Brainiac did not stay in his robotic form for long, soon returning to variations of his green and purple look. But the robot form may be important to Man of Tomorrow, for a few different reasons.
Gunn has described Man of Tomorrow as not just a sequel to Superman, but also a Lex Luthor story, in which Nicholas Hoult plays co-lead as Superman must team up with his archenemy to fight Brainiac. In the influential 1986 Alan Moore and Curt Swan story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Brainiac possesses Lex Luthor to combine his intellect with that of Superman’s greatest enemy. How does he do this? By using his robot form and attaching his hexagons to Luthor’s head.
Recently, set photos from Man of Tomorrow have shown Hoult as Lex wearing his warsuit, a green and purple mech outfit. That suit comes straight from the comics, first appearing in 1983’s Action Comics #544, the same issue that introduced Brainiac’s skeletal form.
Interesting as these connections are, they still leave a question. Why would Kara be in a Brainiac ship? For a possible answer, we need to look past the comics, to the cartoons. Superman: The Animated Series offered a compelling revision to the origins of both Superman and Brainiac. Here, Brainiac was first an AI used on Krypton, who turned against his masters and lied about the dire state of the planet. Brainiac eventually took humanoid form to fight against Superman. Years later, Smallville repeated the plot, casting James Marsters as the human form that Brainiac takes after arriving on Earth from Krypton.
Superman has already established that the Kryptonians of the new DCU aren’t as benevolent as their comic book counterparts. Supergirl will probably give us a slightly more likable take, given that Kara grew up in Argo City, a portion of Krypton that survived the planet’s explosion, and we’ll spend more time with her parents, Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham). But that doesn’t exempt them from birthing Brainiac, even unintentionally.
If they did, Superman’s happy reunion in Supergirl may turn out to be a nightmare in Man of Tomorrow.
