Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Superman Recap

Overall, the 1988  Superman series is awfully forgettable. It seems to have made some of the same mistakes that Superman Returns made years later. In being so respectful of the live action Superman: The Movie, this series seemed almost afraid to step out of the shadow of the Superman film series. There were plenty of homages from similar scenes to musical cues, but the series lacked much identity of its own and while not really bad was quite bland. Strangely, even though there were just 13 episodes, it sort of felt like they were already out of ideas, or that they were almost out of ideas when they started.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Graduation

WHY! These segments are just so lame. I really don't get who thought they were a good idea. The gag this time, Clark's graduation gown got dirty, then he blew away a rain cloud. That's grade A stuff there, right? The dope even flew to his ceremony and landed in his seat without anyone noticing. That's Smallville for ya.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - To Play or not to Play

 

This segment explored CKs dilemma of whether to play high school football or just to manage the team. Of course he chose team manager, but only after adopting the glasses disguise to get cut from the team after showing off his super powers to make the cut as starting QB. Gee, why didn't he just fly. If the Smallvinos can't figure out that Clark is Superman, he shouldn't even waste his time with a disguise around town.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - First Date

Good news, plenty more shorts of Superman driving, but this time with Lana Lang on his first date. We also had the pleasure of watching Clark fix two cars.Maybe they should make a line of instruction auto related videos featuring Superman. I'm sure they would be big sellers.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Driver's License

Why watch him fly when you can watch him parallel park? I also forgot to mention that there were also scenes of Clark taking the written exam, an eye exam, and the road test. Maybe next time we will have the honor of watching him do some laundry or put on his socks. Its just a shame the Family Album didn't get its own spinoff. The possibilities were endless.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Birthday Party

Somehow Clark's party devloved into a wet t-shirt contest for kids and some really sloppy football. Sounds like a lot of fun. The main focus was how Clark used his x-ray vision to peek at present. Quite the rapscallion.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Little Runaway

Clark ran away because he didn't want to walk the cows. After a hobo ate his lunch, he decided having a family wasn't so bad... seriously.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Circus

Ok, it was funny that while at the circus, Clark attacked the "amazing" spider woman thinking her a monster. Don't know if this was a poke at Marvel or not, but if so, touche. His pant-ripping, whirly-dropping antics on the other hand were annoying though they led to him accidentally becoming part of the high wire act which was not that bad since the kid actually wore a mask when using his powers. So far, this album has annoyed me the least... I guess that's a start. 

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Overnight with the Scouts

Clark went camping, and guess what happened. Pretty much nothing. Maybe this was supposed to be cute, but Clark using x-ray vision to see an owl is ultra pointless. I'm pretty sure no kid wants to wake up early on a Saturday morning to see that. And I care even less.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The First Day of School

 While "laying low" on the first day of school, Clark drew a picture of Krypton and flew in front of his class to rescue a guinea pig. He also made introductions to the young, blonde, Lana Lang whom he impressed with super swing pushing. Not exactly, necessary viewing...

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - At the Babysitter's

Why would the Kent's leave Clark with a babysitter when he clearly is a trouble maker? Besides, old people don't have anything to do anyways. Good thing the babysitter was an idiot and didn't think it strange the kid could fly or lift TVs.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Supermarket

Basically, toddler Superman was super annoying and if the citizens of Smallville couldn't figure out that the flying baby grew up to be Superman, they were morons. I admit, I did think it was a bit amusing when Clark used heat vision to cook about 100 hot dogs.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Adoption

In this first 5-minute family album tale we learned about how a super powered baby Kal was adopted by the Kents after he proved too much trouble for other potential parents. The fact that he could fly probably should have been a tip off to his identity years later. I guess it was kind of sweet that the baby chose the Kents, but I have mixed feelings so far about how worth while these tales are going to be.This was pretty heavy on the cheese... but at least probably better than the Ruby-Spears produced Plastic Family shorts.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Superman

The 1988 Superman show is an oft forgotten animated series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions which ran for just 13 episodes. Developed as a 50th anniversary tribute to the Man of Steel, the series also incorporated music from Superman: The Movie and opening narration from the 1950s Adventures of Superman television series.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Return of the Phantoms

Not only did this episode feature some sort of weird space Gumby, but it also had one of two appearances by Superboy on Super Friends (the other being history of Doom which had the origin of Lex Luthor). While this wasn't as good as Evil from Krypton, Phantom "Zoners" always make for some fun especially when they are beaten using Velcroed Super-capes.

Super History of Superman: Young Justice (2010-2)

Although 2010's Young Justice and its rebranded second season Young Justice: Invasion had a focus on the "Don't call them sidekicks" teen heroes, the influence of Superman was certainly felt. Not only was Superman a key member of the Justice League, but his relationship with the Superman clone, Superboy AKA Kon-El AKA Conner Kent, was an ongoing character development arc in the series. 

Super History of Superman: Smallville (2001-11)

Somebody saaaaaaaaaave me! From 2001-2011 over 218 episodes and 10 seasons we watched Clark Kent grow to embrace his ultimate destiny as Superman. While not all of the elements brought to screen were necessarily completely true to the comics, as an Elseword's tale Smallville was able to hit on most of high points of Superman's mythology with success - at least in most cases. And although the series began with a "no tights, no flights" mantra to maintain a more grounded approach to the character, both rules would eventually be broken.

Super History of Superman: Superboy (1988-92)

The wacky Superboy series ran for four seasons from 1988-1992 and over the course of those four years it went through two Superboys and two titles, being renamed The Adventures of Superboy in the third year. While the series was still popular after its fourth season, it ran into rights issues leading to its ultimate early demise. And as goofy and random as the stories sometimes were, the show had a certain charm and light-heartedness that was endearing... if you could get past the extremely poor production values and bad writing.

Super History of Superman: Superman (1988)

The 1988 Superman show is an oft forgotten animated series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions which ran for just 13 episodes. Developed as a 50th anniversary tribute to the Man of Steel, the series also incorporated music from Superman: The Movie and opening narration from the 1950s Adventures of Superman television series. While it may not have been the classic series fans were hoping for, it was a huge course correction from the abysmal Superman IV the year previous.

Super History of Superman: Super Friends (1973-86)

For over a decade, Superman held a position as a core team member of the Super Friends, later the Super Powers team. Although the adventures usually focused on team-ups, over the course of the 100+ episodes, the Man of Steel received his fair share of spotlights.