Superman has been a cinematic staple since the ’50s. Yes, that’s right. You might think his big-screen career began with 1978’s Superman: The Movie, but that’s not the case. The Man of Steel has a decades-long cinematic history under his mantle, and for most of that history, right alongside him, has been his archenemy\u2014Lex Luthor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every hero has their villain. A powerful and often-vicious bastard whose sole purpose in life is\u00a0the constant misery of their allocated\u00a0do-gooder. For Spider-Man, it’s the Green Goblin, for Batman, the Joker, for Wonder Woman, Cheetah; the list goes on. Lex Luthor, however, has reached a unique level of recognition. Even someone not well-versed in comics, when asked who Superman’s main baddie is, will probably cockily\u00a0click their tongue and proudly proclaim: “The Joker.” After getting it wrong the first time, they’ll then half-sure\u00a0reply: “… Lex Luthor?”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man is a pivotal part of the Superman mythos, and it’s that importance that’s encouraged studios and filmmakers to put him front and center in almost every Superman movie ever made. Now, after a cinematic legacy that spans over 70 years, Man of Tomorrow will finally pit Clark Kent against a new villain: Brainiac. And you know what? it’s about time, because it has to be said: We’ve had too damn much Lex Luthor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Superman has been the main character or co-protagonist in 11\u00a0live-action films: The Superman serial, Atom Man vs. Superman,\u00a0Superman and the Mole Men, Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Superman Returns, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Superman. Out of those 11, Lex Luthor has been the main villain in seven… seven. He hasn’t only been a supporting player, either. No.\u00a0Each one of those films positioned the\u00a0rich megalomaniac as one of the main threats for the Last Son of Krypton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Look, I love Lex Luthor as much as the next sweaty, over-Cheetoed geek, but even I can admit we’ve seen\u00a0enough of the guy terrorizing Supes\u00a0with over-complicated real estate schemes\u00a0or over-complicated\u00a0frame jobs. Superman has a pretty eclectic rogues’ gallery, but his movies have stuck to having him fight Lex Luthor, an evil version of himself, or an evil Kryptonian… or a combination of all three. Yes, Superman fighting an evil version of himself is also a thing, and it’s typically tied to Luthor.\u00a0It’s\u00a0happened in Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Superman. But that’s besides the point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At this point, Superman needs a fresh spin. Desperately. We can only see him talk Luthor down\u00a0or slap his dark self in the face so many times before we get tired, and it’s fair to say, many of us already have (there are dozens of us… dozens!). That’s where Man of Tomorrow becomes so exciting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time around, the villain\u00a0who’s going to force Superman to wonder whether today was the day he just stayed grounded and\u00a0interviewed himself for the sixth time will be Brainiac. The movie will feature Lex Luthor again, yes\u2014prominently even. Yet,\u00a0this time around, he’s not going to be an overgrown Kryptonite pebble in Superman’s boot. Instead, in a much-needed breath of fresh air, he’s going to team up with Clark\u00a0to save the world. It’s an exciting\u00a0new approach to the villain that can renew interest in him as a character, and show\u00a0more facets to him other than being the Big Blue Boy Scout’s personal, professional hater.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brainiac is a character that opens an exciting world for the Man of Steel. He has a fascinating mythology, and dare I say, offers a physical threat no other villain has posed for Kal-El\u00a0in his entire cinematic history… Let’s face it, Zod is just not as intimidating anymore compared to a nearly\u00a0all-knowing being whose emotional spectrum boils down to: Move or you will be f\u2014ed. His introduction also opens the door for more of Superman’s amazing villains to be explored.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Superman adaptations have often boiled down to\u00a0the Man of Steel finding some\u00a0way to outsmart Lex Luthor. Now, it’s understandable for Lex to have been picked as the main villain in so many films, given how pivotal he\u00a0is to the hero’s mythology. However, Clark Kent\u00a0has\u00a0many other interesting adversaries that firstly, shine a light on different sides of his character;\u00a0and secondly, that show,\u00a0in new ways,\u00a0what makes him one of them best heroes in comic book history.<\/p>\n
Brainiac is one of such villains, and with how unapologetically sci-fi James Gunn is making the DCU, I am not exaggerating when I say I cannot wait to see how terrifying and exciting Brainiac will be. Man of Tomorrow promises to be a new start for Clark Kent, and as a fan who’s longed to see him encounter more challenges outside of the ones offered by Lex, I am counting the days to see that new start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Man of Tomorrow will fly into theaters on July 9, 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superman has been a cinematic staple since the ’50s. Yes, that’s right. You might think his big-screen career…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":384366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[172765,32720,954,955,171,46430,53,9180,183636,183637,66226,183635,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-384365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice","9":"tag-dc","10":"tag-dc-studios","11":"tag-dcu","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-lex-luthor","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-superman","16":"tag-superman-ii","17":"tag-superman-iv-the-quest-for-peace","18":"tag-superman-returns","19":"tag-superman-the-movie","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115562948044800804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}