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On Threads, a fan asked Gunn if there was a specific version of Brainiac that he was influenced by when developing Man of Tomorrow. “I love aspects of many versions of the characters, from the 1950s [Otto] Binder stuff to the surprisingly scary [Marv] Wolfman stuff to the animated versions and up through the truly creepy and wonderful, current Absolute Brainiac,” he wrote in his response.
Man of Tomorrow‘s Brainiac Should Be a Well-Rounded, Intimidating Villain
Based on Gunn’s comments, it sounds like the big-screen Brainiac will be an amalgamation of various sources instead of a direct adaptation of just one or two iterations. This is an exciting proposition since the character has greatly evolved over the course of his appearances throughout the decades. There’s so much rich material out there to draw from that it would be limiting to not use it all as inspiration. The trick will be finding the right balance between all of these sources so that the DCU’s Brainiac is a compelling character in his own right, but Gunn has proven time and time again he is a master at capturing comic book sensibilities and depicting those qualities on screen.
Ever since it was revealed that Man of Tomorrow would see Superman and Lex Luthor team up, fans knew that only a significant, dangerous threat could force those two to work together. If Gunn is planning on sprinkling bits of all these different versions of Brainiac into the DCU’s iteration, then Brainiac will more than fit that bill. From the beginning, the villain has always been a supremely intelligent being interested in acquiring knowledge from across the universe (collecting cities from various planets), but later depictions have been even more terrifying. Absolute Brainiac is so terrifying that some comic readers see him akin to a horror movie villain, and the Wolfman reinvention from the 1980s transformed Brainiac into a cold, monstrous threat. So not only will Brainiac be a savvy, brilliant foe matching intellectual wits with our protagonists, he’ll also be a very scary presence.
