Summary
Warning: contains spoilers forAction Comics#1066!I cannot believe that DC put a new spin on a scene fromSuperman IIIthat gave me nightmares as a kid. The Christopher ReeveSupermanfilms were staples of my childhood, and my introduction to the Man of Steel. These movies were chock-full of spectacular visuals, but one fromSuperman IIIis pure nightmare fuel, and DC recreates it in horrific detail inAction Comics#1066.
Action Comics#1066 is written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Rafa Sandoval and Miguel Mendonca.Brainiac is fighting the entire Superman family,as well as Lex Luthor. Lena Luthor is also on board Brainiac’s ship, but she has been captured by the villain. Brainiac imprisons Lena in a web of wires and circuits. As the wires burrow into her skin, she pleads with Brainiac to free her.
The Coluan refuses, saying Lena’s brain will be used to process data he has acquired. And yes, the process will kill her.
Superman III Isn’t Memorable, But One Scene is Nightmare Fuel
Sandoval and Mendonca pull no punches in depicting Lena’s potential hellish fate. The sight of Lena wired into Brainiac’s ships is a disturbing visual–and one that finds echoes in 1983’sSuperman III, directed by Richard Lester. In that film, Gus Gorman (played by Richard Pryor) is recruited by a high-tech firm run by Ross Webster. Webster has constructed a giant super-computer, with the goal of killing Superman. Towards the film’s climax, Ross’ sister Vera steps a little too close to the computer. The computer grabs Vera and pulls her into it.
What comes next is one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire franchise. As the computer drags Vera into it, it begins covering her with metal and wires. In essence, the computer was incorporating Vera into it, in a process that could be likened toStar Trek’sthe Borg assimilatinga human. Watching Vera be “assimilated,” potentially losing her identity and humanity, is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl, butSuperman III’sspecial effects team took it up a notch. The scene terrified an eight-year-old me when I first watched it.
DC Made an Already Disturbing Scene Even Worse in Comics
Brainiac Is a Nightmarish Entity, and This Scene Proves It
Now, 41 years later, the creative team behindAction Comics#1066 has delivered a somehow even more nightmarish take on this scene. Brainiac has hooked Lena up to his ship in order to use her as a “data processing” unit. This is similar to what Ross’ computer did to Vera, but Brainiac has no qualms that it will kill Lena when he is done. The book’s artists do not shy away from showing Lena’s “assimilation” in all its disturbing glory, in the process recreating aSupermanIIIscene that gave me nightmares as a child.
