Something that fans appreciate about James Gunn‘s newly minted DCU Chapter One slate is that it’s not afraid to wear its influences on its sleeves. Various projects, from Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow to Batman film The Brave and the Bold, have their titles lifted wholesale from comic book series. This suggests a certain amount of faithfulness to what’s come before — although we’re confident that Gunn’s Man of Steel reboot won’t hit anywhere near as hard as the first movie called Superman: Legacy.
Smallville, Lois & Clark, and Superman & Lois might grab most of the attention, but the most authentic TV adaptation of the Last Son of Krypton there’s ever been is arguably Superman: The Animated Series, the second entry in the acclaimed DC Animated Universe of the 1990s and 2000s that kicked off with the legendary Batman: The Animated Series. After three seasons, S:TAS concluded with an epic three-part finale that was later repackaged as a TV movie, which just happens to share a title with Gunn’s new film.
The two movies are unlikely to have much in common in terms of plot, however, as the animated effort — despite ostensibly being for family audiences — is bound to be the much more hardcore of the pair, seeing as its storyline could’ve been dreamed up by Zack Snyder. The killer opening to Legacy sees an alien world subjugated by the forces of Apokolips, led by a brutal armored solder identified as the son of Darkseid. Eventually the soldier unmasks himself to be revealed as… Superman?!
It’s later revealed that Darkseid brainwashed Kal-El into believing his pod crashed on Apokolips instead of Kansas and that he was raised by the evil overlord. Darkseid sends Superman to Earth, as part of a cruel plan to use the planet’s greatest defender against it. In an eerie mirror of a live-action Justice League moment, though, Clark finally comes to his sense when he catches sight of Lois Lane. After eventually escaping the U.S. military, Superman defeats Darkseid in battle, with Supergirl convincing the furious hero not to kill him.
The saga ends with the world’s faith in Superman in tatters, as Clark admits to Lois that he fears he will never be able to win back the people’s trust. As this ended up being the last outing of the show, Legacy serves as wildly downbeat conclusion — although Superman would return, and fight Darkseid again, in the follow-up Justice League series.
With Gunn promising that his Kal-El will be a fresh-faced good-natured hero who’s all about Truth, Justice, and the American Way, there’s little chance of the next Superman: Legacy movie packing the same kind of Kryptonian-powered punch as the last one.