Superman: Unbound offers another glimpse into DC's ever-bubbling Animated Universe and this time, the story stresses as a reinterpretation of the
Brainiac arc from Action Comics #866-870 in 2008 which saw everlong fanboy, Geoff Johns, strike the right chords of fans under the watchful guise of artist, Gary Frank. These two have been as adept and solid as one could hope for in whatever they conjure, from
Batman: Earth One to the modern
Shazam tales in the Justice League. This story differs in quite a few aspects from the comic tale as it shows the tether of Kara to her homeworld while grafting a freshly tyrannical spin on Brainiac that's differently cold and calculating from what's already hit the small-screen. It may well be hinging and hinting toward a potential big-screen adaptation of Brainiac in years to come but while the comic's distilled neatly here, there are a few poignant edits that didn't leave the 1 hr 15 min tale as resonating as I'd envisioned.
The cast's a spot-on winner with Matt Bomer (someone I pegged awhile back as a Superman candidate with his distinct acting skills, amid controversy of his sexuality and body-frame) delivering an innocent and earnest take on Clark that seems tuned into the new-52 version of Superman. There's less command and more empathy in Bomer as we see Brainiac unravel his plans of colonizing Metropolis via shrink-tube as he did to Kandor and so many others. It's up to Kal-El and Kara to stop Brainiac from unleashing his wrath on Earth.
Molly Quinn's petulant and rash take on Supergirl's also fitting, although I'm a bit against seeing more of this duo since we saw DC already offer up an animated spin on them battling Darksied a year aback or thereabouts. Stana Katic offers a resilient and stern Lois Lane that's the usual boatloads of win. So the cast camaraderie never came into question, but what did was the surprisingly vivid gore (I'd say about 90% brutality) in Brainiac's rampant massacres, the bird that was flipped by one prominent character to another...and hints of Clark's sexuality coming into question. These were pretty brave strokes, which I applaud, and more so, the latter especially given Bomer's state of affairs. They didn't detract from nifty narrative however, as they all lent levity or investment to a story that's well paced and has unique and enthralling action scenes. That says a lot given that the anime-esque style of cartoon here was off-putting at times but that's just me being stuck in fanboy mode.
John Noble's Brainiac was more muscle and menacing than conniving, which felt very much tapered to Johns' vision. He reminded me of Seth from Street Fighter 4, although we all know which version came first. Sorry, Street Fighter fans...Frank did it first. Again, this dialect and the tactical strategist called Brainiac proved another win. However, amid the brilliant fight sequences, what ultimately drew me off the track was the focus on Clark and Lois' romance, for which I already summoned the visceral connotations of love and poetry from the depths of my soul prior the gut-buster called
All-Star Superman. They try to balance the Kyrptonians' plight with Clark's struggle to have Kara embrace Earth but the romantic notions bog down the familial aspects that the book portrayed. The comics also made this a strong point when Johns culminated to a certain thread with Jonathan Kent...which could have made so much impact if done here. The ending's changed so much so that the unique cameos I looked forward to and the heartfelt wringing that Clark would endure are washed away for an end-note that's too cliched, boring and non-exploratory to me. They meandered to the point that it's nothing like the comic's end, which is not the problem...the problem is they had an opportunity to enforce a paradigm shift on the emotional spectrum of Superman...which they ignored.
Another offset here was the fact that DC wants to thrash out more Superman, Supergirl and Batman stories, and while it's nice to see mainstream stories come to light, is there going to be new 52 animations soon? Bar
Night of Owls or Death of the Family...there isn't much fodder, which lends now...to why the hell did they not take this op to do a Flash story...an Aquaman story...another Green Lantern, Green Arrow or Wonder Woman story? They seem so strangled in the mire of Clark or Bruce, it's becoming a bit bland now...and as a fervent backer of DC Animation, it pains me to say that. DC Animation's usually varies the stories up from the comics very intuitively and usually, they're accurate in their transitions and depictions to the small-screen. This however feels like it fell just a bit short. Bear in mind, I've high expectations and while
Superman: Unbound is good, it's not great. In summary, they took a great cast and meshed with a good story, when they all had to do was take the better parts of the source material...to make the classic Superman animation here. They had all the right elements...the House of El, the ravaging of Krypton, the impact of Kal's earth-bound ties, and the invasion of the most cerebral threat Kal's ever faced...but they didn't mix them as perfect as they could have.
Unbound also baffled me because Superman wasn't that badass or violent and he was his average intellectual self...so why that title...baffles me. From a disconnected title to a slightly disjointed, seen-it-before story, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this story...I didn't. Good view...but it wasn't as riveting as I'd hoped.
Stars = 3/5