  The M2-brane is studied from the perspective of superembeddings. We review
the derivation of the M2-brane dynamics and the supergravity constraints from
the standard superembedding constraint and we discuss explicitly the induced
d=3, N=8 superconformal geometry on the worldvolume. We show that the gauged
supermembrane, for a target space with a U(1) isometry, is the standard
D2-brane in a type IIA supergravity background. In particular, the D2-brane
action, complete with the Dirac-Born-Infeld term, arises from the gauged
Wess-Zumino worldvolume 4-form via the brane action principle. The discussion
is extended to the massive D2-brane considered as a gauged supermembrane in a
massive D=11 superspace background. Type IIA supergeometry is derived using
Kaluza-Klein techniques in superspace.
