Following the apparent death of the Man of Steel, a plethora of Superfakes don the spandex in an underpowered animated caper You can’t keep a good superhero dead for long – certainly not Superman, the most Jesus-y of them all. Reign of the Supermen, the latest in DC’s mostly straight-to-video, fan-orientated animated series, is showing in cinemas as a one-night-only double bill with last year’s The Death of Superman. In the latter, Supes came a cropper in an almighty dust-up with a monster after revealing his true identity to Lois Lane. Reign is set six months later, as the world reels from the death of a god among men. (In lesser news, Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent is missing.) In Metropolis, copycat Supermen have flooded the market for rescuers of small children from burning buildings. And after the operatic grandiosity of the live-action movies, this street-level crimefighting is a nostalgic treat. Still, the movie doesn’t do any favours for spandex beginners. The Superfakes are presumably fan favourites, but I mostly found them samey, and all the smashy-bashy clashes a thundering bore. Though Superboy, the cocky teenage clone hatched in a lab is hilarious. So, too, is his creator, Lex Luthor, here a lean, mean bald babe seductively voiced by Rainn Wilson as an archvillain to root for. There’s a real flavour of Greek myth in the father-son dynamic between Superboy and Luthor. Continue reading...
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