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Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a 2009 animated superhero film based on the DC Comics story arc "Public Enemies" in the Superman/Batman comic book series, written by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, which focused on Superman and Batman teaming up to prevent a meteorite from striking Earth, and taking down Lex Luthor, who has been elected President of the United States. Directed by Sam Liu and released by Warner Bros. Animation on September 29, 2009. It is the sixth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. The film received generally mixed reviews upon release.
Lex Luthor has been elected President of the United States during a severe nationwide economic depression. Under his leadership, the economy begins to thrive, and he assembles a force of government-employed superheroes consisting of Captain Atom, Katana, Black Lightning, Power Girl, Starfire, and Major Force. Superman and Batman maintain their distrust toward Luthor.
The United States government discovers a massive Kryptonite meteor hurtling toward Earth. Instead of asking superheroes for aid, Luthor decides to destroy it with nuclear missiles. Luthor arranges a meeting with Superman in Gotham City under the pretense of forming a pact. This results in a battle with the hired Metallo against Superman and Batman, in which Metallo manages to injure them both before an unknown assailant kills Metallo. On national television, Luthor pins Metallo's murder on Superman, using footage of their battle to implicate him. Luthor claims that the meteor's radiation can affect Superman's judgment, and he places a one-billion-dollar bounty on Superman.
IGN reviewed both the standard and Blu-ray versions of the movie positively, awarding an 8.0 rating.[3] This surpassed IGN's review of Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, and Green Lantern: First Flight. The review score matched that of Justice League: The New Frontier.
At the DVD sales chart, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies opened at #5, selling 197,626 in the first week for revenue of $3,222,460. As of today, 527,482 units have been sold translating to $7,911,279 in revenue (This does not include rentals/Blu-ray sales). This makes Public Enemies the second highest selling DVD only behind Superman: Doomsday and the third most profitable of the ten movies in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line-up. The film has currently earned a total of $11,037,595 from domestic home video sales.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies was released on standard DVD in single and double disc editions, along with a high definition Blu-ray release, on September 29, 2009. Special features for the double disc edition include an inside look of Wonder Woman, Batman: Gotham Knight, Justice League: The New Frontier, and Green Lantern: First Flight, DC Comics' 2009 crossover event Blackest Night, two production featurettes, a sneak peek of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, trailers of Green Lantern: First Flight, Fringe, and Batman: Arkham Asylum, digital copy download, and two episodes of Superman: The Animated Series picked by Bruce Timm. The Blu-ray edition has all the features of the double disc standard definition release including three additional Justice League episodes selected by Timm.
The good performance of the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies release has led Warner Premiere and DC Universe to release a sequel, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, based on the Superman/Batman comic storyline "The Supergirl from Krypton". It was released on September 28, 2010.
