Published Jun 28, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT
Derek is the Training Lead for ScreenRant. Before his current position, he spent 20 years working in games, TV, and film while also writing for several entertainment sites. Derek is also the co-host of three pop culture podcasts: Across the Omniverse, The Bad Batch, and Watch Men.
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There aren’t many things in the DC Universe that make Batman nervous. This is a man who, without any powers, has taken on gods one-on-one. He has faced his own fears, both literally and figuratively, on multiple occasions. He’s even been lost in time and found his own way back. The Dark Knight prides himself on being ready for anything and always knowing exactly what to do. In general, if the other heroes see Batman running away, they can be pretty sure that they need to hightail it out of there and follow the Caped Crusader to safety.
And while Batman doesn’t cut and run in Mark Waid, Dan Mora, and Fico Ossio’s Justice League Unlimited #20, he gets about as close to calling for a retreat as he ever has. Things are so dire that Batman goes as far as calling in every member of the Justice League — even the newly paroled supervillains — to take on a being that has quickly become the strongest foe the League has faced this decade: the Brainiac Queen that even Superman couldn’t stop. And yet, with all the danger the team is facing, there is still one paroled villain that Batman wants to keep as far away from the action as possible.
When the Brainiac Queen first showed up, she nearly destroyed all life in the universe before Lex Luthor stopped her. Then Amanda Waller got her grubby hands on the Queen and trained her to be able to take down the heroes of the DCU while making sure the Queen was loyal only to her. Then, as seen in Absolute Power, the Brainiac Queen played a major role in nearly destroying all the heroes before Batman was able to Boom Tube her to Pluto.
All of this is to say that taking on the Brainiac Queen clearly isn’t a day in the park. This AI baddie is as powerful as baddies come, which is why it’s really bad that she suddenly showed up on the Justice League satellite. And, to make it clear how powerful the Brainiac Queen is, when Captain Marvel asks him to rank her on a scale of one to ten, Batman goes full Nigel Tufnel and says “Eleven.”
Superman has had eighty-plus years to share his story; however, the twenty-first century proved the myth still had room to surprise us.
The big bad Queen quickly lives up to Batman’s rating. When the Atom tries to get inside her to rip out a few wires, he gets a look into the Queen’s mind and is so terrified he runs away. After that, the Queen takes down Captain Atom and Flash like a bowling ball vs some pins. The only person who seems to make any headway with the Queen is the teen hero Air Wave, who is trapped inside her. But, as Air Wave tries to talk Brainiac Queen into giving up, Batman’s real concern happens. Lex Luthor shows up.
Batman is certainly worried about what the Brainiac Queen can and will do, but he’s even more concerned about Lex Luthor getting his hands on her. Throughout the issue, Batman makes it clear over and over again that Luthor — who is now a member of the League as part of the pardon system — must not be allowed on the satellite until the threat has been contained. The Dark Knight has been around long enough to know that if Luthor gets a taste of the Queen’s electronics, he’ll use it to cause some problems for everyone else.
And, sure enough, Lex proves Batman’s point by breaking his way onto the satellite and instantly messing everything up in his quest to either prove himself as being better than everyone else or get the Queen’s tech to himself. To the Caped Crusader, the Queen may be the strongest threat the League has faced in ages; the real danger is one of their oldest foes. Luthor has played the “I’m a good guy now” card in the past, and clearly Batman isn’t ready to believe the Metropolis billionaire just yet.
If Lex really is trying to be on the side of the angels this time, his actions won’t help prove it. Not only does he override the League’s satellite defenses to get on the base, he then takes it upon himself to “pardon” warp and nearly kills Air Wave. And, worst of all, Lex’s actions let the Brainiac Queen get away. All of this means that Batman’s greatest fear — Lex Luthor getting his hands on Brainiac tech — is still a serious concern.
Batman’s concerns about Lex Luthor getting his hands on Brainiac tech aren’t unfounded, even if he doesn’t have an in-continuity example to point to. While the World’s Greatest Detective is using deductive reasoning to theorize on what a maniacal genius like Lex would do with the power of Brainiac, fans have direct examples to point to.
In the classic Alan Moore and Curt Swan story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Lex and Brainiac become one being — Lexiac — and get about as close to killing Superman as anyone had before Doomsday showed up. In that story, Lex comes to realize the mistake he made in working with Brainiac when the then robot took over his body and used him as little more than a puppet.
Then, in the animated Justice League Unlimited series, Brainac hid himself inside of Lex until the time was right, at which point he and Lex beat the heck out of the League and nearly took over the world. If it wasn’t for the Flash going faster than ever before and literally ripping Brainiac out of Luthor, all would have been lost.
Safe to say, the combination of Lex Luthor and Brainiac is not good, and Batman knows that, above all else, the League can not let that happen. Whether or not Batman is able to keep Lex from getting his hands on the Brainiac Queen as the story continues in the pages of Justice League Unlimited remains to be seen.
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First TV Show
Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Zachary Levi, Dwayne Johnson, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett, Rosie Perez, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong, Ewan McGregor, Idris Elba, John Cena, Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Xolo Mariduena
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson
Character(s)
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg, Harley Quinn, The Joker, Shazam, Darkseid, Amanda Waller, Lex Luthor, Doomsday, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Black Canary, Black Adam
Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Suicide Squad, Black Adam, Shazam! The Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, Superman, The Brave and the Bold