Supergirl: Apocalypse WIP

It's been awhile since I posted anything (old or new) so I just wanted to let everyone know I'm still kicking. Had to deal with some stuff the past couple of weeks. I still tried to drop in at least once everyday but I really didn't have time to stay very long.

This is just a rough sketch I did shortly after watching Superman/Batman Apocalypse. This is going to be where I post my review (just need to find some time to write it up = it was AWESOME!! ) I tried to make Kara look a little like she appears in the movie (especially her eyes) but I had to do a little of my own thing, particularly with her hair

****Update February 6, 2011***

Finally got around to typing up my review for the movie. I had also added the base colors for this pic, after adding her feet


This is my review of "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse"

This review is filled with spoilers so if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to be spoiled stop reading now


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"Superman/Batman: Apocalypse"


Out of all the DCU movies they're adapted from actual stories from the comics, "Apocalypse" is the first one that I have read ( I did read the entire "Death, and Funeral of Superman, and Reign of the Supermen" storyline, but "Doomsday" was almost nothing like the comic). I don't know how closely they adhered to the original stories in "Public Enemies" and "JL: New Frontier" so I can't comment on those. But they stayed very true to "Supergirl" (which is the name of the graphic novel for this story), which does make me wonder why they changed the name to "Apocalypse"? From one standpoint I can understand them not wanting to have three Superhero names for a title; "Superman/Batman: Supergirl" but I would bet it had more to do with them not having to deal with the "problem" of selling a "girl" hero DVD.

I mean, with "Wonder Woman" there's just no hiding the fact that it's a Wonder Womder movie But with "Apocalypse" they can hide Supergirl behind Superman, Batman, and even Darkseid. And unless you look at the back of the DVD cover, you'd never guess Supergirl (or Wonder Woman for that matter) were even in the movie If you think that's hard to believe... remember the trailers for "Tangled"? Just based on the trailers alone you'd think the movie was about a thief rather than Rapunzel, so hard Disney was trying to hide the fact it was another "princess" movie.

But enough about that. Whether you were anticipating this movie or DC actually tricked you into buying it you're in for the best Supergirl origin story ever. And a lot of that has to do with the comic being a really good story (one of my favorites). And the producers stuck with what worked.

I love the idea that Kara Zor'El was already a teenager when she and baby Kal'El were supposed to leave Krypton at the same time and that she was going to look after him had things worked out (this wasn't actually mentioned in the movie), but since her ship got caught in Krypton's explosion she was stuck in suspended animation in a chunk of asteroid that took a few decades to reach earth (the kryptonite asteroid they destroyed in "Public Enemies").

And I'm glad they brought the original voice cast back once again: Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, and Susan Eisenberg to reprised their roles as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, it does more to establish the raport these characters have faster than the best written dialogue could. Now I've been a fan of Andre Braugher since the first couple of seasons of "Homicide" but I truly believe Michael Ironside would have been better as Darkseid, especially since he's played Darkseid since the Superman Animated Series, but Mr. Braugher does a very adequate job in the role. And I can't forget to applaud them for also getting Ed Asner to play Granny Goodness once more (and am I the only one who thinks they actually made Granny look bad ass?)

I thought Summer Glau was perfect as Kara Zor'El. She really gave the character life, very important being her origin story. I sincerely hope they do more Supergirl movies with her.

And while the makers of the movie stayed true to the source material, aside from a couple of changes, they expanded on the story rather than alter it. Some scenes played nearly verbatim in action and dialogue to the comic, other times they would add more dialogue and even create new scenes. Like they actually had a shopping montage when Clark takes Kara into town, which was only implied in the comic, it also has some of the biggest laughs of the movie. The first Furies battle on Apocalypse was turned into a major action scene (and probably my second favorite of the movie) when it was only a single panel in the comic, I kid you not!! This is the advantage an animated feature has over comic books since they don't like to spend that many pages on action scenes, usually going for splash pages instead.

And I loved Treasure, the warrior the Furies killed (though her name was Precious in the book). She looked awesome and bad ass, I was actually sad to see her die. In fact, they made all the Furies look great, especially Gilotina and Lashina.

Speaking of action, since "Crisis on Two Earths" they are getting better and better at choreographing fight scenes, as if they were live action. I can easily see these fights being re-created for a live action movie, even with all the flying around. That little trick Wonder Woman does with Lashina's whip during the second Furies battle was just so cool!

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman make a very interesting guardianship for Kara. Clark being overprotective, trusting, and accepting, Wonder Woman not wanting to leave an untrained power to go unchecked, and Batman being suspicious, since Kara is suffering some amnesia, and in a way very protective of Clark (hearing both Kara and Clark refer to Batman as "grumpy ass" is worth the price of the DVD alone ).

Wonder Woman taking the responsibility to train Kara made a lot of sense, and not just because she's a woman. Kara's training bout with Artemis was cool. In fact all the amazons looked better than they did in the Wonder Woman movie, looking more "300". The Doomsdays battle (a deversion for Darkseid to kidnap Kara) was awesome and much more epic than the comic book could have made it (unless they were willing to use an entire issue for the battle ) But why the hell do they insist on having Superman use super-freeze breath!? It is the most ridiculous power he's ever had. Okay, there are some things that really bug peoples' asses, whether it's Jarjar, Paris Hilton, Jersey Shore. This really gives me colitis. They had gotten rid of the super-freeze breath during DC's reboot in the 80s, whoever thought it was a good idea to bring it back was .... a dumbass (That 70s Show, bitch! ) I mean, Superman can already set things on fire with heat vision, he can use superspeed to create tornadoes, can cause earthquakes with his fists, and can freeze mother****ers by..... blowing on them!? He's the ****in' Avatar (The Airbender kind )

But I digress. It still couldn't keep this battle from being cool as all hell. You can't go wrong with an army of amazons in battle. If they had gotten Rosario Dawson to reprise Artemis it would have been perfect

Speaking of character design: as much as I admire Michael Turner's work; his Superman and Wonder Woman are some of my least favorite (not counting terrible artists) that have ever been drawn (his Batman is totally bad ass ) Thankfully they look much better in the movie. Mr. Turner also drew his women very VERY thin, which I don't mind when he's drawing original characters like Fathom, but certainly not for Wonder Woman. Again, thankfully, for the movie, they actually gave all the females hips. Both Wonder Woman and Big Barda look femininely buff without looking like Stompa. If there was one character they messed up in the movie it had to be Darkseid. Mr. Turner's version looked way much cooler

Big Barda (former captain of the Furies) is another character that was in serious need of screen time and her role from the comic is intact here. And although the scene in her home was basically the same, in the comic she was sort of just there while the Trinity had their own discussion going, whereas the new dialogue in the movie (dumping references that only those well-versed in comic canon would understand) made this Barda's scene. But my favorite line in the whole movie has to be Batman's "I'm over it, what about you two?"

When the heroes get to Apocaplyse is the cake of the movie They split up to do their own parts of the plan. Superman going after Darkseid, Batman going after the hellspores, and Wonder Woman and Barda facing the Furies (I'm glad they're never refered to as "Female Furies" in the movie, it's about as redundant as "women amazons" ) and the second Furies battle is my favorite of the whole movie and the animation was just smooth and fluid, and the choreography was great.

Superman still gets his ass kicked by a brainwashed Kara, who looks just as killer in her "dark side" outfit as she did in the comic And Batman's confrontation with Darkseid was even cooler, proving again that Bats doesn't need no stinking powers to be a total bad ass Unfortunately, we don't get to see how Superman took down Kara.

Once Kara is safe is where the movie deviates the most from the comic. Clark still takes her to the Kent farm and Darkseid still ambushes them. But what I really liked about this battle is that Superman is quickly sent into orbit and Kara has to face Darkseid herself and it's a pretty awesome fight. I don't want to sound like I'm bashing Superman, but once he comes back the battle does lose most of it's coolness. But it's not all his fault. Darkseid's Omega Beam is supposed to be something like the most powerful thing in the galaxy, but after the third point blank blast Kara and Superman take, without dying, it kinda loses it's awesomeness. But what really ruined the battle for me was Superman's Dragonball-lameass-Z-tornado-million-punch technique I mean, compared to this, the super-freeze breath doesn't look that bad any more.

But the payoff after the battle was cool, with Ma and Pa Kent coming back home, looking like they stepped right out of Richard Donner's Superman Movie to find their farm destroyed

How this deviates from the comic: Aside from beating the crap out of cousin Kal, Kara doesn't get any action scenes in the comic, so giving most of the Darkseid battle to her was pure win. And a hell of a lot less convoluted than the plot devices in the book which involved faking her death (done purely as a cliffhanger leading into the final issue of the mini-series, no doubt) even though Superman introduces her to the world like the very next day

And considering how many amazons died during the Doomsdays battle it was more fitting that they were the ones gathered (along with Barda) for Supergirl's intro rather than DC's entire hero roster (or they just didn't feel like drawing the entire hero roster ) but it just works. And since we only get to see Kara as Supergirl for literally the last two minutes of the movie, I really hope they do a true Supergirl feature soon (still waiting for another Wonder Woman movie )

So there is a lot to like and love about this movie. The animation is almost consistantly pretty good almost never falling below average, with a few moments of being great, that second Furies battle And the story is just good, the dialogue makes for good characters for the leads, particularly, the Trinity, Kara, and Barda.

The cons, mostly just the aforementioned lame-ass-ness during the Darkseid battle, but considering this was the climax, they shouldn't have drop the ball as bad as they did, which is why this battle isn't my favorite, nor is it my second favorite. Those belong to the Furies.

Dispite how much I love this movie I just can't put it up there with my list of great favorites; "Crisis on Two Earths", "Wonder Woman", and "Under the Red Hood". So it goes on the second tier along with "Green Lantern: First Flight" which also just fell short of being great (all the other movies are on my good to mediocre list).

I wholeheartedly recommend this movie and it's a definite buy.