A man of overwhelming feats of strength, endurance, and fortitude, it’s always somewhat surprising that Superman has such consistently fascinating villains in his rogues’ gallery. But perhaps frustratingly, not everybody has had a taste of the truly fearsome foes the Last Son of Krypton has faced, especially with the five live-action Lex Luthors in movies alone. One such villain that ranks among the best, while on an iterative journey to acquire knowledge, power, and entire worlds, is Brainiac. Possessor of 12th-level intelligence and beyond, this villain has had plenty of fearsome and friendly variants over the 68 years of Superman appearances, but his latest might just take the cake, for now.
In Superman Annual: Year One Thousand, Clark Kent’s journey to remove Darkseid’s influence was a visually spectacular one in which he loses his incredible powers while in the process repairing countless timelines. But beyond simply a new era of Superman, the final pages teased an optimism for the future both on and off the page, with the setup of September’s new Legion of Super-Heroes relaunch for September 2, which flies directly at odds with a bleak, looming threat bent on erasing them. The latest form, though, indicates not only a returning iteration that’s certainly powerful enough to be intimidating, but one who has moved onto darker ambitions.
Iconic Fan-Favorite Superman Villain Achieves New Ultimate Form
Seen in the latter pages of Superman Annual: Year One Thousand, Brainiac One Million is shown to have essentially ascended beyond the multiverse, having searched for all knowledge across millennia, only for the ability to control the future to elude him. With Superman’s recent actions, it seemed as though no future Legions of Super-Heroes would emerge to challenge his universal conquest. Brainiac is shown having bottled all known variants of the Legion, calling upon Cyborg Superman to cull any attempts or future hopes for a new one to crop up. But perhaps a bigger signifier of Brainiac’s power and hubris is who he’s picking a fight with this time.
After showing up to tragically collect the future Superman fought so bravely to save, Brainiac is congratulated by Pandora on Darkseid’s behalf, stating that nobody can escape his control. But when Pandora calls for Brainiac to join Darkseid’s efforts to claim everything in his path, Brainiac brings up his end of the bargain: that the future belongs to him. Hinting at a possibility of war with Darkseid if he balks at their alliance, Pandora leaves with a stark warning, with Brainiac seeming unbothered. Given the achievements of various characters bearing the name, it’s fair to think Brainiac is confident handling even the most powerful armies put in front of him.
With plenty of other iterations of Brainiac attaining enormous power, from entering the Source Wall and transcending the multiverse, to his logical extreme shown in Futures End, this is the latest, and potentially ultimate form more interested in collecting entire futures than worlds. But only one thing seems to stand between Brainiac One Million in this continuity, and absolute victory: hope.
One Major Return Will Stop Brainiac From Taking The Future
In a now-altered future in which superheroes are outlawed, the 31st century still has hope as the foundations for the Legion of Super-Heroes still exist on the story of Superman’s messages of hope and love as a boy growing up wanting to help people. Sparked by the murder of R.J. Brande as teased by DC’s press release on June 17, Brainiac 1 of 5 sets out to assemble the new Legion in the upcoming series by Joshua Williamson and Hayden Sherman.
With Superman Annual: Year One Thousand setting up the resurrected Cyborg Superman as a primary threat to snuff out any budding future Legions, and the Persuaders brutally enforcing order in a precarious future, it’ll be interesting to see how this new Legion survives. And, with Brainiac potentially willing to risk war with Darkseid while staking his claim to the absolute future, the threat has fully emerged beyond one Superman can hope to face alone, especially after losing his status as King Omega.
- Comic
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Superman (2023)
- Cast
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Christopher Reeve, David Corenswet, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, Tom Welling, Tyler Hoechlin, Margot Kidder, Rachel Brosnahan, Kate Bosworth, Amy Adams, Gene Hackman, Nicholas Hoult, Kevin Spacey, Jesse Eisenberg