…On the Origin of Species was published by the High Evolutionary, a book which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology, and of course a wide swath of mutations and super powers.

<holds finger to imaginary earpiece>

No, wait a minute, I’m sorry– the book wasn’t written by the High Evolutionary at all, but was instead written by Darwin.

We apologize for any confusion.

(Sure, you laugh, but remember– this is more about On The Origin Of Species than they teach in schools in Kansas and Texas.)

Once Batman the Animated Series became a huge success, a follow-up featuring the Man of Steel seemed inevitable. That it took until 1996, four years later, was the only crime in the process. The equally successful adaptation from the comics lasted four seasons and 54 episodes, helping set the stage for the bets adaptation yet: Justice League/JL Unlimited.

On Tuesday, Warner Home Video releases a seven-disc Superman: The Complete Animated Series
. Much like the just-released complete JLU series, this merely takes the existing season set discs and repackages them in a nice foil box along with a bonus seventh disc. The companion booklet, therefore, makes the same numbering error by not reflecting the actual discs.

All the love and attention lavished on the Dark Knight was poured into this show, which was brighter and shinier, the villains larger in scope and giving the animators a chance to bust loose. Superman works great in animation and after the lackluster efforts from Filmation, Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears, this one clearly shows the potential fulfilled.

As usual, the voice casting is fairly top-notch with Tim Daly alternating nicely between Superman and Clark Kent, sparring playfully with Dana Delany’s Lois Lane. Clancy Brown is wonderfully malevolent as Luthor and his ever-present menace is well handled, matching the reboot version launched a decade earlier.

The series winks at the fans in many, many ways which shows the love and affection they hold for the source material and their core audience. The largest change they made to the mythos was inserting Brainiac into Kal-El’s origins and it just doesn’t work for me. In fact, the use of Brainiac here may be a weak spot throughout the series, only paying off at the conclusion of the Project Cadmus arc in JLU season one.

Yes, the continuity links between the series also rewards fans and allows the production team the opportunity to plant seeds or wrap up threads they could do otherwise. It’s a shame, therefore, that the Superman appearances in Static Shock are not included here.

Wisely, the series got pretty cosmic pretty quickly and the first season ends with the introduction of Darkseid.  By bringing in the Fourth World characters, the show takes on a scope befitting the World’s Greatest Super-Hero and giving him a host of new opponents that would truly tax him. The seventh disc has some trailers but the highlight is “The Despot Darkseid: A Villain Worthy of Superman” which gathers the producers to reflect on how this really opened things up for them. The 17 minute discussion is filled with tributes to creator Jack Kirby and shows how important he became to the series.

Darkseid wasn’t the only threat and the Man of Steel’s rogues ‘ galleries is nicely introduced one at a time and then recur, varying the tone of the show. And was there any villain better suited to animation than Mr. Mxyzptlk, whose arrival always meant a nice change of pace episode was in the offing.

The stories hold up nicely, the animation fluid and the affection for the hero that started it all is clear in every frame.

Apparently, some people like people who dress up as bats less than people who should be turning into bats (if they were real vampires).

Taking the record for the biggest one-day and opening gross, The Twilight Saga: New Moon raked in an estimated $72.7 million on approximately 8,500 screens at 4,024 sites, according to BoxOfficeMojo. The Dark Knight was the previous title holder with $67.2 million on around 9,300 screens at 4,366 sites. New Moon also took the midnight opening record, taking in an estimated $26.27 million at 3,514 sites showing the movie starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The previous benchmark was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which conjured $22.2 million at 3,003 sites for its midnight opening.

At $158.4 million, The Dark Knight still holds the record for biggest weekend (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) ever… so far.