After Infinite Crisis, Spectre was given a short series, but not much noise was made to let people know about it. The series was a look at Allen adjusting to his new role, and coming to accept it. The character of the Spectre was taken to new depths as it was explained to Crispus by the Spectre Entity that it is not his job to decide who is innocent or guilty for what they do; simply to be God’s right hand of vengence.

Now, we come to the 5 part Final Crisis tie-in that revolves around Crispus as the Spectre. DC kicks this book into high gear in a quick way. Many people know the Martian Manhunter was one of the first victiums of this Crisis. As a Spectre fan, I’ve often wondered why the Spectre would never choose to go after men such as the Joker or Lex Luthor. Sadly though, as a comic fan, we call all pretty easily figure out why. BUT, tying into the Crisis, DC lets Spectre actually do what he does best, and attempt to seek Vengence for his fallen Super-buddy.

The story is fast paced, and gets back to the spirit of the old Spectre comics with ironic death and such in a big way.

*SPOILER ALERT*
Spectre gets vengeance on the two men who brought in Martian Manhunter, Dr Light and Effigy. In a true nod to the old ironic deaths of the original Spectre Comics, Spectre turns Dr Lights body into a melting candle, and sets his head on fire. After a few minutes, he himself snuffs out the flame in front of three girls Light just attempted to rape. It was truly shocking to see DC end Dr Light’s career, considering he was in a big way what started DC’s major turnaround back in Identity Crisis. At the same time, I also got a good laugh out of the irony of Light being turned into a candle.

In the end, its a very compelling story, and you really have to feel for Crispus. The story was originally set to be a 3 parter, but DC has since changed it to 5. Hopefully, they will continue to have the solid story to fill out this Mini bordering on Maxi series, and we will get a look inside the character of the Spectre we haven’t seen since “Day of Judgment.”

Final Vote

9 out of 10 *Gotta leave some space for it to up.*

Till next time, this is your Final Crisis Correspondent, Kyle.

Finally, for those of you with iPods or iPhones, you can now subscribe to the podcast using iTunes so you can reap all the podcasty goodness within. And by that I mean it will auto-download and allow you to pause the podcast, listen to something else, and then come back and restart where you left off.

Show Notes:

• MK Vs DC Universe main site
• Spider-Man Web of Shadows site
• DC Universe Concept Pictures
• Borat/Amy Winehouse doll

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The story is better in Ultimate Avengers, but I never disputed that. I happen to like Mark Millar’s comics, so it should come as little surprise that I liked the story in a movie based off his comic. The story in Superman/Doomsday was not so good, especially considering that one of the characters named in the title wasn’t even in the last half of the movie.

Since the statute of limitations on spoilers has run out on Superman/Doomsday, let me explain the plot. Doomsday comes to Earth and starts tearing shit up. Superman goes to stop him and seemingly dies in the process. Now, that’s the end of Doomsday’s involvement in the movie. From there it is revealed that Lex Luthor was building Superman clones that he could control. To make matters worse, the clones were reckless and tore some shit up. Meanwhile, back in the Fortress of Solitude, Superman’s robot butler has dug up Superman’s body and is getting him healed up. Superman wakes up and sees the mess the fake Supes has been making, but is too weak to stop him. So, the real Superman wears a black version of his outfit that supercharges solar rays or some bullshit so he can go fight. The real Superman wins and returns to Metropolis and all is right with the world.

I think that if this were viewed as part of the Superman animated series the story wouldn’t be as disappointing. But based on the name alone, you’re expecting a retelling of the Death of Superman storyline and that’s totally not what you get. At least in Ultimate Avengers you more or less get the original Ultimates story.

Where Ulimate Avengers really falls short is the voice acting and animation. The voice acting in DC animated shows has always been good, and I think that Superman/Doomsday lives up to those expectations. The same goes for the animation. The DC cartoons have always had a cool, stylized approach that is continued in Superman/Doomsday. In Ultimate Avengers, the animation is on par with your typical Saturday morning cartoon from the 1980’s. In fact, on my Ultimate Avengers 2 DVD, before the movie starts there is an ad for the old TMNT show and the animation quality is pretty similar. As for the voices in Ultimate Avenger? I’ll just say that the acting is not good and leave it at that.

And there you have it, my reasoning behind saying that Superman/Doomsday was the superior movie. It clearly wins on two of three metrics and is only penalized on story due to expectations based on the name.

Anyway, this week we get our (obviously) first group of guests. We’ve got the very opinionated Nina, Mike the Mick, my perennial co-host Kyle, and Justin who I don’t have a nickname or witty comment for. We start off talking about the Dark Knight and vear into general superhero movie talk and then discuss what upcoming movies we’re looking forward to. If my memory serves, the show is much more entertaining than this recap would suggest, but then I was drinking when we recorded.

Show Notes:

• Nina’s Batman villian picks
• Red Sonja poster
• Rocky Horror on MTV
• Captain America fantasy casting
• Really depressing Wolverine movie casting
• Coraline – based on a novel by Neil Gaiman

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