Summary:
- Man of Tomorrow is set to release in theaters on July 9, 2027.
- Brainiac has been confirmed to play the villain in the movie.
- Here’s who Brainiac is in DCU and his role in Man of Tomorrow.
Brainiac was long rumored to be the villain for James Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow. Thanks to a report by TheWrap, it has now been confirmed that Brainiac will indeed be the big bad that Superman and Lex Luthor will team up against. While he might not look much, he is quite literally a Thanos-level threat. If you’re not a DC fan or just a comic book fan, you might know how big a threat Brainiac really is. So, here’s everything you need to know about Brainiac’s DC Comics origin.
Who is Brainiac in DCU
Brainiac is one of the most iconic Superman villains, who made his debut in Action Comics #242 (1958). He appeared as a human-like alien who went to different planets, shrunk their cities, and stored them, but it took DC half a century to reveal who the real Brainiac actually was. DC Comics’ timeline is a can of worms, so for sanity’s sake, I’m going to tell you about the New 52/Rebirth origin of Brainiac, which is considered the canon storyline.
In 2009, writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank retconned Brainiac yet again in Action Comics #866-870. Every modern interpretation of Brainiac, like from the Suicide Squad game, animated series, and probably even James Gunn’s, is borrowed from this storyline. In this book, it is revealed that Brainiac was an ancient AI entity created on the planet Colu. Eventually, the AI (called the Intelligence) became smarter than the people of Colu and took over the planet.
The Intelligence then evolved as a creature and started replicating itself. All the Brainiacs Superman fought before? Just cheap copies. The real one was out there hiding in plain sight. Then the New 52 event happened, which was a comic book retcon taking place after Flashpoint. Flash travelled back in time and retconned a bunch of stuff, which gave rise to a new timeline. The New 52 Brainiac was even more hardcore. Instead of collecting cities, he began collecting entire timelines.
He even created a living planet called Telos to store his trophies. After absorbing enough multiversal energy to break physics, Brainiac becomes a being outside the space-time continuum. And instead of destroying universes, he restored them. Suddenly, every DC continuity that ever existed snaps back into Hypertime. Think of it as a huge tree with disconnected branches, and Brainiac just joined them together to let them coexist.
So, while Brainiac’s goal is technically considered ethical, his ends don’t justify the means. He trapped multiple timelines and people in the process and even continued to gain control of people and timelines post this convergence.
What are Brainiac’s Powers and Weaknesses in the Comics
Brainiac has a twelfth-level intellect, which allows him to think faster than supercomputers and take in the amount of knowledge he does. This knowledge also gives him mastery over a plethora of tech, including the tech to clone his body. Brainiac is also immortal since, technically, he has no body. He can even link minds and control entire populations through hive-mind networks. Fittingly, the term “brainiac” entered everyday language after Brainiac’s debut in comics.
Despite sounding like a god, Brainiac does have a few weaknesses, at least certain versions of him. Some of his tech and ship can be hacked, and Lex Luthor has helped Superman to do this in comics. The New 52 version of Brainiac was allergic to bacteria, which led to his instant defeat once Superman threw him into a swamp. So, depending on which body Supes is dealing with, every Brainiac has different weaknesses.
What Will be Brainiac’s Role in Man of Tomorrow
As of writing, nothing is known about who is playing Brainiac and how it ties into the overarching plot of Peacemaker Season 2. However, it has been confirmed that we will see Lex Luthor and Superman teaming up to take down Brainiac. The Salvation storyline from the end of Peacemaker Season 2 might also tie into the plot since James Gunn has confirmed that the ending of Peacemaker directly ties into Man of Tomorrow.
