It’s a great time for Superman fans, with the Man of Steel soaring into movies, TV, animation and comics. To help us stay on top of it, writer Tim Beedle shares what's grabbed his attention and why in this monthly Superman column.
 

What does it take to be an effective parent?

Love, certainly. It’s arguably the single most important thing. Patience, flexibility and understanding are big ones as well. But what about sacrifice?

It doesn’t get discussed all that often in feel-good family movies, but anyone who’s been a parent or even knows any will tell you that having and raising children requires an unbelievable amount of sacrifice. In order to give your kids the best possible chance at life, you need to put their needs first, and that usually comes at the sacrifice of your own goals and desires.

It’s parenting’s dirty little not-so-secret.

And yet, our world and lives are full of parents who don’t do it, and typically, it’s easy to see the results. I’m sure there are people in your life who are coming to mind right now, but I’m not going to call anyone out—not anyone in the real world, at any rate. But Lex Luthor and Brainiac? They’re fair game.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m talking about the recently concluded “House of Brainiac,” which as it turns out is very much a story about family. Superman has his family, both biological and found, but Brainiac and Luthor have theirs as well, and the difference in how all three have handled raising their children is remarkable.

Let’s start with the easy one. Superman’s obviously a great father. No one would dispute that. He’s been a caring, supportive parent to Jon while also serving as a father figure to a number of younger heroes, many of whom are also displaced extraterrestrials like him. Kal-El had the benefit of having two great sets of parents raise him, and also of learning the importance of sacrifice early on. After all, what’s the single most famous thing that Jor-El and Lara did for him? They sacrificed their lives so that Kal-El could live on.

Jonathan and Martha Kent sacrificed as well, and theirs was almost as great. Sure, raising Clark as their own son may seem like the sort of sacrifice all adoptive parents make at first glance, until you realize that Superman isn’t your typical adoptive son. We’ve seen it in the movies, comics and shows, but even if we hadn’t, it’s not hard to imagine how frightening and destructive Clark’s superpowers must have been when he was first learning how to use them. How unnerving it must have been when he got angry at his parents, the way all children do from time to time. It took a set of parents who were willing to sacrifice not just their time and money, but their property and possible safety to raise the Man of Steel into the hero he ultimately became.

With parents like those—as well as an amazing partner and co-parent in Lois Lane—it’s little surprise that Superman’s been so successful as a dad.

That definitely hasn’t been the case with Lex Luthor or Brainiac. Lex cared so little about his daughter Lena’s well-being that he gave her to Brainiac in exchange for some technology that was only of benefit to Lex. He sacrificed the very thing that he should instead be sacrificing for—his daughter. Of course, Lex got her back eventually, and to his credit, he did seem to realize that he’d made a mistake. This led to a bit of reflection and ultimately, a sacrifice from Lex in sending his daughter away from him so that Brainiac wouldn’t find him again. But it was a sacrifice that was equally hard for Lena, who just wanted her father back, and it wouldn’t have been necessary if earlier Lex had just done the absolute minimum a parent can do and NOT GIVE HIS DAUGHTER TO A WORLD CONQUERING SUPER-VILLAIN. Needless to say, their relationship hasn’t been great ever since, though Lena at least developed into a pretty wonderful young woman.

And then there’s Brainiac. One could make the argument that he did a better job with Lena than Lex did—Brainiac at least seemed to value her. But he saw her as a tool he could use in his destructive quest for knowledge, not as family. He didn’t do much better with his actual family either, from which he’s long been estranged. So, after years of acquiring knowledge and civilizations, traversing the depths of space completely alone, he finally realized that something big was missing from his life and decided to create his own family. His child. His queen.

What a nightmare it was.

Brainiac made no sacrifices of his own, and there certainly was no love, patience or understanding. When the queen was born, she demanded energy, consuming an entire ship’s worth of Czarnians, and that was merely an appetizer ahead of what was meant to be the main course—all life across the known universe. Brainiac was once again only thinking of his needs. He wanted someone to inherit the knowledge he acquired without understanding the first thing about family (twelfth-level intellect, ha!), so he built a daughter and she was even more monstrous than he could ever be.

Meanwhile, to help defeat Brainiac’s queen and to save his own daughter, Lex made the greatest sacrifice he could have made—he gave up his mind to save Lena from Brainiac’s hive mind. Perhaps it came too late, but the selfless act was genuine. Lena realized it. Superman realized it. And Brainiac realized it as well—too late. But of all of those, the only one who really matters is Lena. She wanted her father as a child and he wasn’t there, but when it finally truly mattered, he gave everything to her. As a result, Lena made it off the ship safe and healthy while Brainiac’s queen did not.

The storyline may have been called “House of Brainiac,” but it’s interesting that in the end, it really seemed to be Lex Luthor’s story, as he came to realize the things that truly matter in life and found redemption—a narrative that began when Joshua Williamson first started writing Superman last year. It’s also a pretty reassuring story to any parents out there who might be struggling and wondering if the sacrifice is worth it. It may not always feel like it, but it is. After all, if Lex Luthor’s daughter can come to appreciate him, surely your children will come to realize how great a parent you’ve been as well.

We’ve always known that Superman could inspire hope. Who knew Lex Luthor could too?
 

“House of Brainiac” can be read in the pages of Action Comics and Superman on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Tim Beedle covers movies, TV and comics for DC.com, writes our monthly Superman column, "Super Here For...", and is a regular contributor to the Couch Club, our recurring television column. Follow him on Twitter at @Tim_Beedle and Bluesky at @TimBeedle.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Tim Beedle and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.