James Gunn won’t confirm or deny anything just yet, but if the front of the script that the writer/director posted on social media is any indication, then Brainiac will be the main villain in the upcoming DC movie Man of Tomorrow. He’s certainly a formidable enough threat that would warrant David Corenswet’s Superman and Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor teaming up, and many fans, myself included, have been wanting to see the character depicted on the big screen. So, assuming Brainiac is indeed the big bad of this Superman follow-up, I already have an idea about how he’ll use one of Luthor’s subordinates from the 2025 movie.
Where We Left Off With The Engineer In Superman
Lex Luthor had two main sources of muscle during Superman: Ultraman, who was revealed to be a clone of the Kryptonian superhero, and Angela Spicer, a.k.a. The Engineer, who was empowered by nanotechnology in her body. Angela, played by María Gabriela de Faría (who’d previously auditioned for The Suicide Squad), held her own pretty well against both Superman and Krypto, even coming close to suffocating the former with her nanobot swarm. She was also the one who restored the full message that Kal-El’s Kryptonian parents left for him.
However, towards the end of Superman, Engineer was knocked unconscious by the Man of Steel. While we saw Lex Luthor being arrested and Ultraman being sucked into the black hole created by the rift in Metropolis, her whereabouts weren’t addressed. One wouldn’t have been faulted for wondering if we’d ever see her in the DC Universe again, but James Gunn confirmed in September that we’ll learn what happened to The Engineer in Man of Tomorrow.
we found him in last week’s Peacemaker episode, something tells me that he didn’t have anything to do with Angela’s disappearance. Instead, I think we have Brainiac to blame, at least partially. While it’s possible that Angela woke up and fled the scene before the authorities showed up, my theory is that Brainiac eventually captures her for his own purposes.
With the technology at Brainiac’s disposal, he can easily upgrade Engineer’s nanotechnology and take control of her mind so she’ll serve him. It remains to be seen if the DCU’s Brainiac will be an alien from planet Colu or an artificial intelligence from either that same planet or Krypton, similar to what we saw last year in My Adventures with Superman. Whatever his background is, nothing good will come from his plans for Earth. While Angela may not want to help him, I don’t think she’ll have a choice in the matter and will be forced to attack both Superman and Luthor with her spruced-up powers.
Since Man of Tomorrow doesn’t come out until July 9, 2027, it’ll be a while until my theory is confirmed or denied. However, it stands to reason that Brainiac will need his own muscle beyond his mindless drones, and The Engineer easily fits that bill. For now, I’ll just stream Superman with my HBO Max subscription to witness again how this character is a major badass.