Justice League

[Villano]

Ditto. Gawd, that show was awful. Aside from Lex Luthor -- who died -- the only Superman villains they had on the show were the Toyman and... ugh... the Prankster. Enough said.

They did have Deathstroke (aka, Deathstroke the Terminator). Of course, he wasn't a one-eyed mercenary, but a guy with solar powers (or something like that).

And, yes, we shall never speak of that series again. Not just because it was bad, but because the comics had to squeeze in the Lois/Clark marriage to coincide with with the tv series. They had to push the whole storyarc forward.

 

[MulhorandSage]

Ditto. Gawd, that show was awful. Aside from Lex Luthor -- who died -- the only Superman villains they had on the show were the Toyman and... ugh... the Prankster. Enough said.

Actually, they did have a decent Mxy episode, a Christmas show written by Tim Minear (who later went on to write and produce on "Angel", "Firefly" and "wonderfalls").

And while L&C's original villains were often lame beyond belief ("oh no, it's the Wedding Destroyer!") I do have an inordinate fondness for Lane Davis's Tempus, especially the episode where he reveals Clark's secret ID to Lois by putting on a pair of glasses and taking them off ("Duh! Superman is Clark Kent!")

Scott Bennie

 

[Felon]

Something else has just occured to me about the JL Superman. He's missing his superspeed - one of his major powers has been completely written out, unless I just missed the episode where he used it.

He just doesn't use his super-speed much. Then again, Flash doesn't really get nearly as much use out of his speed as he rightfully should either. It's quite possibly the hardest super-power for a writer to deal with. If the guy the speedster's fighting doesn't have super-speed, then the speedster may as well be fighting an oil painting. The only alternative is making the opponent so invulnerable that he can simply ignore the speedster.

It was a big problem for the live-action series that was on CBS back in the early nineties. In comics, it's obviously easier to conceal this problem, because pictures are static--fact is, Flash should be able to toss Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Rainbow Raider, and most of the rest of his dumb rogue's gallery into jail cells before they can blink.

Morrus: Two thoughts:

1) If he has full super-speed, then he's Flash, only much, much better.

2) I'm not totally up-to-date on my Supermanity, but I wasn't sure he had super-speed as much as super-movement -- that is to say, the Flash has super-speed: he thinks at an enhanced rate, and so everything happens for him in bullet-time, if that. Superman just has a really fast flying and running speed, and can punch a lot of times really quickly if necessary. He doesn't think faster than anyone else.

Superman can see things moving at hyper-speed, like bullets. But as far as the way his super-speed is written, Supes basically has to "turn it on". If he's not actively channeling energy into being super-fast, he can get caught off-guard.

To a large extent, the cartoon Supes is like the cartoon Flash, just better. In the comics though, the Flash doesn't just move fast; he actually controls speed. He could, for instance, drain all of Superman's momentum in flight and bring him to a dead halt no matter how fast he was traveling. Flash could even transfer that speed to himself or another moving object. He can also control speed at a molecular level, which allows him to vibrate his body through solid matter (and consequently can destroy that matter quite explosively).

The Flash's other big asset is that he's simply more adept at using his speed. Stunts like creating vortices by rotating one's arms really fast probably takes a lot of practice.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, being able to move fast is one thing. Being able to control it (see, think and react in time to stuff) is another. If you're moving at nearly the speed of light, and you see a wall in front of you, it's gonna take some pretty quick thinking to avoid it!

 

[Klaus]

There is one issue of Flash that was emblematic on his superspeed's difference from Superman's.

Wally West was in a movie theatre when a sniper starts shooting at random people. Fortunately, the first bullet was aimed at Wally's neck. Wally suddenly realized that everyone in the room was standing still, and he was feeling something tickle the back of his neck. He then realized it was a bullet, and as soon as the bullet touched his skin, his body went into superspeed reactively. Wally actually has to will himself to slow down, while others have to will themselves to speed up. So he picks up that bullet and the remaining bullets from the burst fire, ties up the goon, changes into Flash and brings everyone outside and calls the police. All before a bullet can move an inch.

 

[Filby]

Actually, they did have a decent Mxy episode, a Christmas show written by Tim Minear (who later went on to write and produce on "Angel", "Firefly" and "wonderfalls").

And while L&C's original villains were often lame beyond belief ("oh no, it's the Wedding Destroyer!") I do have an inordinate fondness for Lane Davis's Tempus, especially the episode where he reveals Clark's secret ID to Lois by putting on a pair of glasses and taking them off ("Duh! Superman is Clark Kent!")

Scott Bennie

Mr Mxyzptlk, eh? I must have missed that one. I've always had an unreasonable, perhaps undeserving fondness for him. Still, couldn't have been as good as Mxy's appearance on TAS... and can't possibly make up for bringing on Bronson "Balki 'dun bi ridikulus' Bartakamous" Pinchot on not once but twice as the Prankster.

 

[takyris]

Yeah, Supes used his super-speed in his own cartoon -- he moved at a blur a few times in a really neat effect. Not Flashlike -- more a kind of "whep" noise with just a hint of blur behind him as he disappears from one place and reappears (usually with a bad guy's gun in his hand, or with a tank-gun turret in hand, or something like that) in another.

Y'know, I actually liked the early eps of Lois & Clark. It was a cute romantic comedy that used the Superman archetype to neat effect. Later on, I lost interest in it, but, say, the first season or so? Actually some nice stuff in there. I remember a scene where Clark tells Lois he loves her, and she tells him that she doesn't feel the same way, and then later Lois tells Superman she loves him, and would love him even if he didn't have his superpowers... it was very well written.