As I continue to explore the DC Comics catalogue on HBO Max, I came across the movie Superman: Unbound the other night. As I read the plot, I got excited because I had honestly forgot about Brainiac as a villain. With the number of comic book movies/shows out there these days, he had simply fell off my radar, but after watching the movie, I came to a conclusion, Brainiac is a big screen villain.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to reveal any spoilers, though I bet you can guess who wins. But I did want to give Brainiac some love as a great villain who deserves greater exposure. If you aren’t familiar with Brainiac, he’s an alien who’s goal is to collect all the information from the universe and in doing so, shrinks cities to keep as part of his collection. Since he’s all-knowing, he’s a formidable challenge to Superman because he’s able to anticipate his every move. Not only does Brainiac possess all the knowledge in the universe but he’s always upgrade his body to become a partial alien robot with various powers.
Brainiac is such a unique villain, if the Superman: Unbound movie could be worked into a live-action movie, the potential is there for it to be a box office monster. The problem with Superman is that because his powers make him basically unbeatable, it’s hard to envision a villain who could actually defeat him. Just look at the Justice League movie, Steppenwolf was able to nearly defeat the entire Justice League when Superman wasn’t in the picture, but as soon as he entered the fight, the battle was over. But that’s what makes Brainiac so different, because of the powers and knowledge, you can see Superman being defeated which is exactly what captures an audience.
I’m guessing DC is reluctant to introduce more aliens into the DC Universe due to the crappy response Green Lantern received as well as the desire to make the plots more relatable to movie goers. But with the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Thanos storyline, I think people would buy-in Brainiac carrying a major Superman movie. And with the money they are sinking into their movies, and the poor box office numbers, I think it’s time for DC executives to try something new.
