Retroactively taking him out of the JLA doesn't help either, now he's no longer the top dog of the world's greatest superheroes. I can just see the League sitting around saying things like "Sure, Superman's great at stopping asteroids, heck he's the best at it, but that's basic Superhero 101 stuff. He isn't very effective at anything more complex or pro-active." Even non-powered hero Gangbuster, who was a total newbie, got a couple of people to realize that just maybe Luthor wasn't all that and a bag of Frito-Lay's.



Now that I think about that, it adds another layer to this - that of Luthor the incompetent, bringing both of them down to a level not much higher than a sitcom duo. Again, I'm picturing a discussion in Metropolis going something like -

Random citizen 1: "How can Lex Luthor be such a mega-successful businessman when he can't even afford good locks to the doors of his laboratories? I work in a coffee shop and our safe has better security than that."

Random citizen 2: "Yeah, I know. And why is Superman always cleaning up after this guy? Can't he, like, bend some steel into stronger doors for Lexcorp or something so this doesn't happen in the first place?"

They had a storyline in the 90's where the JLA disappeared and they replaced them with various characters and Nightwing was the leader.

Oh, that was the one where they were trapped in the past wasn't it?  Hawkwoman and Green Arrow came in as replacements too.

Someone, at some point, thought that the design of this goateed Brainiac was superior to the original or to the robotic one.

Ah yes. Thanks for reminding me. It was a tie-in in the loosest of senses, of course, having absolutely no connection to the actual plot of War of The Gods. Maybe a little better than a "red skies" tie-in, I guess?

[/quote]

Whoops. Fixed.

Action Comics #675 (March 1992)



"Divide and Conquer"

Script: Roger Stern
Pencils: Bob McLeod
Inks: Denis Rodier
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: B+

If I were twelve years old and reading this issue, I'd be eating it up. Tons of DC heroes, lots of action, and even the new complication of allies randomly turning into brainwashed Brainiac minions on a moment's notice would have ensured my total delight.



Of course, as a significantly older adult, I can't help but see this story for its many many flaws. For example, just last issue, Brainiac lost mental control of Supergirl while concentrating on her with all of his effort, and yet he can control these heroes without even giving them a single conscious thought?

I mean, he even does it to Guy Gardner and Killowog, two heroes for whom their will power IS their special ability:



And how, exactly, is Killowog exerting his will power on Brainiac's behalf while Brainiac is overcoming his will??

Somehow, by the end of the issue, we're supposed to believe that Brainiac is now controlling all of these heroes without any kind of mental effort:



...even though he couldn't even manage to control one Supergirl while using all of his effort last issue?


And then there's the super-cool coordinating of various heroes and agencies to push back the ground attack in Metropolis. It's really fun to watch at first:







until you stop and realize that, actually, none of this was coordinated. The heroes didn't know the Special Crimes Unit was going to show when they did, and they certainly didn't know Team Luthor was on the way. Maybe Aquaman was planned (really, what else is the dude good for beyond lurking in the nearest body of water and hoping trouble comes to him?) but the rest boils down to blind stupid luck and narrative convenience.

And then there's Brainiac, himself, playing an almost offensively generic stereotypical villain who constantly boasts that everything happening is part of his grand plan and yet is also constantly confounded by how quickly his plans fall apart:



In addition to being able to mind control Earth's greatest superheroes, he has an entire invading fleet of the most feared soldiers in the galaxy at his disposal, but somehow each little surprise the heroes pull seems to to somehow threaten his victory in ways that aren't all that clear.  

And, by the way, that invading fleet that decimated countless worlds and made Warworld a name even Darkseid feared? Forgettable and expendable now:



because even Gangbuster and Crimson Fox can now take out hoards of them without breaking a sweat, somehow.

But perhaps the most upsetting part of this issue is that Brainiac finally explains his motives for attacking Earth, and it isn't satisfying at all:



Even Brainiac isn't sure which motive is driving him here? He's amassed all this power and made a path directly for Earth, but he isn't totally sure why? And if it's to humble Superman, WHY? Supes was only one of many heroes who worked together to take Brainiac down the last time they met (Brainiac 5 being the more likely target for revenge in that circumstance), and Superman never managed to thwart Brainiac prior to that (though Brainiac did have reason to want to hurt Lex Luthor). So why Superman beyond the coincidence that he has four monthly titles and neither Brainiac 5 nor Lex Luthor have even one?

So it's an exciting and thoroughly fun story if you don't think about it too much -- the kind of thing that was perfect for winning back all the adolescents who had fled to Marvel for similarly exciting but vapid stories -- but it's also extremely lazy. A generic villain with no motive and a constantly shifting power level (depending upon what the story needs from him) wages war on Earth that somehow only ends up affecting Metropolis, and the ultra feared war machine that we were told to dread ends up being totally ineffectual because the plot needs all the non-super powered DC heroes to have a way to be effective in this fight.

It's crap.

But it's really fun crap.


Minor Details:

1. Second appearance of Team Luthor (which hasn't been seen since they first appeared three months/twelve issues back).

So soon!?! By reading your reviews, it almost seems that post-crisis Superman was barely making his first baby steps 😅