Brainiac is a Double Dose of Trouble for Superman in Two Books This Week

While the Superman of Earth Prime gets ready for Warworld, over in other Earths, other Superman have more classic villains to face – and Brainiac’s the brains behind it all.

An older Superman and his recruits thwart Brainiac’s varied contingency plans, truly coming together as a team for the first time in the conclusion to Superman and the Authority #4, written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Mikel Janín, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Tom Napolitano.

Another Earth, another Brainiac, as another Superman teams up with Lex to understand this strange new entity. This Brainiac, though, is not quite the villain Superman expected, because Brainiac is here to save the Earth – from Superman! Superman ‘78 #2, written by Robert Venditti, drawn by Wilfredo Torres, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Dave Lanphear.

Armaan Babu: When we agreed to push Superman ‘78 back a week, I wasn’t expected to have ourselves a back-to-back Brainiac attack on our hands, but here we are! I am kind of loving this weird contrast for one of the most iconic Super-villains. As much as I continue to be charmed by ‘78, though, nothing’s gotten me more excited for what’s to come than this week’s is-this-really-a-conclusion Superman and the Authority. What are your first thoughts, Tony?

Tony Thornley: I tried to think of a Brainiac joke to do a bit, but all I could think of was the Borg. But hey, potato, tomato, am I right?

A Brighter World

Tony: I think I’m now to the point that I just want a Vendetti Superman ongoing series. No matter the continuity, setting, whatever. He continues to show how well he gets the world of Superman, and also blends that into the setting of the classic films so well.

Which is to say, I could hear Gene Hackman’s voice through the screen as I was reading the issue (which is props to both Vendetti and how Lanphear lays it out in the lettering). Yes, the world’s greatest criminal mastermind, who is now trying (being forced) to go straight, is recruited by Superman to help stop Brainiac.

Armaan: There’s something that’s three parts funny and one part tragic about this version of Lex Luthor – it’s the joy he takes in classic villainy. This is not a man weighed down by his ambition, or consumed by overwhelming, envious hatred. He’s just a guy who sees himself as an incredibly talented person, and is extremely frustrated that nobody seems to get that. The way that the world keeps kicking him when he’s down is a level of comedy approaching slapstick – and to rub salt in the wound, the only person who really does seem to recognize his brilliance is Superman himself.

The conversation between the two men is a delight. All Luthor wants to do is bluster about the room bragging about how smart he is, but Superman doesn’t have the time. He just cuts right to the heart of it – Lex is an extremely intelligent man, and the best person for the job. Superman believes that even he can do good. It’s a belief that’s simple, possibly naive, but one Superman continues to live by despite the risk. There’s an old fashion directness to it all that’s heartwarming to see. 

Tony: I continue to really enjoy the voices Vendetti has for each character. Torres continues to nail the likenesses too. Even if they don’t look exactly like Reeves, Kidder or Hackman, they have the body language and demeanor of each actor.

Armaan: Torres does excellent work in recreating the atmosphere of the films. The day-to-day feel of life in a big city. The old fashioned charm of that era’s fashion. The sense that everyone’s talking fast, everyone’s waiting for their next big break, and are all more than just background to Superman’s life. How’d you enjoy the plot?

Tony: Honestly, the plot is pretty standard Brainiac (though I do like the twist that he’s bottling cities to remove dangerous elements), but the execution by the creative team is what makes it worth reading.

Armaan: I was actually pretty intrigued by this take on Brainiac! Like Luthor, Brainiac takes pride in what he does. He thinks he’s really good at saving the world, and if more people would listen to him things would work out great for everyone – and anyone who doesn’t listen to him probably deserves retribution via collateral damage anyway. He’s going to save the Earth from what he believes is the inevitable destructive potential of Kryptonians, and he doesn’t care who he hurts to get Superman off-planet.

It’s both a great excuse to see some old school Superman fighting – even the expanded S-net thrown at his enemies. But while Superman can fight these Brainy-bots all day, every one of them sent down increases the chance of people getting hurt. Throughout the fight, I was waiting to see if Superman would realize that and just give Braniac what he wanted. I should have known better – of course Superman would surrender if it meant people would stop getting hurt.

Tony: Yeah definitely. It was more of what we were saying- the creative team understands the characters at a level that elevates the story. Even if there’s some cheese baked into it. But what a perfect ending to this issue.

The Brains of the Operation

Armaan: Over to Superman and the Authority. It’s funny how, despite all the comic book trivia I have crammed in my head, there’s still so much I don’t know. Like how the Ultra-Humanite is Superman’s first real supervillain. There’s a real piece of history I’ve learned just now here in this comic.

Tony: Yeah, that’s actually a really interesting bit of trivia. Ultra Humanite was an aging bald man and Luthor had his hair originally. At some point, an artist got them confused, and drew Luthor with no hair, and the rest was history. Luthor became Superman’s greatest enemy and the Humanite faded into relative obscurity.

Armaan: The Ultra-Humanite, though, turns out to be an appetizer of a villain-fight (a delightfully-resolved one, nonetheless) for the reveal of the true mind behind it all: Brainiac. 

Much like Brainiac ‘78, this Brainiac wants to save the world – by freezing it, preserving it forever, and cutting away all that doesn’t work. This Brainiac has embraced the ways of Earth. Got ‘imself a nice suit. Monologues with all the self-confidence of an enterprising rich man who thinks his superiority over other beings is a scientific fact. He’s very nearly Luthor, but he’s…colder, and more patient. He’s prepared to fight this fight as long as it takes, with elaborate plans and a ton of moving pieces.

Some of those moving pieces aim to take out the Authority in the team’s infancy. How’d you enjoy the fights we had here?

Tony: First of all, loved Morrison’s version of Brainiac. This is the first time I can remember them writing him outside of the Earth-2 version in JLA: Earth 2.

Secondly, these fights were all a lot of fun. Giving the Authority a team of opposites to face in their first mission made for great shorthand. This is another instance that I think this series could have used 6 issues instead of 4. Hell, just for Apollo versus Eclipso alone.

Armaan: Of course, this isn’t the traditional Superman. The Superman of this series is tired of the old, endless superheroic battles, the incessant back-and-forths, even though he’s still good at it, despite his age. This is a Superman who is finally trying to find a better way. Who wants to think big. He could have taken this fight to Brainiac. To make another power move in the elaborate chess game between the two. 

But he’s got more important work to do, and he’s just left the board, seemingly leaving his son to handle any threats to Earth. For as much as Superman tends to talk of his faith in humanity…leaving the planet like this is one of the biggest acts of faith I’ve seen Superman make. That he does it without hesitation just shows how much clarity of purpose he has.

Tony: Yeah, this is a mixture of Joe Casey’s pacifist Superman and Morrison’s own All-Star take on the character. I dig it quite a bit. Another instance of where I wish we could get more of this. We need a Superman determined to make everything better, and knowing how to do that best, even when it may not involve him… It’s the most “Superman” of all.

Armaan: With this move made, we have a lot of what’s essentially a set-up for what’s been going on in the main Superman books – Warworld is a threat that can no longer be ignored. We don’t really receive an explanation for how this book connects to those ones – do you have any theories?

Tony: I actually felt like these last few pages, with Superman and the team blasting off to Warworld, were kind of retconned in last minute. We’ve heard that this series was written a while back, and while this didn’t feel totally shoe-horned in, it felt enough like a last minute addition that I’m not sure if it was added to fit Johnson’s plans or if Johnson’s plans were born from reading this script.

But the ending that made my senses tingle more was that two page post-script at the end of the issue.

LIGHTRAY IS.

I can’t wait to see what that means.

Armaan: The most obvious thing that comes to mind is that Lightray has some Darkseid connections of her own – and I’m willing to gamble that Lightray is, at some point down the line, going to have her own connection to the fabled Life Equation to counter Darkseid’s Anti-Life.

That, however, would seem to be just the start – the means by which this message came through makes it seem like Morrison is planting some seeds for a future writer to pick up far, far down the line – and like you said, I can’t wait to see what it means.

Daily Planet Headlines

• Can’t wait to see more of the least developed characters of the bunch- Lightray and OMAC.
• Natasha Irons rules.
• The story of Warworld, Superman and the Authority will continue in Batman/Superman: Authority Special #1! Stay tuned!

Armaan Babu

Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.

Tony Thornley

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.