Batman: The Animated Series was a landmark title that offered mature content and sharp insight into characters' motivations. © 2004 Warner Home Video Inc.

What these series all had in common was their very loose translation from the comic books. While some of the storylines were similar and versions of the villains fairly faithful, the writers and producers of these shows were taking off in different directions and introducing novel innovations not found between the stapled sheets of pulp. In the past, these changes had been puerile and largely unwelcome: Witness the hated Marvin, Wendy, and Wonder Dog who corrupted the Super Friends show, or the equally ridiculous Wonder Twins. No true fan of the Fantastic Four can hear the acronym H.E.R.B.I.E without wanting to flee to the Negative Zone. Animated series featuring the Marvel/DC lineup instead grew increasingly mature, with diversions from source material more plausible. The recent Justice League series comes to mind in this regard.

Direct releases to video have taken things even further. The most recent, and perhaps most interesting example of the confluence between adult-oriented themes and deviation from the source material is the new Superman Doomsday offering from Warner Home Video. This was no lightweight effort; many of the same Warner veterans who had worked on both the Superman and Batman series teamed up for this direct-to-video movie. The screenplay was the work of Duane Capizzi, who has prior experience with both Batman and Superman animated films.

I admit that I greatly enjoyed the original multi-issue buildup to the final showdown between Superman and Doomsday in the heart of Metropolis. Superman's death was graphic, believable, and dramatic in the way few comic books of that time were. The problem was in the disappointing encore issues, in which a convoluted storyline involving four uninteresting "Supermen" culminated in a contrived and foreseeable ending. It is revealed in the Superman Doomsday DVD featurette that the writers almost immediately convened about possible scenarios in which Supes was brought back. In the end, Superman was as alive as he had been before Doomsday showed up, and the feeling that the reader had been snookered was, at least for me, unavoidable.

Superman Doomsday's narrative is often different, and superior, to the comic book, and includes an overtly sexual arrangement between Lois Lane and Superman.

I do not wish to hand out spoilers, but I'm not giving much away to tell you that Superman is alive at the end of the DVD as well. What happens up to that point is far different -- and far superior -- to the comic book narrative. There is an overtly sexual arrangement between Lois Lane and Superman, a somewhat homoerotic subtext between Lex Luthor and Superman, and several graphic deaths (along with D-Day's and Superman's). One scene, in which multiple clones of Superman in stages of development from fetal to adult lifelessly litter the floor of Luthor's lab, is more powerful than anything the comics conjured up in the comic book issues following Superman's alleged death. By treating the showdown between Doomsday and the Man of Steel as a springboard to a complex and mature storyline giving characters (such as Lex Luthor) major parts they did not have in the original material, Superman Doomsday crafted, well, a better comic book.

In short, the DVD movie ran rings at super-speed around its source material. Superman Doomsday may not have been the greatest accomplishment in the history of direct-to-video, but it does suggest a new direction that comic books and animation might take together. What makes this DVD release different is that it totally re-invents the source material to create an alternate telling. Lately Marvel has done the same with revised origins of Iron Man and Doctor Strange on direct-to-video. In doing so, the company created a digital comic book in itself and a potential new way of expanding the possibilities of comic book production and distribution.

Comic book companies would actually have two ways to go with direct-to-video: within the continuity of a comic book series or outside of it. Superman Doomsday is an example of the latter. Might there be a future in which DVDs actually fit into the continuity of a given comic book? Back in the day, popular lines of comic books used to feature "Annuals" which were double-sized (and double-priced) issues that sometimes wrapped up storylines and sometimes featured stand-alone tales. Might there someday be a new type of, say, X-Men annual that exists only on DVD and wraps up the storyline for an entire year of issues?

The technical problems might not be very significant. The animators would have a year to complete the project, having been given the resolution by the writers well in advance. It is not too far-fetched to consider: If Superman Doomsday and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker are any indication, direct-to-video films are already the new graphic novel. Why couldn't direct-to-video films and the pulps work in tandem? Imagine a comic book that announces: "To be continued in the DVD movie (Your title here) -- available in stores December 15!"