Geekscape Movie Reviews: ‘Reign of the Supermen’

With the exception of perhaps “Into The Spider-verse” for my money, Marvel’s animated outings have been somewhat lacking. DC always seems to be the frontrunner when it comes to that venue. The release of “Death of Superman” and “Reign of the Supermen” continues that trend but, for some reason, something doesn’t feel quite right.

Most people know the story of the Death of Superman and the aftermath thereof. The first film did a good job of encapsulating that first part of the story while making a few changes that don’t throw things off too much.

“Reign of the Supermen” however seems to kind of go off the rails and incorporates an almost new story when it comes to the 4 individuals parading around calling themselves Superman.

The principles are all there. Superboy, Cyborg Superman, Eradicator, and Steel. Each with their own reasons for donning the giant S on their chest, but that’s kind of where things got a little weird. DC seems to have a difficulty adapting things from the comics. They did a decent job with things like “Under the Red Hood” and the like, but for main stories where a major part of the Justice League is involved, they tend to keep it tied down to a certain universe that they are building instead of letting be its own story. Sometimes including variables that weren’t in the original story can make it better, but in this case it just kind of makes you scratch your head and say “Huh?”

Now I’m not saying it’s a bad story. It’s not. There is quality writing, animation and voice acting. There are just little things, aside from the aforementioned variables, that seem to stand out like a sore thumb, especially to avid readers of the DC Universe of comics. For instance, The Flash. Here you have Barry Allen running around as the Flash, making quippy one-liners. They essentially have put the name Barry Allen onto Wally West’s character and hoped no one would notice. Same with Hal Jordan. Even Batman has a couple of one-liners that seem VERY out of character.

I won’t spoil because not everyone will make it to the theater to see the film and will have to wait until its release on Blu-Ray later this month. It’s not bad, and it’s not good. It’s just there.

That’s why I’m going to give “Reign of the Supermen” 2 1/2 out of 5 stars. If you are a fan of Superman, check it out.