| | Superman (1996) Superman: The Animated Series is the name of a Warner Bros.' American animated television series that ran from 1996 to 2000. The official title of the series was simply Superman and starred the fictional character of the same name. Warner Bros. applied the same "more modern, more serious" animated treatment to DC Comics' flagship character in the same way they had successfully produced Batman: The Animated Series. Both shows had no logo. Slightly-edited reruns can currently be seen weekday evenings at 7/6c on Toon Disney (in spite of The Walt Disney Company being Warner's main competitor). Airing ten years after the 1986 reboot of the Superman comic book character, the animated series paid tribute to both the classic Superman of old and the newer "modern" Superman. Perhaps most significantly, Clark Kent displays the more aggressive personality used by John Byrne in his reboot of the comic book continuity. Elements of Superman from all eras of his history were included in the series, especially in a portrayal of the planet Krypton, the planet that Superman was born on, that fans praised as a "modernization" of Superman's origin that contrasted John Byrne's reboot, and some fans felt was superior to the "newer" comic book version. Notably, the evil computer Brainiac was not only now from Krypton, but was portrayed as responsible for preventing the knowledge of Krypton's imminent destruction from reaching its people. In a lesser innovation, the ship that carried the infant Kal-El to Earth was designed to land smoothly upon reaching its destination, rendering it in perfect working condition during Superman's adulthood and is used as his mode of long range transportation in space. The "new" Lex Luthor featured prominently in the series as well, menacingly voiced by actor Clancy Brown. Superman himself was voiced by Tim Daly. While the series featured fresh recreations of much of Superman's rogues gallery, the series' writers supplemented the limited supply of enemies by paying tribute to Jack Kirby's Fourth World creations which also introduced the villain Darkseid to the series as one of Superman's greatest enemies. Darkseid had been portrayed as a villain in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians in the 1980s, but in the new Superman series, he was closer to the enormously powerful, evil cosmic emperor originally envisioned by Kirby. The tribute event extends to the supporting character, Dan "Terrible" Turpin, who is visually modelled on Jack Kirby himself. On August 18, 1998, Warner Brothers released The Batman / Superman Movie on DVD and video. This movie was formed of three episodes from season 2 of Superman: The Animated Series, "World's Finest" parts 1, 2 and 3. Mark Hamill again provided the voice for The Joker. Midway through the series' run, it was combined with episodes of The New Batman Adventures to become The New Batman/Superman Adventures. The characters of Superman and Batman were then spun off into a new animated series, Justice League, which also featured other popular DC characters, such as Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the Flash.
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