Reign of the Supermen (2019)

Reign of the Supermen arrives as the second half of a two-part elegy, the animated continuation of a story in which the world's most durable property briefly died and then, as properties do, came back. Four claimants to the shield present themselves: a clone, a machine, a hologram, and a man in a steel suit. The film handles this crowded premise with the efficiency of a committee that has read the source material and intends to honor it. There is grief here, and there is Lois Lane working her sources. None of it asks to be applauded for its virtue.

The roster is diverse in the manner of the comics it adapts. Steel is a Black hero central to the plot, voiced with conviction, and his race is simply a fact of the character, never a subject of commentary. Cyborg Superman and Lois round out a cast that reflects the page instead of a casting memo. No romantic or identity subplot for the LGBTQ community appears. No climate anxiety intrudes. Lex Luthor schemes because he is a megalomaniac, not because the screenplay has opinions about wealth. Bodies are not discussed. No character is diagnosed. History is not revised, only adapted. The moral instruction, such as it is, amounts to a handful of lines about hope.

What remains is a competent action cartoon about succession and imposture, released direct to home video, which is where such things live. It does not lecture. It does not scold. It tells its story and credits the audience with enough intelligence to follow four Supermen without a preamble about the correct way to feel. In an era when even the pulpiest entertainment arrives with a syllabus attached, this one keeps its politics in the drawer marked source material. Refreshing, if unremarkable.