Brandon Routh reprised his role as Superman, previously having portrayed the character in the 2006 film Superman Returns. The iteration of Superman that Routh is portraying the same character, but is now based on the one in the Kingdom Come comic. One of the pen names of Superman's co-creator and The first ever artist Joe Shuster was Reuths ,which was used, for example, in Dr. Occult issue that depicted titular hero wearing red cape, symbol on his chest and leaping in the air, two years before Action Comics #1 came out. Reuths is very similar to Routh. Superman Returns recreated Action Comics #1 cover.