Superman is the title of a 1988 animated series produced by Ruby-Spears and Warner Bros. Television that aired on CBS featuring the DC Comics superhero of the same name (coinciding with the character's 50th anniversary, along with the live-action Superboy TV series that year). Veteran comic book writer Marv Wolfman was the head story editor and noted comic book artist Gil Kane provided character designs.
This series is the third animated Superman series (the second was the Filmation-produced The New Adventures Of Superman. It is also notable for being the first appearance of the Superman mythos following John Byrne's major relaunch of the character (the series reflected the new conception with a measured fidelity, such as having his major recurring enemy, Lex Luthor, as a corrupt billionaire industrialist as in the comics). >Like the comics, Luthor is fully aware that the large ring he wears is fastened with a kryptonite stone. Luthor could use it to keep Superman from arresting him, however he needed to be in close range, and even then all it did was cause Superman mild discomfort. Pieces of Kryptonite did appear in the series, which were larger than Luthor's gemstone and could do considerable harm, and possible death, to Superman.
Other characters include Cybron (a pastiche] of Brainiac whose Post-crisis conception was still undecided at the time) and an appearance of Wonder Woman, which was her first non-print appearance since George Pérez's reworking of William Moulton Marston's superheroine for the Post-Crisis era. Cyrene the Sorceress of Time was portrayed by voice actress B. J. Ward, who had previously provided her voice as Wonder Woman in the final season of Super Friends. Ward also voiced Wonder Woman in the same episode. Other classic characters that appeared were the Zod trio. Unlike the movies, however, this version had General Zod paired with two women, Ursa and Faora.
Classic characters included Jimmy Olsen, bow-tied in appearance, and Perry White's gruff exclamations of "Great Caesar's Ghost" both fulfilling their classic concepts. Lois Lane maintained being an assertive woman with initiative, both in style and business attitude, although she got a slight update to reflect on women of the 1980s. A new character to the series, inspired by Miss Tessmacher of the live-action Superman movie from 1978, was Jessica Morganberry, who appeared to be the ditzy blonde live-in girlfriend of Lex Luthor, with whom he fully confided his schemes.
The final four minutes of the show would be a segment, called Superman's Family Album, whereby Superman would show the audience pictures of his childhood that came to life. The final shot of the segment would then turn back into a sepia-toned photograph. The segments were shown in succession, with each succeeding episode showing Kal-El being older than the last and being reared by his adoptive parents Martha and Jonathan Kent. Unlike the comics, where his superpowers manifested during puberty, young Kal-El had been a superpowered Kryptonian since infancy, whereby his parents must teach him to temper his abilities. Whereas the earlier episodes showed him as a little boy who used his powers to his advantage, subsequent episodes showed Clark with decreasing use of his abilities, realizing he must use his mind to solve problems first and his Kryptonian superpowers second.
Superman/Clark Kent was voiced by Beau Weaver, who would later go on to voice Mister Fantastic in the 1994 Marvel animated series Fantastic Four. Lex Luthor was voiced by Michael Bell, who had previously voiced Plastic-Man in the Filmation series.
Music[]
The theme song was loosely based on the score from the Christopher Reeve Superman films.