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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