I remember some bad old days of Superman events, and so by that comparison Joshua Williamson’s Superman: House of Brainiac is a head-and-shoulders improvement. But Williamson’s first two Superman books that lead here were demonstrably better than this first-year climax, and indeed if House of Brainiac starts with lots of potential, it falters by the end. For whatever reason, Williamson just does not seem to be able to get this one together.
[Review contains spoilers]
House begins brilliantly, a near-musical number as Lois Lane flits through Metropolis “Belle”-esque, encountering the whole of our main cast on the bustling streets — before the tone switches to disaster movie as Brainiacs and Czarnians rain down from the sky. There’s a gripping mystery posed, same as Williamson has broached at every opportunity over the past year (including in his Knight Terrors: Superman tie-in and etc.): what is Brainiac scared of, what did Lex Luthor glimpse inside Brainiac’s head, and what is coming that Lex’s been trying to prepare Superman for?
