Author: Robert Greenberger

The Many Lives of James Bond
By Mark Edlitz
Lyons Press, 300 pages, $27.95

Now that No Time To Die’s April release feels imminent, now may be a good time to catch up on some past James Bond history. Always remember that the past is prologue for the James Bond series. Prolific interviewer Mark Edlitz is back, this time with the recently released book The Many Lives of James Bond.

James Bond has been explored in just about every manner imagined and yet, Edlitz comes through with a collection of discussions that is unique in its breadth. Subtitled “How the Creators of 007 Have Decoded the Superspy”, he offers insights from not just the actors, but the directors, songwriters, novelists, artists, designers, and more.

The book is broken into five parts: Bond on Film, Bond in Print, Being Bond, Designing 007, and Bond Women with an appendix on the Quotable Bond. It’s interesting to read how directors Martin Campbell, Roger Spotiswoode, and John Glen each saw the elite spy and the challenges of maintaining the nearly 60-year-old franchise’s consistency.

Edlitz nicely looks under rocks and deep into the shadows to bring little known aspects of the legacy to light. For example, did you know Big Band leader Hoagy Carmichael was Fleming’s model for the look? His son, Hoagy Bix Carmichael, shared some anecdotes. Similarly, there are quotes from Bob Holness, who portrayed Bond on a South African radio adaptation of Moonraker in the 1950s.

The print section shines a little-seen spotlight on the novels that followed Ian Fleming’s death as Anthony Horowitz dishes on dealing with the film producers and Eon Productions while John McLusky reviewed his work on the British comic strip, and Mike Grell recounted his work on writing and drawing a Bond adventure for Eclipse Comics.

Several of the actor interviews may seem familiar if you had read Edlitz’s 2015 How to be a Super-Hero which takes a similar in-depth and out of the box approach to the subject. While he couldn’t get to Sean Connery directly, Edlitz has a long piece with Glen A. Schofield who clues us in on what it was like to work with Connery, who recorded Bond’s voice for the video game From Russia with Love which has proven to be the actor’s final time in the role.

Lan Wood represents all the women who wooed and were wood by the spy while Lisa Funnell, who edited For his Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond is on hand to take the long academic view.

Being an unauthorized book, Edlitz is limited in illustrations using a handful of fair use images and a series of adequate illustrations from Pat Carbajal.

The nice thing about a book like this is you can read an interview or two and come back for more, a very nice way to pass the winter until the new feature arrives.

Young Justice has two overlapping, somewhat rabid, fan followings. First, there are those who delighted in Peter David’s energetic take on the young adult team, which led to the animated series on Cartoon Network.

In the hands of former DC assistant editor Greg Weisman, Young Justice developed a very unique voice of its own, carving an animated continuity all to itself, enjoying two seasons on cable before vanishing. Weisman, Brandon Vietti, and their team were rehired by DC Universe to produce a 26-episode third season, dubbed Young Justice: Outsiders, which aired in two sections throughout 2019.

The entire season is now a four-disc Blu-ray set from Warner Archive so if you don’t want to spend for the service, you can see what you’ve missed. We pick up some two years after season two and Meta-human trafficking is rampant, with the people turned into WMDs. Meanwhile, the UN in their infinite wisdom imposes strict guidelines that prompt many of the heroes to quit the Justice League.

The animation looks about as good as we got the first two times around along, on a par with some of the direct-to-video offerings from Warner Animation. They also took the time to rethink the looks of several characters, redesigning Arrowette, Thirteen and Spoiler.

So, who are the Outsiders? Promo art told us they would be Tigress (Stephanie Lemelin), Black Lightning (Khary Payton), Superboy (Nolan North), Katana, Geo-Force (Troy Baker), Forager (Jason Spisak), Halo (Zehra Fazal), Metamorpho and Nightwing (Jesse McCartney), a very mixed bag.

The team, which has continued to morph throughout the seasons, remains although the first episode shakes up the status quo so they’re still active as is the League and even Infinity, Inc.

Many characters have entirely different personalities, relationships, and professions from the comics so you do need to be somewhat steeped in the 2010-13 series to make sense of where things stand. For example, good old Lex Luthor is now UN Secretary-General, which explains why he’s made it tough on the JL.

There is plenty of episode to episode continuity with the usual assortment of prolonged fight scenes and explosions. Overall, though, the pacing works nicely and there are good character bits throughout the season.

The writing is also good, especially with so many previous people coming back, including, thankfully, Peter David, who continues to entertain with these heroes. His “Triptych” dwells on Aquaman and Atlantis, things he knows well. Weisman and company have mined the comics continuity with abandon, including obscure people like Bash Bashford (Troy Baker), created by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown, and Wally Wood in an issue of Superboy back in1969. Weisman even plunders other animation as he uses Queen Perdita (Ariel Winter), who he created for DC Showcase: Green Arrow and has her date Gar Logan.

Watching these, you come to appreciate how the creators judiciously took advantage of the non-commercial arena, streamlining the stories without need for mini-cliffhangers to insert commercials, along with the slightly more mature themes and approaches to the characters. Things wrap up well enough although the final episode drops a Legion Easter Egg and we now know work is proceeding on the fourth season.

The fourth disc has a Bringing Back Young Justice with Whitney Moore: five Behind-the-Scenes features – Inside the Writer’s Room, The Animation Process, Voice Recording, The Post-production Process, and Recording Doom Patrol Go! – that first appeared on the streaming service, totaling over 48 minutes.

It has been an exceptionally disappointing year for smart, serious science fiction on the screen. In a short period, we had the crash and burn of Ad Astra and Lucy in the Sky, the latter of which has been made available for streaming by Fox Home Entertainment ahead of its inevitable release on disc.

Where Noah Hawley’s Legion was a surreal character study that got you involved with the characters, this film, co-written with Brian C Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi, keeps every character at arm’s length. We open with mission specialist Lucy Cola in space and follow her re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Clearly, like so many real-world astronauts, the experience was deeply affecting, but unlike the others, she is now forever altered and no one notices. Those closest to her, such as her husband Drew (Dan Stevens) and grandmother Nana Holbrook (Ellen Burstyn), seem oblivious.

At NASA, her psychiatrist Will Plimpton (Nick Offerman) and colleague Mark Goodwin (Jon Hamm) suspect something’s off, but the former does little about it while the latter embarks on a torrid affair with her. He’s been to space and becomes the only one she even attempts to articulate how being among the stars has altered her perceptions.

Over time, Lucy begins spiraling out of control with minimal efforts to help her, while Mark gives up on her in favor of Erin Eccles (Zazie Beetz), an astronaut/rival. All of which builds up to Lucy being denied a return to space so stalks Mark accompanied by her niece Blue Iris (Pearl Amanda Dickson.

The back half of the film is heavily influenced by the 2007 incident that saw Capt. Lisa M. Nowak arrested after attacking Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain she saw as a romantic rival.

Across the 2:05 of the running time, we don’t get to know any character with any depth nor do we sympathize with Lucy as reality slips from her grasp. There’s a sterility to the storytelling that leaves you looking at your watch and wondering who thought this was a good way to make a film.

Kudos to Hawley and cinematographer Polly Morgan for playing with the aspect ratio, making it an actual part of the story, honing in and out of Lucy’s perceptions.

The streaming edition was reviewed and looks just grand on your home television screen. The film is accompanied by four Deleted Scenes (9:47), one of which attempted to show another side of Lucy and one which gave Mark some character. There are four other pieces — Directors Journey (5:12), Creating Magical Realism (6:50), Making Space (5:42), Lucy Cola (4:15) – are all too short and all too on the surface to be involving or help explain how this misfired.

Shortly after HBO released Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season, the Golden Globe nominations were unveiled and its considered a surprise that the series was virtually shut out. After the long wait, the truncated final season arrived this year and rather than take a victory lap, it was showered with complaints.

When the series, adapting George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels, arrived, people were stunned at its scope, sweep, violence, sensuality, and strong performances. You weren’t sure who to root for as the status quo kept shifting and beloved characters kept dying in unexpected, messy ways.

Phrases and names seeped into public consciousness just as the series began exhausting the extant prose and then charged ahead while Martin struggled to finish the current novel, in the cycle. Series Executive Producers/Writers/Directors David Benioff & D.B. Weiss got direction from Martin and then increasingly veered off in their own direction. Starting with season seven, we have no idea what’s really going to happen in the source material.

Judging season eight on its own merits reveals that going for six longer episodes rather than more standard-length episodes hurt the build-up to the climax. Events and reactions to events are telescoped, largely designed to isolate Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), pushing her to fulfill her destiny as the Mad Queen.

Her lover and rival, Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) remains a largely passive figure in the first five episodes so his action in the finale doesn’t feel particularly heroic. He may not want to be King of the North or even King of the Seven Lands, but he never makes clear what he does want.

It is interesting, though, to watch Daenerys’ rival, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) refuse to bend the knee or compromise in any way, also isolating her so when she dies, it’s with just her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who never fully redeemed himself. She is gone, unmourned, and quickly forgotten.

If anyone “wins”, it’s Jon’s sister Sansa (Sophie Turner), who has held the North intact despite misogyny and political strife.  But, as the third female pillar of power, she too is isolated. Not from her people like the others, but from her family. To be queen means letting her sister Arya (Maisie Williams) go off to exploring the unknown and for Jon to return to the Wall (unaware that what he wants is to go farther north where he could be free).

The final episode helps redeem the uneven quality of the first five, but as a season, it was more whimper than bang despite the huge opening with the battle against the Night King (Vladimír Furdík), who is ultimately dispatched with relative ease making one wonder what all the fuss was about.

I will give credit to the producers for the irony of Bronn (Jerome Flynn), the ultimate survivor, winding up as Westeros’ Master of Coin. And thank goodness Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) managed to redeem himself, however, consigned to help Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) rule.

The sumptuous look of Westeros remains intact so from a production standpoint, the final season is strong. The music, the performances, the special effects, and so on remain top-notch. It’s the writing that proves most disappointing, a shame since the series was born from the word.

The final season comes in a handsome box set with a lovely 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Yes, some of the bright effects seem pixilated and some of the night scenes murky, but it accurately captures what we experienced last spring so any fault isn’t to be blamed on the disc. On the other hand, the Dolby Atmos track is superb, as is the lossless Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

A series of this nature tends to generate a lot of special features and this box set skips none of the goodies for those seeking even more Game of Thrones details. Every episode comes with a recap and preview for those with faulty memories. There are also Episode Guides that offer text pop-ups. Every episode comes with Audio Commentaries — Episode One with commentary by Co-Producer/Writer Dave Hill and Production Designer Deborah Riley; Episode Two with commentary by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Bryan Cogman and Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne); Episode Three with commentary by Director Miguel Sapochnik, Director of Photography Fabian Wagner and Camera Operator Sean Savage; Episode Four with commentary by Director of Photography David Franco, Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandel) and Pilou Absek (Euron Greyjoy); Episode Five with commentary by Director Miguel Sapochnik, Director of Photography Fabian Wagner and Conleth Hill (Varys) or Producer Chris Newman, Special Effects Supervisor Sam Conway, and Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Bauer; Episode Six with commentary by Executive Producers/Writers/Directors David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, and Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen).

Additionally, there is When Winter Falls (29:13), a “making of” documentary on the Battle of Winterfell and Duty is the Death of Love (31:36) for the series’ final episode. The week after the series ended, HBO offered fans Game of Thrones: The Last Watch (1:52:58) which is thankfully included here.

Finally, we have smaller glimpses of King’s Landing (2:55), The Greyjoy Rebellion (5:31), The Blackfyres (5:15), The South (2:30), The Defiance of Duskendale (5:17), Maegor the Cruel (5:18), and, of course, Deleted Scenes (8:28).

The Teen Titans have proven remarkably flexible since their mid-1960s debut as a collection of sidekicks. They appealed to the young readers with Bob Haney’s laughable “hip” language and as the readership grew up, so too did the members of the team, addressing adult issues with changing times and tastes.

They were propelled from mid-list to top-seller status by the Marv Wolfman and George Pérez run starting in summer 1980. These were teens on the verge of adulthood and had problems and issues that the college-age readership were drawn to. The blend of supernatural, science fiction, and super-heroics meant the stories could, and did, go anywhere.

In 2003, things went full-circle as the more mature incarnation was youthified for younger viewers as the Teen Titans hit the Cartoon Network in a five-season run. This success led to the even younger Teen Titans Go! so all the characters and their conflicts were scaled back to digestible amounts. Both series have their fans although I am not the target audience and therefore not among their number.

That said, I find Teen Titans: The Complete Series, out now from Warner Archive, entertaining. The six-disc set includes all 65 episodes and a nice assortment of special features.

The roster was pretty much locked to being limited to Robin (Scott Menville); Starfire (Hynden Walch); Cyborg (Khary Payton); Raven (Tara Strong), and Beast Boy (Greg Cipes). All play their archetypal roles with little variation nor do their civilian alter egos ever factor into the stories. They are perpetually allies and friends, never unmasking or interacting with their mentors. Instead, they swell in Titans Tower, located on the west coast in Jump City.

Their main antagonist is Deathstroke (Ron Perlman) and once he’s established, the second season loosely adapts “The Judas Contract” with the infiltration of Terra (Ashley Johnson) into their ranks, minus the icky sexual exploitation aspect.

For variety, season three brings in Brother Blood (John DiMaggio) and H.I.V.E. although neither resemble their comic book counterparts. We do, though, get a Titans East team featuring Aqualad (Wil Wheaton), Speedy (Mike Erwin), Bumblebee (T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh), and the newly created Más y Menos (Freddy Rodriguez).

Season four shifted the focus to Raven as the threat of daddy dearest, Trigon (Kevin Michael Richardson), arrives to enslave the world. Once he’s defeated, the final season brings in the Brotherhood of Evil. Here, we meet Beast Boy’s Doom Patrol teammates including Mento (Xander Berkeley), Robotman (Peter Onorati), Elasti-Girl (Strong), and Negative Man (Judge Reinhold) as they take on the threat from The Brain (Glenn Shadix), Madame Rouge (Walch), Monsieur Mallah (Shadix), Jinx (Lauren Tom), and others. This season brings in Red Star (Jason Marsden) and Kid Flash (Michael Rosenbaum) plus Kole (Strong), a character creating just to be killed during comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In some ways, the fifth season is the strongest and most fun even if they squander the good mood with a nonsensical final episode. But how could you not love a season chock full of fabulous heroes and villains including Ding Dong Daddy, voiced by the great David Johannsson?

The Blu-ray transfer is quite fine with strong visuals and audio, as one expects from Warner Archive. The discs come with several special features repurposed from previous single season releases including: “Finding Their Voices: The Secret Information Behind the Making of Teen Titans ” (7:52); “Comic Creations: From Comic Book to Cartoon” (21:55), Puffy AmiYumi, the Japanese pop group that provided the theme song (13:15); “Catching Up With … Teen Titans” (4:58);  “Teen Titans: Know Your Foes”, shorts on the villains from seasons three and four; and, “Teen Titans: Friends and Foes” (25:12) from season five.

The 75-minute director to video Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo is included and caps this incarnation’s video run. It’s noisy.

A real treat is “The Lost Episode”, a 12-minute short featuring the team against new villain Punk Rocket (Greg Ellis). It was available only through a promotion from Post Cereals involving a token code to log into their website to watch. In addition to the team, there are appearances by many other characters throughout the series.

I have never seen a film in the Fast & Furious franchise so approached the latest release, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, with fresh eyes. I’ve certainly managed to absorb via pop culture osmosis the gist of the series’ evolution and the saturated play of the trailer all spring, certainly got me curious. So, kudos to the trailer’s editor.

While the premise behind the series does little for me, I enjoy a good buddy film and my understanding is that stars Dwayne Johnson and Jason Stratham had such different approaches to acting that I was curious to see how well they played together.

This is what we used to call a popcorn film: just enough plot to tie the action sequences together, appealing cast, and lots of things going boom. On those terms, the film works wonderfully and it is rather entertaining.

Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby) is an MI6 agent now carrying the deadly CT17 “Snowflake” virus in her bloodstream and becomes the target of the cybernetically enhanced self-proclaimed “Black Superman” Brixton Lore (Idris Elba). When she’s framed for crimes, rivals DSS Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), whose sister is in trouble, are tasked with recovering the woman. As one expects from the franchise and Johnson, there are heavy doses of humor leavening the by the numbers plot, making this a cut above the usual.

Whilke the action set pieces beggar the imagination, the fun shifts gears into fresher territory when Hobbs brings the fight home. We shift the action to Samoa where we see him reconnect with his brother Jonah (Cliff Curtis), paralleling Shaw’s own sibling issues. And if you have the Shaw siblings, you can bet their mother, Magdalene (Hellen Mirren), won’t be far behind. So right there, Elba and Mirren have me hooked.

There are enough connections to the previous films and threads for the next one, already in production, to satisfy the series’ legion of fans. Me, I can take it or leave it; it all comes down to how compelling the next trailer is.

The film, out now from Universal Home Entertainment, is available in the usual assortment of formats including the tried and true Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD combo pack. The 1080p high definition transfer is excellent so you won’t miss a single flame or grain of sand. You may marvel at the Rock’s pecs or Elba’s high-tech gear thanks to the crisp visuals. The Atmos soundtrack does a fine job making things pop.

The Blu-ray comes packed with above average Special Features for the diehard fan. We start with an Alternate Opening (10:14); Deleted/Extended/Alternate Scenes (34:29), only some of which is missed from the feature; Johnson & Statham: Hobbs & Shaw (3:38); Progress of a Fight Scene with Director David Leitch (4:57); Practical Action (3:43), all about the fighting choreography; The Bad Guy (2:00); The Sister (3:58); Hobbs’ Family Tree (3:20); The Matriarch (1:35); New Friends (2:01), Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart cameo; Elevator Action (1:59); Stunt Show and Tell (3:41); Keeping it in the Family: A Conversation with Roman and Dwayne (5:02); Blind Fury (1:50) ; Dwayne and Hobbs: Love at First Bite (1:36); and finally, Audio Commentary from director David Leitch.

Since we’re in a long wait between live-action Wonder Woman movies, it makes sense for Warner Animation to fill the gap. I just wish they filled it with something stronger than the just-released Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. The story is mostly about Diana and Vanessa Kapatelis with a hideous cabal of rogues attempting to plunder the technology of Themyscira.

It looks like it should fit in the animated continuity but it doesn’t really. We’re treated to a lengthy pre-credit sequence that recaps her origin and rushes things so quickly, that you blink and we’ve gone from Diana (Rosario Dawson) rescuing Steve Trevor (Jeffrey Donovan) to her leaving paradise for Man’s World and suddenly is allied with Etta Candy (Adrienne C. Moore) as they go to hang out with Dr. Julia Kapatelis (Nia Vandalos).

Screenwriter Mairghread Scott, who has extensive animation credits, notably within the Marvel Universe, can’t seem to make up her mind who Diana is. She comes across as peaceful and loving, compassionate, or willful bordering on arrogant. The scenes between mother Hippolyta (Cree Summer) and daughter don’t work as well as the ones with Diana and teen rebel Vanessa (Marie Avgeropoulos).

For reasons that don’t entirely hold up, we find Vanessa rebelling by allying herself with Dr. Poison (Courtenay Taylor) and Dr. Cyber (Mozhan Marnò), working for some mysterious benefactor. IN a warehouse, Julia is mortally wounded and Vanessa wrongly blames Diana so agrees to be transformed into Silver Swan to seek vengeance. She’s merely a pawn, helping the doctors learn the location of Themyscira.

To find the hidden island (which now makes Diana forget its location, a silly plot point), they go hither and yon until they reach the labyrinth Daedalus constructed to house the Minotaur (Michael Dorn), who is bewitched into a mindless engine of destruction. When he is freed and becomes Ferdinand the ally, we’re finally veering into the celebrated first Greg Rucka run of the title. This builds up to the big reveal that the villains have been carrying Medusa (Cree Summer) with them and she goes on a rampage across Themyscira.

For a climactic fight with the Amazons, I wish directors Sam Liu and Justin Copeland studied the feature film. Here, the highly trained, deadly warriors are merely cannon fodder, easily turned to stone and crushed. It makes them appear weak and useless which belies their true nature. Yes, it serves to amp up the Diana versus Medusa battle with beats lifted from the Rucka run, but it belittles the women.

And it’s no surprise Veronica Cale (Constance Zimmer) is behind everything, with threats made between them lead women, leaving things fraught with tension for a likely sequel. By then, I stopped caring given how little fresh insight into the characters and relationships we’re given.

The film is out in the usual assortment of formats including the 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and Digital Code combo pack. The 2160p and 1080p high definition transfers are both crisp and clear, the colors subtle and pure. Unfortunately, they also show up the limited animation which inhibits the characters from really getting into the action. There’s little difference between the two as with the lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Dolby audio track.

Far more interesting than the main event is the DC Showcase short, featuring Death in a touching piece from writer J.M. DeMatteis.

The other Special Features include a piece on The Cheetah (Kimberly Brooks) , which focuses on Wonder Woman’s most famous opponent, who is shoehorned into the movie for no particular reason. The talking heads do a nice job covering her career from the Golden Age to her Legion of Doom role and place in the pantheon of villains.

There is a Sneak Peek of the far more interesting looking adaptation of Superman: Red Son. Finally, there are two episdes from the animated DC vault.

There was a lot of sturm and drang at Pixar before they committed to making Toy Story 2, afraid their golden child might be ruined by a lackluster sequel. Not to worry, it was charming and a box office hit. They wisely waited until they had the exact story to tell for Toy Story 3, a film who’s ending never fails to elicit a tear or two for my long-ago childhood.

At first, we were dealing with Woody (Tom Hanks) coming to grips with his human, Andy, seeming to prefer the new, shiny Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). Then there was a little matter of Andy aging out and what that meant for the toys. They’re meant to be cherished, not neglected, so the passing of them to Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) was a perfect touch.

But Bonnie is not Andy and her tastes are her own. She’s younger, of almost an entirely different generation, and Woody is left to wonder what is his role today? These existential issues are nicely played from beginning to end in the charming Toy Story 4, out now on disc from Disney Home Entertainment.

Bonnie is ready for school and Woody, always looking after the toys and his human, feels a responsibility to be there for her. No need, it turns out, as her kindergarten orientation gave her the opportunity to create her own toy, turning an ordinary spork into her new playmate, Forky (Tony Hale). Its problem is that Forky believes it was meant to be used once and disposed of, not loved. Once again, Woody feels responsible for keeping Forky from suicide and ruining Bonnie’s budding school career.

When the family goes on a road trip, things get complicated as a visit to an antique store introduces Woody to Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), a girl’s doll created with a defective voice box and relegated to a shelf. She and her Jerry Mahoney-like dummies sweet-talk and entrap Woody, in order to obtain the thing she feels would make her desirable. Forky winds up a hostage so it’s Woody to the rescue, aided by Bo Peep (Annie Potts), who vanished years before and wound up in the store, a toughened go-it-alone figure.

Some of the action sequences in first-time director Josh Cooley’s hands are overdone at the expense of the menagerie of toys having anything useful to do. Instead, the thematic focus is entirely on Woody and his place in this strange new world. He does what he does and along the way, recognizes its time for the next chapter of his life. The ending makes sense and works emotionally even if we take our sweet time getting there.

The film has been released in a variety of formats including a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD code combo pack. The 1080p high definition transfer captures the colors nicely and we can marvel at how far the CGI animation has come since the first film (1995). The Blu-ray defaults to the DTS-HD HR 5.1 audio track although you can easily upgrade to the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. Both sound just fine, if not perfect.

The combo pack comes with two Blu-ray discs with Special Features on both. The first, with the film, also offers up Bo Rebooted (6:21); Toy Stories (5:38) as cast and crew reminisce; and Audio Commentary with Cooley and Producer Mark Nielsen. The second disc contains Let’s Ride with Ally Maki (5:41), the voice of Giggle McDimples, goes in the recording process; Woody & Buzz (3:35); Anatomy of a Scene: Playground (9:31); Carnival Run (1:00); View from the Roof (0:29); Toy Box (13:00), introducing Gabby Gabby, the Vincent dummies, Forky, Duke Caboom, Ducky & Bunny, and Giggle McDimples; Deleted Scenes (28:00), Introduction, Scamming Playtime, Bo Knows Hippos, Desperate Toys, Knock-Offs, Recruit Duke, and She’s the One.

The Doomsday Saga sprawled across the four monthly Superman titles for the better part of a year, clearly too long to successfully adapt as part of the DC Animated Universe series of films. When The Death of Superman was announced, everyone knew a second film would follow and sure enough, viewers were treated to The Reign of the Superman. The 1992-93 storyline was streamlined and revised to be fit into the animated continuity, so characters who weren’t around at the time, are here now.

Warner Home Entertainment has edited the two films together into a 2:46 and has released it as The Death and Return of Superman released in a variety of formats including the nifty 4K Ultra HD Limited Edition Gift Set (4K, Blu-ray, Digital HD, and a Steel action figure). The 4K gift set comes with Superman: Doomsday as a bonus 4K disc.

As noted in reviews of the two films, it does a reasonable, but not perfect, job of taking the serialized story and putting it all together. Lex Luthor gets played up more than he deserves and the Justice League’s core heroes have a far more prominent role. The “replacement” heroes – Steel, Superboy, Cyborg Superman, and the Eradicator – are all here for good or ill, adding new players for future films.

As one would expect, the excellent voice cast is back including Jerry O’Connell’s Superman, Rebecca Romjin’s Lois, and Rainn Wilson’s Luthor, supported by Jason O’Mara (Batman), Rosario Dawson (Wonder Woman), Shemar Moore (Cyborg), Nathan Fillion (Green Lantern), Matt Lanter (Aquaman), Christopher Gorham (The Flash), and Nyambi Nyambi (Martian Manhunter). They are joined by Cress Williams (Steel), Cameron (Superboy), Patrick Fabian (Hank Henshaw), and Charles Halford (Eradicator).

In the edit, some dropped sequences are back, helping seamlessly meld the two into one, despite an unavoidable shift in tone given the Man of Steel’s prominence only in the first half and the void he left subduing the second.

It’s faithful enough and satisfying enough to own. As for which version to buy (or give, after all, the release is timed for holiday giving), the Blu-ray 1080p is just fine both visually and aurally. The 4K is nicer but not enough to justify the cost, unless you really want the Steel figure or find a good sale..

Thankfully, there’s a nice new special feature, Long Live Superman (45:57), with co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee joined by creators Denny O’Neil, Jerry Ordway, Jon Bogdanove, Brett Breeding, Neal Adams, and Danny Fingeroth discussing his history and enduring appeal. The celebration includes commentary on Action Comics #1000 and footage from the Fleischer cartoons, George Reeves television series, first Chris Reeve film, and various DCAU films.

Carried over from the previous editions are The Death of Superman: The Brawl That Topped Them All, Lex Luthor: The Greatest Nemesis, and six episodes from various series: Legion of Superheroes, “Dark Victory: Part 1-2”; Superman: The Animated Series, “Heavy Metal”, Justice League Unlimited, “Panic in the Sky”.