Superman Batman Public Enemies

Plot

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LexCorp's CEO, Lex Luthor, has been elected President of United States during a severe nationwide economic depression. Under his leadership, the economy begins to thrive, and he assembles a force of government-employed superheroes consisting of Captain Atom, Katana, Black Lightning, Power Girl, Starfire, and Major Force. Meanwhile, Superman and Batman maintain their distrust toward Luthor.

The United States government discovers that a massive Kryptonite meteor is hurtling toward Earth. Instead of asking superheroes for aid and wanting to take credit for himself, Luthor decides to destroy it with nuclear missiles. Luthor arranges a meeting with Superman in Gotham City under the pretense of forming a pact. This results in a battle with the hired Metallo against Superman and Batman, in which Metallo manages to injure them both. Following the heroes' escape, an unknown assailant kills Metallo.

On national television later that night, Luthor pins Metallo's murder on Superman, using footage of their battle to implicate him. Luthor claims that the radiation being emitted by the meteor can affect Superman's judgment, and he places a one-billion-dollar bounty on the Man of Steel.While breaking into S.T.A.R. Labs seeking information on the meteor, Batman and Superman find Metallo's remains and realize that radioactive energy is what killed him, while it is made to look like Superman used his heat vision to kill him. An army of villains looking to collect on the bounty then attacks them, including:

Silver Banshee, Captain Cold, Icicle, Killer Frost, Mr. Freeze, Gorilla Grodd,Bane,BlackManta,BlackSpider,Brimstone, Catman, Cheetah, Copperhead, Deadshot,Eclipso, Kestrel, King Shark, Brutale, Despero, Giganta, Girder, Lady Shiva, Mongul, Captain Boomerang II, Nightshade, Parasite, Solomon Grundy, and Shrike. After some effort, most of the villains are defeated. Captain Atom, who has arrived with Luthor’s superhero team to arrest Superman, defeats the remaining villains with a giant energy blast. All but Power Girl, whose loyalties are divided, attempt to capture the heroic duo. Superman creates a twister using his superspeed, and the two heroes escape with Power Girl.

In Metropolis, Power Girl admits that she feels unnerved by Luthor and does not believe Superman killed Metallo. Luthor's superheroes catch up and the fight begins anew, this time with Power Girl aiding Superman and Batman. The Dark Knight realizes that Major Force killed Metallo under Luthor's orders and goads him into admitting it in front of everyone. When Major Force begins angrily attacking Batman, Power Girl punches him in the stomach hard enough to rupture his containment suit, releasing his radiation. Captain Atom, ashamed at his complicity in Luthor's misdeeds, absorbs the energy, disintegrating Major Force and injuring himself in the process.

Meanwhile, Luthor's missiles fail to stop the meteor when the sheer amount of radiation being emitted by it detonates them before impact. Amanda Waller later discovers that Luthor has secretly been taking a serum composed of liquid kryptonite and super steroid Venom since the last days of the presidential election campaign, making him lose whatever rationality he had left. Feeling disillusioned by his failure in destroying the meteor with his missiles, Luthor decides to let the meteor hit the Earth so that he may rule over what remains of society. Batman and Superman attempt to break into Luthor's base of operations to retrieve data on the meteor's radiation.

They end up in battle with Captain Marvel and Hawkman, eventually emerging victorious with Power Girl's (off-screen) aid. However, Luthor refuses to relinquish the data, going so far as to erase it from the lab computers. Waller gives them a copy, being disgusted with Luthor's plans. Batman and Superman fly off to Tokyo to deliver the data on the meteor to the Japanese Toyman, who has already built a giant rocket-propelled spacecraft, intending to use it as a large missile to stop the meteor. Waller and the military then attempt to arrest Luthor, but he injects himself with more kryptonite steroid and dons a power suit. After escaping Waller and the military, Luthor follows Superman and Batman overseas.

After Batman and Superman arrive at Toyman's base, he shows them the spacecraft, which resembles a giant, robotic composite version of Superman and Batman. With the data, Toyman is able to calculate the necessary reinforcements needed for his own rocket so it will not explode before impact. Unfortunately, the arriving Luthor neutralizes Power Girl, Superman and Batman, and then disables the rocket's remote guidance systems so that it will not take off by itself. Having no other choice, Batman decides to fly the rocket himself, despite Superman's protests. Though initially faring poorly against Luthor and his kryptonite power suit, the rage over losing his best friend allows Superman to gain the upper hand, and after an aerial chase leading them all the way back to Metropolis, he defeats him in the streets there. Batman succeeds in destroying the meteor, and Superman finds him alive and well in an escape pod.

With the truth of Metallo's death now public knowledge, Superman is cleared of the murder charge and Luthor is arrested and taken away to face trial and impeachment for his crimes. Batman then returns to Gotham while the Daily Planet's star journalist, Lois Lane, arrives and happily embraces the Man of Steel.

Superman and Batman have long been the top favorites in the DC Universe – and the only things fans love more than seeing them in their respective adventures is seeing them team up to take on evil. In fact, fans love the Superman/Batman pairing so much that in 2003, DC Comics launched an ongoing Superman/Batman comic book series as a reboot of the historic series World’s Finest Comics, which ran from 1941 to 1986.

The first six issues of the new Superman/Batman featured a story called “Public Enemies”, which was written by Batman scribe Jeph Loeb (The Long Halloween, Hush) and illustrated by Superman artist Ed McGuinness. The story centered on Superman and Batman taking on President Lex Luthor (you read that right) and a whole bunch of DC villains and heroes, who all believe that Superman is responsible for a Kryptonite meteor careening towards Earth. Loeb and McGuinness did such a fantastic job with “Public Enemies” that the DC Universe animation team (once again led by DC guru Bruce Timm) decided to adapt the story for their latest direct-to-DVD (and Blu-ray) animated feature film. I’ll be reviewing the DVD version.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is an almost carbon-copy translation of Loeb and McGuinness’s work on the page. Directed by Sam Liu (Hulk vs. Thor), the animated feature is drawn in the Jack Kirby-meets-anime style that McGuinness is famous for, while the script by Stan Berkowitz smartly preserves a lot of Loeb’s dialogue from the comic. I for one am happy that the filmmakers chose to glue themselves to the source material and not let go.

For those who have read the comic book version of Public Enemies: If you enjoyed what you read then you’ll get the same geektastic thrill I did watching the story come alive, looking oh so gorgeous on the big (TV) screen. For those who didn’t read the comics: You’re in for one of the best Superman/Batman stories ever written, embedded in 67 minutes of non-stop, old-school super hero action and adventure.

This film is literally a start-to-finish series of battles. Superman and Bats take on everyone from Metallo, Gorilla Grodd, Mongul, Major Force and about four different ice-powered villains from around the DCU, to fellow heroes Captain Atom, Hawkman, Captain Marvel, and ultimately, Luthor himself. That’s pretty much the movie. Each battle sequence is a pleasure to watch and highlights the differing styles, tactics, strengths and weaknesses of both Supes and Bat The battles also highlight the bond that makes these two heroes truly equals.

As with any translation, we do lose a few things: Some plot points of the beginning and ending were changed to fit a standalone feature film, and in the middle we lose that great sequence from the comics where the sidekicks and disciples of Supes and Bats (Robin, Supergirl, Nightwing, Superboy, etc…) storm the Oval Office, only to get their butts handed to them by Luthor. The biggest loss, however, is Loeb’s wonderful Supes/Bats dual internal monologue technique, which he employed brilliantly in “Public Enemies” to illustrate the heroes’ comparative/contrasting opinions of one another. It was a highly enjoyable aspect of the comic, but I’m sure we can all understand why it didn’t make it into the movie. Just one more reason to pickup the comic version and read it for yourself.

Main Cast

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Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne

Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor

Tim Daly as Superman

Xander Berkeley as Captain Atom

Corey Burton as Captain Marvel (credited), Solomon Grundy (uncredited)

Ricardo Chavira as Major Force

Allison Mack as Power Girl

John C. McGinley as Metallo

C.C.H. Pounder as Amanda Waller

LeVar Burton as Black Lightning