The post is taken from the transcript of my Youtube video of the same name. The video can be found at the bottom of the post.
Welcome to Multiverseatile. My name is Jake Long, and in today’s video, I’m talking about one thing that 2025’s Superman: Legacy can learn from the television show, Smallville. Right away, I feel the need to acknowledge the big differences here between Smallville and Superman: Legacy, and those are first that one is a show, and the other will be a movie, secondly, Smallville is about Clark Kent growing up in Smallville before he becomes Superman, and Superman: Legacy is said to be about a Superman who is a few years into his time as the hero of Metropolis, and the world. Having said that, I think there are still a few things that we can take from Smallville, and apply to Superman: Legacy.
The lesson that I want to address in this video is the inclusion of Superman’s enemy, Brainiac, an AI from Krypton (Superman’s home planet) who often takes on an android form, and essentially wants to preserve people by controlling them in some way. He’s kind of like Ultron in that he was created by scientists to preserve their people, but he misinterprets his own objectives. Often, he shrinks down one of a planet’s cities for his collection, and proceeds to destroy the rest of the planet.
In Smallville, Brainiac’s first mission is to free Zod from the Phantom Zone. Later on, he tries to kill Clark in the past, and he pops up throughout the show to cause problems for Clark. I’m not saying that he should take the same actions that he did in Smallville, but I think that if a show about Clark Kent before he becomes Superman included Brainiac then it’s about time we have a movie that includes him.
Now, of course the Superman Legacy script is already written, and I trust that James Gunn can and has developed a full story with or without Brainiac. I do think though that given the title, Superman: Legacy, Brainiac could potentially be a really good villain for the movie.
Superman/Batman #35 Brainiac’s Back
The Legacy part of the title implies that this movie is going to have Superman thinking about and acting on the imprint that he leaves on Earth. Typically, Legacy is a lot about what you’ll leave behind, but Superman will most likely out live generations. This makes things a little more intriguing because he will stick around and see the effects of his legacy generation after generation. He’ll probably anticipate this while thinking about how he wants to affect the world.
Another thing, that Superman will be considering while working to establish his legacy is his origin. Now, we know that this isn’t going to be an origin story, but in any story there is about 20% set up where the world and the hero is established, and there could be a couple of flashbacks about Superman’s past and where he came from at any point in the movie. Hopefully, he’ll have communication with the AI version of his father Jor El when he goes to the Fortress of Solitude, Jor El could reveal information about where he came from that will help him determine the legacy that he wants to create.
So where does Brainiac fit into all of this? You may be asking. Well in many versions of the Superman lore(Smallville included), Brainiac gave Jor El some trouble, and he was even created in part by Jor El. Superman having to protect his adopted home world from this AI that was created by his dad and caused so much trouble for his original home world could play a big part in him determining how he shapes his legacy.
If Brainiac isn’t in Superman: Legacy, I hope he joins the DCU Superman story soon whether that’s in a sequel or a Justice League movie.
And in this time of Chat GPT, and other forms of AI getting smarter and smarter, it would be somewhat relatable to see it try and take over the world. Of course, we’ve seen that before, but I think DC comics, and James Gunn would have a fresh take on it.
That’s all for this video. If you want more Superman related videos, there are a few on the channel that you can check out. And if you like this one, I’d appreciate it if you hit those like and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already. Also, let me know what you think about all of this Superman Legacy stuff. Thanks for watching and take care.
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