“Superman’s just not as intrinsically cool as Batman”: Bruce Timm’s Response to Superman: The Animated Series Changes Was the Last Thing DC Fans Wanted to Hear
Superman: The Animated Series premiered on The WB in September 1996. Spanning over a period of four seasons the popular animated series completed its run of 54 episodes and went off air in February 2000. American animator and writer Bruce Timm is popularly known as the brain behind the animated version of DC comics on television during the 90s.
Bruce Timm played a very significant role in the development of Super: the Animated Series. However, fans believe that Timm’s inclination towards Batman could be very well reflected in the visionary animator’s remark on DC’s Kryptonian Superhero.
Fans Believe Superman: The Animated Series Producer Was Never A Fan Of The Kryptonian Superhero
As reported by Looper in December 2023, Bruce Timm made a comparison between Batman and Superman. The widely watched animated series producer’s comment during the Comicology has stressed out the Superman fans. Bruce Timm mentioned-
“Superman’s just not as intrinsically cool as Batman. The DC guys’ll tell you the same thing — they have a very hard time making [Superman] seem fresh and exciting. He’s just been around for so damn long.”
However, Bruce Timm had clarified his remark on Superman during an appearance on the Anime Superhero forum in 2004. He mentioned that he and his collaborators are proud of what they have achieved with respect to Superman: The Animated Series. He wrote-
“I’ve loved, respected, and admired Superman since I was a kid … if I had to choose one over the other, sure, I’d pick Batman in a heartbeat; it doesn’t mean I don’t like Superman, too; I just like Batman BETTER. Superman: The Animated Series”
Fans believe that Timm’s handling of Clark Kent indirectly highlighted his dislike for the superhero. The widespread popularity of Batman: The Animated Series constructed the path for the Superman: The Animated Series during the mid-90s. Actor Tim Daly went on to voice the character of Superman’s animated version on television.
Bruce Timm Did Not Take Credit For Brainiac’s Transformation In Superman: The Animated Series
As reported by the media outlet Cinemablend in 2021, producer Bruce Timm spoke about the noteworthy transformation of the DC supervillain Brainiac. While talking about what exactly led to the alteration, Timm revealed that co-producer Alan Burnett was the brain behind it. He said-
“That was Alan Burnett’s idea, and at first, I was against it because I’m a purist [laughs]. I’m one of those nerds that goes, ‘Oh, that’s not like the comics! That’s terrible!’ But it didn’t take much to talk me into it. Once I got used to the idea, it was like, ‘Well, why can’t he be from Krypton?’ And the idea that he was basically the Siri for the whole planet Krypton.”
He further continued to say-
“He was like their robot slave, their robot AI, and yet he had sinister motives of his own and was aware that Jor-El was telling the truth, and that Krypton was gonna explode, and he was already making his own getaway plan. I think it was brilliant. Once Alan outlined the whole thing for me, I was like, ‘Ok, that totally works. It’s great. That was pretty much an easy sell.”
The comic’s version of the supervillain came from the planet of Colu, whereas the creative team of the animated series decided to transform the origin story of Brainiac by making him an AI-based supercomputer from the Kryptonian planet.
