Superman #167 (1964)
written by Cary Bates & Ed Hamilton
pencils and cover by Curt Swan
The first published work by Cary Bates, who was 16 years old at the time, is the “cover idea” of this issue. Thinking of the cover first and then assigning the actual story to a different writer was a common practice at DC Comics.
As far as Luthor prison escapes go, this one is ALMOST scientifically plausible.
You built a whole astronomical observatory as “a future gift for Metropolis” but you kept it for yourself? How does that work?
I sense a tax fraud behind this scheme.
I can only imagine that Luthor has spent years in prison between the Superboy days and the Superman days, because he seems to escape every other week.
Luthor’s weird “hall of heroes” seen in the original Death of Superman is canon, by the way.
His usual tactic for dealing with Superman goes as well as you’d expect.
Realizing he need an ally, Lex uses his latest invention: the Time-Space Thought-Scanner™ to scan THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE to find the one mind who can help him.
And this can’t be used to scan Superman’s mind to figure out his secret identity because shut up.
The device shows him a planet populated by green-skinned aliens that is conquered by the supercomputers that they built.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Luthor is watching the origin of Brainiac.
Although in the flashback, the Coluans are described as having sixth-level intelligence (same as humans); later on, we’ll learn that the average on that planet is being tenth-level.
Also, these supercomputers are smarter beyond our understanding… but they could not figure out giving Brainiac a wig to cover the exposed diodes on his head.
Sounds legit.
This issue is historically important because it’s where Brainiac is retconned from being a biological alien into being an alien robot… because of a trademark dispute with the Brainiac™ Computer Kit.
Brief tangent here. The trademark thing is addressed in the letters page: while Brainiac’s first appearance is from 1956, the toy computer pre-dates it by a year.
Yeah I can see why they didn’t want to confuse the two.
While it’s described as a toy, don’t think of it as being used for video games… you’d have to really put on the work to use this thing.
I wonder what the people buying this would react to the news that one day a computer would be used to review comics.
In 1964, this could have been yours for less than 20 dollars: as of 2026, that would be the equivalent of 209 dollars today.
Prices for vintage models today range from 200 to 350 dollars.
Continuing the story, this is also the first appearance of Brainiac 2… who you probably know better as Vril Dox II from L.E.G.I.O.N.
He appears IN A SINGLE PANEL in this story… and this is in fact THE ONLY PANEL PUBLISHED BEFORE CRISIS where he shows up!!!
Yes make the supercomputer who enslaved its own creators even smarter, what could possibly go wrong?
So Luthor builds a spaceship to visit the planet where Superman has imprisoned Brainiac… and nobody else, keeping him in total isolation. This has several implications:
1) Superman must consider Brainiac far more dangerous than Luthor
2) Superman either doesn’t trust Brainiac’s planet or still believes his original backstory of being the last survivor
3) since Superman explicitly does not know yet that Brainiac is a robot, he has no problem placing him in solitary confinement
4) he does not exile Brainiac into the Phantom Zone because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No, seriously, why DIDN’T Superman put Brainiac in the Phantom Zone? This sounds like SO much more work!
The bars are made of Supermanium, a substance that occasionally pops up in the Silver Age (and strangely enough, in modern comics as well). I wonder if it’s tougher than Inertron.
We don’t get to see how tough Supermanium is.
Of note is the fact that Brainiac was only a TENTH-level intelligence until Luthor helped him to become smarter.
I always find it disturbing that Kandor City is constantly spying on everyone.
It is possible that Superman did not exile Brainiac to the Phantom Zone because he was worried that he could escape, but then again the Phantom Zone criminals escape almost as frequently as Luthor anyway.
Props to Luthor for not fully trusting Brainiac and installing a failsafe.
The duo has a secret weapon that Superman won’t see coming: continuity!
We revisit the planet from Superman #164, still technically without an official name.
Luthor even meets a woman who will play an extremely important role in other stories I’m going to review. She’s called Tharla in this story, but later stories (and some reprints) will change her name to Ardora.
This is ALSO technically the first appearance of 20th century Colu, Brainiac’s planet.
Which I guess has some visitors since they’re not green.
Superman flies directly into a trap, with his enemies deploying a “serum-gas” that robs him of his powers.
Weird that they went with this new invention instead of red sun radiation, but more importantly: why is it called a “serum-gas” when it’s CLEARLY just a gas???
We have reached the cover scene… kind of, since that doesn’t feature Brainiac’s ring.
Ironically since this alliance started by exploiting a weakness in the prison built by Superman… he’s able to escape because the villains didn’t consider he could build a rope.
The fact that Superman’s cape has pouches where he put things is mentioned quite often, but this might be the first time we actually get an idea of how much stuff he puts in there.
How does work, exactly? Does it has a zipper? Velcro? Does it flop around when he’s not flying at top speed?
While Superman works to send a distress signal to Kandor…
…Brainiac is busy making a fool out of Luthor.
The Kandorians show up just in time to save Superman.
While Superman recovers, Brainiac is prosecuted at Kandor.
Both Luthor AND Kandor have a point in this. I’d watch a legal drama to explore this aspect.
Okay if the reason why Superman didn’t exile Brainiac into the Phantom Zone was that he had not been prosecuted by a Kryptonian jury… why DIDN’T he put Brainiac on trial at Kandor?
Guys, it’s good and all that you want to save Superman and that your word can be trusted, but maybe don’t do deals with the guy who doomed your civilization!?
Also, why should Superman keep a promise YOU made on HIS behalf?
Also also, at no point it was agreed that you had to enlarge them! You could have let them free at microscopic size!
In a truly surprising twist, the story does NOT reset the status quo: Luthor is allowed to go back to the planet where he’s a hero.
That is where we will pick up Luthor in the following issue.
Historical significance: 10/10
Brainiac’s new origin is still influencing the character, and it’s been messing up with Brainiac 5 ever since. It’s also when Brainiac gets his twelfth-level intelligence, plus allowing Luthor to stay on the (still unnamed) planet has major pre-Crisis implications.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Luthor invented a “serum-gas” that can instantly rob Superman of his powers.
I don’t think he ever uses it again.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Quite enjoyable with a few contrivances here and there. Yes I sound like a broken record but I found the lack of acknowledgment of using the Phantom Zone to imprison Brainiac REALLY distracting, especially when it’s brought up as punishment at the trial!
Brainiac himself is not a particularly compelling character here, and Superman plays a surprisingly small role: this is first and foremost a Lex Luthor story.
And he’s pretty great in here: his ingenuity is in full display here, as well as his weakness of underestimating others. His defense of Brainiac at the trial is particularly interesting for his character development: he does come off as actually caring for his teammate (despite previously putting a bomb in his brain).
As mentioned, the next issue will pick up Luthor from where this issue left him.
For the Silver Age, it IS odd to have two back-to-back working like that. That’s because the next issue, Superman #168, was supposed to feature a completely different story that was delayed until Superman #170.
That is odd… what happened at the end of 1963 that could possibly affect Superman?
