5 Superman Villains We’d Rather See Than Luthor And Zod

1. Brainiac 

Brainiac. Here I am referring to Brainiac 1.0, the original Brainiac, the “Plague of Worlds” as Miller described him in The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

Brainiac is an artificial intelligence from an alien planet and has become one of the most resilient and powerful entities in the DC universe to date: his purpose is not only to compile information about the universe and its planets and species, but also to prevent this knowledge from spreading. To this end, he shrinks and steals cities as samples, and subsequently destroys the planets from which they came; he held the Kryptonian city of Kandor hostage in a shrunken state until recently, and in Geoff Johns‘ Superman: Brainiac, Johns implied the A.I. may have had a hand in the planet’s destruction as well. In a way, he’s DC’s equivalent of Marvel’s Galactus- like Darkseid, he’s the kind of threat that the heroes must put everything else on hold to deal with.

This is a supervillain who challenges Supes on a truly galactic scale, one with whom the Man of Steel has a personal score to settle. Brainiac has hounded both Superman’s birth planet of Krypton and his adopted home planet of Earth, and he is relentless and dangerous on a level unequaled by anyone else in Superman’s rogues gallery. In a way, he may be better suited to a Justice League movie; I must admit to a certain amount of disappointment at the likely choice of Darkseid for the first of DC’s JLA films, as it strikes me as a little too similar to the choice of Thanos for Joss Whedon‘s  sequel to The Avengers.

Brainiac, on the other hand, is unique in the genre: he is artificial, calculating and intelligent to an unrivaled degree. While Luthor must use his wits to have any hope of bringing down the Man of Steel, Brainiac is often portrayed as being on another level entirely (a “level twelve intellect” to Luthor’s level nine, according to Red Son). What he lacks is the human touch, the ability to explore the relationship between Superman and humanity, but he more than makes up for it as one of the most unique and powerful threats in DC’s universe.

So, there’s my list. I’ve left some of Kal-El’s most iconic opponents off, such as Metallo, Bizarro and Darkseid, villains that I personally believe are not well suited to the big screen. Did I make the right calls? Sound off below!