“He doesn’t think he’s evil,” Clancy Brown said. “He thinks he’s right.”
Now let’s talk about Clancy Brown.
More than a decade ago, the Urbana native walked into a voice audition for “Superman: The Animated Series” and thought he might actually, well, let him explain.
“I was just hoping that, maybe this time, I could play a good guy,” he said.
Hold on.
Bwaaahahahahahahaha.
Good one, Clancy.
On-screen, Brown had come to personify evil — first as The Kurgan in “Highlander,” then as Capt. Hadley in “The Shawshank Redemption.”
“I would’ve been an awesome Superman,” he said.
He instead got cast as Luthor, an evil role that’s been good for his career.
In the mostly anonymous world of TV animation, Brown’s Luthor — Superman’s greatest foe since “Action Comics” No. 23 clear back in 1940 — has become just as definitive as Mel Blanc’s Bugs Bunny, Daws Butler’s Yogi Bear and Casey Kasem’s Shaggy.
So it was only natural that Brown was tapped to reprise Luthor in “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies,” a full-length, direct-to-DVD animated movie set for release on Sept. 29.
“I’m flattered they keep asking,” Brown, now 50, said. “Lex has to be the one to present the most problems to Superman. He’s at least got to be consistent.”
The producers — namely, animator Bruce Timm — obviously agree.
Timm’s original Superman series ran from 1996 to 2000 (a successor of sorts to his influential Batman series), but then he brought Brown back on board for Cartoon Network’s “Justice League/Justice League Unlimited” from 2001-06.
“Does Timm serve the ongoing legacy of Superman? Absolutely,” Brown said. “And it moves it forward a little, and that’s why we all love doing it.”
Now it’s “Public Enemies,” the sixth in a series of original, direct-to-video movies set in the character-rich DC Universe.
OK. So Brown isn’t all that evil in real life.
He comes from good stock — his late grandfather, a longtime congressman from the area, is the C.J. Brown in the C.J. Brown Dam and Reservoir. (His father, Clarence J. “Bud” Brown, went to Washington himself from 1965 to 1983.)
At first, animation presented a chance for Clarence J. Brown III — Clancy to you — to break out of being typecast as the bad guy.
“Those seemed to be the roles people thought of me for,” he said.
Could it be the voice?
Let’s face it, dude has the kind of voice that could turn the Man of Steel into jelly.
“The voice? I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s more what you did last. Good guys can have a deep voice. I don’t think it’s a matter of the timbre of the voice. I do Mr. Krabs.”
That he does.
For the past decade, to be exact.
Lex Luthor was merely his entry into animation — Mr. Krabs on “SpongeBob SquarePants” has merely been another good gig in a sea of gigs.
Brown also has voiced Mr. Freeze in “The Batman,” George Stacy and the Rhino in “The Spectacular Spider-Man” and Mister Sinister in the Nicktoons series “Wolverine and the X-Men.”
He’s also done episodes of “Ben 10: Alien Force,” “Kim Possible,” “Teen Titans” and others — at last count, he’s done close to 500 animated episodes and films in all.
“Guys like Daws Butler and Mel Blanc, they’re incredible,” Brown said. “I was a little geeky going into that milieu. They’re some of the best actors out there.”
Brown still, however, makes time for the live-action world, too. He’ll be in a 2010 remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
In “Public Enemies,” President Luthor — yes, he went and got himself elected to the highest office in the land — puts a $1 billion bounty on the Man of Tomorrow and his ally, the Dark Knight, blaming them for a Kryptonite asteroid on target to hit Earth.
That sends the World’s Finest up against a who’s who of supposed friends and known enemies who want the cash.
Oh, and plus, they have to stop the asteroid.
Oh, and plus, Luthor’s up to no good.
Comic book fans have warmly embraced Timm’s animated versions of the characters.
Brown got to meet many of them in July when he took part in a “Public Enemies” panel at the ginormous Comic-Con International in San Diego.
“By accident,” he said, “I’m appreciated there in a way I never expected.”
The fan base, he said, is sophisticated.
“You can’t just give them plastic toys and show them trailers,” he said. “You have to have answers.”
So in 2009, there’s no way anybody’s getting away with cranking out “Challenge of the SuperFriends” 2.0.
“The last few episodes of ‘Justice League’ blew me away,” Brown said. “Lex Luthor going to the center of the galaxy? Who knew he was searching for enlightenment?”
The cartoons have grown up with the fans.
“It’s not as Olympian,” Brown said. “It’s more identifiable.”
But for its day, “SuperFriends” — in all of its umpteen incarnations — had its charm.
“It was a simpler thing,” Brown said. “Lex had a big ray and was going to blow up the moon. In the new one, Lex tries to seduce Superman and sees the earning potential of Superman.
“I don’t think the ‘SuperFriends’ Lex would ever try to compromise Superman. He just wanted to destroy him.”
These new full-length movies — all rated PG-13 — serve the evolved format well, he said.
“I don’t think that translates to ‘SpongeBob,’ ” Brown said. “That’s an 11-minute world.”
Hey, wait a minute.
Didn’t they make a “SpongeBob” movie a few years back?
“They sure did, didn’t they,” Brown laughed. “That’s a long time to spend in Bikini Bottom.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.
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