From the beginning talks about Superman's 75th anniversary to the details of what would be on the Man of Steel Blu-Ray collection, there were rumors of a collaborative animated short conceived by Bruce Timm and Zack Snyder. The film was supposed to highlight Superman throughout the years with an eye towards his many incarnations.
Well, turns out the rumors were true!
The short was shown at the NYCC Superman 75th panel, then embedded in an Entertainment Weekly on-line article and finally showed up on YouTube. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouzoJZvDfbY
Now I didn't envy this task when I first heard about it. We knew early on this thing was going to be, at most, a couple of minutes long. How do you cover 75 years of Superman history in 2 minutes? Some things are going to be left out. And how do keep all the fans happy?
I have mixed feelings about the final production and some of those are based on what must have been tough decisions.
There is one 'blink and you'll miss it' Supergirl moment, 49 seconds in, lasting about 1 second. It is squarely in the Silver Age section. Funny the skirt is red there, not actually accurate, but the look I prefer. Also ... Streaky!!
But I really thought there would be a Crisis #7 cover bit, as that is such a defining moment the industry and Superman. I was also worried there might be no Supergirl at all! So I suppose I should be happy with 1 second.
There is a lot of great stuff in the piece from a Fleisher Studio bit to a boxing match montage from Superman vs Muhammed Ali.
But there are some Superman elements woefully underused.
Lois is in the piece for about 1 second as well and in the Animated Series section. One second of Lois?
Luthor isn't seen at all (maybe we see his back if he is the bald guy getting punched through a brick wall). No Luthor??
Plus no Legion! Or Lois and Clark! Or really Smallville (although written on a water tower).
And maybe we see just a little bit too much of the New 52 Superman slugging it out with Darkseid and the Man of Steel Superman as well. There are 4 seconds each of those versions - the former being around for only 2 years, the latter for 4 months!
I know .... I know ... if you included everything it would be really long. But couldn't it be 3 minutes? And does Superman Red/Blue deserve as much time as Lois??
I mean ... 1 second of Lois???
What did you guys think?
