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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, June 23, 2006

Super dose of 'man of steel' adventures on disc

By Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press

With Warner Bros.' "Superman Returns" movie zooming into theaters next week, Warner DVD is busting all the related titles it can out of the phone booth, beginning with the final season of the highly rated "Superman — The Animated Series."

The double disc "Volume Three" collects the 18 episodes of the half-hour series that were originally broadcast in 1998-99, with Timothy Daly providing the voice of Superman, Dana Delany as Lois Lane and David Kaufman as Jimmy Olsen.

The Green Lantern joins Superman, Batman, the Flash, the Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl in "Justice League — Season 2," a four-disc set containing the 26 episodes from 2002-03.

Daly and Delany, meanwhile, recently returned to add their voices to the newly produced, direct-to-DVD, 75-minute animated feature "Superman: Brainiac Attacks," in which Brainiac again teams with Lex Luthor.

Most adults usually prefer their Superman in the flesh, and for older fans, the only Superman was George Reeves in the 1950s live-action "The Adventures of Superman." "The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons," each with 13 episodes, were seen in most major markets in 1954 and 1955.

Warner brought Superman's storied TV history into the modern era with "Superboy," a syndicated series whose original episodes are now available as "The Complete First Season." John Haymes Newton plays a hunky young Man of Steel, attending journalism school when not fighting for the American way.

Then there's "The Complete Third Season" of the romantic adventure-comedy "Lois & Clark — The New Adventures of Superman," with Dean Cain and an anything-but-desperate Teri Hatcher. The 22 episodes from 1995-96 are on six discs.

Finally, for those trying to keep all this straight, there's the two-hour documentary "Look, Up in the Sky — The Amazing Story of Superman," recently seen on A&E, which traces the history of Superman from his debut in Action Comics in 1938. It also explores the Broadway musical version and Christopher Reeve's "Superman" films. Those were collected in 2001 in one of the first major movie boxes and are no longer available.

'SYRIANA'

The DVD release of last year's "Syriana" (Warner) is welcome not only because the film, directed and written by Stephen Gaghan, was one of the most exciting, intelligent and relevant political thrillers in years, but also because its multiplot lines and complexities demanded deeper inspection. George Clooney, as a disillusioned CIA agent in the Middle East, and Matt Damon, as an ambitious oil- industry analyst, head a large cast of characters whose stories interlock. Anyone hoping the DVD would restore yet another plot line that was filmed but cut will have to wait for the inevitable special edition.