'Superman/Batman' DVD: Bright Fun for a Dark Night

Just got through watching "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies," the latest PG-13-rated direct-to-DVD animated production from DC Comics/Warner Premiere, which provides another sterling example of why this has become a golden age for geekdom.

The 66-minute movie -- based on a graphic novel by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness -- is essentially one big, rollicking fight, as Superman and Batman are declared enemies of the state by newly elected President Lex Luthor, who promptly puts a $1 billion bounty on the former's head. This brings out what seems like half of the DC Comics universe to do battle with the two caped heroes, who are simultaneously trying to stop a giant Kryptonite meteor that's barreling toward Earth.

Directed by Sam Liu and written by Stan Berkowitz, it's all tremendous fun, if not perhaps aimed at those unable to recognize more obscure denizens of the comics world. Because the audience is expected to be in the loop, the movie doesn't waste any time introducing characters: You either know who Captain Atom, Lady Shiva and Power Girl (pictured below) are or, well, just keep up as best you can.

Both Marvel and DC have gotten into the direct-to-DVD business, where the lower budgets and artistic freedom that animation provides allow them to tell stories in a much more fan-centric way than live-action features that must cater to the widest possible audience in order to justify gargantuan production and marketing costs.

Still, with Warner Bros. exerting greater control over DC by virtue of its recent organizational shakeup -- putting Diane Nelson in charge of the rechristened DC Entertainment, in part to integrate its properties more seamlessly into the studio -- one hopes that there's still room for these sorts of single and double-type endeavors. Not only do they appeal to core comics fans in a way that little else can, but they also provide a useful lab for tinkering with what works and doesn't when adapting costumed characters from page to screen. A case in point would be the animated "Green Lantern: First Flight," released in advance of the planned feature starring Ryan Reynolds.

While there's potential gold in secondary characters (see "Iron Man"), they also require a particularly delicate touch to avoid tumbling over a creative precipice. That's why both DC/WB and now Marvel/Disney should take advantage of animation to help them, as it were, look before they leap.