M.A.N.T.I.S. (1995-96) {DVD Review}

Reviewed By Jason S. Lockard

Many people feel Black Lightning was the first black superhero on TV..... Wrong!

Before director Sam Raimi took the reigns of Spider-Man and made his trilogy! In 1990's he made Darkman and a lesser known television series that ran on Fox from 1994 to 1995 entitled M.A.N.T.I.S.. Now Raimi didn't actually direct this series, he was the executive produce the series. Image entertainment released this short lived series on DVD.

The series follows Dr. Miles Hawkins (Carl Lumby) who, a few years earlier was a happily married man with a wife and kids. One night an intruder broke into his home and killed his family and left Miles paralyzed. Soon, the brilliant doctor invents an exoskeleton which he names M.A.N.T.I.S. (Mechanically Augmented Neuro Transmitter System) that allows the suit to interact directly with the synapses in his brain. This allows him to walk around, and gives im superhuman strength and speed. He uses this M.A.N.T.I.S. suit to fight the crime in the city!

The 4 disc DVD set features all twenty-three episodes out over four dual layer discs and are as follows:

Disc One: Pilot / First Steps / Tango Blue / Days Of Rage / Cease Fire

Disc Two: Soldier Of Misfortune / Gloves Off / The Black Dragon / To Prey In Darkness / Fire In The Heart / Thou Shalt Not Kill

Disc Three: Revelation / Through The Dark Circle / The Eyes Beyond / Faces In The Mask / The Sea Wasp / Progenitor

Disc Four: Switches / The Delusionist / Fast Forward / Spider In The Tower / Ancestral Evil / Ghost Of The Ice

This series as groundbreaking! As it was the first superhero series to feature a black superhero! The series is a lot of fun and was just not given enough time to build an audience! As was the case with many great shows the networks don't give the writers and actors time to get their legs under them.

The video quality of the shows on these DVDs are very nice! But these are presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The audio is presented as they were originally broadcast, which is in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. As for extras There are none! That is a little disappointing!

In the final analysis this is a really fun release! You can't find the complete series for sale in stores anymore! The DVD is out of print and they are very expensive! My hope is that some company will license this series and give it another release so that others can check out this amazing ground breaking series!

If you have a lot of money to spend and would like a copy of M.A.N.T.I.S. You can get a copy on www.Amazon.com!

Moral Rating: Adult content and Violence
Audience: Teens and Adults
Length: Over 17 hours
DVD Release: 2009
DVD Rating: A-