A large meteor strikes down in Gotham Harbor, causing some damage and drawing the attention of Gotham City's protector, Batman. He finds a spaceship and some glowing green rocks, but cuts his investigation short when his bat-transportation starts moving away on its own, only to hit a pier and blow up.
A trio of dockworkers encounters a naked blonde girl speaking a strange language and resisting their advances with exceptional strength. When Batman pursues her, she flies and demonstrates other super-powers. He eventually sedates her with the green meteor and, with the aid of Superman, determines that she is Kara Zor-El, cousin to the man born on Krypton as Kal-El. In order to train her to use her powers, the Amazons of Themyscira, led by Wonder Woman, force Kara to return with them to their island. But a raid on Themyscira allows Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips, to kidnap Kara and try to brainwash her into becoming his servant. He plays on the fact that Kara has felt controlled by all of these new adults in her life and has a pretty typical case of adolescent rebellion. DC's Big Three must stage an attack on Apokolips in order to rescue Kara.
Warner Bros. has apparently struck a real lode with the Animated Originals series, which are not always G-rated features or as light in tone as the DC Animated Universe series they created in the 1990s and early 2000s. Apocalypse is another quality entry in the series, focusing on the comic that returned the original Supergirl to DC continuity. The character had been a shape-shifting alien and a semi-angelic being since the "Death of Supergirl" issue killed Kara Zor-El off in the late 80s series Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman through nearly every series of the DC Animated Universe era, returns to the character, as does Tim Daly, who voiced Superman in the Superman series of that time frame. Both are welcome; even though Conroy's work is restricted to the auditory range alone he may very well be the defininitive Batman. Firefly's Summer Glau plays Supergirl, and Men of a Certain Age co-star Andre Braugher voices the dread Darkseid. That may be the only misstep; Braugher has a good voice but the character was played by Michael Ironside in the Animated Universe era and Ironside brings a ponderous note that Braugher doesn't quite manage.
The story follows the comic arc pretty closely, deviating here and there to make some continuity issues a little tidier. Its explorations of heroism, responsibility, family and the creation of selfhood aren't particularly deep -- this is a cartoon, after all, based on a comic book -- but they're deftly done and induce no real cringes. The artwork is modeled on Turner's drawing style rather than the blocky work of the Animated Universe series. It's not an exact match, which is also probably for the best. Turner's exaggerated look recalled the hideous work of Rob Liefeld (no. 15; scroll down) and Turner's dependence on cheesecake and over-sexualizing his female characters gets more than a little creepy when the main female protagonist is supposed to be a 16-year-old girl. Art director Sam Liu keeps the action flowing smoothly and oversees a spectacular Smallville fight between Superman, Kara and Darkseid.
Apocalypse earns its PG-13 with a couple of mild curse words, substantial onscreen violence and some onscreen deaths. A couple of comic-book movie review sites have given it the thumbs down, but people who figure that their animated characters can think as well as they punch and that girlfriend and/or wife are not the only roles female characters can play should find Superman/Batman: Apocalypse some quality entertainment.
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