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For the last couple of years, Warner Premiere,has been releasing direct to video animated features of DC Comics superheroes. Some of these are great (the superb DC: The New Frontier) and the not-so-good (Superman: Doomsday). The most recent release, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, is right behind The New Frontier in successfully bringing comic book thrills to home video. On a high definition screen, the Blu-Ray version is incredible.

But without a great story, the pretty colors wouldn't mean as much. Based on an story from Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness' run on the Superman/Batman comics title, it asks you to accept that, in a time a great national crisis, the American electorate chooses as president, Lex Luthor. Okay, yeah, that's really impossible to swallow, even by comic books standards, but if you can just go with it, it sets up the title characters as the only DC heroes standing against Luthor's schemes in the White House. Once I forced myself past that, the story took off. We see DC's top characters in fine form as they are forced to fight other superheroes, deputized to enforce the president's "policy" against "vigilantes" as well as supervillains aiming to collect the billion dollar reward offered for the capture of the Man of Steel. This makes for a series of the most well-executed battles I've seen in an animated feature of this kind. I was actually cheering at one point as Supes shows just how much of a threat he is to those seeking to keep him from pursuing truth, justice and the American way.

And the actually more popular Batman is on an equal footing in the heroics department-never has animation managed to show just how cool the Dark Knight is, and best of all, both roles are voiced by the actors who are most closely associated with the animated heroes, Kevin Conroy and Tim Daley reprise their roles as Batman and Superman that they created on their respective animated series produced by Bruce Timm. The writing is sharp and it's a pleasant surprise to have the characters actually trading quips in ways true to their personalities. This is a great reminder of why these superguys are the world's finest.

Posted by: Alex Wainer