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As Superman ’78 returns to the world of the classic Christopher Reeve-starring films, one of the Man of Steel’s most famous villains makes his debut.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Superman ’78 #1, on sale now from DC.
Just as Batman ’89 brings readers back to the world introduced by Tim Burton’s fan-favorite superhero movies starring Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight, Superman ’78 revisits the world envisioned by Richard Donner in films starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Picking up where the classic movies left off, the Man of Tomorrow and his familiar supporting cast continue their misadventures through Metropolis only for an iconic Superman villain from the comic books to officially make their debut in this cinematic universe with their sights centered squarely on the Last Son of Krypton: Brainiac.
Superman ’78 opens with a fresh perspective on the prologue of the 1978 film and its portrayal of Krypton’s cataclysmic destruction. As Jor-El and his wife Lara send their only begotten son Kal-El to Earth moments before Krypton explodes, the planet’s destruction is not without a secret audience. From his mobile headquarters, Brainiac surveys the annihilation of Krypton and dismisses it as the consequence of an advanced civilization that failed to heed the portents of its coming doom. Unknown to Brainiac, the Kryptonian race was not completely annihilated, not noticing the rocket ship carrying Kal-El to his adopted home as he continues to catalog the various civilizations across the cosmos.
And in Superman ’78 #1 — by Robert Venditti, Wilfredo Torres, Jordie Bellaire and A Larger World’s Dave Lanphear — Brainiac discovers the missing Kryptonian that eluded his attention for decades.
Brainiac’s intergalactic scouring of all life in the universe brings him to Earth decades later, with Kal-El now balancing his life as investigative reporter Clark Kent and Superman. A Brainiac drone lands in the heart of Metropolis and quickly assesses humanity as a low-level threat as it cuts a path of destruction through the city. And as Superman arrives on the scene to save the day, a rapid analysis of the Man of Steel has the drone deduce that he is facing a Kryptonian, transmitting the data into deep space to Brainiac before shutting down, with the supervillain vowing to collect Superman to prevent him from disrupting the natural order on Earth.
In the comic books, Brainiac is implied to always be aware of the Kryptonians’ existence, seeing Superman’s survival as something of an anomaly. Brainiac’s interest in Krypton led him to collect an entire city, miniaturizing it — in its original depiction, it was known as Dur-El-Va before being renamed Kandor — as part of his programming to invade other civilizations across the cosmos. Modern interpretations had Brainiac recover one city from each civilization he conquered to preserve its culture while Superman: The Animated Series went one step further by reimagining Brainiac as Krypton’s supercomputer that secretly concealed that the planet was in danger while it escaped destruction.
Here, Brainiac appears to be more interested in pruning perceived invasive species from other planets, with a Kryptonian’s presence on Earth quickly becoming the extraterrestrial enemy’s number one priority. What exactly Brainiac had planned for Earth has yet to be seen but, given the catastrophic damage a single drone inflicted while conducting an assessment of humanity, Brainiac clearly sees no overt value in human life as he strikes close to home. And after facing off against Lex Luthor and General Zod, the Superman of the Christopher Reeve films finally has another supervillain directly from the comic books to contend with, in his coldest, most clinical opponent yet.
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