5) World’s Finest – Superman: The Animated Series
Produced nearly twenty years before Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, this two-parter – which was later repackaged as a straight-to-DVD movie – was the original Batman and Superman team-up movie. Notice the word ‘team-up’ rather than ‘punch-up.’
Yes, unlike Zack Snyder’s gloomy spectacular, this animated crossover sees the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel join forces pretty early on to stop a deadly union of their two greatest enemies – Lex Luthor and The Joker. Plus, what can poor old Clark do when Lois Lane falls head over heels for handsome billionaire Bruce Wayne?
As part of the brilliant DC Animated Universe from the minds of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett and others, World’s Finest still holds up very well today. As well as having the simple joy of featuring both two great heroes and two supervillains teaming up, there is also some great stuff about the differences in the characters’ approaches as heroes.