Brandon Routh will be rocking the Kingdom Come Superman suit in the Arrowverse's big Crisis crossover
Although it’s never reached quite the heights of Alan Moore’s Watchmen or Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns in terms of gritty responses to the colorful 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 background on his S is black now, because his wife is dead, and he’s sad. All of which is prelude to the following image, which reveals 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, Crisis On Infinite Earths:
Routh, of course, played the Big Blue Boy Scout in 2006's Superman Returns, which portrays itself as a direct 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 appear 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 so far.