Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
DVD cover
Directed by	Sam Liu
Written by	Stan Berkowitz
Produced by	Bruce Timm Alan Burnett Michael Goguen Bobbie Page Sam Register Benjamin Melniker Michael Uslan
Starring	Kevin Conroy Tim Daly Clancy Brown Xander Berkeley Corey Burton Ricardo Chavira Allison Mack John C. McGinley C. C. H. Pounder LeVar Burton Calvin Tran
Music by	Christopher Drake
Production companies	Warner Bros. Animation Warner Premiere DC Entertainment Lotto Animation (Animation services)
Distributed by	Warner Home Video
Release date	September 29, 2009 (2009-09-29)
Running time	67 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a 2009 animated superhero film based on the DC Comics story arc "Public Enemies" in the Superman/Batman comic book series, written by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, which focused on Superman and Batman teaming up to prevent a meteorite from striking Earth, and taking down Lex Luthor, who has been elected President of the United States. Directed by Sam Liu and released by Warner Bros. Animation on September 29, 2009. It is the sixth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. The film received generally mixed reviews upon release.

Plot

Lex Luthor has been elected President of the United States during a severe nationwide economic depression. Under his leadership, the economy begins to thrive, and he assembles a force of government-employed superheroes consisting of Captain Atom, Katana, Black Lightning, Power Girl, Starfire, and Major Force. Superman and Batman maintain their distrust toward Luthor.

The United States government discovers a massive Kryptonite meteor hurtling toward Earth. Instead of asking superheroes for aid, Luthor decides to destroy it with nuclear missiles. Luthor arranges a meeting with Superman in Gotham City under the pretense of forming a pact. This results in a battle with the hired Metallo against Superman and Batman, in which Metallo manages to injure them both before an unknown assailant kills Metallo. On national television, Luthor pins Metallo's murder on Superman, using footage of their battle to implicate him. Luthor claims that the meteor's radiation can affect Superman's judgment, and he places a one-billion-dollar bounty on Superman.

Batman and Superman break into S.T.A.R. Labs seeking information on the meteor and find Metallo's remains; they realize radioactive energy is what killed him, and it was made to look like Superman's heat vision. An army of villains looking to collect the bounty attacks them. Most of the villains are defeated while Captain Atom defeats the rest with a giant energy blast. All of Luthor's superhero team save Power Girl, whose loyalties are divided, attempt to capture the heroic duo. Superman creates a twister using his super-speed, and the two heroes escape with Power Girl.

In Metropolis, Power Girl admits that she does not believe Superman killed Metallo. Luthor's superheroes catch up and the fight begins anew; with Power Girl aiding Batman and Superman. Batman realizes that Major Force killed Metallo under Luthor's orders and goads him into admitting it in front of everyone. When Major Force begins angrily attacking him, Power Girl punches him in the stomach hard enough to rupture his containment suit; releasing his radiation. Captain Atom absorbs the energy, disintegrating Major Force and injuring himself in the process.

Meanwhile, the missiles fail due to the sheer amount of radiation the meteor's giving off detonating them before impact. Amanda Waller discovers that Luthor has secretly been taking a serum composed of liquid kryptonite, making him lose whatever rationality he had left. Feeling disillusioned by his failure, Luthor decides to let the meteor hit the Earth so that he may rule over what remains of society. Batman and Superman battle Captain Marvel and Hawkman before breaking into Luthor's base of operations to retrieve data on the meteor's radiation. Luthor refuses to relinquish the data, going so far as to erase it from the lab computers, but Waller gives them a copy. Batman, Superman, and Power Girl fly off to Tokyo to deliver the data to the Japanese Toyman, who has already built a giant rocket-propelled spacecraft, intending to use it as a large missile to stop the meteor. Waller and the military then attempt to arrest Luthor, but he injects himself with more kryptonite steroids and dons a power suit. After escaping Waller and the military, Luthor follows Superman and Batman overseas.

After Batman and Superman arrive at Toyman's base, he shows them the spacecraft, which resembles a giant, robotic composite version of Superman and Batman. With the data, Toyman is able to calculate the necessary reinforcements needed for the rocket so it will not explode before impact. Unfortunately, Luthor neutralizes Power Girl, Superman and Batman, and then disables the rocket's remote guidance systems so that it will not take off by itself. With no other choice left, Batman decides to fly the rocket himself even in spite of Superman's protests. Though initially faring poorly against Luthor and his kryptonite power suit, Superman eventually gains the upper hand and after an aerial chase back to Metropolis, Luthor is defeated. Batman succeeds in destroying the meteor, and Superman finds him alive in an escape pod.

With the truth of Metallo's death now public knowledge, Superman is cleared of the murder charge while Luthor is arrested and taken away to face trial and impeachment for his crimes. Batman returns to Gotham while the Daily Planet's star journalist, Lois Lane, arrives and happily embraces the Man of Steel.

Cast

• Tim Daly as Kal-El/Clark Kent / Superman
• Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne
• Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor
• Xander Berkeley as Captain Atom
• Corey Burton as Captain Marvel (credited), Solomon Grundy (uncredited)
• Ricardo Antonio Chavira as Major Force
• Allison Mack as Power Girl
• John C. McGinley as Metallo
• CCH Pounder as Amanda Waller
• LeVar Burton as Black Lightning
• Calvin Tran as Japanese Toyman / Hiro Okamura
• Mark Jonathan Davis as Newscaster
• Brian George as Gorilla Grodd
• Jennifer Hale as Starfire¹, Killer Frost (uncredited)
• Rachael MacFarlane as Nightshade, Lady Shiva (uncredited), Billy Batson (uncredited)
• Alan Oppenheimer as Alfred Pennyworth
• Andrea Romano as Giganta, Computer (uncredited)
• Bruce Timm as Mongul
• Michael Gough as Hawkman (uncredited), Captain Cold (uncredited)
• Jonathan Adams as General (uncredited)

Although voice-actress Jennifer Hale receives screen credit for playing Starfire, the character does not speak in the released version of the film and Hale is not credited for playing Killer Frost, a role she reprised from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

In addition to Jennifer Hale's uncredited reprisal of Killer Frost, actors that reprise their roles from the DC animated universe include Clancy Brown, Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, and CCH Pounder, who reprise their roles as Lex Luthor, Batman, Superman, and Amanda Waller, respectively.

Soundtrack

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Soundtrack from the DC Universe Animated Original Movie)
File:Superman Batman Public Enemies (soundtrack).jpg
Film score (Digital download) by Christopher Drake
Released	September 29, 2009
Length	56:57
Label	New Line Records

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Soundtrack from the DC Universe Animated Original Movie)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Markets Crash"	1:32
2.	"Main Title"	2:27
3.	"Freeway Chase" (')	1:15
4.	"Admit Something"	1:40
5.	"Metallo"	4:51
6.	"High Voltage"	0:51
7.	"Framed"	1:27
8.	"Luthor talks to Power Girl"	0:55
9.	"S.T.A.R. Labs/ Banshee & The Cold Crew / Mongul, Grundy, Grodd"	5:57
10.	"Bounty Hunters"	1:58
11.	"No Surrender"	2:02
12.	"Tornado Recovery"	0:16
13.	"Trust Your Instints"	4:05
14.	"The Corps Fights Sinestro"	2:48
15.	"Missile Launch"	1:45
16.	"Luthor’s Fix"	0:23
17.	"Shazam!"	3:05
18.	"Luthor Shoots Up"	1:17
19.	"Heroes In Disguise"	3:11
20.	"Toyman"	2:13
21.	"Blast Off"	4:02
22.	"Ultimate Sacrifice"	3:06
23.	"A Hero’s Return"	2:56
24.	"End Credits"	4:00
Total length:		56:57

Reception

IGN reviewed both the standard and Blu-ray versions of the movie positively, awarding an 8.0 rating. This surpassed IGN's review of Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, and Green Lantern: First Flight. The review score matched that of Justice League: The New Frontier.

At the DVD sales chart, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies opened at #5, selling 197,626 in the first week for revenue of $3,222,460. As of today, 527,482 units have been sold translating to $7,911,279 in revenue (This does not include rentals/Blu-ray sales). This makes Public Enemies the second highest selling DVD only behind Superman: Doomsday and the third most profitable of the ten movies in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line-up. The film has currently earned a total of $11,037,595 from domestic home video sales.

Home media

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies was released on standard DVD in single and double disc editions, along with a high definition Blu-ray release, on September 29, 2009. Special features for the double disc edition include an inside look of Wonder Woman, Batman: Gotham Knight, Justice League: The New Frontier, and Green Lantern: First Flight, DC Comics' 2009 crossover event Blackest Night, two production featurettes, a sneak peek of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, trailers of Green Lantern: First Flight, Fringe, and Batman: Arkham Asylum, digital copy download, and two episodes of Superman: The Animated Series picked by Bruce Timm. The Blu-ray edition has all the features of the double disc standard definition release including three additional Justice League episodes selected by Timm.

The good performance of the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies release has led Warner Premiere and DC Universe to release a sequel, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, based on the Superman/Batman comic storyline "The Supergirl from Krypton". It was released on September 28, 2010.

External links

• Official website
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies at IMDb
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies @ The World's Finest