Reign of the Supermen Review (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Story

• This film took a lot of the critiques I had about Death as far as how it sacrificed the DCAU continuity for the sake of an accurate adaptation of the comic and fixed them
• It takes the source material and does a better job at folding it into the pre-existing canon of the animated movies, while also staying true to the key points of the arc overall
• Whereas the Death of Superman felt like they were shoehorned in, Reign of the Supermen felt like they were placed in more naturally, specifically given the big reveal regarding the overall mastermind behind this version of the arc in these two movies
• With that being said, after seeing the overarching story between the two films, and seeing the intent, the overall story as a DCAU suffers from being two movies instead of just one
• If it were just one long 3 hour and some change movie like the combined parts of The Dark Knight Returns, the overall arc would’ve felt more at home in the DCAU as opposed to 1 part that felt like it ignored the continuity it already established, and 1 part that found that balance of pre-established history and adaptation
• It would’ve still had the other flaws and critiques I had about it (like the sudden abandonment of Clark and Diana’s relationship), but it wouldn’t have felt like it didn’t 100% fit. 

Characters

• Lois was more prominent and refreshing to watch in this Reign than she was in Death, mostly due to the fact that she was acting like Lois Lane. We get that sense of her character that we missed out on in Death because it doesn’t just focus on her being a love interest; we finally get a chance to see the core fundamentals we didn’t get a chance to experience in any of the other animated movie universe movies (which we should’ve gotten at least since War if they really wanted us to be attached to her like that)
• Superboy’s development was amazing to watch. A lot of the 21st Century stuff they added to his character fit in perfectly, and really helped enhance both the high’s and the lows that he experienced over the course of the movie. I would’ve loved to see more of him try to deal with finding himself and his place in the world while using the facade of being popular as his form of a coping mechanism; that would’ve been cool.
• As a fan of Steel, I was both pleased and disappointed in his use in this. Pleased because I got to see him shine in his own right, both in and out of the suit. Disappointed because while it did help give us that connection to Lois that the rest of the animated movies didn’t give us, he ends up playing second banana to her. A very important second banana, but a second banana nonetheless

Likes

• The use of Hank Henshaw/Cyborg Superman. While his reasoning for hating Superman in the comic book was fine for what it was, his motives were more personal and reasonable, thus making him a formidable threat. Still crazy, but you can understand how that craziness formed. It plays a lot into the “Superhero’s create their arch-nemesis” trope that was explored in the first Incredibles movie, and that one episode of Fairly Oddparents 

Dislikes

• While changing the origin of Doomsday to be Darkseid’s creation to eliminate Superman so he could easily dispatch the JL and invade earth uninterrupted was a decent rewrite to the story to match the state of the animated movie universe, I feel that the way Darkseid is currently being used in this movie and in this universe is a great injustice. He’s making the tactics and strategies like Darkseid would, but he acts at times more like Mongul than Darkseid. With the end credit scene, it feels like the next animated movie universe movie might be the last one in this continuity leading up to either a Darkseid War or a Final Crisis adaptation (maybe a combination of both), and I’m hoping there’s a return to form there

Overall

• Reign of the Supermen fixed and addressed a lot of stuff that made Death of Superman feel off
• It did a better job at delving into characters we should’ve gotten a chance to know since this animated movie universe venture started and found a proper balance of adaptation and pre-established continuity
• The film suffers a bit for being a better “second part” to a slightly weaker first, when in actuality it would’ve been smarter to just make both of these films one long cohesive movie with better pacing throughout in order to avoid such a critique in the first place.
• If you don’t mind Death of Superman or aren’t as critical of its flaws as I am, this is worth picking up. Personally, this is rental material for me