Clark Kent (Jerry OāConnell) is worried about his relationship with Lois Lane (Rebecca Romijn), and vise versa, as his secret identity is getting in the way. Meanwhile, Lex Luther (Rainn Willson) has discovered a strange object hurtling toward Earth and he speculates that this may be his way to get back at Superman. The object crashes into the sea, and releases Doomsday. The rest of the Justice League (Rosario Dawson, Nathan Fillion, Christopher Gorham, Matt Lanter, Shemar Moore, Nyambi Nyambi, Jason O’Mara) take on Doomsday, but it will be up to Superman to deal with the monster in the end.
Why did they choose this story to animate? The Death of SupermanĀ is known as one of the worst stories in comics history. It was a cheap, sleazy cash grab. The story was barely a story: Big troll shows up and punches Superman to death; the end. Doomsday is one of the dullest DC villains. He has no personality and even a bland design. The only plus, and this is certainly not clearly a good thing, is that at the time it was first published, people actually thought that DC might kill off Superman for good. Sounds silly, but I remember this. But we know now that heās just going to pop back up, so in a story where Superman dying is all that there is, the fact that we know that he doesnāt leaves us with nothing.
Ah, but thereās more. They already did it. In 2007, DC animation produced Superman/Doomsday, which is based on The Death of Superman comic. If that wasnāt enough, Superman was killed at the end of the live action Batman v Superman after fighting Doomsday, and came back in Justice League. So, itās been done to deathā¦
Yet here we go again, and itās about as good as it could have been, which isnāt that good. The animation is a few steps up from Superman/Doomsday, though a few steps down from what weād expect in a theatrical release. The voice talent is solid, with OāConnell, Romijn, and Fillion (in a long cameo) as standouts, giving their characters the emotion needed for a story so low on plot. And the dialog isnāt embarrassing.
Since the main plot is just one never-ending battle (so longā¦ so very long), the video is filled out with the relationship tension between Lois and Clark. This might have worked in 1950 or 1960, but we are fifty years too late to do a āGosh, Clark has a secretā story. We all know his secret. Weāve all know how Lois will react. You canāt build tension when everyone watching knows everything thatās going to happen. (Sure, they might assume a couple five-year-olds donāt yet know about them, but if thatās the target, then maybe cut the vulgarities).
Much like the recent Justice LeagueĀ film,Ā The Death of Superman brings home how silly the Justice League is as an organization, or how pointless any superhero not named Superman is. All of them combined are but a bug next to the blue boy scout. That fact makes the first part of the overly long fight even worse as the rest of the League apparently are the worst strategists in history.
It ends as the comics did, which means thereās a part 2 coming next year: Reign of the Supermen. And theyāve set it up to play out just like the comics, which Iāve been told repeatedly by Superman fans is probably the second worst Superman storyā¦after this one.