Reign Of The Supermen

Reign Of The Supermen manages something most of its live action counterparts haven't achieved, which is to use the scope and scale of the DC universe to tell a story that's not only faithful to its comic book origins but fun. Properly fun, with all sorts of nods to deep lore that will reward super-fans and enough rock-em sock-em to entertain more casual audiences. There are also (as one would hope) jokes pitched to most ages of audience. Which helps, because as loath as I am to admit it the fact that the story-arc this is based on was a massive Nineties crossover event that I remember means I'm demographically closer to those who'll be putting this on for folk rather than those watching them after school or whatever it is that young people do.

It's actually a sequel to Death Of Superman, but there's enough context given in its opening scenes to help you - Superman's gone, the Justice League are just about keeping everything together, and some new guys have shown up and one of them might be Superman. Indeed, any of them might be Superman, but who gets to judge?

Lois for one, Diana warrior-princess another, and with a probable Bechdel pass (with ice-cream) that's just one of the nice touches that makes this such a pleasant watch. The cast verges on the ridiculous, but while Kevin Conroy is more my Bat-Man than Jason O'Mara could ever hope to be, the visual style is close enough to the animated series that I was a kid again. The cast is great - plenty of famous names with various degrees of voice work experience - while Rocky Carroll might be most famous now for NCIS he's been doing animated stuff since at least Gargoyles, and his Perry White manages to carry the loss Metropolis feels for two of its sons.

Differently motivated by the absence of the Man of Steel is Rainn Wilson's Lex Luthor - I'm not sure anyone else could manage to deliver a line as simple as "I literally am" with the right emotional cocktail. The target is Cameron Monaghan's Superboy, whose character design is so Nineties it hurts, introduced in a way that made me wonder if the Flash (Christopher Gorham) was going to turn up. Before he and the rest of the Justice League appear (and that's one of many differences from 2007's Superman: Doomsday) there's the other three Supermen to introduce. Of particular note is that the fourth throws a nuclear rocket into space - you could call that a Quest For Peace, and I was pleased to get that reference. Steel has appeared on film before, but Eradicator does just what he says on the tin, and Cyborg Superman is similarly unlikely to fall afoul of trades descriptions.

Rebecca Romijn's Lois Lane and Rosario Dawson's Wonder Woman aren't quite the core of the film - it's called Reign Of The Supermen, but there's something affecting about the way that they are each trying to process both the loss of Kal-El and the mystery of his possible return(s).

Also, the fights are amazing. There's a four-way superbout sparked by Superboy with some strong finishing moves. With strong competition from Incredibles 2 and Into The Spider-Verse it's one of the best action-sequences in the genre I've seen. Strong competition doesn't even begin to cover the teen-titanic battles that follow. Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern does almost as much as Deadpool 2 to redeem the character, but as 'another alien invasion' grabs the headlines the supermen have a chance to shine.

Some sort of literally, the DC Animated Universe makes good use of its freedoms from the shackles of literal representation - a trap that held Venom back. There's plenty of action in its 87 minutes, Sam Liu continues his run of faithful but fun adaptations of classic comic storylines (Planet Hulk remains a favourite), and Jim Kreig and Tim Sheridan have done an astounding job synthesising something as pacy and as clear from the action of 21 comics by five writing teams building a conclusion to a story that ran for almost a year across six titles.

The DC Universe Animated project is a huge one (33 and counting) and its freedom to borrow from different continuities is one of its real strengths. It's almost a shame that its direct to video nature means that some will look down on these, but The Reign Of The Supermen soars. It's available via streaming and DVD. Look it up on wifi, you won't be bored, it isn't plain, it's super, man.