Superman (1988– )

The Man of Steel fights evil in the city of Metropolis and beyond

Stars:

Beau Weaver, Ginny McSwain, Mark L. Taylor

Cast

Series cast summary:
Beau Weaver	...	Clark Kent (13 episodes, 1988)
Ginny McSwain	...	Lois Lane (13 episodes, 1988)
Mark L. Taylor	...	Jimmy Olsen (13 episodes, 1988)
Tress MacNeille	...	Martha Kent (13 episodes, 1988)
Stanley Ralph Ross	...	Perry White (11 episodes, 1988)
Alan Oppenheimer	...	Jonathan Kent (9 episodes, 1988)
Michael Bell	...	Lex Luthor (7 episodes, 1988)
Lynne Marie Stewart	...	Jessica Morganberry (6 episodes, 1988)

Storyline

This series, the first since the character's overhaul revision in the comics by John Byrne, shows the adventures of the Man of Steel as he fights villains like the evil head of the mega-corporation Lexcorp, Lex Luthor. In addition, we see the adventures of Clark as a boy in Smallville and all the mischief he causes with his powers.

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Plot Keywords:

dc comics | based on comic | superhero | character name in title

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Ruby-Spears Superman

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ruby-Spears Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (13 episodes)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This series is the first other media adaptation of Superman that takes partially into account the major revisions to the character by comics artist/writer, John Byrne in his 1986 relaunch. The most notable elements used are that Clark is no longer Superboy in his youth and Lex Luthor is a villainous business owner armed with a kryptonite ring to ward off Superman.

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Quotes

Cyrene: Fasten your seatbelts... I've never been so humiliated in my life!

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Connections

Version of Superman (1948)

User Reviews

One of the Very Best

In my mind, this remains one of the very best depictions of Superman on TV, as well as one of the most faithful to a particular comics period.

This series paid homage to both the Superman films of the '70s/'80s and the Superman comics series "reboot" of 1986-onward ("Man of Steel," "Superman Vol 2," "Action Comics," "Adventures of Superman," etc). The opening score and titles were stirring, based on the John Williams score from the films, updated for a Saturday morning action series. Marv Wolfman, one of the main contributors to the comics reboot (writer of "Adventures of Superman") was a perfect choice to be involved in this animated series. Overall, the series had a more mature feel while continuing to be very kid-friendly.

Superman was presented as believable, strong, and iconic. His recurring nemesis was Lex Luthor in his megalomaniac/CEO incarnation. The Daily Planet characters Lois, Jimmy, and Perry were portrayed well. One of my favorite appearances was by Wonder Woman, and the story revolved around her home island of Themyscira ("Paradise Island"). Both her design and that of her mother Hippolyte were in keeping with the similarly rebooted Wonder Woman comic book series of the era, and it seemed like an equally well-done animated series could have been developed for her if handled the same.

The one thing that is hard to believe is that this has not been released on DVD/Blu-ray! It deserves to be.