Superman: The Animated Series: Season Two Review

After finding its feet in its debut season, STAS expanded massively in scope in its sophomore outing, but how did these 28 episodes compare in quality? Do we finally have enough precious data to do some controversial rankings?! Let’s find out!

More Season Reviews:

Batman: The Animated Series (Season One | Season Two | The New Batman Adventures)

Batman Beyond (Season One | Season Two | Season Three)

Superman: The Animated Series (Season One)

  1. Season Two Review
  2. Director Rankings
  3. Writer Rankings
  4. Animation Studio Rankings
  5. Composer Rankings
  6. Top Performances
  7. Episode Ranking
  8. Rogues Roundup

Season Two Review

I would summarise my experience with the first season of STAS by saying I had a much better time with it than I expected, particularly as a non-Superman-fan. I don’t think it ever really approached the heights of BTAS, but basically every episode was good. Lower ceiling, significantly higher floor. I say that a lot when covering STAS, sorry.

After a much longer second season my thoughts are largely the same, but it was certainly a much better season to my mind. Nine of my top ten episodes to date come from this sophomore outing, which made a significant effort to get more ambitious, both in terms of isolated high concept episodes like ‘The Late Mr. Kent‘ and ‘Brave New Metropolis‘ and growing the larger mythos by really cranking up the heat on Darkseid who is fully cemented as the series’ main antagonist. Seeing Space Satan bring Superman to his knees repeatedly and almost conquer Metropolis was pretty gnarly and they wisely left PLENTY on the table for Season Three (and beyond) while still delivering an extremely high stakes pair of episodes that felt far grander than usual, like a season finale.

They also added more DC superheroes to grow the world, but I think they were less successful there, with Flash and Steel‘s episodes being particular lowlights and Dr. Fate’s appearance being a bit of a let down for me personally. They’re going to continue this in Season Three as they march toward a full Justice League series, and I’m very interested to see how those episodes compare. I liked their ideas for the team-ups, with Superman racing Flash, Dr. Fate’s history bleeding beyond the parameters of the show, and Steel repurposing his LexCorp creations to defend his community, but the execution of the episodes themselves were lacking. For 2 of the 3 it seemed their mission was to use other heroes to emphasise how Superman is truly the best one. Oh, shit, and there was that whole Batman crossover trilogy too, I suppose! ‘World’s Finest‘ is a major fan favourite, and while I agree Paul Dini & Alan Burnett wrote an electric opener, I do think the overall package is just a smidge overrated. Still by far the most successful blending of multiple DC heroes though and the template to success with it in the future.

Conversely they were far more successful when it came to villains, especially compared to season one. Livewire, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Kalibak, Granny Goodness, Karkull, Luminus and Queen Maxima were all a great deal of fun in their debuts, while the likes of Lex Luthor, Metallo and Parasite took big quality leaps in their returns. They even borrowed Joker and Harley Quinn and while they’ve been way better they weren’t exactly on cruise control. I didn’t personally love Mala & Jax-Ur but they’re fan favourites too… I think. Of course in taking these swings to establish so many new villains you also get the likes of Bizarro, Titano and Weather Wizard, but even BTAS had The Terrible Trio, Montague Kane and The Sewer King. I would never dare to suggest STAS has better villains than the iconic Gotham rogues, but given Superman gets a bad rap as having an overly top heavy set of foes I have been pleasantly surprised by the depth.

There’s a lot I could talk about, but I keep circling back to the ambition of Season Two. They firmly established their vision of the character and got their sea legs under them in those first thirteen episodes, and while there are some real clunkers this time around there were also able to tell more complex and satisfying stories. I’m a little less enamoured with ‘Mxyzpixilated‘ than most, but I can’t deny they were operating at a higher conceptual level than the average episode. Whether it was a detective story with a death fake-out, an alternate universe where Superman rules Metropolis with an iron fist, an uneasy villain alliance, the introduction of chthonic demons to the DCAU, or even something like children befriending Metallo, they were really just trying shit here and almost all of it worked well. There’s also something undeniably cute about opening the season with Clark meeting some fellow Kryptonians who end up disappointing him, only to find a ‘cousin’ in Supergirl to wrap the season. Nice symmetry.

So in summary we’re in a pretty similar place to last time, only my feelings have become a little stronger. If you’re like me and you’re a long-time BTAS fan who always kept STAS at arm’s length then you’re missing out on a pretty great little show. Is any of it ‘Heart of Ice‘ (or ‘The Laughing Fish‘, am I right?) No, not at all. But almost every single episode to date has been better than the bottom… like… third of BTAS? Batman knows what you really like, but you’re simply not going to get hurt as much with Superman.

Director Rankings

Season 2

  1. Kenji Hachizaki (2 eps)
  2. Yuchiro Yano (1 ep)
  3. Dan Riba (7 eps)
  4. Toshihiko Masuda (4 eps)
  5. Curt Geda (10 eps)
  6. Nobuo Tomizawa (1 ep)
  7. Kazuhide Tomonaga (1 ep)
  8. Hiroyoki Aoyama (2 eps)

The usual caveats apply. This isn’t based on my assessment of their talent, just where their episodes fell on the overall rankings. Some bad episodes have good direction. It’s easy to slide higher up the list if you only do a couple of episodes. Blah blah blah.

For example Kenji Hachizaki delivered what I believe to be the best episode to date, ‘The Late Mr. Kent’, which was carried more by its script but did still look really strong, particularly Detective Bowman’s iconic death scene. Deserving of best director? Maaaaybe. Meanwhile Yuichiro Yano only did a single episode, the sixth-place ‘Double Dose‘, which I still liked, but Yano’s work wasn’t notably better than the more consistent Dan Riba and Curt Geda, who worked on 7 of my top 10 for the season. They just happened to draw some short straws and work on some real clunkers as well. Like at least Toshihiko Masuda crushed it with ‘World’s Finest‘ even if they also did the MUCH worse ‘Speed Demons‘.

It’s also worth noting there were four different sets of ties here that I broke based on who had the highest-placed episode of the two. 1 & 2 were joint-first, 3 & 4 were joint third, 5 & 6 were joint fifth and 7 & 8 were joint seventh.

Overall (To Date)

  1. Bruce Timm & Scott Jeralds (1 ep)
  2. Kenji Hachizaki (3 eps)
  3. Dan Riba (11 eps)
  4. Yuchiro Yano (2 eps)
  5. Kazuhide Tomonaga (2 eps)
  6. Nobuo Tomizawa (1 ep)
  7. Curt Geda (13 eps)
  8. Toshihiko Masuda (5 eps)
  9. Hiroyoki Aoyama (3 eps)

Only some minor re-ordering compared to Season 2 in a vacuum, with Bruce Timm pulling his BTAS trademark and charting extremely high despite only working on a small number of episodes, generally important ones, and often in collaboration with someone else. This saw him to the top of the writer rankings of Batman thanks to ‘Mad Love‘. He pulls the same trick here by co-helming ‘Last Son of Krypton: Part III‘ with Dan Riba (while Scott Jeralds shared Part II with Curt Geda) and as I treated multi-part episodes as a single aggregated entity this time around, it got them an identical ranking. Do I regret that? Maybe! There are problems with both approaches if we’re all being honest, but it does feel fairer to the overall stories they’re trying to tell across these episodes. Also I’d like to make it clear I’m not suggesting Bruce Timm ‘only’ worked on one episode, as he had a hand in literally everything they did, but I also don’t think he’s a better writer than Paul Dini or director than Dan Riba for example.

Anyway! Riba & Geda racked up 26 of the 41 episodes, establishing themselves as Timm’s go-to guys of this era, with another big name to join them next season. I think both are excellent at their jobs and probably deserve to have the top two spots. But I’m a slave to the data.

I should say I don’t have strong opinions on any of these director rankings because the entire show looks consistently great. That was Bruce Timm’s wish, and while you lose the stylistic flourishes that Spectrum and TMS added to the more striking episodes of BTAS, you also make sure you don’t get the disasters delivered by Akom, Blue Pencil and Jade. Lower ceiling, much higher floor. Kind of sums up Superman overall actually…

Writer Rankings

Season 2

  1. Bruce Timm (2 eps)
  2. Stan Berkowitz (5 eps)
  3. Steve Gerber (2 eps)
  4. Mark Evanier (1 ep)
  5. Alan Burnett (5 eps)
  6. Rich Fogel (6 eps)
  7. Paul Dini (4 eps)
  8. Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer (4 eps)
  9. Hilary J Bader (7 eps)
  10. Bob Goodman (5 eps)
  11. Joe R. Lansdale (1 ep)

Oh hey remember when we talked about Bruce Timm sliding to the top of the BTAS writer rankings when he perhaps didn’t deserve it? Anyway all hail our finest Superman scribe! I am actually more willing to go with it this time because I know the entire Fourth World corner of the show was something he spent a long time brainstorming (alongside Paul Dini), which all came to fruition with the excellent ‘Apokalips… Now!‘ (co-written by Rich Fogel). Working on Darkseid episodes is a winning tactic in general, as it also secured Mark Evanier the fourth spot, fitting given his heavy hand in crafting the original Fourth World Saga alongside Jack Kirby.

However I would be inclined to give the heaviest praise to Stan Berkowitz, who penned the pair of high concept episodes that occupy my current top 2 in the episode rankings, as well as contributing to ‘World’s Finest’. It seems Stan was committed to trying more ambitious things this season and I like to reward that.

Burnett, Dini and Fogel actually tied, which I again broke based on who had the highest ranked episode among them, and Burnett co-wrote ‘Brave New Metropolis‘, Fogel had his name to ‘Apokalips… Now!’ and Dini’s best work was ‘World’s Finest’. To me Fogel is one of the weaker of the frequent DCAY writers, while I think Dini & Burnett delivered a sublime script for the first part of the Batman/Superman crossover. If I’d ranked the three episodes individually they’d have fared much better than the others who worked on them.

I feel bad for Hilary Bader as I generally really enjoy her work in the DCAU… but those Steel episodes were pretty rough going. Similarly the partnership of Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer gave us some great episodes about Livewire and Supergirl… but they sure did write ‘Monkey Fun‘ too…

My feelings on Bob Goodman are pretty similar to Rich Fogel. In fact I think he might be my least favourite of the writers who worked on a bunch of episodes. Sorry, Bob. I’m sure The Zeta Project is underrated and you seem like a nice man. Finally Joe Lansdale did a handful of BTAS episodes that I don’t remember being very good.

Overall (To Date)

  1. Bruce Timm (2 eps)
  2. Steve Gerber (2 eps)
  3. Robert N. Skir & Marty Isenberg (1 ep)
  4. Alan Burnett (8 eps)
  5. Stan Berkowitz (7 eps)
  6. Rich Fogel (7 eps)
  7. Paul Dini (10 eps)
  8. Mark Evanier (2 eps)
  9. Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer (4 eps)
  10. Hilary J Bader (9 eps)
  11. Bob Goodman (5 eps)
  12. Joe R. Lansdale (1 ep)

Not a huge change here, though Berkowitz is punished for his Season 1 work. I say punished, ‘The Way of All Flesh‘ is a perfectly solid episode. Skir & Isenberg, whose work I remember thinking was Very Okay in BTAS benefit from doing one of my favourite episodes, ‘Fun & Games‘ which is getting the majority of its juice from the visuals but does have a decent script too.

Alan Burnett separates himself from Dini but only by a few points, mostly because I don’t love Dini’s ‘The Main Man‘. Sorry, Paul, Lobo annoys me even if your take was the least egregious I’ve encountered to date.

The rest is mostly the same. I think if we’re all being honest with ourselves Dini, Burnett and Berkowitz are far and away the best writers to touch this show, but numbers is numbers.

Animation Studio Rankings

Season 2

  1. Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (17 eps)
  2. TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (11 eps)

Given TMS were kind of the gold standard for BTAS it’s really weird to see them fall behind the ‘solid but nothing spectacular’ partnership of Koko & Dong Yang. But that was exactly what Bruce Timm wanted: consistency over quality. I do understand his argument: They put a lot of work designing these characters and had a very specific vision in mind, so they didn’t like when the animators would take some liberties even if they made it look ‘better’ at times in BTAS. And STAS achieves exactly that mission, looking much better on average even if it can’t match the coolest and most stylish Batman episodes.

Overall (To Date)

  1. Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (25 eps)
  2. TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (16 eps)

Look man, there’s very little in it between these two studios. The points gap between them is slightly bigger in the overall compared to Season 2, but there are still only two companies to choose between so far and both do good work. Cutting down on how many you use and making sure you fully trust the ones you’re working with seems like a smart decision.

TMS were probably holding back due to being made to keep on model and from what I’ve read I think they were also somewhat reluctant to come back after how much work BTAS was, only agreeing to do it if their staff got to direct the episodes assigned to them. This also probably contributed to Koko/Dong Yang overtaking them, as Timm’s boys oversaw their work, while TMS were doing outsourcing. I have no doubt they’re extremely good at their jobs, but fundamentally you’re almost always going to get a better result when the same company who plan and write getting to control direction too.

Composer Rankings

Season 2

  1. Shirley Walker (2 eps)
  2. Kristopher Carter (7 eps)
  3. Michael McCuistion (6 eps)
  4. Harvey Cohen (4 eps)
  5. Lolita Ritmanis (10 eps)

The incomparable Shirley Walker composing the excellent theme tune for the series and then ducking out until Season 2… where she proceeded to snatch the top spot from her proteges warms my heart. The other four would carry DC animation for decades, but how could you not miss Shirley??? Her score for ‘Father’s Day‘ is really weird in a good way, sounding very little like anything else in the show. Standing out is good!

Karter got to work on my first and third favourite episodes while McCuistion got second and fourth. I like that level of symmetry. I liked the work of both but I can’t say I could tell them apart without knowing who did what. I forever associate Karter with Batman Beyond but that’s not the sound here at all.

Cohen gets a couple of episodes in the top 10 (both gloriously greasy guitar eps fitting of Livewire) but is otherwise on the lower end, while poor Ritmanis is saddled with the entire bottom 3 so didn’t really stand a chance. Again, I think she’s done great work, particularly in ‘Little Girl Lost‘. The music is NEVER the reason for a ranking so these talented folk suffer more than any of the other creatives from my dumbass data exercises.

Overall (To Date)

  1. Shirley Walker (2 eps)
  2. Harvey Cohen (6 eps)
  3. Kristopher Carter (11 eps)
  4. Michael McCuistion (10 eps)
  5. Lolita Ritmanis (12 eps)

Very little difference except Cohen takes a big jump, which is more due to his limited involvement in Season One, which means he can’t be dragged down by it as much. Would I say the music in Season 2 was stronger than Season 1? Yeah, probably slightly. I was certainly more aware of it, with a number of the episodes sticking out in my mind as having unique scores.

But again, I’m extremely unqualified to talk about music so let’s just move on, shall we? All hail Shirley Walker.

Top Performances

I’m not going to break it down by season and this is all pure gut feeling but these were the names that have wowed me the most to date:

  1. Lori Petty (Livewire)
  2. Dana Delany (Lois Lane)
  3. Clancy Brown (Clancy Brown)
  4. Ed Asner (Granny Goodness)
  5. Malcolm McDowell (Metallo)
  6. Michael Ironside (Darkseid)
  7. Gilbert Gottfried (Mr. Mxyzptlk)
  8. Joseph Balogna (Dan Turpin)
  9. Bud Cort (Toyman)
  10. Sharon Lawrence (Queen Maxima)

I’m not terrifically bothered about the individual placements. Top 3 are unassailably the Top 3, and Sharon Lawrence has the weakest grip on the list, but you could talk me into virtually any other order for spots 4-9.

Petty, Delany and Brown are as good as anybody in BTAS. Yes, that includes the immortal Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin and anybody else you want to name. BTAS obviously has some quite manic characters which makes for ‘sexier’ voice work, but Delany and Brown in particular are just flat out incredible actors who can confidently sit back on their talent instead of needing to ‘do voices’. Not that there’s anything wrong with ‘doing voices’. Petty is just a sublimely well-cast actor who fits their character like a glove. It’s a role they should frankly have never recast in any other continuity. Just retire Livewire if Petty isn’t available.

From there it’s a nice blend of fun, over the top performances from people like Asner, Gottfried, Balogna and Lawrence, and more understated work from the likes of McDowall, Ironside and Cort. That blend is important and was present in BTAS too. You need the serious AND the silly in equal measure, and boy did they get it.

Episode Ranking

Season 2

  1. The Late Mr. Kent
  2. Brave New Metropolis
  3. Apokalips… Now!
  4. World’s Finest
  5. Livewire
  6. Double Dose
  7. Warrior Queen
  8. Father’s Day
  9. Little Girl Lost
  10. The Hand of Fate
  11. Ghost in the Machine
  12. Action Figures
  13. The Prometheon
  14. Mxyzpixilated
  15. Blasts From the Past
  16. Target
  17. Solar Power
  18. Prototype
  19. Speed Demons
  20. Identity Crisis
  21. Heavy Metal
  22. Monkey Fun
  23. Bizarro’s World

Simply looking at how many ‘pretty good, not amazing’ episodes fall in the lower half of my Season 2 rankings speaks to how high the quality level is this time around. I actively like every episode down to ‘Solar Power’. That’s basically an 75% hit rate!

Overall (To Date)

  1. The Late Mr. Kent (S2)
  2. Brave New Metropolis (S2)
  3. Apokalips… Now! (S2)
  4. World’s Finest (S2)
  5. Livewire (S2)
  6. Double Dose (S2)
  7. Fun and Games (S1)
  8. Warrior Queen (S2)
  9. Father’s Day (S2)
  10. Little Girl Lost (S2)
  11. The Hand of Fate (S2)
  12. The Last Son of Krypton (S1)
  13. Ghost in the Machine (S2)
  14. Stolen Memories (S1)
  15. Action Figures (S2)
  16. The Prometheon (S2)
  17. Tools of the Trade (S1)
  18. The Main Man (S1)
  19. Mxzypixilated (S2)
  20. Blasts from the Past (S2)
  21. Target (S2)
  22. The Way of All Flesh (S1)
  23. Solar Power (S2)
  24. Protoype (S2)
  25. My Girl (S1)
  26. A Little Piece of Home (S1)
  27. Feeding Time (S1)
  28. Speed Demons (S2)
  29. Two’s a Crowd (S1)
  30. Identity Crisis (S2)
  31. Heavy Metal (S2)
  32. Monkey Fun (S2)
  33. Bizarro’s World (S2)

I don’t feel the need to justify individual placements given that’s the entire point of the site in general and you can just go read all the reviews.

However I do think it’s worth noting that Season One could only get a single episode into my Top 10, and it’s an episode I think most would question why I love so much (‘Fun & Games’). I know I’m significantly lower on the three-part opener than others, but I just think Part II is pretty bad and the trilogy is carried largely by the legitimately great world-building and doesn’t get out of first gear from a Superman perspective. Spending more time in Smallville and tightening up the Superman vs Lex/Corben stuff would have helped a great deal.

This swings both ways though as five of the bottom six are from Season 2, and these six are the only episodes I actively dislike. There are some cute ideas here and there but they’re severely compromised.

Rogues Roundup

Season 2

  1. Livewire
  2. Darkseid
  3. Lex Luthor
  4. Joker
  5. Parasite
  6. Queen Maxima
  7. Karkull
  8. Metallo
  9. Mr. Mxzyptlk
  10. Harley Quinn
  11. Granny Goodness
  12. Kalibak
  13. Luminus
  14. Female Furies
  15. DeSaad
  16. Detective Bowman
  17. Jax-Ur and Mala
  18. Mercy Graves
  19. Steppenwolf
  20. The Prometheon
  21. Bruno Mannheim
  22. De’Cine
  23. Brainiac
  24. Corey Mills
  25. Titano
  26. Bizarro
  27. Weather Wizard

It’s quite difficult to erase Lex Luthor‘s Season One journey from your mind when he’s such a frequently recurring character. I think he arguably had a better season here, but he still can’t compete with Livewire and Darkseid.

The former debuted right at the top of the list and has stayed there ever since thanks to a harmony of incredible animation, untouchable voice work and just being a really fun little foil to the Man of Steel. Conversely Darkseid handed Superman’s ass to him twice and almost conquered Metropolis, which is pretty damn metal. He only remains in second place because he doesn’t compete quite as well on the visual and voice acting fronts even if he’s still really strong. There’s more to him and he’ll need to bring it next season if he (or anyone else) is going to dethrone the Queen.

Brainiac had a much rougher return compared to its strong start, and Metallo was a lot more fun in my opinion. But there was no bigger success story than Parasite, a character I didn’t really like in his two Season One appearances, but came to love based on his uneasy alliance with Livewire. Rudy betraying his partner and lusting for power just made him click for me, and he also drained a shark to outmanoeuvre Superman underwater which is pretty neat IMO.

I really enjoyed some of the new characters like Maxima and Karkull but wasn’t as hot on fan favourites Jax-Ur & Mala. They just didn’t do as much with their concept as they could have in my opinion. The middle of the list is littered with really solid henchmen who have a ceiling due to serving sexier masters, but I think almost all of them are great for what they are.

Then there’s the giant ape, the evil Superman clone and of course the laughable Weather Wizard. All of these are extremely bad.

Overall (To Date)

  1. Livewire (S2)
  2. Darkseid
  3. Lex Luthor
  4. The Joker (S2)
  5. Toyman
  6. Queen Maxima (S2)
  7. Metallo
  8. Parasite
  9. Karkull (S2)
  10. Brainiac
  11. Mr. Mxyzptlk (S2)
  12. Harley Quinn (S2)
  13. Granny Goodness (S2)
  14. Kalibak (S2)
  15. Lobo
  16. Luminus (S2)
  17. The Female Furies (S2)
  18. DeSaad (S2)
  19. Detective Bowman (S2)
  20. Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!)
  21. Steppenwolf (S2)
  22. The Preserver
  23. Kanto
  24. Mala & Jax-Ur (S2)
  25. Mercy Graves
  26. The Prometheon (S2)
  27. De’Cine (S2)
  28. Corey Mills (S2)
  29. Earl Garver
  30. Titano (S2)
  31. Bizarro (S2)
  32. Weather Wizard (S2)

I’ve marked the ones that debuted in Season 2 but it should be noted Darkseid’s debut was barely a cameo and his massive rise basically to the top of the mountain occurred from his Season 2 work. Even with that you can see just how much they threw at the wall compared to Season 1. Some of that is the larger episode count, but they also debuted a lot of the heaviest hitters early on and returned to them frequently. Season 2 did add some more big names but also offered some pretty poor one-and-done characters.

You COULD argue Season One is better for villain spotlights, while Season Two was all over the map in its attempt to expand the mythos. I don’t think I care enough to form a strong opinion on this as the incredible Livewire made her debut, Darkseid was excellent, Lex finally climbed the rankings, and there were strong appearances from Joker, Queen Maxima and Karkull.

All I’m saying is Superman’s rogues gallery is way stronger than it gets credit for, even if they did borrow Joker and Harley from BTAS.

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