James Gunn's Original Superman Movie Villain Was Out Of This World

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Here's a no-brainer: make Lex Luthor the villain of your "Superman" movie. If there's one Superman villain who everyone knows, it's Lex. Nicholas Hoult's Lex in James Gunn's new "Superman" might just be the best one yet. But before Gunn decided on Lex as the movie's bad guy (with some muscle provided by the masked Ultraman), he weighed using at least one other villain. Specifically, a Superman nemesis whom fans have long wanted on the big screen.

In a recent interview on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast with Josh Horowitz, Gunn revealed that he "considered" using Brainiac in "Superman." He didn't elaborate on what that version of the film would've looked like, but DC fans should be reassured that James Gunn is aware of Brainiac. While Gunn and DC Studios aren't rushing to make a "Superman" sequel right now, the DC Universe overall looks like it's at a healthy starting point. If/when we next see David Corenswet's Superman, don't be surprised if he gets to punch out Brainiac.

Who is Brainiac? In a way, he's one of the most impactful comic book super-villains. You probably recognize his name, if not the villain behind it. "Brainiac" has become slang for a smart person. Surely Brainiac's creators Otto Binder & Al Plastino nicked this slang word for their smarty-pants villain? Wrong! According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it's likely the other way around: the word "Brainiac" was popularized by the "Superman" character.

Brainiac's exact origin and nature varies, but generally, he's a super-intelligent, cybernetic alien who wants to collect all the knowledge in the universe. To that end, he's got a habit of shrinking cities down and keeping them in bottles as keepsakes from the civilizations he destroys. Since his debut in 1958's "Action Comics" #242 (written by Binder, drawn by Plastino), Brainiac has become Kal-El's second most prolific foe behind Lex. You wouldn't guess that from the movies, where Brainiac still hasn't reared his glowing green head.

By the 1950s , Superman was one of the few superheroes still in publication. However, he'd moved far away from the New Deal social justice crusader who Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had first created. Under the pen of Otto Binder, Superman embraced outlandish fantasy and childlike wonder.

Brainiac is emblematic of Binder's Superman. In his first appearance, Brainiac is an archetypal B-movie alien invader: a little green man in a flying saucer from the planet Colu. His home plant had been decimated by a plague, so Brainiac tried to bottle Earth cities to repopulate the world. Invading Brainiac's ship, Superman discovered the Kryptonian city Kandor among his collection. Unable to restore it, Superman took Kandor and its people back to his Fortress of Solitude.

That wasn't the last Superman saw of Brainiac. In "Superman" #167, it was revealed Brainiac was not a true Coluan but an android. (There had been a computer kit called "Brainiac" on the market since 1956, and "in deference" to that product predating their character, DC altered Brainiac into a living computer.) Since then, most Brainiac stories have depicted him as robotic. In the 1980s, Brainiac even got a new look as a skull-faced android (designed by Ed Hannigan).

DC Comics

Many later versions of Brainiac are a halfway point between that and his original green-skinned appearance. Some stories, like the 2006 "Superman: Brainiac" arc by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, depict the "true" Brainiac as a green-skinned cyborg that uses skull-faced drones to extend his will. 

1996's "Superman: The Animated Series" tied Kal-El and Brainiac closer together than ever. This Brainiac (Corey Burton) was a Kryptonian artificial intelligence gone rogue. Brainiac had sensed Krypton was going to explode, but chose not to inform the people, instead saving itself and files of Krypton's history.

Brainiac evolved and went from world to world, "preserving" knowledge and then exterminating the people it came from. (Brainiac's habit of literally preserving cities in bottles was excised, though.) The quest eventually brought him to Earth where he faced the Last Son of Krypton.

This revised backstory, the work of co-creator Alan Burnett, was a smart move. As a Kryptonian creation, Brainiac was no longer an evil alien or robot; he now had a built in history with Superman. The new animated series "My Adventures with Superman" also used the Kryptonian AI backstory for its Brainiac (Michael Emerson), only this Brainiac actively destroyed Krypton out of fear his masters would find him obsolete. 

Brainiac has been in "Superman" comics and TV for almost 70 years. So why is it that, of all the "Superman" movies we've had since Christopher Reeve put on the cape in 1978, none have featured Brainiac?

It's not that no filmmakers have ever considered using Brainiac, the stars have just never aligned. An early story treatment for "Superman III" featured Brainiac as the main villain, and the final film features a supercomputer as an antagonist, a possible holdover from Brainiac. At least one treatment for a sequel to Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" also had Brainiac as a villain, but that film of course went unmade.

The "Superman" movies have tended to bounce back and forth between two villains: Lex Luthor and General Zod. (The hosts of the "Blank Check" discussed this trend in their recent series on the "Superman" films.) Why? Because Lex (Gene Hackman) and Zod (Terence Stamp) were the two most memorable villains who fought Christopher Reeve's Superman. The 2006 "Superman Returns" reboot fell back on Lex (Kevin Spacy), while "Man of Steel" opted for Zod (Michael Shannon) to focus on Superman's alien history. Now, Gunn's "Superman" has once more returned to Lex. 

The focus on Zod might be to Brainiac's detriment. Zod fills two of the same niches that Brainiac can: an alien invader and a villain with a connection to Krypton. The General is also much easier to depict in live-action; like Superman, Zod is an alien but he looks like a human.

What sets Brainiac apart is that he is essentially Luthor and Zod in one. He's an alien who can fight Superman one-to-one, but also an ambitious genius who regards his brains as superior to Superman's brawn. These strengths mean Brainiac has the potential to be the scariest "Superman" villain yet. Plus, if Gunn's "Superman" is any indication, an alien who collects cities in bottles won't feel at all out of place in the new DC Universe.

"Superman" is now playing in theaters.