The Brainiac Stories That Inspired the Man of Tomorrow Villain

Even though we’ve long suspected that Brainiac would be the primary villain in Man of Tomorrow, we didn’t get official confirmation until James Gunn took to social media to announce that he’d cast German actor Lars Eidinger in the part. But there’s still a long time between now and the Man of Tomorrow‘s release date in July of 2027, which means that we’ll need something to tide us over until then.

Fortunately, Gunn’s provided some homework to do in the meantime. When someone on Threads responded to the Eidinger announcement with questions about how he’d approach the character, Gunn answered with a few favorites. “I love aspects of many versions of the characters, from the 1950’s Binder stuff to the surprisingly scary Wolfman stuff to the animated versions and up through the truly creepy and wonderful, current Absolute Brainiac,” he wrote.

Based on those comments, we’ve identified some classic Brainiac stories that you can enjoy while waiting for Man of Tomorrow‘s arrival.

“The Super-Duel in Space!” Action Comics #242, 1958

As you’ll soon see, Brainiac goes through a number of permutations over his life span. So it’s all the more impressive that the basics of the character were present in his first appearance, “The Super-Duel in Space!” written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Al Plastino.

“The Super-Duel in Space!” introduces Brainiac as a green-skinned alien genius who collects civilizations by shrinking them down and storing them in bottles on his ship. In addition to the Kryptonian city of Kandor, which he stole before that planet’s destruction, Brainiac also shrinks Metropolis to add to his collection. Of course, attacking Metropolis draws the attention of Superman, but Brainiac rebuffs him with a powerful forcefield.

Like most Binder stories, “The Super-Duel in Space” is all ’50s sci-fi goodness. Brainiac monologues like a classic villain, and even has an albino monkey sidekick called Koko. Over the years, Brainiac becomes a more imposing and sinister villain, but if Gunn’s citing Binder now, there’s hope that at least Koko will make the cut for Man of Tomorrow.

“Star-Kill!” Action Comics #528-530, #544, 1982-83

Usually, Brainiac is an organic being with a machine mind that grants him extreme intelligence, which he used to overthrow the computer tyrants of his home world Colu. However, in the early 1980s, writer Marv Wolfman briefly revamped Brainiac to make him even more robotic. Shortly before the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of the DC Universe, Brainiac took the form of a skeletal robot made from living metal, his most frightening form.

The change begins in the fantastic three-part story “Star-Kill” from 1982’s Action Comics #528 through #530, written by Wolfman and penciled by Curt Swan. In that story, a Brainiac reprogrammed for good seeks out Superman’s help when a planet-destroyer he invented goes rogue and threatens to consume the universe. Realizing that his might isn’t enough to defeat the machine, Superman accepts that only evil Brainiac has the information to stop it, and so the two would-be friends agree to become enemies again.

At the end of the story, Superman stops the machine by trapping the evil Brainiac inside of its center and kicking it out into space. But in the story “Reborn!” in Action Comics #544 (1983), written by Wolfman and penciled by Gil Kane, Brainiac melds with the world-killing machine to transform into his skeletal body.

As Gunn acknowledges, Wolfman’s Brainiac stories are scary, especially the story of his transformation. Superman has to listen to the dying cries of a world he couldn’t save, and there’s true sadness when he realizes that Brainiac must return to evil to stop the planet destroyer. All of that adds pathos to Brainiac’s transformation, which may have been short-lived, but was memorable nonetheless.

“The Last Son of Krypton,” Superman: The Animated Series Season 1, Episodes 1-3, 1996

One of the most audacious reinventions of Brainiac is also one of the most influential. Most of the three-part premiere of Superman: The Animated Series tells the standard origin of the Man of Steel. In the first part, we follow his father Jor-El and mother Lara as they deal with the impending distruciton of Krypton by sending their son Kal-El to Earth. Part two shows Kal-El growing up on the Kent farm as Clark Kent, while part three sends Clark to Metropolis to begin his career as Superman.

The change comes in the first part. As is standard in most tellings of Superman’s origins, Jor-El foresaw the destruction of Krypton, but his planet’s elders refused to accept it. In the Animated Series, they refuse because Jor-El’s findings contradict the Kryptonian supercomputer’s artificial intelligence: Brainiac. Moreover, later episodes make clear that Brainiac willfully mislead the Kryptonians as part of his desire to study their reactions.

Thanks to the Bottle City of Kandor, Brainiac has always had a connection to the destruction of Superman’s home planet. But making him the prime driver of the planet’s destruciton elevates him as a villain, which might make this version a compelling choice for Gunn. Given that the Jor-El and Lara of the DCU want their son to be a conqueror, a Kryptonian Brainiac would fit right in. And it’s not like the idea of people trusting AI while the world burns hasn’t grown more relevant since Superman: The Animated Series first debuted…

“Son of the Demon” Absolute Superman #7-11, 2025

As unconventional as Superman: The Animated Series was, the most radical reimagining of Brainiac is also the most recent. The Brainiac of Absolute Superman is 419,732 of the Brainiac Collective, who broke free and became director of Research and Development for the Lazarus Corporation run by Ra’s al Ghul and recently upgraded leader of the Peacemakers, Christopher Smith.

That’s a lot to unpack, so let me explain. Absolute Superman is part of DC’s Absolute line, a series of books that take place in an alternate reality driven by Darkseid’s evil energy. Only a handful of heroes have been introduced thus far, and each have major differences from their mainline counterparts: Superman came to Earth as a young man and thus was not raised by the Kents, Batman was working-class son of a school teacher, Wonder Woman was raised in Hell, etc. In this (strangely familiar) evil world, power is consolidated by a rich few, including Ra’s al Ghul, here an immortal CEO of the Lazarus Corporation.

The Absolute Brainiac comes to work for Lazarus after escaping the alien Brainiac Collective, where he went mad as a low-level laborer forced to dispose of dead bodies. Like his mainline counterpart, Absolute Brainiac bottles up cities, but he’s more openly cruel in his experiments. As highlighted by his rictus grin and his exposed brain, this Brainiac loves to toy with his victims, transforming their bodies to entertain himself.

Gunn has always had an interest in the macabre and disturbing—he got his start writing for Troma Entertainment, after all—so it’s easy to see why he would find Absolute Brainiac appealing. But it’s hard to imagine he could adapt too much of the character, at least if he wants Man of Tomorrow to avoid a hard R rating.

Brainiac arrives in Man of Tomorrow on July 9, 2027