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October 15, 2013: A Closer Look at the Superman 75 Animated Short

The long-awaited premiere of the special 75th Anniversary animated short created by "Man of Steel" Director Zack Snyder and "Superman: The Animated Series" Producer Bruce Timm took place at the Superman 75th Celebration panel at New York Comic Con this past weekend. Fans who weren't in attendance were treated to an online viewing thanks to Entertainment Weekly.

The 2-minute animated short is filled with tributes to the character's history over the past 75 years, starting with the cover to the 1938 "Action Comics #1".

With the famous John Williams Superman theme music, Superman jumps off the cover of his debut comic book, transforms into his Fleischer animated appearance, leaping over the Daily Planet building to be confronted by a swarm of robots as seen in the "Mechanical Monsters" animated episode.

Superman villains are well represented, with Lex Luthor being punched through a wall (and the cover of "Action Comics #47" from April 1942).

Heading into the 1950s era, the image changes to black and white as an animated representation of George Reeves as Superman flies through the sky, and then stands, hands on hips, as George did for 104 episodes of the "Adventures of Superman" TV series.

As the EW article explains, many of the tributes are also included in floating background montages seen in the margins around some of the images. You can see this in the sequence showing Jimmy Olsen as the Giant Turtle Man (and the cover of "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #53" from June 1961).

Jimmy is blasted by a ray from the gun of Brainiac (with Bottled City of Kandor at his feet), in a classic pose reminiscent of the cover of "Action Comics #242" from July 1958.

Next up is Bizarro, with Htrae (aka Bizarro World), the Fortress of Solitude and its Giant Key in the background.

After dealing with Bizarro, Superman flies over his hometown of Smallville, joined by Supergirl, Krypto, Streaky and Beppo. As they all fly off Mr. Mxyzptlk pops in, sticks his tongue at Superman, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Superman puts out a fire with his super breath, which turns into the Andy Warhol painting of the same image. Clark Kent (in 1970s era clothing) looks on at an art gallery, with a notable Lois Lane image nearby (from "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #106" in which Lois becomes a black woman).

The 1970s and Saturday mornings were the domain of the "Super Friends", with Superman joined by Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog.

Superman flies forward from the colorful background, appearing in the classic pose and likeness from the cover of "Action Comics #419" by Neal Adams.

While we never actually see him, we know it's Muhammad Ali punching Superman in the classic "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali" story from 1978.

We're then flying high over the Earth as an animated form of Christopher Reeve's Superman turns towards the camera and smiles directly at us.

Then, in his first ever video game, a pixelated Superman makes his way across the screen as seen in the Atari 2600 from 1979.

The music from Hans Zimmer's "Man of Steel" score accompanies the punches thrown by Doomsday as he bashes Superman into the cover of "Superman #75" from 1992's "Death of Superman" epic saga.

Out of that cover fly Superboy, Cyborg Superman, Steel and the Eradicator from the "Reign of the Supermen" saga that followed, before Superman returns from the dead in his black Recovery Suit.

Superman Blue and Superman Red leap off in different directions, as we recall the 1997/1998 controversial changes Superman went through.

Bruce Timm's "Superman: The Animated Series" comes next, with Superman standing in an iconic pose from the cartoon, as we also see much of his supporting cast, including Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Martha and Jonathan Kent, Bibbo, Lana Lang, Emil Hamilton, Angela Chen, Maggie Sawyer, and Dan Turpin.

An older Superman carries down unconscious villains in an image taken directly from the "Kingdom Come" graphic novel. In the background we see the water tower from the TV series "Smallville".

We then jump into the New 52 era, with Superman and Darkseid appearing from a Boom Tube to fight it out. Darkseid's Omega Beams send Superman flying into a bank vault door.

An animated version of Henry Cavill as Superman from "Man of Steel" leaps forward from the bank vault, flies up into the sky to land on top of a huge "75", celebrating Superman's 75th anniversary.

If you can think of any obvious references I've forgotten to mention, feel free to email me and let me know.

The animated short will air on Cartoon Network in the USA on Wednesday, October 16 at 6.58pm, and will also be included as part of the Bonus Material on the Blu-ray/DVD release of "Man of Steel" available in November.

2013 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News

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October 15, 2013: A Closer Look at the Superman 75 Animated Short

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