Superman Through the Ages! Forum

From the January 30th edition of TV Guide, available Jan 26th.

Dana Delany and Tim Daly will reprise their roles from Superman: The Animated Series with an all-new DVD movie from Warner Bros. Animation later this year.

In Superman: Brainiac Attacks, the Man of Steel faces a combined threat from his two biggest foes, Lex Luthor and Brainiac. But perhaps even more daunting will be getting in touch with his feelings for Lois.

This sounds exciting.

My favorite version of Brainiac BY FAR is the robot head ship version seen in the Animated Series. The Brainiac connection to Krypton is the best idea anybody ever had about the character since Wolfman revised him, because it meant a connection existed between himself and Superman, whereas previously Superman picked him up and added Brainiac to his Rogue's Gallery, not unlike gum found on the bottom of his shoes. Brainiac had a REASON for being a Superman enemy.

Although one thing that does indeed bother me is the idea that they're leading up to a Superman/Lois relationship. I always found it admirable that the cartoon had the courage to NOT have them kiss for sweeps week, that their relationship was more interesting and more complicated if it excluded romantic intimacy and wasn't consummated.

The moment Mulder and Scully started necking was the moment that the X-FILES jumped the shark.

I agree the TAS Brainiac is by far my favorite version I really liked the Krypton/ Jor-el connection.

Oh, I am so looking forward to this. And I have to agree... this animated Brainiac has been my favorite version of him to date. As for Superman and Lois perhaps getting closer in a relationship... well, that would better bridge the gap of their relationship between Superman and Justice League Unlimited. Then again, Legacy did end with them kissing if I recall correctly.

In my opinion the best Brainiac was the Legion of Doom version from Challenge of the Superfriends!  

I'd hate to think that Superman's Rogues Gallery is just a collection of shoe-gum!  They all have reasons to hate Superman, usually explained in their intro strories (and if they have no reason to hate Superman before they begin their criminal careers, they sure do after!), and some (like the Phantom Zone villains) already have a connection to Krypton/Superman's past.  

Brainiac connected to Superman?  Yes: he stole Kandor!

I can see writers wanting to make some other connection, like the retcon of Luthor and the "I blame Superman for making me bald!" connection, but the new animated Brainiac soundss unneccesary.  Still, if they can shoe-horn it into the only slightly corrupted pre-Crisis continuity that seems to be what the animated shows are about, I say go for it.

I like the angle used for the STAS Brainiac, but Telle's right: the Silver/Bronze Age version did have a connection to Superman in that he stole Kandor.

The World of Krypton mini-series, available online at this site, adds a cool twist in having Kandor be the site of Jor-El's developing fleet of escape ships.  Thus when Kandor vanishes, so does any hope of a mass exodus from the doomed planet.  This for me is one of the rare occasions when adding on to the origin story actually improves it (or at least fleshes it out and answers some questions).

The best part of the STAS Brainiac is that it allowed for some heroics from Jor-El, and introduced the idea of a blood feud between the computer intelligence and the House of El.

I guess I'll have to watch, but what kind of heroics?

I liked the flashbacks in the comics when we saw into the early life of Jor-El.  Sometimes the presence of Superman in those stories, even as a kind of phantom observer, can be kind of creepy or distracting.  I would have loved a backup feature like "Young Jor-el, Boy Genius: The adventures of Superman's father when he was a boy!" without any of the cumbersome explanation of "how can Superman possibly learn all of this about his past without travelling back in time and falling in love on Krypton."

Yeah, sometimes I even thought that Kal tuning into transmissions from Krypton's past bouncing around the universe would have been a different way of handling it then always finding a convoluted way of placing him there.

Time travel is tricky stuff but all that may be left of Kryptonian transmissions may be teen beat shows like "Fire Falls" "The A.C."  "The Lor Van Girls" or worse--  drek like "Who Wants to Be a Kryptonian Moon Destroyer?" starring Jax Ur or "Three's a Thought Beast!"

Ha!

I just saw a truly horrible episode of Survivor: Scarlet Jungle on one of learning helmets.  If I had to say what life was like on Krypton based on that show, my view would be pretty skewed indeed!

Give me old episodes of Raf Arlo, Investigator or Antiques Roadshow: Argo City any day.  I also love catching an old emotion-movie starring Lyla Lerrol on the late-late-late-late-late-late show.

It looks like TAS but its not! As a big TAS fan I really hated it. See my rant elsewhere.

Administrator's note: rant continues here (http://superman.nu/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2732).