Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam

Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam serves as the showpiece extended short for DC’s newest DTV, DC Showcase Animated Original Shorts. In that regard it does a stellar job, but trying to convince someone to pay full price for what amounts to a TV show episode in length will be a tough sale. How does the short stack up?

The battle of all battles.

To begin with, we should explain that the DVD/Blu-Ray is a compilation of the various DC Showcase which have been included on the recent home releases starring the likes of Green Arrow, The Spectre and Jonah Hex. All 3 of those features are on this disc. The only original content is the Superman/Shazam short so let’s get on to the show.

What Worked:

• The DC Animated Shorts all have a very distinct style to them. And this is no different, it doesn’t quite look like any Superman we’ve seen before, but it gets the job down especially when dealing with three larger than life characters in Superman, Captain Marvel and Black Adam.
• The voice work, DC is always known for their voice casting and this movie is no different. George Newburn reprises his role as Superman/Clark Kent from the Justice League animated series and doesn’t miss a beat. James Garner as the Wizard is a real treat even if in it for a short time, and the voices of Black Adam and Captain Marvel work well.
• The fight sequences. This short is pretty much made up of Superman/Black Adam/Captain Marvel trading blows in various arrangements. Though smartly, Timm avoids Superman/Captain Marvel fighting as he did that in an episode of JLU.
• The dialog, it isn’t often we get that Superman is funny, but he has some genuinely humorous one-liners in this feature especially dealing with his powers in comparison to Black Adam.
• Black Adam is an awesome villain, I mean he has no qualms about attacking a little child or almost destroying an entire city to get his way.

What We Didn’t Like:

• There’s honestly not much here that isn’t enjoyable. It could have done with a slightly longer running time, and Black Adam’s origins are briefly mentioned, but other than that it was fine.

Now here’s the problem especially looking over the review, there is a lot to like in this feature, but I find it difficult to recommend if you already have the other 3 shorts (and you should as they are attached to remarkable movies), but if you don’t then I highly recommend checking out this collection. Not only is Superman/Shazam a treat, but I think All of the shorts are extremely well done.

Recommendation: Rental.