Even though, it was never able to reach quite the heights of Alan Moore’s Watchmen or Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns in terms of ambiguous conclusions to the colors world of comic book melodrama—likely because it’s just a little bit too nice—Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come has always maintained a warm spot in the hearts of fans of alternate universe superhero stories.
Written as a reaction to the rising violence of ’90s anti-heroes and crimefighters, the miniseries centers on a version of Superman attempting to hold on to his idealism in an increasingly vicious world; also, the atmosphere on his is black now, because his wife is dead, and he’s unhappy.
All of which is an introduction to the cult image, which indicates that old Superman Brandon Routh will, in fact, be playing Old Superman when he re-dons his tights for the Arrowverse’s next big crossover event.
Routh, of course, portrayed by the Big Blue Boy Scout in 2006’s Superman Returns, which depicts itself as an immediate sequel to the Richard Donner Superman movies with Christopher Reeve.
That makes him the de factor senior Supes on the block, even if he’s spent most of the intervening years playing other superheroes (and also one notable evil vegan).
He’ll occur in the crossover event alongside Tyler Hoechlin, the Arrowverse’s “official” Superman, and Tom Welling, who played the character on Smallville—plus a whole bunch of other cameos, including animated Batman favorite Kevin Conroy playing a version of Bruce Wayne.
It’s not clear yet how closely Routh’s portrayal of Kal-El will line up with Waid and Ross’ version, but he’s definitely got that silver fox superhero thing working for him.
Not too way back, we learned that Superman Returns star Brandon Routh would be reprising his big-screen role as the Man of Steel for Crisis on Infinite Earths, but the version he’s enjoying is impressed by the DC Comics Kingdom come back plotline.
Now we have the first official photo of the Brandon Routh Kingdom Come to Superman straight from The CW