Superman – Speed Demons

  • Title: Superman: The Animated Series – Speed Demons
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Superman - Speed Demons

With a new Superman in now in theaters every now and then I’ll continue to take a look back at the hero’s more memorable moments on both the big and small screen. Who’s faster, Superman (Tim Daly) or the Flash (Charlie Schlatter)? That’s a question DC Comics has teased its readers with several times over the years without ever really coming to a definitive answer. “Speed Demons” capitalizes on the Silver Age concept of a public race between the heroes and the inevitable attacks of a super-villain that leave us without a true winner.

Although in later years Batman: The Brave and the Bold would successfully bring back a rather amazing number of Silver Age concepts, characters, and plotlines to great effect this episode is one of the stand-outs of the earlier DC Animated Universe in how it embraces the one of those somewhat quaint premises and even throws in a ridiculous super-villain to boot as the race is called off as the Weather Wizard (Miguel Ferrer) holds the entire world hostage based on the ionic energy he’s been able to accumulate by the heroes’ race.

It’s not surprising the episode ends without a winner being declared (I mean they’re not going to let Superman get shown-up by the fastest man alive on his own show now are they?). Even without a winner the race is quite a bit of fun and the more powerful, and brutal, version of the Weather Wizard we get here gives us an adversary the two heroes need to work together to take down. The episode also marks the further broadening of the DC Animated Universe by adding another hero to the mix who will eventually join Superman and Batman in the Justice League a few years down the line.

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