As it got near th end of Superman vs The Elite I found myself thinking about all those people who were so upset about both DC and Marvel Comics talking about homosexual characters and issues. I wondered what they would make of this animated show in particular and the whole DC Animated series in general. No, Superman vs The Elite isn't about a character coming out of the closet, but because this is an animated film, the story that it paints of a world, and an America in particular, who would cheer on a group of 'heroes' who felt themselves above the law and killed the villains, isn't something I would imagine most people not into comics would expect. The people getting upset with comics delving into real world issues still think The Superfriends is the highlight of Saturday morning cartoons.

I wasn't familiar with the particular story Superman vs The Elite was based on. This DC animated story, honestly hadn't been on my radar, so it was a bit of a surprise when I saw it and picked it up for review. I can't say I was a fan of the animation style. I can't put my finder on what it was but the animation models looked Tex Avery by way of Korean animators. Other than Superman, whose voice was done by the original voice actor George Newbern, the voice acting was passable at best. The black character had a super-jive voice, the sultry female character was over the top and the British character was just too much. Even Lois Lane's voice seemed so wrong for the part that at the beginning of the film when they showed the voice actors, I saw Pauley Perrette of NCIS fame and I pegged her as being the voice of the super powered snake woman. I was shocked at the end of the film to learn she was Lois Lane! Her voice was wrong for Lane to me.

There was so much wrong for me going into the film I didn't think I was going to like it, but the story started unfolding. The story premise isn't anything fluffy. Superman puts another villain in jail and the world wonders why we are spending so much time and resources capturing villains. Why can't we just get rid of them? In comes The Elite, a mysterious group of super powered folks who, to Superman, seem well meaning but a bit rough along the edges in terms of the hero game. They work together to save some passengers in the Chunnel and when it is learned there are terrorist involved, The Elite want to interrogate them with extreme prejudice. Superman, of course stops them from doing this in front of a bunch of TV cameras, but later on we find two other terrorist have been taken back to The Elite's inter dimensional vessel and violently interrogated.

We find The Elite have the similar issues with Superman as Lex Luthor does. They don't think Superman has any idea of human nature and all humanity needs is someone to protect them from the bad guys of the world by taking out the bad guys permanently. Of course, The Elite will be the ones to tell us who is bad and who isn't. Later in the film The Elite tell Superman they are going to take care of the conflict between two warring countries. The next morning Superman does all he can to stop the invasion done by one country against another, and when done, and The Elite show up, he tells The Elite he will get the leaders of the two sides to sit down and talk. The Elite tell Superman while he was swatting at the planes they had gone to both councils of the warring countries and killed the leaders. While the world was in shock, they were happy to have the crisis over.

To me the best part of the film had nothing to do with Superman. When The Elite start making a name for themselves, they have a bunch of quick cuts of citizen reactions, just the type of thing you would get in any live action film. The comments some of the people makes sound straight out of 9/11, in that people care more about getting blood and revenge than the consequences of The Elite's actions. One of the cuts has a UN Representative on a Rush Limbaugh style radio show, complete with a voice actor (I don't know the name) who does an uncanny Rush Limbaugh. The dialog in that scene is pitch perfect.

The film ended in an epic battle on the moon and back in Metropolis that was incredibly epic. If you ever wanted to know how dangerous Superman could get, you'll want to see this battle. As violent and twisted as the fight got, this was a Superman style epic fight.

Superman vs The Elite isn't one of the better DC Animation films. The story is what saves this from being terrible. It is a good effort, and with another team of animators or voice over people this might have made a good animated film. The premise about our blood lust for revenge and retribution, an eye for an eye, and the in your face way this story is told screams for this to have been done a level or two higher than what we got.