Adventures of Superman in Good Quality?
Earlier this week YouTuber James “In Search of Physical Media” dropped the news that Adventures of Superman is coming to blu-ray next year. Huge if true, but no other news sites have corroborated. In the video he explains that the show is getting a brand new 4K scan for this edition. Other than that he was light on any additional details. So I’m left with some questions.
The first question is an easy one. When is it coming? Probably a safe bet that it will be timed around the new movie. It could be slated for when the new movie hits theaters July 11, 2025. It could be a couple months later when the movie comes to home media. I’d guess second half of next year.
My second question: if they are doing 4K scans why is it only coming to blu-ray? Why not 4K UHD? I assume blu-rays are cheaper to produce and definitely have a wider install base. Most VOD platforms don’t offer television shows in 4K either. It would be nice to get these in the best possible quality.
Are all the seasons coming in one box set or will it be spread over several volumes like last time? The show evolved significantly over its first three years so the separation made sense in the earlier releases. Separating them also made each purchase a little bit more manageable. Plus, it required them to have special features for each collection.
Speaking of special features, are we getting anything new? Any new retrospectives? I’m betting they’ll drop the old featurettes in standard definition on the discs just like the Smallville blu-rays. I’d like to get something new though. Maybe with the cast or creative crew from the new movie?
What versions are we getting? The first season episode “Crime Wave” has two distinct versions. One available on the DVD and a different cut on VOD services like iTunes. I’m not an Adventures of Superman expert (I’m trying though, reading some books along with my rewatch) but I gather that other episodes were recut or edited and that’s what ended up on the DVDs.
Which leads me to my final question. Will they give this release the attention to detail the show deserves? Judging by the Fleischer blu-ray release I’m not confident they will. That release expounded upon the errors in the 2006 release despite Warners marketing hyping the restoration effort. On the current edition it’s clear that in some of the second season episodes they use the introduction from season one. So like the Fleischer releases there is a precedence of mistakes. I’m going to hope against hope that they don’t try to make these releases look modern. Yeah it would be great if they had a cleaner print of “The Stolen Costume”, but if they scrub out all the grain and ruin the picture it would be heartbreaking.
Now that this is off my chest it’s time to fly to Metropolis. Unlike Clark, I’ll need to take a plane. Superman Celebration time!