Superman '78 #[nn]

In "Brainiac, Chapter One," Superman is pulled from a routine assignment when a mysterious drone—harbinger of an unknown threat—descends upon Earth, forcing him to confront a danger far beyond his usual beat. With Perry pushing Clark to step up, the Man of Steel faces his first direct encounter with the enigmatic and calculating Brainiac, setting the stage for a battle that could redefine what it means to protect the planet.

In "Brainiac, Chapter Two," Superman reaches out to Lex Luthor for help after discovering the wreckage of a Brainiac drone, setting off a tense alliance built on mutual distrust. When Brainiac himself arrives on Earth, he claims he’s come not to conquer—but to save humanity from the very Kryptonian who protects them.

In "Brainiac, Chapter Three," Superman makes a desperate choice to save Earth, surrendering himself to the alien conqueror. Taken to the bottle city of Kandor, he’s stunned to find himself face-to-face with his parents, Jor-El and Lara, among the preserved Kryptonians—though the reunion comes with unsettling questions about how they came to be there, and why Brainiac would bring him to such a place.

In "Brainiac, Chapter Four," Superman grapples with his place among the Kryptonian survivors in Kandor, feeling increasingly out of step. When Lois reaches out via a signal she didn’t realize was manipulated by Lex Luthor, Superman must confront the dangerous consequences of her call—knowing it will draw Brainiac back to Earth. As the alien conqueror returns and begins extracting Metropolis, Jor-El works to restore Superman and find a way to free him from captivity.

In "Brainiac, Chapter Five," Superman, restored by Jor-El and freed from Kandor, races against time to stop Brainiac from shrinking Metropolis. With the city's fate hanging in the balance, Superman confronts the alien conqueror, only to be met with a swarm of drones and a direct challenge from Brainiac himself.

In the final chapter of his battle with Brainiac, Superman faces the alien conqueror in a climactic showdown that pushes both to their limits. With Metropolis hanging in the balance and the fate of bottled cities at stake, Superman must act fast as Brainiac’s ship begins to collapse. Back at the Daily Planet, Lois, Jimmy, and Perry carry on as usual, but even normalcy feels different—especially when Clark pauses to visit his parents, still preserved in the Fortress of Solitude, their safety a quiet victory in a war that changed everything.