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Superman
Kal-L a.k.a Somishka
Voiced by: Jason Isaacs, Tara Strong (child)
- Adaptational Species Change: Not just him but all Kryptonians, who are an advanced race of humans from the future. This is left out of the animated film, where Kryptonians return to being an alien species.
- Adaptational Upbringing Change: An infant Superman lands in the Soviet Union instead of the United States. In contrast to the main canon's Superman's standard MO of upholding "truth, justice, and the American way", this Soviet Superman is a Totalitarian Utilitarian.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, Josef Stalin is poisoned by Pyotr Roslov and Superman attempts to save his life. In the animated film, Superman himself kills Stalin with his heat vision after he decides he doesn’t like his murderous methods of governing the Soviet Union. Old Comrade Stalin may have deserved his fate, he may have been unhappy about doing it, and it is worth noting that one of the people he found in the previously hidden gulags was his childhood best friend/first love, who died in his arms, but it does show a decidedly more ruthless side of Superman not displayed in the comic.
- Affably Evil: The rather chilling thing is that this dictatorial Superman still acts very much like Nice Guy Humble Hero regular Superman.
- All-Loving Hero: At first. People initially thought his loyalty and bias is purely towards Russia, but as Luthor correctly predicts, his altruism doesn't end at his homeland's borders. That said, there's a Deconstruction as just because Superman cares about people not dying, it doesn't necessarily means he cares about people on an individual level - or at least, he's not very good at relating to them on an individual level. Later moments of heroism are juxtaposed with inner monologue about how he's been increasingly using them as an excuse to avoid hearing about how the people aren't necessarily happy about the methods behind how their perceived utopia is thriving.Stalin: Oh, for God's sake. Who cares about Pytor Roslov?
Superman: I care about everybody, sir. - Bullet Catch: Does it when Pyotr tries to shoot himself.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the movie, his childhood friend Svetlana (a Russian version of Lana Lang) died from a combination of starvation and sickness in his arms after he rescues her from the Gulag. Understandably, he takes revenge on Stalin soon after.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He lacks the down-to-earth, human connection of the mainstream Superman. As a result, while he genuinely does care, he has problems understanding the root cause of people's unhappiness and only addresses its effects before eventually resorting to brainwashing them. This is illustrated early in a comic when he speaks to a drunk Pyotr. Pyotr's obviously despondent and depressed, shooting bullets at a scarecrow. Superman focuses on just fixing the scarecrow and can't figure out why Pyotr is so depressed.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: Can move at ten times the speed of sound and does his best thinking when approaching translight velocities.
- For Want Of A Nail: Why did Kal-L grow up in Russia instead of the U.S.? His ship simply landed on Earth later and Earth's rotation put him in Mother Russia. It's lampshaded when one U.S. official complains that twelve hours later or earlier and he would have landed in the USA.
- Flying Brick: He is Superman, after all.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After Luthor's gambit breaks him and Brainiac reveals that he's not so "reformed" after all, he sacrifices himself... just as Luthor planned, decades in advance, saying, "Checkmate." Except that he faked his death, outfoxing Luthor, and chose to live as an ordinary person instead - something foreshadowed by how Superman-Two had earlier beaten Luthor at chess. In the animated film, it's changed into more of a genuine sacrifice that Luthor doesn't foresee, with Luthor being humbled by the experience. In both versions, Superman is revealed to have secretly survived.
- Horrible Judge of Character: A result of Superman is being too focused on the big picture. He trusts the obviously untrustworthy Pyotr, ignores the clearly lovesick Diana, and admires the dictator Stalin. The animated adaptation at least had him wise up to that last one.
- Humble Hero: Before he takes over Russia, he was this. In spite of, as Pyotr rants, being proof that Communism is objectively wrong about all men being created equal, Superman regularly downplays how much of a demigod he is.
- In Spite of a Nail: The comic made it rather clear that growing up in a different country and being raised on a completely different ideology than America's actually did little to change Superman from being anything else other than The Cape he is. That was before he decided to take matters into his own hands and did exactly as people asked by using his powers to rule the world.
- Klingon Promotion: In the animated adaptation this is how he winds up leading the Soviet Union. In his defense, Comrade Stalin wasn't exactly an innocent victim, and he was focused on making the man pay for the gulags (which ended up killing his childhood best friend/first love), seemingly genuinely surprised when everyone all but bowed before him.
- Kryptonite Factor: Like his mainstream counterpart, Batman could depower him with red solar energy and Brainiac was able to hurt him with a green ray that was probably kryptonite.
- Meaningful Name: In the comic, the -L isn't just a mis/respelling of -El. It's an initial that stands for Luthor.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Luthor's Armour-Piercing Question, he completely breaks down, and performs a Heroic Sacrifice. While he survives, he spends the next however many million years living a quiet life, content to be an ordinary person.
- Named by the Adaptation: His civilian name is unknown in the comic but a childhood friend calls him Somishka in the film.
- Obliviously Evil: He genuinely thinks that his totalitarian rule over Earth is good for mankind, justifying his methods of dealing with dissenters as being For the Greater Good or anything similar. Then, Luthor breaks him with a single sentence, written on a note.Why don't you put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?
- Oblivious to Love: And hate. Superman is totally blind to the fact that Diana is in love with him or that Pytor resents him, despite neither one of them trying at all to hide their feelings toward him. This is one of the bigger warning signs to his future as a dictator. It shows that this version of Superman doesn't care about human beings or their feelings on an individual level, and is more concerned with fixing problems and making sure everything runs smoothly.
- President Superhero: Becomes Premier of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. He uses his powers to both fight crime and improve the living standard of every citizen in the expanding Soviet state, but also eliminates all free will.
- Related in the Adaptation: Kal-L is a descendant of Lex Luthor whose family name changes over the centuries into L. Averted in the animated film, due to being Kryptonian.
- The So-Called Coward: In the film Kal-L runs and hides from the bullies, not because he's afraid of them, but because he's afraid he'll hurt them.
- The Starscream: In the animated movie, after discovering Stalin's atrocities, he kills him and becomes the new dictator - though going by his expression, he was mostly concerned with avenging the slain.
- Super-Speed Reading: He reads various medical books at super-speed when Stallin is dying.
- Transhuman: Is an evolved human from the future.
- Unwitting Pawn: For all the chess motifs talk in the comic, Superman ultimately winds up unknowingly working in the service of the "reformed" Brainiac to conquer the world. That said, Superman was already a blossoming dictator with an expanding Empire when he first fought Brainiac, so it presumably didn't take much work to re-align his sights. However, in the end, he gets the better of Lex, after a fashion - he survives, but Lex is proven right.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He thinks his way is the best to save the world, and he successfully spread his revolution peacefully across the globe simply by running the "best" government, till the end when Luthor was able to finally make the U.S. a viable alternative.
Alexander "Lex" Luthor
Voiced by: Diedrich Bader
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comic, he is basically the same as his mainline counterpart aside from his different position of power giving him motivation to do good purely out of narcissism and spite towards Superman. In the animated film, despite having elements similar to his comic counterpart, he does have more obvious positive qualities such as good husband to Lois, showing genuine regret over forgetting their anniversary, as well as remorse after Lois chews him out on purposefully sending Superior Man to his death. Superman's Heroic Sacrifice at the end also causes Luthor to have an epiphany about how he's been acting in his own position of power, leading him to stepping down as president and retiring to be with Lois, while Luthor in the comic had no such epiphany and in fact predicted Superman's sacrifice.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: This incarnation of Luthor is driven to solve problems as part of his Insufferable Genius persona and pride as the World's Smartest Man, having scribbled a formula to balance the US federal budget and offered to provide a permanent cure for inflation just to prove he could. Luthor later uses his vast intelligence and resources to find ways to antagonize Superman and prove himself superior. Eventually he decides to better combat Superman by becoming President, fixing the US Economy, and eventually going on to use his knowledge to eradicate disease, poverty, and technology stagnation for thousands of years, all to prove himself as better than Superman.
- Bald of Evil: Wouldn't be Lex Luthor without it. He has a head of thick red hair at the story's start, but it recedes every time there's a timeskip until he's entirely bald. It's more downplayed in the animated movie, where he's decidedly more heroic, making him more of an example of Bald Head of Toughness.
- The Chessmaster: The comic mentions Luthor playing chess as often as humanly possible in case you didn't get the joke.
- The Empire: He ushers one in for humanity after Superman’s “death”. Their civilization eventually becomes the Krypton of this universe.
- Evil Is Petty: Luthor goes from trying to get rid of Superman because it's his job to full-on Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence-kill-him-even-if-it-costs-the-rest-of-the-planet mode because a newborn clone of Superman beat him at chess. This is also Foreshadowing of how Superman ultimately gets the better of him.
- I Let You Win: He lets Brainiac swallow him up so he can take it down from the inside, and sends a series of inferior opponents to lose against Superman, presumably to encourage his hubris and lead him to a false sense of security.
- The Man Behind the Man: Luthor foists Brainiac on Superman, so he is the man behind the man behind Superman.
- Nominal Hero: Luthor is the best chance humanity has against Superman's oppressive regime and completely correct that he's not the benevolent dictator he's convinced himself he is. He ultimately is the force that leads to the collapse of the Superman-led Soviet Empire..... Not that he cares. In classic Luthor fashion, he doesn't care at all about the betterment or independence of mankind, and is only leading the charge against Superman for his own selfish, petty reasons. He actually remarks that he reckons Superman's dictatorship had some good ideas. This is ultimately subverted in the animated movie, where Luthor puts the people first by the end and resigns as president while promising unconditional aid to the fallen Soviet Union.
- Smart People Play Chess: Luthor plays chess with 14 people at once while reading The Prince and teaching himself Urdu on a tape player he invented that morning. He is also seen playing chess right after taunting Superman about Brainiac shrinking Stalingrad, and after Superman fakes his death, he claims "checkmate."
Lois Lane-Luthor
Voiced by: Amy Acker
A reporter for the Daily Planet.
- The Maiden Name Debate: She prefers to go by "Ms. Lane", not "Ms. Luthor", thank you.
- No Accounting for Taste: In the comic. Lex is openly dismissive of her at the beginning of the story and it only gets worse as his obsession with beating Superman dominates more and more of his life. It's a complete mystery why she stays with him. This is averted in the animated adaptation, which gives Lex more fondness for his wife.
Wonder Woman
Princess Diana of Themyscira
Voiced by: Vanessa Marshall
- Adaptational Heroism: Wonder Woman is portrayal in the film has her far more heroic than her comic counterpart:
- Her relationship with Superman is strictly platonic and based on their mutual respect and ideals. In the comics, she is hopelessly in love with him and goes along with anything he says.
- The breaking of her relationship in the film had more to do with Wonder Woman seeing how increasingly authoritarian Superman had become. In the comic, she simply blamed Superman for her suffering Rapid Aging.
- In the comic, she and the Amazon join the United States in their assault on Superman, again because Wonder Woman was bitter about her injury. In the film, Wonder Woman refused to take a side and instead tried to act as the peace broker to end the conflict. Superman tried to preemptively attack Wonder Woman instead and she took that as a signal that neither side would back down and decided to wash her hands of the entire conflict.
- Adaptational Sexuality: In the comic, she had a one-sided crush on Superman. In the movie, she instead rejects Superman's advances because she's lesbian.
- Badass in Distress: She gets captured by Batman, who traps her in her own Lasso of Truth (which contains part of her own life-force, so breaking out of it would hurt her) and uses her as bait to lure Superman into his red sun radiation trap. When it becomes clear that Superman can't break out on his own, Diana makes the decision to break out of her lasso and wrecks the trap's power source to save him, at the cost of turning old and frail from the destruction of her lasso.
- Beyond Redemption: After seeing Superman inflict brutality on his opponents, Diana decides that man's world is too horrific to be saved and later announces that Themyscira will close itself away from the world once again — this time, forever.
- Big Damn Heroes: She deflects a bunch of firepower from the Green Lanterns that was directed towards Superman, but she only showed up to announce Themyscira is going remote again and to tell them one last time to make peace and they go back to fighting after she leaves.
- Does Not Like Men: She has a pretty low opinion of men to begin with, but as the atrocities committed by those in charge (including Superman) continue, she eventually declares Man's World to be beyond saving and secedes Themyscira from Earth forever.
- Gold and White Are Divine: Her color scheme after she recovers from her Rapid Aging.
- Good Costume Switch: She wears red and black in imitation of Superman whom she admires, but after rejecting him she later returns in gold-and-white to match her now-white hair, making a last effort to stop the war between the United States and the Soviet Empire.
- Mystical White Hair: As a result of Rapid Aging, her hair turns white. Though she does get better, she's stuck with the white hair, which goes with her Gold and White Are Divine color scheme when she briefly returns to Man's World in the movie.
- Rapid Aging: Happens to her after she breaks free from the Lasso of Truth, which contained part of her life-force. She gets better.
- We Used to Be Friends: After Superman tells Batman that he'll have him lobotomized and Batman committing suicide (and this is after Diana destroyed her lasso of truth at the cost of her health), she tells Superman that their friendship is over and that her mother was right about man's world being Beyond Redemption.
Batman
Voiced by: Roger Craig Smith
- Adaptational Villainy: In the comic, he's against killing civilians. In the animated film, he doesn't care and even relishes in it.Batman: You have ten minutes to escape. [bomb blows up a museum full of civilians a couple of seconds later] Did I say ten minutes? I meant ten seconds.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: He and his followers demonstrate this in spades. He has no problem blowing up buildings filled with innocent people so long as it undermines Superman’s power.
- Driven to Suicide: He blows himself up before Superman can capture him, since the alternative was getting lobotomized.
- Early-Bird Cameo: When Superman finds the secret gulag, he meets a young boy mourning his parents. When the boy confronts Superman, a swarm of bats flies out from behind him.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In both versions but in the animated version “nobody“ is lampshaded as his family suffered when he was a child and Superman of all people “didn’t hear their cries”. In the comic Pyotr Roslov bullies him after killing his parents while he’s a kid and even shoots him, to display his superior power over him. Flash-forward in both versions when he’s a feared anarchist who puts up quite a fight against both Wonder Woman and Superman.
- Same Character, But Different: Deliberately invoked. We don't know if he's Bruce Wayne or some Soviet version of Bruce Wayne like with Lana, but one thing is constant — a boy bitterly empowered by the horrific and unjust deaths of his parents who dons the mask of the bat to fight against the idea of evil that took his parents away.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In the movie, as Superman discovers the hidden underground gulag, he passes by a boy sitting next to the recent corpses of a couple. Recognizing him as their country's "hero", the boy recounts how he's heard that Superman has super-hearing — if so, why didn't he hear their cries?
Pyotr Roslov
The illegitimate son of Joseph Stalin.
- Adaptational Villainy: This version of Ross is a murderer with a petty grudge against Superman.
- Adaptation Name Change: From Peter "Pete" Ross to Pyotr Roslov.
- Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the animated film.
- Better the Devil You Know: The only reason Batman allies with him to defeat Superman is because, as Roslov points out, he's mortal and thus easier to kill once their Enemy Mine alliance is over.
- Composite Character: This version of Ross is combined with Joe Chill as the killer of Batman's parents.
- Hate Sink: Represents the worst aspects of the Soviet system.
- Patricide: It's implied he conspired with Beria to poison Stalin. This actually bothers him and he's on the verge of confessing it to Superman when the latter has to fly off and stop a train accident.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After he conspires with Batman, Superman has him working as a brainwashed menial worker.
The Green Lantern Marine Corps
Voiced by: Sasha Roiz (Col. Hal Jordan), Phil LaMarr (Capt. John Stewart), Travis Willingham (Guy Gardner)
A new U.S. military branch using power rings created by reverse-engineering Green Lantern Abin Sur's ring, led by Colonel Hal Jordan to combat Superman.
- Adaptational Badass: They're much stronger in the film, serving as the only line of defense for the US and are able to batter Superman around and nearly beat him before Wonder Woman interrupts.
- The Cameo: Guy Gardner is namedropped as one of the soldiers shortly before Superman knocks him out of the sky.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: In the movie, after Diana interrupts Superman and the Corps' fight to announce that Themyscira is cutting itself off from the world and to cement that her friendship with Superman is over (which would seem like a breakup/friendzone to everyone else, since Superman is the only one who knows she doesn't swing that way), Hal casually comments "Women, am I right?". Superman, having none of that, punches him into the ocean.
- Easter Egg: In the comic, during the sequence where Hal is reciting the oath to the other members, if you zoom in on the name tags on their uniforms you can see "Gardner", "Stewart", "Scott", and "Rayner" on four of them.
- The Lancer: John to Hal, later taking his place (albeit only briefly) when Superman pummels Hal.
- Mythology Gag: In his few seconds of leading the Corps against Superman, John yells "Light 'em up!" as they charge against Superman. A similar thing happened while he and Superman led the Justice League in a defense against the similarly implacable Amazo in Justice League Unlimited episode "The Return", with Phil LaMarr voicing him in both instances even.
Brainiac
Voiced by: Paul Williams
- Aliens Are Bastards: This is Brainiac after all. Unlike the Superman, he is only interested in conquering Earth for his own selfish ends.
- Big Bad: By the end of the comic, Brainiac is revealed to have been the true villain behind Superman, subtly perverting his ideals and using him to dominate the world.
- Dragon-in-Chief: While Superman is far stronger than him, Brainiac is undoubtedly a more dangerous threat to humanity than Supes, given he played him for a fool and manipulated him to fulfill his own agenda.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He poses as Superman's reprogrammed assistant, but is actually using him to take over the world for his own ends.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Superman tries to reprogram Brainiac into his servant. Brainiac pretended to be his servant while manipulating him with the intent of eventually conquering Earth himself, and he turns on Superman when he stops being useful.
- I Let You Win: He allowed Superman to take him down the first time because he deemed using the Man of Steel to subjugate Earth more efficient than simply killing him. He loses for real the second time around, with some help from Lex Luthor.
- The Man Behind the Man: For Superman, playing the part of a robot assistant while secretly playing him to conquer the world for himself.
- "Not So Different" Remark: He invokes that he and Superman are the same, using their superior abilities to force a weaker species to conform to their worldviews. Supes eventually realizes this and decides to stop interfering with humanity, which causes Brainiac to turn on him.Brainiac: My methods were not unlike yours. Only more efficient.
- The Starscream: It turns out he wasn't reprogrammed at all and had in fact been manipulating Superman into helping him take over the world.
- Taking You with Me: He set his ship to self destruct in the event of his death to ensure if he dies, whatever planet he is one dies with him.
- This Cannot Be!: Upon his final defeat in the animated film.Brainiac: This is illogical! You are merely a thing of flesh, while I am—
Superman: A useless machine.
Superman Two/Superior Man
Voiced by: Travis Willingham
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Subverted in the animated film; when he first appears, he looks almost identical to Superman and can speak in coherent sentences, but as their fight goes on and Luthor stresses his power, he degenerates into looking and speaking like Bizarro.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Most of the time, Bizarro is portrayed as an idiot due to being the normally super-intelligent Superman's opposite. Here, the level of his intelligence is left mostly vague on the surface. All that matters though is that he's apparently smart enough to be the first person to ever beat Luthor at chess - which serves as Foreshadowing for Superman ultimately escaping the trap.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the comic, Superman Two doesn't have much dialog, but is never seen doing anything worse than escorting a US submarine when Superman attacks. While the two do fight, killing many civilians, Superman's the one who throws the first punch. In the end he pulls a heroic sacrifice to protect London from a nuclear bomb at the cost of his own life. In the animated adaptation, he openly instigates a fight with Superman, and is little more than a walking propaganda piece being puppeteered by Luthor.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the animated film, he's called Superior Man.
- Alas, Poor Villain: His demise in the movie is downright horrible. He never had control of his short life, and Luthor over-energizing him horrifically twists and mutilates his body and his mental functions, until he enters a Villainous RRoD where he can barely form words or move and is reduced to a pathetic shell. Superman holds him and is horrified as Superior-Man dies screaming in agony from the overload.
- Clone Degeneration: The longer his fight with Superman lasts, the more body horror he suffers.
- Expy: In the animated movie he is a one for one copy of Bizarro Superman from Superman: The Animated Series. They both start out as confident copies of the man of steel made by Lex Luther. But over a heated fight and Luther’s carelessness for him the copy turns into a dumb abomination that even Superman feels pity for.
- Eye Beams: He can shoot ice beams from his eyes like some versions of Bizarro can as an opposite to Superman's heat vision.
- Heroic Sacrifice: How he goes out in the comic, carrying a nuke that threatened London into space and exploding with it.
- Large Ham (or Evil Is Hammy, from Superman's point-of-view): In the animated movie, Superior Man constantly spouts Patriotic Fervour slogans, and does a Dynamic Entry by doing a Three-Point Landing that blasts a crater in the ground and shouts a challenge to Superman so loud it breaks every window in the Kremlin.
- Unwitting Pawn: Lex knew he had little chance of defeating Superman; he just used him to throw a scare into the Man of Soviet Steel and gain intelligence on his abilities and limitations.
- Villainous RRoD: In the movie version, Lex repeatedly overloading Superior-Man with more fantastic steroids eventually gets to a point where, instead of making him get back up, it just causes him to collapse and then melt into nothing, screaming in agony all the while.
