Rippaverse Animation Begins with The Horseman, Starring Dean Cain

Comics

Dean Cain is a superhero again. Not that he won’t always be Superman, but he’s fighting crime under a new name, and this time, it’s for the Rippaverse. Today is the launch of the Rippaverse’s next comic book pre-order campaign, this one for The Horseman: Welcome to Florespark, featuring a street-level hero with no powers but deadly combat skills honed in service to his country. When Hector Lee Caballero comes home from war, he becomes the Horseman and takes on the criminal underworld using the skills he learned on the battlefield. The Horseman: Welcome to Florespark comes from writer Chuck Dixon (the comic book legend who co-created Batman villain Bane) and artist Joe Bennett (who worked on Marvel comics like The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, and The Incredible Hulk), and you can pre-order it here.

But this time, it’s not just the comic book. The Rippaverse is diving into animation, having used the trailers for their previous campaigns as a lead-up to producing a “proof-of-concept” animated pilot centered on the Horseman – who will be played by Dean Cain. The goal is to launch “an animated universe with long-form content” under the Rippaverse Studios banner that will complement the comics, which will stream on the membership platform on the Rippaverse website before eventually being distributed on other platforms, plus physical media. This is contingent on getting enough paid members on the Rippaverse site. 5,000 will ensure a 10-minute first episode of The Horseman, which will be released on social media to whet people’s appetites and get them to sign up as paid members of the Rippaverse. 10,000 will allow the Rippaverse team to finish the first season of The Horseman, available exclusively to paid members. Rippaverse founder Eric July explains the details in the video below:

If you’re interested in becoming a paid member of the Rippaverse, you can sign up here. There are four tiers, with monthly fees of $5, $10, $20, or $50. Each tier comes with perks, like free shipping, discounts on merch, early access to pre-orders, and more.

This is very cool. The Rippaverse is expanding fast, or at least, it seems like it is. It’s been a couple of years, but it feels like Isom #1 just launched, and now they’re preparing an animated series starring Dean Cain. I like what Eric July said about not wanting to sell the movie and/or series rights to another company – he probably doesn’t want Disney making a Horseman movie with Tessa Thompson in the lead. And he’s honest about this not being easy; keeping the integrity of your creation doesn’t come cheap, and thankfully, the Rippaverse has been successful enough that he can launch a campaign like this. And, as with the comics, he’s getting top-tier talent to join him with 90s Superman Dean Cain playing his first animated hero, the Horseman.

Dean Cain is special to me because he’s the Superman of my childhood. Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was the first TV show I watched regularly with my dad; we watched many since, but it all started with Dean Cain’s Superman. In fact, I suspect today was chosen as the announcement date on purpose; Lois and Clark debuted on September 12, 1993. (It’s also possible this was a happy accident, and I know too much about 90s television.) This time, Dean Cain will be playing a very different superhero, as the animated trailer makes it clear that the Horseman is perfectly comfortable killing bad guys, which Superman doesn’t do. (Well, Dean Cain’s Superman doesn’t, anyway.) It’ll be cool having him play a hero so far removed from the Man of Steel, and hopefully, his collaboration with the Rippaverse will last a long time.

Let us know what you think of the Rippaverse getting into animation and Dean Cain playing the Horseman in the comments! Once again, you can become a Rippaverse member right here, and you can pre-order The Horseman: Welcome to Florespark here.

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