MOVIE REVIEW: Reign of the Supermen: Faithful and Entertaining Adaptation

Yesterday I had an awesome afternoon. I spent the day at the local theater seeing a double feature hosted by Fathom Events.Â The double feature was the recent Death of Superman animated film followed by an advanced screening of Reign of the Supermen.Â Superman’s death and return is one of his most iconic comic stories and introduced several new characters who have become large parts of the DC Universe and the animated version was a great adaptation of the source material.

Peter Tomasi is one of my favorite Superman writers of all time. He has a way of delving into the man in the Superman. He does not write Superman who masquerades as Clark Kent, but rather Clark Kent, Kansas farm boy who happens to be Superman. When I saw he was handling the script for this film I knew it was in good hands. Sam Liu has also had an impressive history with handling these characters so seeing him in the director’s chair was another good sign.

The relationship between Clark and Lois is central to the emotional core of the film. You feel the connection between them and I think the credit for that goes to the real life married couple who played them.Â Jerry O’Connell was great as Superman and in my opinion has been prepping for this for a long time. My first exposure to Jerry O’Connell was an old TV show that I used to love called My Secret Identity, in which he plays a kid who accidentally gets super powers and gets into wacky adventures for a few seasons. Lois is brought to life by Rebecca Romijn and she delivers a Lois Lane that you can believe would have a lunch date with Wonder Woman and be on equal footing. The casting decision to have them play off each other was brilliant as they bring an emotional depth that just can’t be faked.

The biggest hurdle Tomasi had to content with was getting from the New 52 inspired Superman/Wonder Woman relationship that had been established in this film universe to the Clark/Lois relationship needed for this film to keep its emotional core and have the loss be as impactful. It was done well and without awkwardness, in fact there is a funny moment when Clark finds out that Lois and Diana are having lunch and he acts as nervous as any other guy would be with their present girlfriend and ex girlfriend hanging out. I liked the friendship that developed between Lois and Diana and that it showed Lois as not a side character, but someone who could be Superman’s partner and stand beside him and walk in his world.

They did have to cut a lot of story elements from the comics out such as the destruction of Coast City and stuck to the use of Darskseid as the main antagonist again rather than introduce a new villain as well as the 4 new Supermen. There just is not enough time to fit in six months of comic storylines spanning four core titles. I think they made the right call by streamlining to the core elements of the story.

I was impressed with Reign of the Supermen, it transported me back in time to Planet 9 Comics, the comic shop I owned at the time the comics came out with my old friend (and current Evil Kat cohort) Neill Hiltebrand. I could almost feel the polybags. If you’ve enjoyed the new DC animated films or Death of Superman film then this is a must see, and if you’re just a fan of Superman and want to see a great adaptation of the comic then check it out.

The film is out on Digital HD on January 15, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on January 29, 2019. Rating: 4/5!

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