Superman: Public Enemies

The second of Zarius' movie-to-TAS Superman edits is a worthy follow-up to Risk and Revelation. Maybe not as well-rounded since the material in Brainiac Attacks was more suited to a "basics" treatment than the slightly more complex Public Enemies, but level of enjoyability is still high. Only this time, instead of the Fleischer Superman I was reminded of the Saturday morning cartoons. Maybe it's due to the mecha (didn't an episode of Super Friends also feature a giant robot that looked like a composite of several heroes, only that one was evil?) or because it's more of the kind of story that would have played in those. In any case, it's another fine distillation, even if it kept certain things I disliked in the original (Lex kissing Waller? What was that? - I admit it's tricky to cut, though), and the plot works remarkably well with the repurposed elements. Narratively it feels completely like this was the way it was intended from the start.

I am glad to report that audio levels were an improvement over Risk and Revelation, except for the intro and end credits, which are re-used from that and is still too low. Speaking of which, it's a bit odd to have an intro with TAS style animation for an episode with a totally different look, but if one thinks about it as a "Zarius series trademark", it actually works fine. Some of the music transitions, though, were a bit awkward (namely end of Lex's speech to police siren, Power Girl closeup to Lex on TV, and the final fadeout before the credits) and, like in the previous edit, some dissolves feel like they'd work better with a little more room to breath.

But I don't know, even if these are not the most polished edits I've watched, they have a certain something, a certain magic and warmth that makes them work wonderfully. By the time Superman was carrying the "Super-Batwing" back to Earth with the crowds watching, I was cheering. I wouldn't mind a whole series of these "TAS-ized" edits. Keep 'em coming!