By Malice Intended 

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is the latest straight to DVD animated feature from the prolific and talented Bruce Timm.  It’s a relatively faithful adaptation of the “World’s Finest” story arch from the DC Comics title “Superman/Batman.”

As the story opens, Lex Luthor (voiced by Clancy Brown) has been elected President of the United States and appears to be doing a commendable job.  He has ended the new great depression and reduced the crime rate considerably.  He has even recruited certain superheroes as government agents, intending for all super-beings to eventually follow suit.  Superman (voiced by Tim Daly) and Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) prefer to do things the old fashioned way and refuse to join the ranks of Luthor’s super team.

It is discovered that a giant Kryptonite meteor is headed towards earth.  Luthor publicly appeals to Superman for help, but his proposition is actually the first step in a plot to frame the Man of Steel for murder and make him the subject of a worldwide manhunt.  Batman comes to Superman’s aide and becomes a fugitive himself in the process.  As the meteor hurtles towards earth, Superman and Batman attempt to avert the oncoming disaster while evading capture.

While most Bruce Timm/DC Animated Universe productions pay the necessary amount of attention to story and character, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies emphasizes action above all else.  This proves detrimental to the production as a whole.  Director Sam Liu and writer Stan Berkowitz have constructed a film that is essentially a series of violent battles, as various teams of super beings attempt to apprehend the title characters.

Writer Sam Berkowitz takes our familiarity with the title characters for granted, and the characterizations suffer as a result.  The relationship between Superman and Batman has very little depth.  We never get the sense that these characters have a real history together.  Their personality differences and contrasting approaches to heroism are never addressed.  Their partnership seems to consist of little more than saving each other periodically.

The character designs, while faithful to the work of comic artist Ed McGuinness (who did the artwork for the DC Comics series on which the film is based), lack the elegant simplicity of the ones from earlier Bruce Timm productions.  Those designs combined a sense of mass and density with effortless freedom of movement.  The designs here are a bit more detailed, but the changes don’t aid or enhance the quality of the animation.  They exist simply as stylistic choice.

The vocal talents of Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy and Clancy Brown give the proceedings more dramatic weight than the material truly warrants.  They are able to elicit a sense of immediacy and urgency that the script itself is never able to generate.  As always, Tim Daly infuses The Man of Steel with a sense of sincerity and nobility that amazingly never comes off hokey.  Kevin Conroy’s understated growl gives The Dark Knight’s monotone murmurings just the right hint of menace.  Clancy Brown plays Luthor as a volatile mix of arrogance and ambition.

On the whole, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a serviceable slugfest.  It provides fisticuffs in abundance, but not much in the way of actual substance.  It lacks an emotional core and doesn’t have much of a story to tell.  Bruce Timm and his associates have set the bar pretty high over the past 17 years.  Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is diverting enough in its own right, but it still misses that bar by a considerable measure.

Out of 5

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