“Superman: The Animated Series” was the most thorougly sci-fi versiion of Supmerman until Smallville. Battles happened quite frequently on other planets. Aliens on earth frequently came up. Rather than the petty thugs of the 1940 radio version and 1950 TV Version, Superman was given enemies that were in challenge. In later seasons, this included Darkseid, the ruler of Apokolips.Bruce Timm and the folks at Warner showed how different there show would be with the maiden episode, “The Last Son of Krypton, Part One.” In early Superman shows, the destruction of Krypton was done with cheesy melodrama. (Both the 1940s radio show and the 1950s TV show were guilty of it) or ignored. This often made sense as for obvious reason, you’d never see the actors again.However, Superman: TAS brings Krypton to life, along with Jorel and Lara before blowing up. They also managed to introduce a new origin story for one of Superman’s most dangerous enemies, Brainiac.