Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced its four animated movies coming out in 2019– ‘Reign of the Supermen’, ‘Justice League Vs.the Fatal Five’, ‘Batman: Hush’ and ‘Wonder Woman: Bloodline’.
The first film, ‘Reign of the Superman’ was teased in the animated adaptation of ‘The Death of Superman’. In the comics, this storyline immediately followed the ‘Death of…’ event. In it, four new Supermen emerged following Superman’s death at the hands of Doomsday. Originally, they were known only by vague descriptions but eventually went by other names. Man of Steel simply became Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, a.k.a. Hank Henshaw would become known as Cyborg Superman, although because the Teen Titans character Cyborg was basically dormant at that time, he was often referred to simply as Cyborg. The Metropolis Kid became known as Superboy and The Last Son of Krypton would become The Eradicator.
It was originally teased that one of these would turn out to be the real Superman but of course, none of them were. Steel (John Henry Irons) and the genetically engineered Superboy, who eventually was revealed to be a clone of both Superman and Lex Luthor, became heroes on their own right. Steel went on to join the Justice League, while Superboy was a member of Young Justice, then the Teen Titans. For a time, The Eradicator was treated as something of an antihero but was later established as a villain. Cyborg Superman was basically a villain from the start and at one point became a Yellow Lantern.
‘Reign of the Supermen’ will be released early in 2019.
‘Justice League Vs. The Fatal Five’ is not based on a comic book. The Fatal Five– Emerald Empress, Mano, Persuader, Tharok and Validus– are enemies of the Legion of the Superheroes and therefor are from the 31st Century. Does this mean the Justice League are traveling into the future? Or are the space criminals coming to the present? And does this mean the Legion of Superheroes will make an appearance? If so, could they possibly spin off into their own animated movie, the way the Teen Titans have?
‘Justice League Vs. The Fatal Five’ arrives in spring 2019.
‘Batman: Hush’ will be released in summer 2019. It is based on Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s bestselling comic book series. In it, Batman must face off against some of his worst enemies including The Joker, Harley Quinn and Ra’s al-Ghul, not to mention his ally Superman, who becomes enchanted by Poison Ivy. The comic story also explored Batman’s romantic relationship with Catwoman. The comic book story consisted of 12 issues, so the movie will likely edit out a lot of the subplots.
The final movie is ‘Wonder Woman: Bloodlines’ which is not based on a comic book story. Its release date is unknown, but will likely arrive later in 2019.
It will be interesting to see how these animated movies perform with the DC Universe streaming service launching and offering many of the previously released direct-to-video movies. Will fans still buy the DVDs and Blu-Rays when it’s possible that these films will be offered to stream for free to subscribers of DC Universe?
Which of these projects are you most looking forward to?
Source: DC Comics
