Serving as a sequel to
The Death Of Superman remake,
Reign Of The Supermen covers the other half of the 90s comic book saga where Superman was killed off by a monster called Doomsday. This takes a few liberties with the original story arc by bringing it into modern day, and as part of the "New 52" line up of DC Universe animated movies.
A half a year after Superman's demise, and Metropolis has had four separate heroes showing up, each wearing the S-shield. This includes a shades-wearing lookalike, a tall guy in power armor, a fame-seeking teenager, and a dark-looking cyborg. Lex Luthor holds a press conference revealing that the superteen works for him, but a battle with all four Supermen results in the teenage-super is a clone. Lois figures out that the guy in armor is John Irons, a former employee of Luthor's, and the two of them figure out that the cyborg is the reportedly dead astronaut, Hank Henshaw. During the launching of the Justice League's new watchtower, "Superboy" and the Cyborg help secure the President as
she gives a speech during the event. But a random boom tube opens up with a Parademon raid, leading to the Cyborg saving the President, and the League getting stuck in another dimension, although most everyone thinks that they are now dead as well. The President leaves America's defense up to Cyborg Superman, believing him to be the true Superman. Irons as "Steel" follows the specs-wearing Superman known as Eradicator to a structure in the Arctic where it's shown that the
real Superman was taken to by the ship that brought him to Earth as a chld, and formed a fortress to shield him while his body recuperated. The Eradicator was really a hard light hologram programmed by his ship's computer to fill in for Superman during his regeneration. Superboy joins Superman and Steel to stop Hank Henshaw from opening a boom tube for Darkseid's forces to take over the Earth, and accomplishes this with some Metropolis residents he sweet talked into wearing cybernetic super-suits. Luthor manages to free the Justice League from their exile to take care of Henshaw's flunkies, but the Henshaw himself betrays Darkseid(who originally sent Doomsday in the first place)when he finds out that Superman is still alive so he can kill him on his own. Taking Lois captive, Henshaw launches the League's watchtower into orbit, but genuine Superman arrives to shove Eradicator's program into his cybernetic skull which...eradicates him. The League reforms in their new space station, with Luthor apparently joining their ranks.
The finale to this two-parter works out still as its own film, although its pretty important to have watched the prior one. The changes in the story from the comic book arc are acceptable, although the idea of the President allowing a sinister-looking cyborg to create his own volunteer super-human army is a little hard to swallow. The dub is good too, most notedly Cameron Monaghan(
Gotham's "Joker")as the 90s-heavy caricature of Superboy. The fights between the various Supermen pans out great too. It's unknown at this point what the post-
Flashpoint animated DC Universe, but with new solo movies involving Batman or Wonder Woman might continue the current timeline.
