Review: Superman Vs. The Elite

You don't want to see what happens when push comes to shove with Superman.

So I did a quick perusal of my old posts and realized I haven’t done a review of Superman Vs. The Elite and figured I should rectify that since I’m on a DC kick. Superman Vs. The Elite is an animated film from 2012. It’s an adaptation of the Superman story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, & The American Way” from 2001. In it, Superman meets and initially befriends a new group of metahumans that want to be heroes. He does his best to mentor the group, who dub themselves the Elite, but they quickly develop a “Might makes right” mentality and attempt to use their powers to overthrow governments. This leads to an all out brawl between Superman and the Elite. Let’s see how that goes, shall we? This movie also featured the return of George Newbern as Clark Kent/Superman, reprising the role from his time on Justice League, Justice League: Unlimited, and Static Shock. It’s nice to get an old friend back in the saddle.

 

The film opens with a barrage of news stories about the troubles this DC Earth is currently dealing with, Dr. Light has escaped prison and is recking havoc, there’s a military skirmish between Bialya and Bekulistan, and a talking head shouting about how super criminals shouldn’t get a three strikes. There is a note about Superman coming in to save the day but that doesn’t stop all the chaos. The man watching the videos, Manchester Black claps his hands together, turning off the screens before saying it’s “time to take your medicine, love.”

 

We cut to a simplified cartoon within a cartoon of Superman stopping two bank robbers. It’s like a very cheesy 50s style bit of Superman stopping crime with plenty of puns. We pull out to Lois and Clark watching the short on a tv screen and Lois saying she didn’t think the S on his chest meant Silly. Clark defends the short, saying that the producers said it would be inspiring. And as he anticipates his other half’s other complains, quickly rattles off the proceeds are going to charity, he’s got an accountant making sure that happens and they’ve got an iron clad contract. She asks if he got creative input, to which he repeats the proceeds to go charity. Lois reminds him he needs to protect his S as everyone is always watching Superman. He makes a crack about how they aren’t always watching and goes in for a kiss, but they’re moment is interrupted by an explosion. A man comes wandering towards them before falling to dust in Clark’s arms. It turns out it’s the Atomic Skull disintegrating people. Clark tells Lois to get somewhere safe and suits up.

 

Superman tackles Atomic Skull and throws him around, slamming him into buildings before they land on a roof. Superman notes that Atomic Skull has gotten bigger. Skull claims the gene bomb that went off to create him is still going off, increasing his size. They fight for a bit before slamming into the pavement again, Atomic Skull telling Superman he killed several people to draw Superman out. Skull blasts a powerline in half. Superman catches it and starts whaling on him. He knocks Atomic Skull into the air and then into a pond, evaporating the pond but also disabling Skull. Superman clearly is tempted to finish him off, he actively holds himself back from giving him one more punch before grabbing the Skull. Lois calls in to Perry to tell him he’ll have a front-page story in 15 minutes and promises she’ll spell check it. Superman flies off with the Atomic Skull.

 

We cut to the evening at the Metropolis bay where four beings fly in. They are Manchester Black, a cockney Brit with a Union Jack tattooed on his chest; Nathan Jones aka Coldcast, a large Black man with chains on both wrists; the Hat, an Asian magician that conjures things, mostly demons and booze, from his hat, and Pamela aka Menagerie a woman covered in snakes like aliens. The group is looking for Superman, Manchester Black volunteers to seek him out.

 

At the UN Superman is called to justify his actions in capturing the Atomic Skull. Professor Efrain Baxter points out that this costs millions in property damage and cost dozens of lives to apprehend this repeat offender. Superman simply says he’s not judge nor jury and is most certainly not the executioner. He claims his powers don’t put him above the law so he must follow it. Baxter asks why, with his power, Superman does not just fix the world. Before adding that he’s playing devil’s advocate and is in fact a big fan, showing off a Superman watch much to his son, Terrance’s dismay. Superman claims that the world isn’t broken, that he believes that humanity is fundamentally good and that he’s just trying to help people reach their potential. His speech is being watched by Manchester in the rafters. The speech is interrupted by the Bialya and Bekulistan ambassadors screaming at each other for violating their peace treaty. Baxter repeats the line about unlimited potential for good, and Superman points out that Good isn’t perfect before flying off to handle this.

 

As he flies, we get a news report about the two countries being at war for some time, and that both sides have access to highly advanced weapons. As Superman arrives, a giant armored bug monster rises up, a product of the Bekulitan bioweapons program. It seems to be bullet proof and it fires basts from cannons on it’s back. Before Superman can attack, it destroys several tanks. As Superman watches, Manchester Black’s team attack, Coldcast distracts the thing with energy blasts before Menagerie flies in, drops her parasitic snakes onto the creature and splits it in half. Unfortunately, this just makes two of them. Superman flies in and beats one down before being blasted. He starts beating on the other one only to be attacked by the firsts. Manchester Black reveals himself, telepathically telling Superman that the creature doesn’t have a brain or he’d have made it rip itself to pieces already. He asks Superman to take off the kid gloves and take this monster down. Superman uses his X-Ray vision to confirm the creature is hollow inside and then attacks. He freezes it with super breath and then smashes down into it, blowing it to dust. Manchester Black compliments him but says that he could use a smidge more flare. Flare being demonstrated by the Hat, who uses a summoned dragon to eat the other monster before returning the dragon into a gold statue and dropping it into his hat. The team gathers and Superman introduces himself, thanking them for their help but also advising they do a better job checking for collateral damage next time. They’re all a little star struck by Superman, Manchester Black then teleports them away before they say something that embarrasses them.

 

The next day, Perry White calls in all his reporters to figure out who these new metahumans are, proclaiming this to be the biggest story since Brainiac ate Boston. Lois asks Clark if she’ll get the scoop on the newbies, but Clark tells her only if she can type 5000 words minute as he finishes up his scoop on the group. Lois threatens to use her feminine wiles on him but he’s already hit send. Lois tells him that for someone that plays fair, he REALLY sucks sometimes. Perry congradulates Clark on his info, believing Clark is getting his source from Twitter of all things. Perry tells Clark to book a flight wherever he needs to go to get this scoop, and to bring Lois if she’s still talking to him. Lois advises him to get used to cold showers for a while. Jimmy Olsen comes over and asks if they’re the real deal. Clark says Superman thinks they might be, but something is a bit off. Lois comes back over to tell them some lady in England is posting online that she knows all about these guys.

 

Superman and Lois fly to England. He apologizes that there’s not an inflight movie and Lois tells him not to be cute. Once they land it’s every report for themselves, Clark adding “unless I find something juicy,” and Lois congratulates him on learning. In England we meet Mrs. Munch, an old cat lady that claims to have helped raise Manchester Black, though she doesn’t drop the name, and says he was a rascal but a good boy. She claims she’ll tell anyone his name if they’re willing to pay for the exclusive. Lois isn’t impressed, saying if Munch knows anything, then Lois is the Martian Manhunter. She tells Clark she’s going to go knock on door and that he should call her if he finds anything. Once alone, Manchester Black appears, saying Lois is quite the looker. He says that his team has a teleporter pod, to explain his sudden appearance. He asks if Superman is stalking him or just checking out Jolly ol’ England. Superman says he didn’t get his cell earlier and he had to start somewhere. Manchester compliments his detective work on tracking the man with the Union Jack tattooed on his chest to England. They formally introduce themselves to each other, Manchester saying he’s an aspiring do-gooder. The two supers fly off to talk.

 

At Striker’s Island, we see how Atomic Skull is being held. He’s hooked up to a generator and his excess power is being syphoned away to the Metropolis power grid. Atomic Skull complains that this is inhumane, but the guard doesn’t seem to care the multiple murderer is uncomfortable.

 

Superman and Manchester meet up with his team outside of town. They introduce themselves, Menagerie hitting on him hard. Superman is excited to meet them and thanks for their help in Biyalia, but says they need to talk. Manchester offers to give Superman the quick version of their origins via telepathy. Superman is apprehensive about this, but Manchester promises that this is a low-level psychic thing, like HD TV in his head, and that he promises not to try to reach deeper to the more guarded parts of Superman’s brain. He agrees.  Manchester telepathically shows Superman his origin, how he lived with his sister and his alcoholic father as a boy. The present Manchester explains that he was the youngest son of five boys and that he was left to look after himself and his baby sister after his mom died birthing her. They went out one day and we see that Chester and Vera ran pickpocket scams to scrape by, older Manchester explaining that their four older brothers ended up dead or in jail, so he worked hard to look after her. One day while counting their take, Manchester’s powers started kicking in and gave him a debilitating headache on the day when cops finally tracked them down. Vera tried to protect Chester but is accidentally thrown in front of a moving train in the scuffle, Manchester’s powers kicked in then and he stopped the train with a mental blast. He then stops the telepathic show and just says that after that he was recruited by the British government as a super human asset. He says he met his team during a disenfranchising tour in Africa and they went freelance. Superman asks if her sister made it, Manchester says that they don’t all get happy endings right before dropping to his knees to telepathic screams.

 

We jump over to a train tunnel where a pair of trains were trapped in said tunnels by some terrorists. The trains are stuck and water is rushing in. Superman and the team arrive to help. They’ve got limited time to work with and unfortunately the team’s teleporter is back at the base. Superman says that this’ll be a test of their imagination. Superman coordinates the group to help him save the passengers.  Firsts, he flies out into the bay and drills his way down into the sea bed and then into the tunnel. Using his strength plus Manchester’s telekinesis they lift the whole section of tunnel out from the water. Hat summons a beast to freeze the water below the tunnel to give them some place to put it down. Chester and Superman lower the tunnel down and Superman congradulates him. Coldcast and Menagerie then return with the two terrorists. Manchester lifts them up telekinetically and demands to know why they did it. When they don’t talk he goes full power on them, making their eyes and ears bleed. He gets they’re Bekulitani, and they attacked to punish England for supporting Biyalia before Superman stops him. Manchester wants to punish them, and Superman agrees but not like that. New copters arrive and Superman and Manchester agree to discuss the philosophy here over a drink later. Menagerie then grabs Superman and forces a kiss on him.

 

Later, after watching that kiss on the news, Lois asks him if it’s the trashy outfit or if she needs to start glueing reptiles on her. Clark tells her it was just the adrenaline thing. He claims the whole group is new and excitable. Lois tells him it better stay one sided excitable and notes her man isn’t 100% on board with the new metas. She notes he’s in the minority as the internet love Manchester Black and co. Clark says they didn’t see him almost lobotomize to Terrorists and Lois says that would have sealed the deal. Clark seems shocked by this but Lois points out that some people think terrorists need to be punished slowly and painfully. Lois decides to change the subject and says her source at the London Mirror couldn’t confirm anything of Black’s story, there’s no birth or death certificate for a Vera Black either. Their research is interrupted by Manchester taking over all the TV and computer screens globally to introduce his team, the Elite to the world. He basically promises that he’ll kill anyone that disturbs the peace, doesn’t matter who they are, where they’re from or how powerful them might be.  As the video ends everyone cheers, including the young Baxter. Clark is clearly disturbed by this, switching into his Superman gear and telling Lois to get her coat.

 

At their lair, Manchester says that should get folks talking. It’s then revealed that his team got the terrorists from the other end of the channel as well and they’re not going to be tortured for info. Menagerie has her parasites go into the goons ears to make them talk. Gross.

 

Lois and Clark arrive at the Fortress of Solitude. Clark is doing research on how the world is reacting to the Elite, his army of robots helping him along. One robot tells him that the Elite don’t seem to be on earth, and that they sent their message through a dimensional tunnel. The robot goes on to say that they’re processing 3.5 million hits on the Elite, but none of those hits are informational. Clark is frustrated by the lack of info on the Elite and their huge support. Lois puts a hand on his shoulder, and he asks if “the world has moved on. To a place that I can’t follow.” One of the robots gets a hit on the Elite’s teleporter over Biyalia. Superman flies off, and Lois asks which of these robots will fly her back to England.

 

As Superman flies, we see Professor Baxter debating the talking head from before. Baxter is apprehensive about the Elite, reminding everyone that Might Makes Right has never been a good or just philosophy. Baxter insists that the Elite will ignore international law and what happens when they turn their philosophy on him. The talking head then says the stupid thing ‘I’m American, we’re the good guys.’ 

 

Superman reaches Biyalia but is hit by a huge energy blast knocking him to the ground. Bekulitani soldiers arrive, intent on killing him, but they’re all attacked by the Elite, who murder them without remorse or pity. After the fighting, Manchester Black lands in front of Superman and tells him not to worry before he passes out.

 

Superman wakes up in the Elite’s base. Coldcast explains that he was on a solar energy drip to restore his strength. His mind will be a bit foggy for a while, though, as he was hit by Coldcast’s neutrino Pulse, Manchester says it’s like an EMP for organics. He says it’s a miracle Superman stayed conscious. Manchester Black takes Superman on a tour. Their base is the largest silicon-based colony of bacteria in their universe, capable of teleporting them and jumping between dimensions at a will. He calls her Bonnie. He says that they thought it might have the capacity to feel so they jettisoned that part of Bonnie’s being ages ago. Superman starts yelling at Manchester for killing those soldiers. He says that someone had to do it. Superman insists they aren’t above the law, they need to how others that they can be better. But Manchester thinks they can’t. He shows Superman a video feed of all the misery and violence going on right now. Superman insists that they can’t throw morality into the garbage. Manchester thinks Superman is so high and mighty because he doesn’t understand fear. He claims humans do and that they love the Elite for taking out the trash. Superman insists it can’t be like this. Manchester drops him off at a car dealership advertising Super Sale with his image.

 

Back in London, Lois is escorted off the property of MI5, who tell her they won’t confirm or deny Manchester Black’s history with them. She’s met by a woman in a black coat in an alley. This is Vera Black. She tells Lois that as far as MI5 is concerned there is no Manchester Black. Sher offers Lois a USB drive and says the world needs to know what her brother is. She says that Manchester wasn’t the only one who went to work for the government and got their identity wiped. Lois asks  why, and Vera tells her it’s because he’s angry and misguided but he saved her life, so she wants t save his if she can. A Superbot lands and asks to take Lois back to Metropolis.

 

At Striker’s island, there’s a power surge and Atomic Skull is able to escape his cell.

 

We cut over to the Kent farm where Clark is having pie with his dad. Pa Kent says that there’s been a lot of talk, none of it good, and how he had to slap a neighbor for saying Superman looked like a fool. Clark is disappointed to hear even Smallville is pro Elite. Jonathan says that the loud, stupid and angry of them are. Clark doesn’t’ think it’s that simple. He’s worried he doesn’t make people feel safe anymore. Jonathan says that when people are scared, they have a tendency to hop on a bandwagon before they see who is driving it. When they wise up, Superman will be there to lead by example, and he’s sure they will. Plus, Jonathan Kent is certain his boy can kick their asses to kingdom come if it comes to it. Clark gets a call from Lois ordering him home immediately.

 

Skull is laying waste to Metropolis, murdering dozens with his blasts. He throws a cop car and nearly crushes Lois and Jimmy. Manchester catches it and his team agrees to show up Superman on his home turf.  The Baxter’s get the message the Elite are in town and Terrance runs to see them. Atomic Skull isn’t impressed, and he lays the smackdown on the Elite. He’s too powerful for any of them beside Manchester to handle. Superman rushes in and tells Manchester to throw up a shield. He contains their energy for a bit before being blown back. Atomic Skull says that his rest at Strikers seems to have done him some good before launching Superman into the air. Manchester holds him off long enough for Superman to return and knock him around, but Atomic Skull unleashes a blast that kills Efrain Baxter. Superman makes the Elite help him, the group holding off Skull long enough for Coldcast to get in close and absorb most of Atomic Skull’s power. Manchester prepares to execute Skull. Superman tries to convince him to let him take Skull back to prison, again saying they’re not above the law. Terrance Baxter and the crowd all chant for Skull to be executed and Manchester blows his skull off. Superman tackles Manchester Black but he’ too slow. Manchester and his team teleport away and Superman covers Atomic Skull with his cape.

 

Elite fever seems to sweep the world. Metropolitans even seem to be siding with the group, thinking their actions permanently stop villains that just repeat their offenses with how Superman does it. At the Fortress of Solitude, Superman sulks. Lois calls him, telling him to pick up or she’ll kick his butt when he gets home. She tells him she’d been able to go through the files on the Elite that Vera gave her. Turns out, Manchester Black gave his father a stroke shortly after his powers kicked in and when he stopped the train to save Vera, the crash killed a dozen people. He asks if the Planet is going to run the story, but she says Perry was stopped by British intelligence. They don’t want to admit they took an uncontrollable teenager and made him a weapon. She doesn’t go into the other members rap sheets but say they have criminal records a mile long. The Elite teleport in then, Manchester saying his sister has become quite the establishment bitch. Superman tells them to surrender now and face judgement, but Manchester tells him to stop as there’s no “or” in this discussion. He believes that Superman doesn’t have it in him to do to them what they’ll do to him. He tells Superman that he can keep doing the bank robbers, mad scientist and other weirdos, but ‘fixing the world’ is the Elite’s job now. He says they’re starting tomorrow in Bialya. They teleport away before Superman can stop them.

 

The next day, an airstrike almost occurs on Bekulistan. But Superman races in and stops it, forcibly ejecting pilots from their planes and using heat vision against their missiles. Once the planes are stopped, Superman declares the fighting is over without a single death. Manchester Black and Hat arrive to inform him they’ve slaughtered the Bialyan and Bekulistan leaders. Manchester claims he read their minds and knew neither side was going to blink until this region was turned to glass. Superman has had enough of this and takes a swing at Manchester while the world watches. Manchester puts up a barrier but Superman bowls through it and knocks him to the ground. The rest of the Elite grab him, but Manchester tells them to stop. Manchester tells him next week the world will forget this war, but they won’t forget Superman taking a swing at him. He promises they’ll take Superman down tomorrow.

 

That night, Lois asks when it’ll happen. Clark guesses dawn. Lois is terrified for Clark, saying that she’s scared they’ll beat him. They’re strong and they’re willing to do what Superman won’t. Superman tells her he heard a child say they wanted to join the Elite someday because it’d be fun to kill bad guys. He feels he has to show them another way. They kiss, but the next morning Lois wakes up on the couch to find him already gone. He left her a note.

 

Superman meets with the Elite, they fly in with Bonnie. From the outside she looks like a giant krill. They want to get the fight started but Superman ask they take the fight somewhere else. Manchester agrees but says they’ll broadcast the fight to interested parties. They teleport to the moon, Bonnie making oxygen for the human metas. Superman tries one more time to get them to stand-down, but they refuses. Manchester hits him with a huge telekinetic blast. He then addresses the world, saying that starting today, rule one is he who has power makes the rules. Rule two, tough love is for losers. The Elite lay the smack down on Superman, Coldcast beating Superman badly with fist and energy blasts, Hat hitting him with magic, and Menagerie chomping him with her parasites. Manchester promises that if any of Superman’s friends try to avenge him, they’re next. To which I say, bro, Batman has a dozen strategies to beat you already and at least four of them are variations of “get (blank) to kick their asses.” Superman has a LOT of friends. Manchester hits him with a psychic blast that induces a seizure. He says that he can’t read Superman’s mind but he can damage the structure of his brain. Manchester forms a barrier and then has Coldcast unleash enough energy you could see it from space. The watching public, including Lois, are shocked that Superman was apparently killed, only a bit of his cape left. We see Clark’s note at this point “Believe, always believe.” Manchester Black starts to gloat, but then they all hear Superman say that he finally gets it. He’s decided to treat them like the world wants him to.

 

He starts with Menagerie. He hits her with a dart full of poison, it’s so toxic her parasitic aliens start fleeing her body in mass. And she dies. Manchester tells Coldcast to basically nuke the moon, but he says he’s out of power after the last blast, they need to fall back and get Menagerie to sick bay. Superman then hits them with a twister of moon rock, saying he’s going to be the one to put the animals down. One of the UN workers asks if that’s really Superman, and another says not anymore. Menagerie is pulled up in the twister. Hat goes to fight him, thinking his magic gives him an advantage… but he forgot about basic anatomy. The force of Superman’s twister is so great it sucks the air out of his lungs, making him pass out. Coldcast tells Manchester to find his mind and blast it. Manchester is freaking out a little, realizing that Superman has been playing them since the beginning. He thought this through and figured out how to take them out. He has Bonnie drop them off in Metropolis.

 

Manchester is certain that Superman won’t do anything with civilians around them. He tells Bonnie to prepare to teleport again, when he see Superman’s S he’s going to flatten the city. Lois, meanwhile, is running to the fight. Superman flies in like a bullet and grabs Coldcast before anyone could react. Superman returns, causing a sonic boom that destroys the streets and flings cars around. Manchester demands to know what happened to Coldcast and Superman says he went into orbit at Mach 7. Superman lands, his face bloodied, one eye completely red, and looking deranged. Manchester starts throwing debris at Superman, he easily dodges. He gets in close and swings at Manchester, Manchester throws up a barrier but Superman punches through it, shouting he finally bought what Manchester’s been selling. He tries to crush Superman in a ball of debris but Superman breaks through. The shock waves of their fight cause concrete and cars to fly about, Terrence Baxter sees a car land on Lois. Manchester unleashes a huge blast of energy, but Superman barely reacts. Superman asks him how it feels to watch his dreams die. He hits Superman with a huge blast, knocking him back.  Superman’s eyes start glowing. Manchester gloats that Superman can barely stand, so he can’t have the power to melt his face. Superman tells him he’s not aiming for his face. We get an X-ray flash into Manchester’s skull and suddenly he can’t use his powers anymore. Superman tells him he used heat vision focused through Manchester’s pupil to cut away the part of his brain that he’d detected was abnormal. Instant lobotomy. Superman starts slapping him about, just to show how weak he is now. Manchester falls to his knees, sobbing, and says that Superman doesn’t do this. Superman says he does now. Terrance runs up and tries to talk Superman down. He says that Superman taught them that there's a better way than just killing. Manchester, wanting to get the final word in, says the world saw Superman break, that he knows better and still slaughtered his team, he’s a hypocrite. Superman then gives a speech about how they let fear guide them to the easy, unhelpful way. Superman then reveals that he’s not like them. It’s revealed this was all largely an act. His army of Super droids protected people from the debris and made sure no one got hurt during his big display. He says he’ll never put civilians in harms way or kill. And in flashbacks it’s revealed how his robots grabbed Hat, Menagerie and Coldcast. He says they’re fine and are being stripped of their powers in preparation to be sent to a supermax prison. He says he had to let the fight go on for a bit to make sure everyone else was taken care of. He then reveals that he got Bonny to betray Black by having his robots promise to take her home when this was all done. Manchester says that Superman is living in a dream world if he thinks he’ll go to jail and rot. Superman tells him dreams are good, they lift us up, and that he’ll not stop fighting until his dream of everyone living in peace is reality. He meets with Lois, who tells him if he does something like that again she’ll kill him and if he ever did that again he’d let her. They fly off and share a kiss as things wrap up.

 

I said before that DC’s animated movies rarely miss and Superman Vs The Elite is no exception. The fighting was great, but the ethical quandary was better. I love how that most of this movie is Superman struggling with the ethics of the might makes right philosophy, and asking if the world has moved towards that, away from him. Superman, unless we’re dealing with an evil version, is the model of morality, justice and ethics, so him truly wrestling with the idea of if his methods work anymore is fascinating. It also helps that one of George Newbern’s big roles was as the English voice of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy series. He can really sell deranged demi-god since he has had so much practice. If you don’t recognize the name, he’s the dude with the long silver hair and the like eleven-foot-long sword. Robin Atkins Downes is also great at Manchester Black. He has a smugness and confidence in him that’s hard to fake, even if his cockney accent made some of his lines hard from my Yankee ears to discern. Superman snapping is one of the most memorable moments of any DC project, if only because it highlights just how much this man is holding back to stick to his ideals. He beat the Elite in under ten minutes, and that was still him not fighting at his maximum. I also loved seeing the world react to Superman losing it. While they’d been so gung-ho for the Elite to do what they do, there’s just something… wrong about seeing Superman on the warpath. You feel like you failed him somehow and now he’s responding to you like you want. It’s just unsettling. So glad that it was just to prove a point. So yeah, loved this movie. Have a good night.

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