It has been 13 years since DC fans saw Brandon Routh suit up as the Man of Steel himself in the 2006 film Superman Returns, but that all changed tonight. In the second hour of The CW's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event, fans finally got to see Routh be the Big Blue Boy Scout once again as the actor, who has appears in the event as his DC's Legends of Tomorrow character Ray Palmer/The Atom, portrayed an alternate-universe Superman who just so happens to dress like one from the 1997 comic book miniseries Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. More than that, Routh also portrayed Superman's civilian counterpart, Clark Kent, tonight as well -- and fans just can't get enough.
Spoilers for tonight's episode of Batwoman, "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part 2," below.
In tonight's portion of the crossover, reeling from the unexpected loss of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) the heroes find themselves in need of locating the seven Paragons, heroes from the multiverse that represent certain things. They already have two Paragons with Supergirl/Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) and White Canary/Sara Lance (Caity Lotz). They just have to collect the others including a version of Superman/Clark Kent who has lost more than any man should. This ultimately leads Iris (Candice Patton), Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch,) and Earth-38's Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) to Earth-96 where they meet that world's Clark Kent who is editor in chief of the Daily Planet following the tragic deaths of everyone, he's close to -- including Lois, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White. That Clark? He's played by none other than Routh and soon enough we see him suit up in that familiar blue and red costume.
It's a hugely exciting moment for fans and they quickly took to social media to react to Routh's Superman return. Of course, it's not just exciting for fans. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim previously told Entertainment Weekly, the whole scenario of Routh playing Superman, Clark and Ray was something they didn't want to miss.
"It's fun because [Routh] gets to not only play Superman but also Clark Kent and watching him inhabit those two roles...I say two roles because he plays them obviously very differently from one another," executive producer Marc Guggenheim told EW. "We also had the opportunity to see Brandon act opposite himself, because Ray Palmer is in the crossover as well. We certainly wouldn't want to miss an opportunity for Superman played by Brandon Routh to interact with Ray Palmer played by Brandon Routh."
Read on for how fans reacted to Routh's return to Superman and be sure to leave us your thoughts in the comments below.
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday's episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a "special episode" of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis. Black Lightning's midseason finale will have a "Crisis" tie-in as well, although unofficially.