat of the atmosphere and the force from hitting the ground to kill Doomsday and in turn, himself.

• In the comics, Cadmus stole Superman's body from his grave for study. In the movie, it was LexCorp.

• At the end of World Without a Superman, Jonathan Kent suffers a heart attack and fights in the afterlife to get Superman's soul back. In the movie, Jonathan Kent was already long dead.

• Before the real Superman's return, the Reign of the Supermen had four people claiming to be Superman: Steel, Eradicator, Cyborg Superman and Superboy. In the movie, all four have been omitted. Though, Dark Superman, seems to be a combination of elements of Superboy (he is a clone of Superman), Eradicator (no moral center and using lethal means on criminals) and Cyborg Superman (Superman-like villain for final battle). One of Lex Luthor's Superman clones, however, does resemble Superboy in his first appearance.

• Mongul becomes the main villain for the remainder of the Return of Superman storyline. However he doesn't appear in the movie at all.

• Superman's "Solar Suit" is different between the comic and movie versions. While both versions absorbed solar energy, the comic version could only mimic Superman's physical powers but not restore them. That is why Superman wore rocket boots for his flight and used laser guns in place of his heat vision. In the movie, before the Superman/Dark Superman battle, Superman has been trying to get his strength back, but only gets to 67% when the battle happens and has to wear the solar suit to help himself during the fight.

• Lois Lane is convinced that the real Superman is genuine in the comics by his knowing Clark Kent's favorite novel (To Kill a Mockingbird). In the film, he convinces her by kissing her passionately (the clone was standoffish).

• In the comics, the absence of Clark Kent is explained by the fact that he could be trapped in the rubble following the Superman/Doomsday fight; he (with help) later faked "discovering" a bedraggled Kent in an old bomb shelter. In the movie, he goes to Afghanistan to cover a story and is assumed missing until later.

• The film represents the only Superman story in which Superman has ever been cloned perfectly. Other clones, such as Bizarro and Superboy were imperfect or flawed due to Superman's Kryptonian DNA.

Rating

The film's generous amount of violence and adult language garnered a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. Most of the more visceral deaths take place just off-camera (for example, Doomsday snapping the neck of an Armed Forces soldier), however the fight sequences are very intense--during the Doomsday/Superman fight, Superman vomits a puddle of blood onto the ground, perhaps the most visual use of blood in the entire film. The language in the film is mature for a comic animation, with numerous characters uttering "damn" and "ass" repeatedly.

When shown in syndicated television on Toonami, it received many cuts of blood, violence, language, and adult themes. Parts of the brutal fight for Superman and Doomsday were cut out entirely, as well as the off screen portions (in fact, no actual punches between the human combatants were shown, nor were Doomsday's blows whenever they struck Superman). It received a TV-PG DSV rating for its Toonami rating and a parental advisory warning. This is inconsistent with other animated programs they have shown on the movie blocks, notably the Hellboy animated movies.

Critical reception

Following the screening at Comic Con, and its release on DVD, the movie got mostly positive reviews, with some reviewers commenting it was a marked improvement to other recent DC animated adaptations, with some commenting it raised the bar for the follow-up to the live-action Superman Returns which had been released the previous summer. Many also agreed it was also better in comparison to the recent animated films Marvel Studios had released based on their characters (such as Ultimate Avengers), in part due to the more adult and action-packed story in keeping with its PG-13 rating.

Many reviews spoke highly of James Marsters' and Adam Baldwin's voice acting as Lex Luthor and Superman, while reviews of Anne Heche's portrayal of Lois Lane were mixed.

Not all reviews of the film were positive. DVDTalk.com, while praising the film's look and its technical presentation, called the film "a massive disappointment" and also negatively commented on the film's short running time and its lack of adherence to the storyline of The Death of Superman comics.

The Top 100 DVD sales chart for 9/18/07-9/23/07 revealed that the film was placed at #4, and was two spots ahead of the season six release of Smallville, a Superman related television show. Variety made a report three months after the DVD's release, on DTV movies becoming very popular, and revealed that the DVD sold 600,000 copies, 30% more than what the studio predicted.

Trivia

Writer, director, and actor Kevin Smith made a brief cameo in this film during the scene in which Superman apprehends Toy Man. As Superman carries Toy Man off, a man (very similar in appearance to, and voiced by, Kevin Smith) remarks "Like we really needed him to bust up a mechanical spider, right? LAME!" This is a reference to the Warner Bros. Superman project that he and director-producer Jon Peters collaborated on, which never came to fruition. Peters had always wanted Superman to fight a massive spider. Smith revealed in his interview film An Evening with Kevin Smith that he thought the idea was ridiculous.

In the scene where Toyman kidnaps the children, after "Superman" awakes from the dead, he screams, " School's out... FOREVER". This could be a reference to the Alice Cooper song " School's Out" where Alice Cooper sings nearly the same thing.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Superman: Doomsday was released on October 26, 2007. The music was composed by Robert J. Kral.. The soundtrack listing is below:

1. "Superman Doomsday Main Title" (2:05)
2. "Fortress of Solitude" (1:33)
3. "Alien" (2:25)
4. "Killing the Hick" (0:52)
5. "Doomsday Rising" (3:59)
6. "Superman vs. Doomsday" (1:49)
7. "Doomsday Battle" (2:11)
8. "Superman's Sacrifice" (2:38)
9. "The Death of Superman" (2:07)
10. "Lois & Martha" (0:48)
11. "Toy Man Attacks" (2:28)
12. "Return of the Hero" (2:22)
13. "Superman Clone" (3:16)
14. "Heartbeat" (0:43)
15. "Relocated" (1:13)
16. "Lois Was Right" (0:37)
17. "Cat Rescue" (1:42)
18. "A Safe Superman" (1:47)
19. "Lois' Plan" (2:21)
20. "Clone Discovery" (3:17)
21. "Luthor's Fate" (0:32)
22. "Superman's Return" (2:27)
23. "Superman vs. Superclone" (4:56)
24. "Superman's Victory" (4:23)
25. "Smallville Elementary" (1:03)
26. "Superman Doomsday End Titles" (2:58)

DVD & Blu-ray

Superman: Doomsday was exclusively available on DVD with a collectable packaging over the DVD box that had a cover of Superman bursting through the movie's logo. The special features included a retrospective look at how the Death of Superman comic came to be, a look at voice actors, as well as a Defeat Doomsday game with a 10 minute preview to the next animated film; Justice League: The New Frontier.

It was the only film in the series originally released without a special edition, with the 2-disc special edition DVD being released over a year after the first release.

Release of a Blu-ray version was announced with a release date of February 26th, 2008, but was delayed

Warner Home Video released a new "Special Edition" Blu-ray and DVD, featuring new bonus materials on November 25th of 2008.

External links

• Superman: Doomsday Official Website for Superman Doomsday DVD
• Superman: Doomsday Official MySpace profile for Superman Doomsday movie
• Superman: Doomsday @ The World's Finest
• Superman: Doomsday at IMDb
• Superman: Doomsday Information at the Superman Database
• Superman: Doomsday Trailer
• Superman: Doomsday DVD Review @ The-Trades
• DVD review at Kitten Kaboodle