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Rating: - An above average children's show
I watched the animated BATMAN with my daughter when she was a small child, when it was coming out for the first time. I recently watched the Justice League cartoons that were done by largely the same people. I should have watched SUPERMAN before watching JUSTICE LEAGUE and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, and so should you if you haven't seen them all yet. SUPERMAN, like BATMAN, is not at all a bad show. It is, in fact, a very decent one. The problem is that the Justice League shows are extraordinary and they make all of the others look weak in comparison. On the other hand, watching SUPERMAN after JUSTICE LEAGUE really brings how brilliant the latter truly was and how much both the writing and the animation techniques improved as they worked on it.

Still, SUPERMAN is all in all a pretty decent cartoon series. While the writing isn't nearly as strong or as innovative as the writing on JUSTICE LEAGUE would be, it was still quite above normal for children's programming and the voice talent, like all of the DC cartoon shows, is top notch. It is all quite watchable, but I never, ever got the sense that I was watching something remarkable as I did with JL.

I also did not care much for the general "dumbbing down" of the DC stories. And some of the revisions of traditional DC storylines were unnecessary and arbitrary. For instance, they do a Green Lantern origins episode in Season Three, several traditional elements are changed. Abin Sur is shown as having been pursued by Sinestro, whereas in most origins stories Abin Sur is deeply upset at the death of his colleague. And Sinestro is shown already a fully blown bad guy upon the selection of the earthling Green Lantern for Section 2814. The successor of Abin Sur is in this version Kyle Raynor, while there is a bizarre nod to the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan in the episode. Why Kyle Raynor instead of Hal Jordan? Perhaps because Jordan's back story as a test pilot is too well established, while it was easier to work with Raynor? It was all just odd and I'm confused at nearly all of the narrative choices in this particular episode. But the same kind of oddness afflicts several episodes. Not to beat too often on the same drum, but these kinds of changes were much better handled in the later JL series.

I don't recommend skipping this episode, but I definitely recommend watching the three DC series in the order that they were made, BATMAN, then SUPERMAN, and then JUSTICE LEAGUE. While the first two series are of a similar quality, the third grew into something truly special.

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