This Brainiac First Appearance Is a Superman Holy Grail, and It Hit Auction at the Perfect Time
We’re all collectors in one way or another. Some of us collect coins and stamps, while others prefer collecting memories. If you’re reading this, you probably are a collector of vintage pop culture items like comics and action figures. Reasons for collecting these items are also different; for some it’s about nostalgia, while for others it’s about investment. While neither is wrong or right, the one thing we can all agree on is shrinking down a city and its population to add it to your private collection is a no-no. It seems Superman villain Brainiac never got the memo. Besides being one of the smartest individuals in the known universe, the villain also had a penchant for collecting cities from various planets in order to observe and record civilizations and technology, most famously Kandor from Superman’s home world of Krypton. He also destroys the planet he takes a city from, which I assume is his way of ensuring his collection is exclusive. He’d make an absolute killing at the auction.
Speaking of Brainiac and auctions, his first appearance comic just sold for a great price at Heritage Auctions. The iconic villain first appeared in Action Comics #242, and a VF 7.0 graded issue just sold for $12,200 at the auction house. It all starts off when Clark Kent and Lois Lane take a flight on Earth’s first manned space shuttle – keep in mind, the issue was released in 1958. They encounter Brainiac, whose ship descends into orbit to steal some of Earth’s most popular cities, including Metropolis. When Superman’s brawn isn’t enough to match Brainiac’s brain, he decides to tag along with the shrunken Metropolis, meet up with the scientists of Kandar inside Brainiac’s ship and devise a plan to disable it from the inside. It seems Brainiac’s vastly superior intellect never accounted for the sacrifices Superman was willing to make to save Metropolis and the rest of Earth’s cities.
Action Comics #242 Featuring Brainiac’s First Appearance Just Sold For $12,200 At Auction
Of course, the timing of this issue going up for auction probably helped its value skyrocket. James Gunn’s next Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow, will feature Brainiac as the antagonist, played by Lars Eidinger. The movie is still about a year away, and there are delays to consider, but the fact that Brainiac will be one of, if not the main villain definitely added a few extra bids for the lot. Perhaps it wouldn’t have gotten such a high valuation if fans didn’t know that Brainiac was the movie’s villain.It’s not just that, though. Besides introducing an iconic villain, the issue also gave Superman the first glimpse of what his home world looked like. Over the years, he has unsuccessfully tried to return it to normal size, but has never fully managed it. While he never really experienced what life was like on Krypton, the bottled city of Kandor gave him a small idea at least.
It’ll be interesting to see if the city will appear in the live-action movie, and if the narrative follows the comic in any way. One thing is for certain, though, Action Comics #242 helped diversify Superman’s rogue’s gallery, which was mostly primarily filled with characters with super-strength. Lex Luthor, and eventually Brainiac, are among the few who battle the Man of Steel with their brains instead of brawn. Considering we’ve had a glimpse at Luthor’s iconic power suit, we can also assume that Brainiac will use his impenetrable force shield and countless brain bots to take on Supes. We already saw in the first movie that Superman could barely keep up when brain and brawn are both used against him, and now he’ll have to deal with two villains doing the same. If the movie’s Brainiac is anything like the one in Action Comics #242, ol’ red and blue is going to be in a lot of trouble.
