Fish and Cherries Productions

Summary: Superman (Jerry O’Connell) is dead and the world is still reeling. But not six months after the tragedy, talk spreads of four new Supermen rising in his stead — a man in a Superman-inspired mechanical suit (Cress Williams), a teenaged clone sponsored by LexCorp (Cameron Monaghan), an emotionally-blank lookalike in a visor with no problems brutalizing his enemies (Charles Halford), and a cyborg-Superman (Jerry O’Connell) who swears to the world that he’s the original. Naturally, Lois Lane (Rebecca Romijn) wants to get to the bottom of this, so she digs as deep as she can into the mystery of these newcomers. Which are good and which are evil? Which are lawful and which are chaotic? And does their arrival herald the coming of something bigger?

Review: Reign of the Supermen, the follow up to last year’s The Death of Superman, is fantastic both as a sequel and a story standing on its own. The funny thing is that, despite Supes’ name being in the title, the main character is Lois. Sure, there’s focus to go around, including the four Supermen, Lex Luthor (Rainn Wilson), the citizens of Metropolis, and even the Justice League for a few scenes. But as far as someone who ties the plot together and moves it forward, Miss Lane takes home the prize.

Unlike Death of Superman, I’m not familiar with the comics this is based on, so I don’t know how accurate an adaptation this is. I know some liberties were taken, but that’s based on things I learned from other comics. The whole “Superboy being a clone” bit was something introduced about a decade after the comic was first released, but here it’s incorporated right away. The alien warlord Mongul is adapted out, which is a little disappointing because that would lead into an adaptation of Blackest Night, but it’s certainly understandable; establishing him would have probably ground the story to a halt. Still, the whole thing comes together incredibly well and stands on its own without feeling incomplete or that there are missing pieces.

I’m still not in love with the animation and while it’s perfectly serviceable, there are notable flaws like Cyborg Superman’s eyes not always lining up. I’m also a bit mixed on the inclusion of Darkseid (Tony Todd) into the plot, as that feels more like a tease for future projects. His voice also leaves me conflicted because while it doesn’t have the deepness or gravitas I’m used to, he’s still voiced by the freaking Candyman! Plus, since Darkseid was established in previous movies of the animated movie canon means they didn’t have to take away from the pacing to establish him.

While I feel like I could elaborate on more, this is something that’s best experienced firsthand, especially since there are some surprises in store. Suffice to say, this comes with a massively high recommendation. While it isn’t as battle-heavy as its predecessor, I enjoyed the more personal, down-to-earth story that it told. There’s something very human about the whole affair that will really help connect people to the movie. I’m a little sad this wasn’t at Comic Con, but at least I didn’t have to wait too long for it.

Oh, and Superboy is my favorite of the new Supermen. Hope we see more of him in the future.

Fun Tidbit: All of the new Supermen have been involved in other DC projects. Cress Williams, who voices Steel here, is the titular character in the CW’s Black Lightning, Superboy’s voice actor plays Joker stand-in twins Jerome and Jermaine on Gotham, and Charles Halford was Cham Chandler in Constantine, Gorilla Grodd in Injustice 2, and Bibbo Bibowski from this and the previous movie (not to mention bit roles in Supergirl and Lucifer). There’s another Lucifer actor with an important role here… but that would be telling.