DC Animated gave us quite a surprise in terms of quality when it comes to the Death Of Superman movie. I had zero interest in watching the flick – well until I found out that Peter Tomasi wrote it. If you haven’t seen the film please do so immediately, there is so much heart and soul in that film. (Or if you are interested I actually wrote a review for it.) Now we face the Reign of the Supermen – I can say I was actually looking forward to this flick. Between 90’s Superboy and Cyborg Superman it sounded like it was going to be fun. Well, until I found out that Tomasi didn’t write it.
There are a few things that throw me into a bit of nerd rage, but this was one of those moments. While there have been some gems from the DC Animated films, most of those are in the past and we are in a new age of animated flicks. Some of the more recent ones I haven’t been the biggest fan of, which is strange considering movies like Gotham by Gaslight should be a slam dunk. What Death of Superman showed me was that there was hope.
Well like any nerd, especially one in a rage, I took to Twitter. I wanted to know who was writing Reign and if it would be any good. I had a couple encounters, that assured me that the sequel was in good hands. I decided to give it a spin – it couldn’t be any worse than the Harley & Batman the Animated series flick…. right????
Story
For those that weren’t into the comic scene of the 90s or perhaps just haven’t read the Death of Superman saga, let me set the scene. Spoiler alert: Superman is dead ???? Though Superman’s body is gone, and we all know the rule: No Body No Death. Well instead of just one Superman we now have a total of four running around Metropolis stopping all the bad guys. The four consist of 90s Superboy (not to be confused with the Young Justice Superboy – but they both share a similar backstory), John Henry Irons aka: Steel (essentially Iron Man meets Superman), Eradicator (who has the toughest name to remember, swear I called him Vindicator for the longest time…. Gee thanks Todd McFarlene!), and last but not least Cyborg Superman, who looks like Superman and the Terminator rolled into one.
Now each is attempting to be Superman, but in the rules of Highlander there can only be one. Lois has to determine who’s the real one, while still grieving over the real Superman. Meanwhile the Justice League is trying to deal with a world without Superman, on top of discovering alien tech that appears to have come from Apocalypse.
How does it hold up?
I really wanted to like this movie. I tried desperately, but alas this movie feel far from what Death of Superman established. The perfect analogy is the Pixar Cars movies. Death of Superman would be Cars 1: it may seem like a trivial movie, but you slowly discover how much soul this movie has. Then there is Reign of the Supermen which is Cars 2: You know all that touchy feely stuff, the stuff that made you tear up, well here’s a full movie of Tow Mater…. I mean there is even a line where Steel accidentally calls Lois Lane, mid battle btw, and says “I must have butt dialed..”
This movie also follows in the footsteps of other DC Animated films – with overly used sexual situations. As if to say while stomping its feet “I’m adult, I’m mature look boobs!” Case in point, when Lois attempts to save Lex Luthor from getting his head blasted off, he falls into her cleavage…..
Is there a Fix?
I certainly hope so, it felt like this movie was more about action and getting the Supermen to fight as opposed to character development. There was no build up to John Henry Irons building the Steel suit, no mystery or attempts to find Superman’s body. I dunno, here’s a brave and bold choice – have Lois and Batman team up, or at least have the Justice League involved in some fashion. The whole Apocalypse Tech scenario was totally wasted as well, essentially it was just an excuse to bamf the Justice League off planet for most of the movie.
Also what happened to Superman going to heaven – and being told it isn’t his time? This could be powerful stuff.
Overall
Ick, where do I start? The movie is probably one of the worst DC Animated movies I’ve watched in a while. Not as bad as Harley & Batman Animated, but still pretty awful. Seems like this film could’ve been easily fixed with just allowing some soul into the film. Death of Superman is the gold standard for DC Animated films, this flick is just Cars 2.
I can’t help but see a parallel here to the current state of DC Comics: Rebirth was the long game, creating something entirely magical. Same with Doomsday Clock. Guess it just didn’t kill off characters fast enough *cough Heroes in Crisis.* (I miss Wally ????)