What's Next For Superman?

@kong - I think Brainiac works better as a Superman villain, at least initially, particularly in light of how Man of Steel set up Krypton and Jor-El's attitudes and hopes for Superman. I think they are reflected in Brainiac. Let me explain.

Jor-El is Krypton's premier scientist, who repeatedly warns the Council that they should look to the stars for Krypton's salvation. Like Zod, Jor-El believes that Kryptonian society has decayed tremendously, resulting in the present catastrophe. They stifled the social and intellectual development of Kryptonians through their genetic-based caste system. That is the reason why Kal-El exists: to forge his own path, to be free to come up with solutions to problems outside of a rigid society. And Jor-El dreams that his son would not only build a better world on Earth, but that he would help humans to avoid Krypton's mistakes so that one day, he can help humans "accomplish wonders."

Now enter Brainiac, who's had three major interpretations:

1. In the Golden Age, the alien Brainiac shrunk cities to repopulate the planet he ruled.
2. From the Silver Age to Crisis, Brainiac was a sentient super-computer that took over his creators' planet and sought to overcome every opponent by gaining technological and biological data.
3. In the New 52, Brainiac is a near parallel to Jor-El: a scientist who fails to convince his leaders of impending planetary doom, and thereafter captures a city's planet and the artifacts of its culture to preserve its civilization.

Now imagine a Brainiac who is a near parallel to Jor-El: once the premier scientist of Colu who tries in vain to prevent his world from going down a destructive path. Resolving to prevent worlds from following the same path as Colu, Brainiac scours the galaxy stealing cities from developed worlds at the peak of their cultural, scientific and technological development. In doing this, Brainiac attempts to build his own perfect world out of essentially a "museum" of different civilizations -- that develops and progresses under his guidance and direction, unlike the Coluans.

The kicker would be that Brainiac, in stealing Kandor or Argo or whichever Kryptonian city to immortalize Kryptonian civilization, would have triggered the end of Krypton's Age of Expansion and brought about the societal decline that he tries to prevent and that Jor-El and Zod attempted to reverse.

So you'd have a twisted hybrid of Jor-El, Zod AND Superman rolled into one, who causes the very thing his actions are meant to prevent. And in that you could throw in Lex's idea that Superman -- who wants to help humans to reach their potential -- is stifling that potential simply by being on Earth.

But most importantly, I think such a take on Brainiac could actually serve to advance the story and character development that were introduced in Man of Steel, in a way that hearkens back to the main themes established for Superman in his origin story. And you could throw in all sorts of ideas about the nature of human progress, the freedom to "stumble and fall," and the role of Superman in all of it.