'Reign of the Supermen' Is an Underwhelming Followup

Reign of the Supermen is the sequel to last year’s The Death of Superman, continuing the DCAMU’s take on the 90’s Superman comic book storyline.  (Warning: the following synopsis is a bit spoiler-y, but not really; considering that the source material is at least two-and-a-half decades old, the following information is basically out there already.)  Six months after Superman gave up his life to stop Doomsday, four different heroes have emerged claiming to be Superman – Superboy, Steel, Eradicator, and Cyborg Superman.  However, when one of them turns out to be working secretly with a vengeful alien invader, the remaining three “Supermen” must put aside their differences, and work together with the revived Superman – the real Superman – to save the world.

I really liked The Death of Superman.  In my review for it, I deemed it the best DCAMU installment to date.  I liked it a lot that it ended up getting a spot on my list for top 20 movies of 2018.  On the other hand, although it was entertaining, I unfortunately didn’t like Reign of the Superman as much.

Maybe it’s because it was released while the first half of Young Justice’s season three was ongoing.  Since that DC animated show really had fantastic storytelling, Reign of the Superman felt sloppy in comparison.  Or maybe it’s because the “Reign of the Supermen!” arc was the most complex part of “The Death of Superman” comic book event, and there’s not enough room for a feature-length film adaptation to comprehensively explore all its interesting plot threads and give them justice.  Regardless of the reason, I was underwhelmed.

However, I appreciate that it’s not a beat-for-beat adaptation of its comic book source material.  It does a couple of things differently with its story.  I especially like that the Justice League has a significant supporting role here, and the dialogue among them is constantly fun.  In addition, the movie integrates New 52-inspired DCAMU elements quite nicely, and even adequately establishes the DCAMU’s next story direction through them (spoiler: being true to its New 52 basis, the DCAMU is making Lex Luthor part of the Justice League).  Still, these twists aren’t considerably taut and mindblowing to make this movie a rewarding alternate to the original.  There are plot holes that arise from them as well.

In the end, Reign of the Superman is okay.  It doesn’t have the same emotional punch that its predecessor had, but it should be able to mostly satisfy everyone who has grown to love the DCAMU.