During Season Three of Justice League Unlimited, much of the drama centers around Luthor dealing with the lingering presence of Brainiac in his mind. What if it wasn't really there?
A fan theory is a term used to describe interpretations of fan-related media (film, television, comic books, etc.) that, while not explicitly defined or supported by official canon, can be implied via circumstantial evidence. These usually begin as headcanon that may or may not gain traction in the larger fan community. Theories that develop a following become fanon, while other theories—either due to unpopularity or simply due to not being well known—survive as headcanon until they gain traction with the public at large. Of course, there is a considerable amount of overlap with these developing terms, but that’s how our language evolves.
I myself have been enchanted by fan theories for years, whether it’s the theory that “James Bond” is merely a code name shared by multiple British agents over the course of the franchise, or the one where the Chosen One in Harry Potter isn’t old Harry himself, but his classmate Neville Longbottom, who also fits the prophecy in the series. Hell, I’ve even created a few on my own—back in October 2001, I posted on the Toon Zone (now Anime Superhero) message boards my theory that Harley Quinn, who was shown sleeping with her college professors from Gotham University in The Batman Adventures: Mad Love (1994) to get better grades, may have hooked up with Professor Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, who was also a professor at the school around that time. Eighteen years later, it got picked up by the folks at Watchtower Database, who made a whole video about it:
By the distribution of my humble fan theory, headcanon becomes fanon. But it’s hardly my only DCAU theory and, since I have this platform, I thought I might share some more with you.
This is the first installment of Headcanon, a series where I share some of my fan theories, lay out my evidence for them, and attempt to propagate my theory beyond my own imagination. Today we’ll look at Lex Luthor and his sometimes-partner Brainiac, the strange relationship that developed between them during Season Three of Justice League Unlimited, and how it may not be as it appeared.
I Want You to Want Me
Our theory begins back in 1997, during the Superman: The Animated Series episode “Ghost in the Machine.” In this episode, Brainiac, who inhabits LexCorp’s mainframe following its ship’s destruction in “Stolen Memories,” kidnaps Lex Luthor and demands that he build a new body for its consciousness to inhabit. However, following the new body’s assembly, the malevolent A.I. hits Luthor with a blast of energy that he somehow survives.
We would later find out, in the Justice League Unlimited episode “Divided We Fall,” that the blast was not intended to kill, but merely to inject him with a “nano-tech payload” containing a copy of its programming. This failsafe allowed it to survive its encounter with Kal-El, as well as operate behind the scenes while it plotted how best to catalogue Earth’s data. During this time, it protected Luthor—curing the cancer caused by his constant exposure to kryptonite radiation, temporarily giving him super-strength, and possibly explaining how a fit, yet forty-something, armchair schemer changed into a taller, fairer-skinned physical combatant with “the body of a twenty-year-old” between series:
Later, once Brainiac’s presence was revealed, Luthor suggested to the program that they “become one,” and Brainiac—who was already seeking to become a life form (see “Twilight”)—agreed. Using the Dark Heart tech confiscated by Project: Cadmus (from the episode of the same name), they merged together to become a dual, cyber deity. Only the intervention of the Flash, who literally pulled out the Brainiac circuitry from Luthor’s body at super-speed, stopped them from achieving their goals.
Months later, in the episode “I Am Legion,” Luthor escapes custody during a prison transfer after an uneventful period where he sat “in his cell talking to himself.” And this continued through his escape, where he frequently spoke to an unseen figure. Later, cornered in an alley, he was rescued by series newcomer the Key, who phased the escapee through a brick wall and brought him to Grodd’s secret headquarters, located in an unknown swampland. There, he is introduced to the ape’s latest venture—the Legion of Doom.
(I know, I know … technically Grodd only refers to his organization as the Secret Society on Unlimited but come on. In a February 17, 2006 post on Toon Zone, Producer Bruce Timm explained the name change, stating how “DC specifically requested that we not ever use the term ‘Legion of Doom’ in an episode to describe the super-sized baddie organization, as they felt it sounded too corny / old school, and instantly conjures up memories of Super Friends” [b.t.]. Then, in another post from February 17th, he admitted that the creative team referred to them as the Legion of Doom or “the LOD guys,” both in story breaking sessions and in the scripts, but “never in spoken dialogue” [b.t.]. So, screw it, they’re the Legion of Doom.)
In Grodd’s control room, he extols the virtues of his organization, as well as the benefits that it can provide for active supervillains against an organized League. However, when he tries to recruit Luthor, he declines, saying, “We’re not interested.” This causes Grodd to get more aggressive, saying how Luthor’s “much too powerful a player to be out there freelance.” Luthor—after pausing to speak to his unseen partner—responds to Grodd, reflecting on how Grodd has nothing to offer, and how the League’s interference cost him his godhood. Then, Grodd, obviously sensing that this was where the conversation would lead, presents him with this:
The supposed last piece of Brainiac tech left on Earth. Suddenly, we hear a familiar voice:
Do whatever he asks. My entire program resides in even the smallest part of me. […] We could be together again.
And we learn that Luthor’s unseen partner is Brainiac, suggesting that the A.I. is still present in his consciousness, despite the Flash’s intervention. Then, Luthor, eager to rebuild Brainiac and regain his cyber divinity, joins the Legion of Doom, offering his services in exchange for the tech.
While a powerful scene between dueling criminal masterminds, it seems … kind of off to me. I found it odd to think that Brainiac, the aggressive artificial intelligence who takes what it wants, who routinely destroys entire civilizations, was so willing to acquiesce to Grodd. It even does it again later in “Legion”—following Luthor's mission, when he realizes that Grodd intends to keep him under his thumb, Brainiac responds with the following statement:
He still has something we need. We have to put up with him for the moment.
All in all, Luthor worked for Grodd for six episodes before he finally pulled the trigger and took over the Legion at the end of “Dead Reckoning.” Prior to that, he had Grodd’s resources at his fingertips as he worked to augment the powers of the team’s members—you mean to tell me he couldn’t recruit allies to help him steal it, or attempt to take the fragment using remote-controlled robots? Even if he was being watched by Grodd's people, he's Lex Luthor (compare to Tony Stark's actions in the first Iron Man film, when he's being held prisoner by the Ten Rings). And even when he had Grodd locked up and was trying to unlock the tech from the piece, Brainiac wasn’t much help then either. In the beginning of “Grudge Match,” when Luthor again fails to access the Brainiac program, the illusion made this suggestion:
Perhaps if you constructed at Positronic Event Chamber. […] You’re a resourceful human, Luthor. I’m sure you’ll find a way.
This suggestion was not only very expensive and would take time to build, but when it was apparently completed and used at the beginning of “Alive!” it didn’t work anyway, sending Luthor into a rage. It wasn’t until Tala used her magic to see the destruction of Brainiac’s central database (from the Justice League episode “Twilight”) that Luthor had the idea to travel into space to retrieve fresh debris from the “Fourth World” solar system (the one containing New Genesis and Apokolips, which—unlike in the comics, where they're in an alternate dimension—apparently exists within the DCAU's universe itself). Then, when Luthor accidentally resurrects Darkseid, and he destroys the Legion headquarters and returns to Apokolips, Brainiac’s presence is just ... gone from Luthor’s mind. Like it was never there.
As the penultimate episode of an ending series, we never did find out what was going on with that storyline, as the return of Darkseid and his armies was the focus of the final episode, “Destroyer.” All we got was the other characters looking at Luthor as crazy, and he shifted his rage towards Darkseid, who he blamed for destroying Brainiac. To his credit, Darkseid either has no idea what Luthor is talking about, or he doesn’t care. There doesn’t appear to be any evidence that Darkseid and Brainiac have merged together like Luthor did, aside from him admitting that "I'm more powerful than I've ever been" and having a snazzy new outfit (and, on his message boards, writer Dwayne McDuffie later admitted that it wasn’t Brainiac tech). Even Luthor mastering the Anti-Life Equation and defeating Darkseid did little to silence the questions in my head.
However, after reviewing Season Three multiple times, I have a theory. A theory that there might be more to Luthor's delusions that Grodd wasn't telling us.
Fight Like an Ape
Consider Grodd’s position prior to “I Am Legion”—recognizing that the new, expanded Justice League posed a greater threat to the supervillain community than the original team ever did, he decided that, like the heroes, the bad guys needed to organize. Taking a cue from the League, the simian criminal created a newer, larger alliance designed to offer protection and support to criminals. And while he was correct in recognizing that such an organization was needed, he also had an ulterior motive—to position himself as a power player above them and, with a secret headquarters and an army of bad guys paying him tribute, he succeeded. However, there was one problem: Lex Luthor.
With Darkseid dead and immortals like Vandal Savage and R’as Al Ghul off the radar for the moment, Luthor was the only major player that could complicate his plans or challenge him directly. Thus, he sought to diffuse the situation by bringing him in-house, allowing Grodd to both utilize his talents and keep an eye on him. However, presumably after communicating with former associates, such as members of the Injustice Gang (Cheetah, Star Sapphire, the Shade, Copperhead) and Superman villains from back in the day (Metallo, Livewire, possibly Bizarro), Grodd recognized that he was manipulative, rageful, and prone to backstabbing. So, he needed to literally get into his head, and while Grodd had mental powers, they were limited to mental attacks and subtle mental manipulation (remember his line in “Secret Society”: “This blessed organ of mine can send out thought waves that affect those moods”). He needed an actual psychic, someone who was expert in mental manipulation, hallucinations, and other forms of extra-sensory percept—oh, wait.
Doctor Destiny. Last seen in “Only a Dream,” where he was bedridden due to an unknown malady (possibly an overdose of whatever he was going to inject Batman with), it appears that Grodd both healed and recruited him. Bitter at the League for causing his arrest and cheating him of his “destiny,” it wouldn’t take much for Grodd to remind him of how Luthor also had no problem using him and forgetting about him (he was arrested while guarding smuggled weapons at a LexCorp warehouse). Seeking revenge and owing a debt to Grodd, Destiny could have certainly used his powers to manipulate Luthor.
Either hiding in an unknown location in Luthor’s prison or somewhere nearby, Doctor Destiny could have convinced Luthor that Brainiac was still present in his mind and, following his escape and recruitment into the Legion, used that illusion as a means to convince him into submitting to Grodd. After all, remember Destiny’s chilling words to Batman in "Only a Dream," when he tracked him to his lair: “the closer I am to someone, the stronger I get. I’ll be able to go into your brain even if you’re wide awake.” And he could be as close as he wanted in the Hall of Doom, keeping Luthor docile and, after Grodd's imprisonment, keeping him distracted while Grodd and his loyalists sized up other Legion members in preparation for a mutiny.
Doctor Destiny's only “official” JLU appearance was in “I Am Legion,” but it could be suggested that he appeared in “Alive!” during the death scene for Grodd’s loyalists … even though, moments later, it is revealed as an animation error (as seen above, his “appearance” was a miscolored Major Disaster). Still, one ignores the error and takes it as a genuine appearance, it would place the skull-faced villain on the ship prior to Darkseid’s attack. One of the many dead following the Hall of Doom's destruction, his death would presumably break the spell he had on Luthor, freeing him from the Brainiac hallucination.
So, that potentially explains Brainiac's presence in Luthor's mind, but then there's the issue of the Brainiac fragment. Since the piece was genuine and not a forgery (see Tala's reading of it in "Alive!"), why couldn't Luthor unlock its secrets? While it's possible that Grodd may have tampered with it, preventing his adversary from accessing Brainiac and destroying the Earth, there is also another culprit that may have done it ... someone with a unique skill set best suited for the task.
Ah, the Key. The last villain from the original 2001 Justice League character bios to appear on the series (Allstetter), the creative team adapted the character—another mental manipulator like Despero and the aforementioned Doctor Destiny in the comics—by playing up his ability to overcome locks and barriers, thus transforming him into a sort of evil Mister Miracle. And as the Key has the ability to unlock things, it stands to reason that he could also lock things, so it’s possible that this Grodd loyalist could have “locked up” the Brainiac fragment, thus preventing Luthor from accessing the A.I.’s programming. This also had the side effect of Luthor keeping Grodd alive, as he knew that the gorilla had information related to the remnant that he might pry out of him at a later date. Unfortunately for the Key, he was singled out for punishment by Luthor following the mutiny and was frozen to death by Killer Frost.
As an aside, it's worth nothing that, like Brainiac, the Key was also voiced by veteran voice actor Corey Burton in an uncredited role.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
In April 2007, I had the opportunity on the Toon Zone (now Anime Superhero) message boards to present Bruce Timm a scaled-down version of my theory, to which he had this response:
We definitely left it open to interpretation, but personally, I think Brainiac’s ghost was totally a figment of Lex’s imagination. In other words, Lex was cracked, and [it] manifested the ghost himself, just out of his own burning desire. Once Darkseid returned, Lex’s subconscious was convinced that Brainiac was gone for good, hence Brainy’s voice went bye-bye.
We never even considered that Grodd was manipulating Lex by sending him visions of his lost partner-in-godhood. Hmmm … interesting interpretation. I concede that it’s possible; not much definitive textual evidence to support it, though. (b.t.)
Well, we can agree to disagree, Bruce. I say there's more than enough circumstantial evidence to back up this theory. Rather than the unanswered, is-it-or-isn't-it question of Luthor's sanity, I propose that Grodd deliberately manipulated him using allies in an attempt to hinder him, thus making him less of a threat to the ape's rise to power. Unfortunately for Grodd, he underestimated Luthor's resourcefulness, cunning, and sheer aggression. Even with a compromised mental state and a former ally telling him to "just obey and it will all work out," he took Grodd down and almost achieved his goal.
As for the outcome, and the roles Tala and Darkseid played, well ... that's another fan theory.
Works Cited
Allstetter, Rob. “Justice League Characters.” Comics Continuum. Comics Continuum. 19 Oct. 2001. Web. 22 Dec. 2022. <http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0110/19/jlindex.htm>.
b.t. Comment on “Justice League Unlimited - New Episodes Talkback (UK Airings), Part II (Spoilers).” Anime Superhero. XenForo Ltd. 17 Feb. 2006. <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/justice-league-unlimited-new-episodes-talkback-uk-airings-part-ii-spoilers.4059931/page-25#post-61373711>. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.
---. Comment on “Justice League Unlimited - New Episodes Talkback (UK Airings), Part III (Spoilers).” Anime Superhero. XenForo Ltd. 17 Feb. 2006. <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/justice-league-unlimited-new-episodes-talkback-uk-airings-part-iii-spoilers.4071411/#post-61564111>. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.
---. Comment on “Firestorm Villain Multiplex in JLU’s ’Dead Reckoning?’” Anime Superhero. XenForo Ltd. 3 Apr. 2007. <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/firestorm-villain-multiplex-in-jlus-dead-reckoning.4321751/#post-65943081>. Accessed 7 Oct. 2023.
McDuffie, Dwayne. Untitled. Dwayne McDuffie. N.p. n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2006. <http://www.thevhive.com/forum/index.php?webtag=DWAYNEMCDUFFIE&msg=244.11>.
Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and DC Comics. YouTube video courtesy of the Watchtower Database channel.
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