Sunday, October 25, 2009

DVD Review: Ruby Spears Superman



In 1986, DC Comics and John Bryne, recreated Superman to fit the times. Gone was the mild, manner reporter and replaced with a Clark Kent that was a football star in High school and quite the ladies man. One of biggest changes had to be was Lex Luthor. He went from a mad scientist to a ruthless business, reflective of the late 80's.

1988, Ruby-Spears created a new Superman cartoon that was aired on CBS. Marv Wolfman, one of the writers of the Superman comic at the time, served as Head Story Editor, with character designs by comic legend Gil Kane.

On November 3rd, the entire cartoon series will be released on DVD by Warner Home Entertainment, in a 2 disc set.



I grew up the shadow of the Super-Friends cartoon, and even back then I thought the cartoon was a watered down version of the Justice League. I also grew up with repeats of the Filmation series of late 1960's. So when I first heard of this series back then, I had my hopes that they finally got it right. Sadly, once again I was wrong.

While I'm probably not the target audience of this series, I found the entire series dumbed down and child friendly. I actually found it quite painful to watch these DVD's. I think that some shows don't hold the test of time. But like I said before, I don't think I'm the audience for this series. The Ruby-Spears is definitely made for fans of the Super-Friends.

The DVD set is pretty much bare bones. The only extra was a documentary entitled Corporation of the Corrupt: The Rise of Lex Corp. It was supposed to show the rebirth of Lex Luthor from a Mad Scientist to a ruthless businessman. But the entire segment seemed more about a history of corporate greed in general.

This 2 Disc, 13 episode set is a great gift for any Superman or Super-Friends fans. But unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.

I think between the Filmation series and the Bruce Timm series, I've been spoiled for life, with the bar set extremely high.

Street Date: 11/3/09
MSRP: $26.99

Brian Isaacs
Executive Editor/Owner

No comments: