“The Final Son of Krypton,” Superman: The Animated Sequence Season 1, Episodes 1-3, 1996
One of the crucial audacious reinventions of Brainiac can be one of the crucial influential. Many of the three-part premiere of Superman: The Animated Sequence tells the usual origin of the Man of Metal. Within the first half, we observe his father Jor-El and mom Lara as they take care of the approaching distruciton of Krypton by sending their son Kal-El to Earth. Half two reveals Kal-El rising up on the Kent farm as Clark Kent, whereas half three sends Clark to Metropolis to start his profession as Superman.
The change comes within the first half. As is normal in most tellings of Superman’s origins, Jor-El foresaw the destruction of Krypton, however his planet’s elders refused to just accept it. Within the Animated Sequence, they refuse as a result of Jor-El’s findings contradict the Kryptonian supercomputer’s synthetic intelligence: Brainiac. Furthermore, later episodes clarify that Brainiac willfully mislead the Kryptonians as a part of his need to check their reactions.
Due to the Bottle Metropolis of Kandor, Brainiac has all the time had a connection to the destruction of Superman’s residence planet. However making him the prime driver of the planet’s destruciton elevates him as a villain, which could make this model a compelling selection for Gunn. On condition that the Jor-El and Lara of the DCU need their son to be a conqueror, a Kryptonian Brainiac would match proper in. And it’s not like the thought of individuals trusting AI whereas the world burns hasn’t grown extra related since Superman: The Animated Sequence first debuted…
“Son of the Demon” Absolute Superman #7-11, 2025
As unconventional as Superman: The Animated Sequence was, probably the most radical reimagining of Brainiac can be the latest. The Brainiac of Absolute Superman is 419,732 of the Brainiac Collective, who broke free and have become director of Analysis and Improvement for the Lazarus Company run by Ra’s al Ghul and just lately upgraded chief of the Peacemakers, Christopher Smith.
That’s quite a bit to unpack, so let me clarify. Absolute Superman is a part of DC’s Absolute line, a sequence of books that happen in an alternate actuality pushed by Darkseid’s evil vitality. Solely a handful of heroes have been launched to this point, and every have main variations from their mainline counterparts: Superman got here to Earth as a younger man and thus was not raised by the Kents, Batman was working-class son of a faculty trainer, Surprise Lady was raised in Hell, and so on. On this (surprisingly acquainted) evil world, energy is consolidated by a wealthy few, together with Ra’s al Ghul, right here an immortal CEO of the Lazarus Company.
The Absolute Brainiac involves work for Lazarus after escaping the alien Brainiac Collective, the place he went mad as a low-level laborer pressured to get rid of lifeless our bodies. Like his mainline counterpart, Absolute Brainiac bottles up cities, however he’s extra overtly merciless in his experiments. As highlighted by his rictus grin and his uncovered mind, this Brainiac likes to toy along with his victims, remodeling their our bodies to entertain himself.
