Book: Superman Adventures volume #1 (issues #1-10) by Paul Dini (issue #1) and Scott McCloud (issues #2-10)
Illustrations by Rick Burchett (issues #1-4, #6-8), Bret Blevins (issue #5) and Mike Manley (issues #9-10), ink by Terry Austin, color by Marie Severin and letters by Lois Buhalis
Edition: Trade Paperback
Description:
Based on the beloved animated series—Superman takes flight!
Superman: The Animated Series was an instant classic, developed by the same team behind the beloved Batman: The Animated Series and featuring some of the greatest Superman adventures ever committed to film. Dive back into the world of Superman: The Animated Series with this collection of comics, featuring the iconic cast and some legendary creators!
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
I have watched every episode of Superman: The Animated Series (it's still one of my favorite shows) and I can say that reading this first volume of Superman Adventures felt like I was watching the show.
I think what makes this such a great read was that the writers and artists were able to capture the tone and feel of the animated series while also providing a little more depth. In each of the nine stories (there's a two part story) featured you see Superman matching intellect and strength as he goes up against villains such as Lex Luthor, Metallo, Toyman and Livewire just to name a few. The focus isn't only on the Man of Steel because Lois Lane, Angela Chen, Jimmy Olsen, Ron Troupe and other characters familiar to the series were shown a bit more attention.
This contains a good group of stories that range from Superman fighting a robot that Luthor created to not only destroy the Man of Steel's reputation but the hero as well (issue #1). To the alien imp Mxyzptlk up to his usual magical tricks of annoying Superman but this time his interference has provided some unexpected help in preventing a catastrophe (issue #6). There was also this one story (issue #5) that surprised me, it centers around Livewire who after hearing a sexist radio host and his callers decides to exact a little revenge by making it impossible for the men in media to go on air to report or publish any news. This was her sort of twisted take on feminism but with equality left out of the picture.
As with both the cartoon and the comic, the writing although all ages, dealt with a lot of interesting and complex issues but also incorporates a good dose of humor. I'll be honest, I'm pretty sure some of the material may go over the heads of some young readers (i.e. children) but adult fans of the animated series will totally get what's going on in these stories. With series such as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: TAS and Justice League/Justice League: Unlimited TAS, they had a relatively large adult fan base because of the mature or grown up writing that accompanied the action filled series.
And these stories are well-written and you get more character development than perhaps what was shown in the cartoon. I don't think one necessarily needs to have watched the animated series in order to read this with the way it's written. But it would make it a little easier to get familiar with the characters.
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