ANI-MOVIES, *Superman Vs. The Elite

Superman has already had two of his own animated movies as part of the DC Universe line, including two team-up films with Batman, and been in all three Justice League movies. Trying to give fans a new boost of the Man of Steel in the pop media(probably because of the upcoming reboot film), this is an adaptation of the anniversary special in Action Comics #775 introducing an Authority-like superhero team into Superman's personal universe.

Superman fights the marauding Atomic Skull in the middle of Metropolis, but not without a few honest citizens getting disentigraged. Superman then finds out a foreign country is using giant monsters in their civil war, but is suprisingly helped by a new team of young heroes who call themselves The Elite. Their leader is the cocky telepathic Manchester Black. His teammates are Coldcast who can project and absorb nuclear energy, the winged Menegerie who can summon bizarre creatures directly out of her body, and their resident magic-user, The Hat. Superman is at first happy to recieve some new help in the world protection biz, because apparently like in all Superman movies there aren't any other superhero teams like the JLA. It becomes apparent though that The Elite don't pull punches as they kill some terrorists and waste Atomic Skull after he busts out of jail even more powerful. This makes The Elite new flavor of the week around the world. Superman begins to doubt whether his way of being a hero is effective in the 21st Century, but realizes that The Elite has to be stopped. After they go to far by axing the leaders of a war-torn nation, Superman challenges The Elite to a fight to the finish. They teleport to the moon, and at first it looks like Superman is deader than disco. Things go nightmarish for The Elite though as Superman seems to turn into freakin' General Zod, using his powers to take them down one-by-one. He finally stops Black by destroying his mental powers by giving him a heat-vision lobotomy. Superman reveals he was faking the whole going crazy thing at the end with some help from his Legion of Super-Robots. Truth, justice, and all that jazz are restored, but hopefully next time Supes will remember to call on Batman for some help!

This movie had some more harsher tones than the previous DC Universe entries, but the more cartoonish look to the characters seems to really derail alot of the maturity involved. George Newbern from the Justice League animated series returns as Superman, but aside from him there isn't much any remarkable voice actors in it. I'd suggest at least renting or downloading it, but not really worth shelling out the money to own it.