Hello, my friends. 2026 marks an interesting time for the Man of Steel and his vast cast of characters. The Man of Tomorrow is coming off his first solo cinematic outing since 2013, his cousin is highlighting her own theatrical entry after an initially clumsy big-screen venture forty-two years prior and a certain TV show is set to turn 25 years old in the fall. Not to mention, “Superman Returns” is also celebrating its 20th anniversary. On that note, we’ll be tackling something that also came out the same year. The Last Son of Krypton will be facing a personally escalating conflict caused by a technological piece of his home world, yet we’ll find out how well it holds up after two decades. As such, it’s time to cast a critical eye upon an animated venture known as…
Released on June 20, 2006, this film saw Duane Capizzi write the screenplay while also coming up with the story alongside Christopher Simmons. As for the director’s chair, that would be occupied by Curt Geda, who also worked as a supervising producer and a storyboard artist. In terms of the personal and external struggle that our main hero will find himself in along with its strengths & weaknesses, let’s soar on in and find out.
After the film opens on a particular piece of space rock burning its way across the cosmos while also leading into the title card…
…we then shift to the Metropolis-based LexCorp where Lex Luthor (voiced by the late Powers Boothe) has a small piece of Kryptonite. However, he’s disappointed that it was the only piece of the radiated material that he could find following a two-year space-based mining venture that cost him $3 billion. It’s then revealed that he’s talking to his bodyguard named Mercy Graves (voiced by Tara Strong) as he then mentions how he continues to take financial hits every time our main hero prevents him from his global ambitions. He even says that the public cares more about “amazing heroes” as opposed to him helping out the city’s economy, which is why his company has built a weaponized satellite called the Lex 9000 in order to protect the city & the planet from “wayward meteors and alien threats”. Just then, it detects the aforementioned space rock burning across the atmosphere before it suddenly changes direction and begins to head towards Earth.
This then gets picked up at the remote Lex Labs as the head worker gives the order to send the Lex 9000 after it, to which it proceeds to open fire upon the meteor. However, it’s able to evade the opposing firepower before beginning to enter Earth. The lab head then learns that its heading right for their building, to which he activates the alarm as the workers proceed to take cover while the building goes into reinforced lockdown. The meteor then slams right outside of the lab before the security camera picks it up from its impact site.
Just then, the workers discover that it was actually carrying a particular being who turns out to be Vril Dox a.k.a. Brainiac (voiced by Lance Henriksen). He then proceeds to blast his way inside while the technicians manage to flee before he arrives at the central mainframe in order to accumulate its data.
Over at the Daily Planet, Editor-In-Chief Perry White (voiced by George Dzunda) tells his staff that Brainiac has hijacked Lex Labs and that his action is threatening to cripple Metropolis by crashing their computers. After slipping out of her heals and into some sneakers, Lois Lane (voiced by Dana Delany) says that she’s on it before she actually heads into the men’s room in order to get photographer Jimmy Olsen (voiced by David Kaufman) while telling him that she can’t afford to let “Kent” beat her to this. However, Kal-El a.k.a. Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman (voiced by Tim Daly) overhears her from afar before changing into his familiar outfit and flies off towards the brewing situation just as Lois and Jimmy begin to drive towards there.
Meanwhile at LexCorp, Lex learns from an assistant that Brainiac has crash-landed at Lex Labs to which he gets baffled as to how his satellite failed to stop said being from reaching Earth yet Mercy offers to get his limousine ready.
Over at Lex Labs, Brainiac continues to purge the facility of its data before he’s then confronted by Superman. However, Vril had managed to download various information about the building’s accompanying tech including its weapons as he launches a missile from it. As such, Kal-El is forced to fly after it while Lane and Olsen notice it from her car. He then asks her what they’re now going to do, to which she notices something and says that they’ll “get another angle on things” as she drives over to another part of the vast compound.
Meanwhile, the missile begins to reach Metropolis while Superman continues to fly after it. Over at the Daily Planet, Perry berates a reporter for not being like Clark. Suddenly, the guy spots the projectile heading right towards the building and flees before Kal-El manages to force it away in time. From there, he sends the missile into the nearby water where it safely explodes.
Back upon the Lex Labs compound, Lois proceeds to climb up an antennae despite Jimmy warning her that something bad always happens from this kind of action before he asks her why she keeps putting herself in these kinds of predicaments. She mentions that “he’s why” right as Superman flies back in order to confront Brainiac, who had just stolen the facility’s data in order to pursue his personal goal of becoming “the ultimate intellect”.
Kal-El then uses his Heat Vision on him which sends the being into the building with enough force in order to also get him buried in the resulting rubble. However, Vril managed to withstand the assault before he then uses his newly-acquired access to the Lex 9000 and fires its powerful beam at Superman. Even though it’s not powered by Kryptonite, it still manages to strike him with a hard-hitting blast.
He’s then forced to dodge the beam in order to eventually get another attempt at Brainiac, but is unable to. During this, Luthor and Graves arrive on the scene as he’s initially ecstatic at seeing Kal-El suffer but he then gets bummed that he could face some consequences if anyone found out that it was his meteor-busting satellite that eradicated Superman. Despite that, he still decides to take in the scene.
Vril then accesses the lab’s various missiles and proceeds to fire them at his adversary, to which Kal-El is able to evade some of the shots but ultimately gets bombarded by them.
He’s then forced to dodge more of the Lex 9000’s powerful beam before he finally flies into Brainiac and rams him into a ground-based antennae, causing its receiving program to malfunction where it then starts firing wildly across the compound. Sure enough, Lane finds herself in trouble when it blasts the base of the antennae that she’s on. It then begins to fall over, yet it manages to hang on due to a support cable while she’s also able to hang on for dear life. However, Olsen then notices that the safety cable is starting to snap apart from the immense weight.
Back with Superman, he ultimately defeats the lab’s various missiles before he grabs onto Vril in order for the remaining missiles to blast both of them. While Kal-El is able to wearily get up, Brainiac wasn’t remotely harmed by the projectiles as the Lex 9000’s beam manages to reach and strike Superman.
Meanwhile, Lois is able to climb back onto the crippled antennae while the safety cable continues to rip apart as Jimmy proceeds to yell out for help. Back with Vril, he has the Lex 9000 blast a continuous beam onto Kal-El as he looks forward to draining Earth of its data. Just then, Superman hears Olsen’s cry for help as he gathers enough strength to use his Freeze Breath in order to encase Brainiac in ice. With Vril now immobile within a frozen state, he loses his connection to the Lex 9000 which causes its beam to cease firing. Kal-El then gets up and shatters his foe with a single punch before then flies off to answer Jimmy’s plea.
Soon enough, the safety cable ends up snapping as Lane begins to fall to her doom upon the damaged antennae. Fortunately, Superman flies in and saves her.
Back at Lex Labs, Luthor and Mercy look over the remains of the recent super struggle before he then spots the lone remaining piece of Brainiac on the ground. He manages to retrieve it and place it into his pocket just before Kal-El flies in while also carrying Lois and Jimmy. Lane then attempts to ask him about his meteor-busting satellite, to which even Kal-El adds that they wouldn’t even be having this conversation had it done its job and blasted Vril before he managed to reach Earth. Lex simply brushes it off by saying that it’s new technology that’s in need of some fine tuning.
Later on back at the Daily Planet, Clark meets up with Perry as the latter commends him on his journalist skills. White then says that he would like him to become his foreign correspondent since it would allow him to travel the world for the newspaper, yet Kent is reluctant to accept the offer due to the job requiring him to be away from “home base” and “the gang”.
Meanwhile, Olsen is looking over his recent photographs from Lex Labs yet it becomes apparent to an approaching Lois that he was mostly focused on snapping shots of Graves. Lane tells him to not romantically pursue her and instead suggests a fellow staff member, particularly the paper’s food critic named Sara. Jimmy says that they don’t share anything in common, especially since he prefers “cheeseburgers and chili fries” while she’s into more fancy foods like “Chi-Chi”. Lois then tells him how beauty isn’t meant to be skin-deep, yet he calls her out for setting her romantic sights on Superman. Clark begins to approach them just as they bring this up, to which he then stays out of sight in order to eavesdrop on their conversation as he then hears Lane mention how one can feel the right connection when they look into that certain someone’s eyes.
Kent then strolls in just before Lois dismisses herself in order to go finish her newest Superman story, to which Olsen then shows off his recent snapshots of Mercy towards Clark and mentions how she has “a dangerous allure”. From there, the scene ends with Kent mentioning how she’s simply not his type while making a romantic gaze towards Lane.
Over at LexCorp, Luthor and Graves proceed to provide Brainiac with an electric-powered revival. Vril is then provided with an electric eye in order to see the man who brought him back to life as Lex tells him that they both share two common interests: world domination & their hatred for Superman. From there, Luthor offers to help him eradicate their common enemy just as long as he then gets to “publicly avenge” the eventually fallen hero in front of the public. Brainiac would then be forced off of Earth in order to go claim a distant world for his own while Lex is then free to pursue his own desire of global conquest. Vril then admits that he’s willing to leave Earth if it means that their foe will finally be bested, to which he agrees to get rebuilt just as long as he’s within close proximity of technology that he can incorporate into his new body due to him being “a bio-technic entity”. Luthor then tells him that he’ll be incorporated with something that can provide some “muscle”.
Meanwhile at the Kent Family Farm in Smallville, Clark is visiting his Earth-based parents named Jonathan & Martha Kent (voiced by Mike Farrell and Shelly Fabares, respectively). They noticed that their adopted son isn’t quite acting like his usual self, to which Kal-El admits that Lois has recently been on his mind. He then says that while things are going great between her and his superhero identity, he hasn’t been able to make a similar connection to her as the bespectacled Clark. He then says that Lane will eventually use her ace reporting skills to ultimately discover his secret identity and that he’s worried that it would shatter her trust with both sides of him. As such, he’s decided that he’ll tell her the truth. Jonathan and Martha then wonder what’s preventing him from sharing this to her, to which Kal-El admits that he’s concerned about his enemies learning of his weaknesses through her and thus they would use her in order to get to him. As such, he doesn’t want to put anyone that he cares about into this absolute peril. Jonathan then assures him that he and Martha have been doing well despite knowing his secret identity, to which she then tells Clark that a risk can be worth taking “if it’s for love”.
We then shift to the next day at LexCorp as Lex places Brainiac into a small rocket in order for it to reach the Lex 9000, with Luthor even mentioning how Vril having already hacked into said satellite will count as his alibi while Mercy also adds that he simply built it. Brainiac wishes to get going in order to get his incubation period started, yet Lex is able to provide him with a pair of objects. First up is his recently-acquired sliver of Kryptonite which will enhance Vril’s firepower in order for him to properly engage their foe, followed by a strand of Superman’s DNA that was discovered on Brainiac’s former body which will allow him to lock on to their adversary’s energy signature in order to find him anywhere. From there, Brainiac gets launched into Earth’s lower atmosphere before he detaches from the rocket and begins to drift towards his target.
Over at the Daily Planet, we then have a brief montage of Clark attempting to tell Lois his secret yet she constantly gets distracted by outside elements. At the same time, Sara keeps trying to get Jimmy’s attention yet he keeps finding some way to avoid her.
Then on one particular night, Kent is about to head out for the evening. However, Perry says that he’ll be covering for Sara due to her getting sick from eating clams. In particular, he’ll be reviewing a new restaurant. Even though Clark tries to tell him that he’s not a food critic, White mentions how the reservation is for two people and that Lois will also be joining him on the assignment.
Meanwhile, Vril reaches the Lex 9000 and proceeds to turn it into his new body before he then re-enters Earth.
Over at Le Chateau Laboe, Lane and Kent are met upon by their waiter who assumes that they’re a regular couple yet Lois informs them that they’re food critics. Over at LexCorp, Luthor is eating some spaghetti and meatballs while he mentions to Mercy that he’ll be praised as “the new boy scout of Metropolis” once he defeats Brainiac with his “Lex-O-Suit” in front of the populace with Graves even adding that the military will help him make a huge profit from investing in his war suits. Just then, an assistant comes in and informs him that mission control has completely lost contact with the Lex 9000 as Luthor calmly prepares to take part of his own plan.
Back at the restaurant, Lois and Clark are in the middle of their food critic duties as he then decides to mention how she’s been playing matchmaker towards Olsen. She simply mentions how life is too short to keep missing opportunities before she asks him if he’s seeing anybody, to which he says that he’s waiting for someone special to notice him. She then tells him that he shouldn’t be “mild-mannered” and should simply tell a woman what’s on his mind. As she lists of all of his positive traits, he then positions himself within the proper lighting before she gets stunned by this appearance. However, she just tells him that he reminds her of someone that she knows.
Meanwhile, Vril re-enters the atmosphere before he uses Kal-El’s DNA to lock on to his location as he then begins his approach.
Over at the restaurant, Kent finally gets the courage to confess his secret to Lane. Just before he can do so however, his super-hearing picks up Brainiac calling out to him as he then has to distract her with a non-existent spot on her face in order to properly super-speed away.
Immediately afterwards, Vril smashes his way in just in time for Superman to confront him and force their confrontation outside. Lois then notices that Clark has vanished before she then takes her leave from the establishment.
Meanwhile, Kal-El proceeds to engage his foe before Brainiac shoots him with a Kryptonite-fueled pulse beam. Despite taking the hit, Superman is able to keep fighting as the ensuing brawl proceeds to cause some destructive havoc throughout the city.
Up on a rooftop, Lane contacts White as she tells him that their restaurant review will become front-page material. Just then, a squadron of fighter jets fly in to engage Vril while Lois begins to take pictures of the incident with her cell phone. Back with Brainiac, he easily defeats the opposing jets while Superman wearily sees his foe emerging behind Lois.
Vril is able to track down Kal-El before they proceed to resume their struggle. Brainiac then fires another Kryptonite-fueled pulse blast which not only hits Superman but Lane as well. Kal-El is then horrified to discover that she was caught in the toxic blast, to which he then becomes enraged and proceeds to fly into Vril with enough force to smash him through several buildings. Following a blast from his Heat Vision as well as one last punch, Brainiac winds up within a mangled mess.
Afterwards, Kal-El flies back to Lois to find her in a weakened state before he uses his X-Ray Vision and discovers that her bloodstream has some cells contaminated with Kryptonite before he flies off with her in order to get her some medical attention. Back with Vril, he’s able to self-repair himself before taking his leave.
Over at the hospital, Lane is resting up while a doctor tells Perry and Jimmy that her blood cells have been fused with “traces of metal alloy” and that she won’t have much time left it her condition continues to mutate.
After overhearing this from afar, Clark proceeds to sneak into the lab and take her blood sample. Shortly after he manages to get out, a glum Olsen walks by him while mentioning that “Superman didn’t save her”. From there, Kent calmly tells him that he’ll be going away for a while but promises that Superman will do something about it as he also proceeds to discard his glasses and head out.
We then shift to the next day at LexCorp where Luthor reads a newspaper about the recent incident as Mercy mentions how this will teach Lois to snoop in his business. He then tells Graves to send Lane some flowers in order for them to have a public relations boost.
Meanwhile, Superman arrives at the Fortress of Solitude as he then gives his advanced computer system Lois’ blood sample. He then says that it’s his fault that she’s in medical peril and that Brainiac was able to know where he was at, thus believing that either his secret identity has been discovered by his foe or the fiend is able to track where he’s at. The computer system then tells him how if it’s the latter, he’s putting Krypton’s greatest secrets at risk by simply being here. Despite that, Kal-El says that nothing else matters aside from saving her from her condition. The computer system then informs him that it’s detected some feint Kryptonite within her bloodstream, thus causing her to suffer from “a highly-concentrated form of alloy fusion”. Superman then asks for a cure, yet the computer system says that none exists on Earth. However, there is one that can be obtained but it’s within the Phantom Zone.
Shortly after Vril arrives in the general area and detects where he’s at, Kal-El says that he must enter the perilous dimension. The computer system then warns him that the imprisoned criminals won’t be the most dangerous threat to him, yet he must stay focused on his mission and accomplish it within a short amount of time. Otherwise, he’ll become vulnerable to its side effects the longer he’s in there which in turn would make it trickier for him to return. He then informs Superman that the antidote known as Argonium-44 can be found deep within the Phantom Zone and that it can possibly shield him from Vril’s “modified Kryptonite”.
Suddenly, Brainiac bursts in and easily defeats the already-weakened Kal-El. He then discovers Krypton’s vast data and attempts to absorb it into his system, yet Superman says that the computer system only operates towards his DNA. However, Vril is able to easily get past this override due to him already possessing Kal-El’s strand.
As such, Superman activates the Fortress’ self-destruct sequence. Brainiac tells him that he’ll lose the knowledge of his home world as a result, yet Kal-El says that he’d rather have that than have it abused. From there, Vril escapes as the entire base blows up. Afterwards, Brainiac isn’t able to detect Superman and assumes that he’s newly-deceased before flying away. Unbeknownst to him, Kal-El managed to escape into the Phantom Zone before he begins his mission.
Back in reality, Jimmy and Perry continue to worry next to a bedridden Lane. She then manages to wearily wake up and wonder where Clark is at.
Following a brief scene in the Phantom Zone where Superman is able to fend off an otherworldly creature, Lex reads about how his adversary may finally be defeated. As such, he tells Graves that they’ll be hosting a press-invited Luau to celebrate.
Over at the hospital, Olsen continues to worry for Lois while White is frustrated over him being unable to contact Kent since he did take the foreign correspondent job. He then wonders why Clark isn’t here right now given Lane’s condition, while Jimmy is just as concerned about Superman. Just then, Perry has a realization as he says that Kent took the position in order to get away from Metropolis and not go through the pain of seeing Lois in this condition, especially since Olsen adds how she means a lot to Clark.
Back in the Phantom Zone, Superman finally reaches the Argonium-44 and uses it to heal himself from the Kryptonite that was affecting him. He then collects some of the otherworldly compound into a vile before he begins to fly back to his reality.
Over at the Daily Planet, White is working within his office when he suddenly hears a constant noise. He soon discovers that Jimmy has been bouncing a ball near the Editor-In-Chief’s office as Olsen reminds him that he himself told his photographer not to hang around the hospital. Perry says that he needs to take his mind off of their current situation, to which he decides to send him to Luthor’s party. Jimmy reminds him that he’s a photographer, yet White tearfully says that they’re short-staffed. Olsen then says that he’ll take the assignment and assures him that Lane will ultimately pull through.
Meanwhile, Superman emerges from the Phantom Zone and reaches the hospital in order to give the Argonium-44 to Lois. With it curing her of her illness, she then wearily sees him and assumes that he’s also Kent. From there, he confirms his secret identity to her.
While Vril begins to descend upon Metropolis, Lex is hosting a massive Luau at his company. Luthor then proceeds to address his attendees as he says that while LexCorp has been through a recent rough patch, his company remains dedicated to devoting its resources to the city (which he actually called “Lexopolis, I’m not kidding).
Suddenly, Brainiac shows up and begins to wreck havoc upon Metropolis. Lex then mentions to his invited guests about how Superman isn’t here right now. As such, he invites the press to head downtown so that they can see him go up against the current menace. Amongst the crowd, Jimmy then wonders what Lane would do in this situation before he realizes that he’ll need to “get another angle” as he then heads out to do so. From there, he manages to sneak his way into a top secret area of LexCorp that Luthor and Mercy have also entered into. As Lex prepares to engage Vril, Olsen discovers their secret alliance as he then realizes that he’ll need to do another thing that Lois would do which is “find proof” as he heads out to get some.
Over at the hospital, Lane has just been released and is still amazed from having just learned about Clark’s dual identity. He then tells her that he has to stop Brainiac since the fiend could find them, yet she tells him that they’re safe since their foe thinks that he’s deceased. Not only that, she’s also willing to not live with Superman anymore as long as they can be together. However, he can’t do that since all of Metropolis as well as the world will still be potentially harmed by Vril. She then assures Kent that plenty of people can go up against Brainiac, ranging from “Special Ops” and “Navy Seals” to even “that Green Lantern guy”. Just then, Clark begins to realize that something’s off despite her telling him that she’s here with him and that it’s just like he wanted. He then says that she wouldn’t know what he wanted unless he told her before he then realizes that he actually didn’t get out of the Phantom Zone.
From there, the façade fades away as Superman proceeds to fend off several opposing figures before they begin to overwhelm him. Fortunately, he rapidly spins them off before he then begins to take his aerial leave from the otherworldly dimension.
Over at the hospital, the doctor informs Perry that they did everything they could but nothing worked and that Lois won’t last another hour. Meanwhile, Brainiac continues his city-wide rampage. Just then, Lex arrives within his war suit and approaches the fiend. However, Vril isn’t playing around as he manages to deliver a fierce beatdown onto him.
He then reveals to Luthor that he had no intention of ever leaving him in charge of Earth, to which Lex says that he expected it before he mentions how the Kryptonite and DNA strand weren’t the only things that he gave him. It turns out that he also had a self-destruct mechanism installed as well as Luthor proceeds to activate it, only for Vril to mention that his own bio-technics had already found it which allowed him to deactivate it. From there, he pummels Lex with a few stomps before heading out to resume his destructive Metropolis-based onslaught.
Meanwhile, Superman finally gets out of the Phantom Zone with the antidote in hand. However, he’s then forced to choose to either save the citizens or immediately cure Lane as he ultimately decides to engage Brainiac.
Meanwhile, Jimmy gets some photographic evidence of Lex’s sub-level before he’s then confronted by Graves as she then tells him to hand over his film. He says that she’ll have to take it up with his editor-in-chief, yet she ultimately responds with a roundhouse kick to his face.
Back on the streets, Vril is still on his unstoppable destructive warpath before Superman flies in and punches his foe much to his surprise. Brainiac then fires his Kryptonite-powered pulse beam and manages to hit Kal-El, yet he’s unaffected by it due to the Argonium-44 within his system.
From there, he flies Vril over to a construction site and proceeds to pummel him with a wrecking ball along with a bulldozer. Afterwards, Brainiac is able to counterattack before their fight resumes in the air.
Back within LexCorp, Olsen continues to get beaten up by Mercy. Fortunately, he’s able to keep his photographic evidence out of her grasp before he then hides within several rows of war suits.
Back on the streets, Luthor emerges from his crater only for Vril to grab him in order to use him as a melee weapon against Superman. After Lex gets discarded during the scuffle, Kal-El manages to save some civilians from Brainiac while keeping up a fierce fight with him.
Following a quick scene at the hospital where Perry continues to stand by Lois while her condition continues to falter, Superman’s tussle against Vril rages on as Brainiac then proceeds to rip some tracks from an approaching skyway train. Kal-El manages to catch and save the onboard passengers while Brainiac uses this distraction to slip away in order to reach a nearby nuclear power plant.
He then accesses the controls and begins to overload its reactor so that it’ll start melting down. Fortunately, Superman is able to arrive and fly him out of the facility while a remaining technician is able to get the reactor under control.
Meanwhile, Vril smashes Kal-El into a generator before blasting him with his beam. Fortunately, Superman powers through it and drags one of his foe’s tentacles into the generator. The intense shock manages to dislodge the Kryptonite from Brainiac before he manages to retreat while Kal-El also recovers and flies off.
Back within LexCorp, Graves continues to hunt Jimmy down. Despite surprising her with his camera’s flash bulb, she still grabs him before delivering a swift kick that manages to disarm him of his camera before she finally takes him out with one last kick. She then heads over to the camera in order to get his film, but she soon discovers that he managed to get inside and access of the war suits. From there, he smacks her with enough force to knock her out. Unfortunately, he then discovers that he also damaged his own camera as well as the film.
Back on the streets, Brainiac resumes his destruction of Metropolis before Superman flies in to reengage him. He eventually proceeds to fly circles around his mechanical foe before delivering several crippling punches. He then discovers a damaged weak point upon Vril as he flies into it and causes the fiend to explode. Luthor even gets out of his damaged war suit before part of the perp smashes into it.
From there, Brainiac’s body lies battered and beaten before Kal-El is met by the press along with Lex who tries to sweet-talk some praise onto him. Superman then flies off before Luthor tells the reporters that he managed to soften their foe up in order for their true hero to defeat him.
Just then, Vril emerges and uses one of his tentacles to smack Lex away before heading after his adversary.
As for Kal-El, he finally reaches the hospital and is about to give Lane the Argonium-44. However, Brainiac swipes it away at the last moment before he then smashes it onto the floor.
Superman becomes enraged and proceeds to deliver one last severe beatdown onto Vril as he repeatedly smashes his foe up before he finally defeats the fiend by ramming his fist into the remaining motherboard.
He then flies back into the hospital room as he sees that Lois’ vitals are about to flatline. As the doctor and White leave the room, Kal-El proceeds to kiss Lane as he then manages to share some of the Argonium-44 from his body (presumably from his own tears) onto her thus curing her in the process. She then begins to wake up and see Superman’s face within a certain lighting, thus assuming that he’s also Clark. However, he decides to forgo sharing his secret identity and tells her that he’s just Superman.
Later, he’s at the Fortress of Solitude’s remains where he soon discovers a Kryptonian crystal containing the computer system. He mentions that they’ll rebuild the base while also informing it that Lois is completely healthy, yet he came dangerously close to losing her. Figuring that it would best for her that he kept his distance, he decides that his Earth-based identity shall retire from the Daily Planet.
Meanwhile at the Metropolis-based hospital, Luthor is recovering while telling the present press that taking some lumps comes with protecting the city as “Superman’s pal”. However, one reporter tells him that Olsen already has that title while another one mentions that there’s reports of his bodyguard assaulting Jimmy. While Lex is able to deflect that notion as her believing that there was a burglar, one other reporter holds up the silver of Kryptonite and not only mentions that it was found within Brainiac’s remains, but it also has his company’s logo on it. As such, Luthor tells Graves to call up every last one of his attorneys.
Over in another part of the hospital, Olsen is recovering from his beating while being visited by Perry and a mostly-recovered Lois. Jimmy then apologizes to White for not being able to deliver his story, yet White assures him that he can stick to photography before he and Lane begin to head out. He then wonders about lunch, to which he’s then met upon by Sara who’s actually going to share some cheeseburgers and chili fries with him.
Meanwhile, Lois talks to Perry about how Clark doesn’t seem to be too noticeable whenever he’s around before he shows up right in front of the hospital (while also pretending to have just come from his foreign correspondent job) to present her with some flowers. Just then, White gets a call about a new incident that’s just popped up before he then informs Kent that “a super-powered imp” is causing some mischief over at the wharf.
Just as Clark is about give his formal resignation, Lane immediately gets out of her wheelchair and discards her hospital gown (with her thankfully already wearing her regular clothes underneath) before she signals for a taxi to drive her to the wharf.
From there, Perry mentions how she “lives dangerously” before Clark realizes that she does so whether or not he’s around. He then takes off while telling White that he can’t be his foreign correspondent due to him being homesick. From there, the film ends with Kent deciding that she’ll be OK as long as both sides of him are around to protect her before he changes into his Superman outfit and flies off towards the wharf.
Now that this harrowing adventure has come and gone, let’s briefly get into my character analysis as we focus on Superman himself. At this non-descriptive point of his existence, he’s balancing two distinct parts of his life. While the secondary one sees him dealing with Perry wanting him to become the Daily Planet’s foreign correspondent due to his own reporting skills, the primary one has him trying to bring Lois closer into his life and not just through her romantic admiration towards his noble superhero side. Ultimately, it’s this part that serves as the main focus within the narrative especially since her fate will be put in peril once Brainiac gets a Kryptonite-based boost from Lex as a part of their deceptive alliance with each other. Sadly, it’s only when Kal-El discovers that he hasn’t left the Phantom Zone do we actually see him take the risk and reveal his secret identity to her. Even then, the movie doesn’t go far enough with the concept since we never get to see how they would be forced to adapt once she has this knowledge. It’s especially true once Lois is cured (which I’ll break down later on) since he ultimately forgoes the opportunity to share that personal tidbit with her. It seems like it’s a narrative thread that would work over the course of a television series, but everyone here only maintains a surface-level slice of it and never fully commits to this idea. Not only that, but the foreign correspondent thread is mainly used to justify Superman being away from Metropolis while he goes on his quest to acquire a cure to the Kryptonite blood poisoning that’s slowly draining Lane of her life. It is briefly brought up during Perry’s interactions with Jimmy, but it along with Kal-El’s near-ending decision to retire his Clark Kent identity are just casually dropped due to the movie wrapping up and it’s unable to change its status quo all that much. I’ll get into the film’s shortcomings with its narrative and characters in the next section, but needless to say it presents its hero with some interesting arcs & struggles to deal with only to not really embrace them aside from his physically-demanding fights with Brainiac that intertwine with keeping Lois away from the Grim Reaper’s embrace via her aforementioned illness. Despite the underwhelming way that Superman is ultimately handled, Tim Daly turned in a pretty good performance. To those who heard him voice the character for “Superman: The Animated Series” (and to a lesser extent, the video game known as “Superman: Shadow Of Apokolips”), he effortlessly makes it feel like he hasn’t skipped a beat even though George Newbern took over his part for “Justice League: The Animated Series” and “Justice League Unlimited”. He bring the right amount of energy, charisma and tone to his dual parts since that last trait comes in handy for what the story requires out of Kal-El from his character’s pair of identities. He would continue to helm this role in the two Superman/Batman films (“Public Enemies” & “Apocalypse”) as well as “Justice League: Doom” in order to prove his timely worth within said part, but what he brings to this movie does an effective job of raising the otherwise shaky material to a better level given his effective delivery towards the Last Son of Krypton.
The rest of the core cast of characters each manage to bring small semblances of arcs that either help or hinder the film in some way, shape or form. With Lois, her role is mainly planted within romance. To a lesser extent, she does help try to hook Jimmy up with someone who also works for the Daily Planet and is more on his youthful playing field. To a major extent, she’s already become smitten with Superman while he’s trying to get her romantic attention as Clark. While Olsen calling her out on her loving desire towards our hero may point to some semblance of shallowness, Lane’s remark of finding some spark upon looking into each other’s eyes can possibly see her also taking note of and her admiration towards him tempering his vast powers with his noble nature, along with him constantly showing up whenever she’s in grave peril. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get much room for any further kind of development once Brainiac takes her out of the picture until the finale. Despite her somewhat minor role, Dana Delany is still a delight to hear and she makes the most out of her part. Just like in the aforementioned animated series, she brings her wit, energy and tonal delivery to a role that she was already comfortable with in order to stand out as much as she can. In terms of Jimmy, he also has a pair of arcs that he deals with. His minor one is what initially plays out since he somehow become romantically infatuated with Lex’s bodyguard, even though she’s entirely out of his league. As such, he denies every opportunity that Sara tries to get with him simply due to his lack of interest in her along with his unwillingness to even give her a chance. Once Lois becomes bed-ridden because of Brainiac and Clark slips out as Superman in order to hunt down a cure, Olsen’s presence begins to increase once he’s sent to cover the LexCorp-based Luau and he then sneaks into the sub-level in order to discover Luthor’s alliance with the mechanical menace. Despite him taking a fierce beating from Mercy and the encounter ultimately has his photographic evidence of her boss’ operations getting destroyed as a result, he does show some burgeoning investigative reporting skills that would make his boss proud if he was able to bring his shots back in one piece. It’s only after his physical time with Graves does the secondary arc remerge at the end and he finally starts to take an interest in Sara, primarily after she shows up to share some of his favorite kind of fast food. Just like with the Superman, the primary arc takes more precedent while the other can feel like an afterthought until the movie starts to wrap up. Despite that repeated problem, David Kaufman still brought the right kind of youthful energy, wit and concern that he honed within the role throughout Superman’s animated series. Even though he shares a familiar dual arc problem with Kal-El, he still made his part shine as much as he could within his character’s available screen time. In terms of the rest of our protagonists, there’s not else to say about them. Perry is primarily connected to Clark’s secondary arc concerning the paper’s foreign correspondent position throughout. Once Lane winds up in the hospital, his attention then turns to Jimmy in order to guide him on his proper path towards becoming a little bit more valuable to the newspaper. As for Jonathan and Martha Kent, they’re only in one scene as they ultimately convince Clark to take a chance with telling Lois his secret identity due to him having some genuine feelings for her. For what little they have to work with, Geroge Dzundza, Mike Farrell and Shelley Fabares fill their roles with effective ease. Moving on to our main villains, let’s start with our primary foe in Brainiac. His initial goal starts off in traditional fashion in that he wishes to contain all knowledge and information that Earth has to offer within himself. While he does briefly keep that task up once he’s inside the Fortress of Solitude, it largely gets ignored once he thinks that he’s finally bumped off Superman since he just causes mass destruction throughout Metropolis. Along the way, his initial body gets destroyed before he receives some help from Luthor (along with a few key elements) in order to get his consciousness launched into a new vessel that contains the Lex 9000 satellite which allows him to properly combat our hero. Given his super computer-esque intellect, it would make sense that he would suspect his human helper would try to betray him in some form. Aside from that, he doesn’t return to his initial mission and simply acts like a hostile alien with no ultimate end goal for him to achieve. As such, Brainiac is ultimately the high-end antagonist for this film yet his motives ultimately gets buried within the rubble of the city-wide clash that he has with Kal-El by the end. Despite yet another character who suffers from arcs that’re unfocused or not fully-pursued, Lance Henriksen was very effective in the role. Much like Corey Burton did within Supes’ animated series, he brought just the right amount of energy to pair with the robotic monotone-esque delivery required from Vril. As a result, he helped the main fiend have a slightly bigger feel despite the perp’s mixed motives. However, we now get to Lex Luthor himself. Unlike the animated series where Clancy Brown got to voice the character as a masterful industrialist, this version attempts to inject some of Gene Hackman’s version where he had some comedic timing that nicely blended with his masterful scheming. However, the writing, directing and Powers Boothe’s performance aren’t able to gel at the proper tone in order for him to achieve some similar level that Gene was able to accomplish in the live-action movies. He has a few comedic outbursts that aren’t as funny as they’re meant to be and he doesn’t have the meticulously calculating thought process that a man of his stature should have. Yes, Luthor is able to take initial advantage of Brainiac getting smashed to bits as part of his larger scheme to gain the Metropolis citizens’ favor over Superman. After all, he provides Vril with the small Kryptonite shard that will power one of his projectile weapons along with Kal-El’s own DNA strand that somehow allows him to locate where his foe is at (which is silly but still has a comic book logic to it). Not to mention, he also planted a bomb into Brainiac as his means to wipe him out due to both sides ultimately being untrusting of each other. However, Lex ultimately realizes that he’s not in complete control as he thinks he is as Vril ultimately beat him on multiple fronts. Not to mention, Luthor forgetting to remove his company’s logo from the container holding his Kryptonite ultimately put him in major legal trouble that makes one wonder how he could possibly get out of. Ultimately, there are some moments where Powers’ vocal presentation allows him to be steely cool and confident which allows him to shine the most. Unfortunately, the failed comedic attempts combined with some out-of-character humor-intended reactions prevents him from becoming a version of Luthor that’s ultimately remembered for the right reasons. Briefly, we also have his bodyguard Mercy Graves. Not much to say about her other that even though she’s physically attractive within Olsen’s eyes, her loyalty to Lex and her physical prowess in hand-to-hand combat has her keeping Jimmy at bay until he finds an unusual way to defeat her. For what she has to work with here, Tara Strong was able to fill the shoes that Lisa Edelstein wore for the animated series as she brought a certain calm & collective coolness to the role that’s wholesome towards her boss while also fierce enough to anyone who opposes him (like a certain newspaper photographer). Given the sample size that she has to work with, it was still very sufficient. Aside from the central cast, the animation is pretty solid across the board. Even though it’s been confirmed by Capizzi that this doesn’t take place in Bruce Timm’s DC Animated Universe despite a number of voice actors from the Superman animated series returning to reprise their roles, this particular style was at its peek performance back then and it greatly benefits from smooth performance, a colorfully pleasant palette that suits its younger viewers & hardly-noticeable character stiffness as I was hard-pressed to find any moment where anyone didn’t move in a regular way. There’s also plenty of action that will satisfy younger viewers while the majority of Superman’s clashes with Brainiac bring plenty of ferocity as Kal-El has to overcome overwhelming firepower in order to properly pound his opponent into submission. The pacing throughout was mostly fine as it allowed its narrative to progress and unfold in a reasonable manner. Even when the movie briefly cuts away from Kal-El’s clash with Vril at times, it allows other parts of the overall plot to unfold on the side long enough to give its audience a momentary breather before jumping back in. As for the story, it’s suitable enough for what it is. However, Brainiac’s lack of a major end goal aside from possibly claiming Earth as his own while also taking all of its information for himself, this portrayal of Lex having its comedy sometimes undercutting his own important stature or even simply not being remotely humorous (Hello, opening moments of his Luau-based speech) and Superman contemplating on whether or not to let Lois know his secret identity in order to get more romantically closer to her before ultimately not fully committing to this idea are among the major reasons that this film get hampered from being as good as it could’ve been. That last complaint has made this movie dated in the wrong way since not only were Clark and Lois already married in the comics back in the “Wedding Album” one-shot of October 1996, but those same comic book counterparts have even given birth to their own son named Jon Kent. Yes, said Super Son wasn’t around when this movie came out but it still comes off like this film is unwilling to take a major story-based risk and make a major status quo change to our main couple. As such, the lack of any notable chances taken ultimately leaves this movie in an adequate state. Not to mention, the way that Lois is ultimately cured made it lean dangerously close to a Disney fairy tale movie kind of implausible climactic outcome. Given what we’re shown, it’s not entirely clear that it’s Superman’s tears laced with the Argonium-44 that’s in his body which he cries and they reach her which manages to be what saves her from the brink by the end. Either way, it somewhat feels like a cop-out that she’s able to be cured that way despite Brainiac managing to swipe the otherworldly compound and smash it onto the ground. Maybe if a subtle alternate way was established, then it could’ve been acceptable. As is though, that along with several of the other hampering issues drag the movie down to a state that may be acceptable for some younger viewers but will leave others unerwhelmed.
Overall, this was a suitable piece of entertainment that’s not able to leap towards super levels in a single bound. While the core characters are mainly enjoyable coupled with mostly good performances, the animation is some top-tier Bruce Timm standards and the action can be pretty engaging, the lack of full commitment towards some arcs, some lame comedy placed upon Luthor and an absurd way for someone to avoid the Grim Reaper’s sweet embrace (even by comic book standards) ultimately makes this as the kind of passive entertainment that helped to market a bigger theatrical release of a notable superhero since this came out around the same time as “Superman Returns”. On its own, this movie gets (at most) a mild recommendation and can be worth watching with some children. While it can make for some breezy entertainment, it’s own narrative weight throughout the vast Superman-based stories won’t exactly be “more powerful than a locomotive”.
Superman (created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) and all related characters are owned by DC Comics.
