Reign of the Supermen (2019)

I recently had the pleasure of seeing a double feature: Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen and as predicted, I liked it. Different from the comic to be sure- due to its 90 minute run time- but despite the problems of it being a bit over-bloated with characters and plot they made up for it with a really good characterization of Superboy (Cameron Monaghan).

Seriously, Superboy and his interactions with Lex, Lois, The Justice League and everyone else he came in contact really made this movie entertaining to watch. Not to take away from everybody else because all the characters in this movie work really well together but I really enjoyed Superboy's dialogue in this movie. He's a real show stealer

I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed they didn't focus on Steel aka Dr. John Henry Irons (Cress Williams) but I suppose the impulsive teenager is a better story choice for the movie.

Part of the humor is that they're trying to pass Superboy off as Superman ( Jerry O'Connell). In the comics, he did want to be called Superman so that's good that they're sticking to the comics ... but the sad truth of the matter is ... he looked like a twig in the animated version!

Even though the comic book Superboy is 13 (?) his muscles does make him look more manly and thus when he says he wants to be Superman, it's a little easier to take. Especially, since there's two other guys with Superman's build going around claiming to be him.  But it's not really an issue that takes away anything from the movie just something I found funny. One of the big problems I had was with the Eradicator (Charles Halford). I don't want to spoil anything but they gave him a role in the movie that didn't really make sense to me.  What happened (without giving too much away )is that they set up a new role for the Eradicator in the Death of Superman but also wanted to keep what he did in the comics and it doesn't really jive together well.

The only reason for it that I can ascertain was to give the audience a pointless action scene in the movie: Superboy vs the Eradicator. And it is a fun action scene with some good moments but it's just sort of there.


A huge positive with the movie is Lois Lane (Rebecca Romijn) she does some good investigative reporting work in this movie. I know that a lot people have the impression that she's dumb because she can't see that Clark is Superman- but let's not forget that Clark works in a newspaper office and everybody who works there is a journalist. Now, I agree I don't think glasses should be enought to fool people on its own, but he does do more to throw people off, like changing his voice.  Clark speaks with a high pitch squeaky voice while Superman speaks with a manly low tone. Moreover, in some versions, in Superman's past Lex Luthor (Rainn Wilson) is Superman's childhood friend and is a super genius and still can't put it together. But yeah, Lois was actually really useful in this movie. I hope future live-action adaptations can learn from this cartoon.

Cyborg Superman (Patrick Fabian) was less menacing in this movie than his comic book counterpart, but overall he was still a good villain because people trust him as the real Superman, and he's able to have people voluntarily sign up for something that normally most people would and should have a lot of questions about.

However, sadly that trust is misplaced because Cyborg Superman is not the real Superman. Just in case you haven't realized it. They are all fakes. While Steel is trying to live up to the reputation that Superman set. Superboy wants to be accepted as a hero/man and also as a person. The Eradicator (according to the comic) is revelling in the power. In the movie, I don't know what he's doing or how he feels, if at all. He's just sort of there.

And Cyborg Superman is actually mischievously working with another major villain which is a really cool twist in the movie. I'll give you a hint. He's the one that sent Doomsday to Earth!

The ending is a big climax that really delivers to the audience. The animation isn't as fluid as I would like it to be but it's passable.  And stay for the after credit screen. While live-action DC may not do that Marvel sthick of an after credits portion this animated DC certainly does and I thought the next movie they want to set up is an awesome idea.


It really does seem like someone watched Batman v Superman and Justice League and said we can do that better- and they did. The shame is that instead of going for a true three hour movie they broke it up into two ninety minute parts giving both movies weird pacing issues.

FORMAT: DVD/ Blu-Ray/Digital/FROM: Warner Bros RATING:PG-13 [US] 12[UK] RUNNING TIME : 1hr 27m

IN A NUTSHELL: While the first movie might have been a death, Reign is a bit of a Renaissance for the Man of Steel