Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Color Artist: Alejandro Sanchez
Cover Artists: Rafa Sandoval & Alejandro Sanchez
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Brainiac invaded Metropolis once again, but this time he didn’t bottle the city. No, no, this time he took all of the superhumans in the city, including most members of the Super-family. But why this sudden change in pattern, why has Brainiac done this? All good questions, but the only one Superman has on his mind is one: Where’s Lobo? Read the second part of the House of Brainiac story in Superman #13.
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Review:
Okay, so the first part of the House of Brainiac story was a big action-packed opener that really grabs your attention thanks to the art and the writing working hand-in-hand. But of course, there are still questions that need to be answered, and the stakes continue to keep getting more interesting. There will be slight SPOILERS in this review.
So, after Brainiac invaded Metropolis with not only his typical army of robot drones but an entire army of Czarnian warriors, there’s only one man Superman knows to find: Lobo, the Main Man himself. Of course, the comic shows Lobo getting into trouble on Earth since he’s stuck there thanks to the recent planetary quarantine by the young United Planets. But that’s not stopping Lobo from causing a ruckus which leads Superman straight to him. While those two work things out, the comic shifts to Brainiac’s Skull Ship where we see Brainiac analyzing his new specimens who are all shrunken aboard his ship.
Now, I won’t waste too much time talking about the art because not much else needs to be said other than it is spectacular, it’s dynamic, and it’s just freaking cool. Rafa Sandoval’s art and Alejandro Sanchez’s colors just elevate this comic to the max, and if we’re all really lucky they will stick around for the whole storyline, not just these two opening issues. The other good things about this comic is how it answers some immediate questions while setting up new questions, the most obvious being why Brainiac is doing all of this, which we’ll get to later. Or better yet, who are those Czarnians who work for him, and just how are they even around since Lobo’s infamous for wiping out his people. Well, it turns out this Czarnian army’s called the Bad Bloods led by General Chacal from the first part, and they took over an entire city. But that same city would end up getting shrunk, bottled, and taken by Brainiac before their people were killed, kinda like Kandor on Krypton. Not to mention, there’s still some action in this comic as we see Superman and Lobo team up to leave Earth before running into trouble.
Of course, there are a couple of negatives even in this comic. First, there’s the issue of inconsistent continuity. Granted, this is a bigger issue with DC Comics’ current continuity as to what’s canon and what isn’t at this point, but sticking to just this storyline, it’s still a problem. As I’ve said in the previous reviews of this Superman run, Williamson goes from having the characters act like they should based on their recent histories to dropping big reveals into everyone’s laps and then moving on without fleshing out the history of these new characters and the supposed history they have. For example, Lex Luthor and Brainiac having an extensive history of working together which provides a unique dynamic for them here, and that’s a good use of continuity. But then their conversation immediately transitions to talking about Luthor’s “daughter” Lena and how her time spent with Brainiac in the future made her “mind unique in all the universe”. I’m sorry, what? And remember, this new version of Lena Luthor was just introduced in Superman #7 and her backstory is very barebones, to put it nicely.
This transitions to the other problem: Brainiac and the Brainiac Queen. For those who don’t know, DC Comics announced months ago that Joshua Williamson was introducing a new super-villainess, the Brainiac Queen. This same Brainiac Queen will be a key villain in DC Comics’ upcoming Absolute Power event, and this storyline will tie into that through her. Here’s the thing, Williamson has a bad history of making new villains that are basically derivatives of existing ones that make you question why he even made them, or they’re just plain boring. Case in point, the new super-villainess Shush from Williamson’s current Batman & Robin series, where she’s basically a female version of Hush but with none of the menace, style, has little intrigue, and Williamson really goes out of his way a couple times to say she has nothing to do with Hush other than sharing the same costume design and gimmick. And then there’s the new Lex Luthor Revenge Squad he introduced in the main Superman series that didn’t really pan out.
And now, we have him trying to sell readers on the idea that Brainiac would go through all of this trouble, invade Earth, attack Superman and his Super-family, kidnap some of Metropolis’ superhumans, just to create a female version of himself. And clearly, Lena will be a major part of Brainiac Queen’s creation. This entire storyline, Lena’s existence, it’s all for Brainiac Queen. Yet given his recent history with trying to make new villains, I have my doubts he can pull it off, but he can always prove me wrong. The only good thing that I know will come out of this is that Brainiac Queen will look good in Rafa Sandoval’s art.
Final Thoughts:
Superman #13 is the second part of the House of Brainiac storyline and brings some new developments for the story. Naturally, Superman finds and reluctantly teams up with Lobo to take down Brainiac and his Czarnian army. There’s a few good and weird callbacks to previous continuity in the comic, but nothing too bad for now. The comic also furthers the mystery of why Brainiac is doing what he’s doing, but if you’ve been paying attention to news announcements from DC Comics, then you know why. Overall, a solid second part of the House of Brainiac, and it’s looking like the third part might be even better.