Action Comics #868

Back in the 90's, Tim Burton and Kevin Smith contributed to a never-made film project called Superman Lives.  The film would feature  Brainiac in the primary villain role with vague techno-gothic elements if the leaked design sketches are any indication.  That's what I thought of as I read this issue, as if this was some redone Superman Lives script turned comic book story.  Add Gary Frank's Chris Reeve Superman and former Richard Donner protege Geoff Johns and the feeling of this as some big epic movie brought to ink and paper becomes that much stronger.

In this issue, the main gist is the first true confrontation between Superman and the "real" Brainiac.  After all the build-up of how Brainiac would finally be revealed in his true glory, what we see is... pretty much how he looked in the Titans/Outsiders story arc except with a bigger build.  That's kind of a disappointed, I was hoping for at least a pickled head in a jar.  Beyond that, this story has cranked up a notch.  We finally see Kandor (again the "real" Kandor), the new Koko, a darkly funny beat with the Kents and a dead bird, and Supergirl's humorously awkward ignorance of Earthen plastic surgery.  The issue both gives us a Brainiac somewhat motivated by the Bruce Timm version (as a type of tyrant of knowledge) as well as the indication that he might have destroyed Krypton, giving him a new angle of antagonistic history with the Man of Steel and his teenage cousin.  The issue as the Brainiac-phobic Supergirl, her mind still fresh with the images of the Coluan's assault on Krypton, comes face-to-face with the foe who is seeking her out, revealing what is sure to be a big city-scale battle between the forces of good and evil for next issue.

With Gary Frank's pseudo-retro design work of the Superman world mixed with the darkly mechanical world of Brainiac, Geoff Johns is crafting a tale worthy of a movie in my opinion.  The scale, the gravitas, and the intensity of this story has really grabbed me.  Promising the ultimate Brainiac story, Johns has turned the Computer Tyrant in my opinion to a genuinely frightning and genocidal monster worthy of the Man of Steel's attentions.  I'm honestly anticipatig next issue greatly.