The DC Universe straight-to-DVD movies from Warner Bros. Animation have been killing it lately. I still haven’t seen Batman: Red Hood even though it’s on Netflix Instant, but I’ve heard good things and had a great time watching Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. It’s kind of interesting that they’ve created this little sub-universe of movies based on Jeph Loeb’s Superman/Batman run which started with Public Enemies, a movie I liked a lot much to my surprise.

I was not surprised at all that I liked Apocalypse. the run of the comic that the movie is based on is one of my favorite guilty pleasures of all time. Superman, Batman, Woonder Woman and the Amazons facing off against an army of Doomsdays? Perfect. Batman racing around on Orion’s Astro-Harness? Awesome. Batman punching Darkseid in the face and using his smarts to get what he wants from the villain? Amazing. It’s probably my favorite comic by Loeb and definitely my favorite Michael Turner-drawn book.

And the movie doesn’t disappoint, even though we don’t see Batman punch Darkseid. The flick does a great job with the action sequences and thankfully takes out that ultra-lame speech Superman gives Darkseid in the last issue about Supergirl not being able to eat apple pie or whatever. I actually got chills when it was time for the Doomsday fight. I got such a kick out of the idea of a legion of the creature that killed Superman fighting some of the toughest women in the DCU plus Batman. Overall, I had a great time with this movie and it made me want to get my hands on the trade again (I swapped it a while back after a somewhat ill-advised shelf purge), which brings the WB good list up to include New Frontier, Green Lantern: First Flight, Wonder Woman, Public Enemies, Crisis On Two Earths and now Apocalypse with the only stumbling blocks in my opinion being the first two attempts: Superman/Doomsday and Batman: Gotham Knight. Even with such a great streak going, I’m nervous about All-Star Superman because the original comic is such a masterpiece. Can’t wait to see Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (longs as it’s better than Gotham Knights) because I’m all for more GL. I’ve yet to see any of the shorts yet, how have those been?