Nerdly » ‘Superman: Man of Tomorrow’ 4K UHD Review

02nd Jul2025

‘Superman: Man of Tomorrow’ 4K UHD Review

by Phil Wheat

Featuring the voices of: Darren Criss, Ryan Hurst, Ike Amadi, Zachary Quinto, Alexandra Daddario, Brett Dalton, Neil Flynn, Bellamy Young | Written by Tim Sheridan | Directed by Chris Palmer

It’s the dawn of a new age of heroes, and Metropolis has just met its first. But as Daily Planet intern Clark Kent – working alongside reporter Lois Lane – secretly wields his alien powers of flight, super-strength and x-ray vision in the battle for good, there’s even greater trouble on the horizon. Follow the budding hero as he engages in bloody battles with intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo and fights for his life to halt the attack of power-hungry alien parasite.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow originally debuted on DVD and Blu-ray back in 2020 and was, at the time, a reboot of DC’s “Animated Universe”, which removed all continuity from the “The New 52” series of animated features, which tied into the comics continuity of the same name. Now the film, alongside another animated feature, All-Star Superman, has been re-released to cash in, sorry… coincide with the release of James Gunn’s new Superman reboot. Which is funny, because this animation is also a reboot. Not only of the continuity of DC’s animated features but also a retelling of the backstory for The Man of Steel, taking the audience to his early days as an intern at the Daily Planet and his beginnings as a learning-on-the-job Superman… Essentially, this is like DC’s version of Spider-Man Homecoming – complete with a pre-costume Superman flying around and not quite getting the hero thing right. Which, in this case, leads to the creation of the aforementioned power-hungry alien parasite.

The biggest change here is the strange decision to alter Superman’s origins so much that it now involves the participation of alien bounty hunter Lobo and J’onn J’onzz, aka Martian Manhunter; a character whose appearance here is more akin that of the CW show Supergirl rather than the Martian Manhunter I am more familiar with in the comics – though to be fair that version was the straight man in the comedic take on the Justice League in the late 80s/early 90s! Whilst using these character within Superman’s origin story is a little odd, the idea that J’onn J’onzz and Superman, aka Kal-El, are both the last of their kind is a really nice touch that adds some emotional resonance to a animated film that seems more interested in showing Supes in action – fighting Lobo, fighting the alien parasite – than digging into Superman’s “new” beginnings. Though to be fair, there is a lot of internal conflict in this version of Superman, which at least gives this origin story a bit more depth. But then why rehash the origin as per usual? After all, we’ve seen it all before a myriad of times in other films, TV shows and even in the previous animated movies, so there’s no need to retread it again; and Superman: Man of Tomorrow certainly doesn’t do that!

If I’m honest, the real selling point for Superman: Man of Tomorrow is the appearance of Lobo. One of DC’s best anti-heroes, Lobo has been overlooked in pretty much every DC property outside of the comics. Here Lobo does not disappoint… Epitomised in this film as the typical loud-mouth bad-ass he is in the comics, Lobo is brought to [larger than] life by the voice acting of Sons of Anarchy star Ryan Hurst, who seems to be channelling a little bit of his SoA co-star Ron Perlman in his performance! It’s a brilliant take (cocky, arrogant and a little bit camp) on the character.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow‘s animation style is light-years away from what preceded it, looking much more like the TV show Archer than anything else. It takes some getting used to but once you acclimatise to it, you’ll soon realise that this new style and its more vibrant use of colours really help capture that comic book style, leaving the dark and gloomy days of the DC universe behind (hopefully). Which ties in PERFECTLY to what it seems James Gunn is trying to do with the movies – get out of the dark Snyder-verse and bring back some of the joy of the original Superman movies (and hopefully some of the laughs from his Suicide Squad movie too).

Unlike the original release of the Superman: Man of Tomorrow, which only had a few lightweight extras – two featurettes, Lobo: Natural Force of Chaos and Martian Manhunter: Lost and Found, a couple of puff-pieces that wouldn’t look out of place on a episode of E!; and a couple of the old Superman: The Animated Series episodes – this 4K re-release contains a bevy of new extras to get audiences hyped for the upcoming movie, including two more featurettes: The Death of Superman: The Brawl that Topped them All, and Lex Luthor: The Greatest Nemesis, along with an all-new documentary entitled Long Live Superman, AND even more cartoons featuring the eponymous hero!

If you’ve still got the original Blu-ray release of Superman: Man of Tomorrow then there’s not much to recommend about this upgrade. However, if you’re new to DC animation and are hyped for the forthcoming film, then this 4K might just satiate your appetite for now!