Back in September, with this post on X (formerly Twitter), James Gunn teased that Brainiac -- the Collector of Worlds -- would serve as the villain of the upcoming Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow:
The image, which shows a detailed anatomical illustration of the human brain, provided some insight as to which villain we might see coming soon to the silver screen.
And it's about time that we had someone else besides Lex Luthor or General Zod appear on the big screen. Luthor and / or Zod have served as the main villain in five of six of Superman's solo films. Superman has a rich rogue's gallery comparable to Batman or Spider-Man's -- there are so many great villains to choose from:
In a time when artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a reality, Brainiac is a fascinating and timely adversary. Often portrayed as an android or a highly advanced artificial intelligence, Brainiac is similar to Ultron in that he views most species, including humans, as being extremely flawed and deserving of destruction. Prior to destroying these civilizations, he often "bottles" samples of them by miniaturizing entire cities -- like the capital city of Kandor from Krypton -- in an effort to collect and preserve knowledge.
Not surprisingly, we've seen a huge jump in value in the first appearance of Brainiac in Action Comics #242 (1958), an early Silver Age key issue, during the past year:
This major key issue is unusually rare -- especially in high grade -- for an early Silver Age key with only 714 universal blue labels on the CGC Census and only 10 copies that have been graded 8.0 or higher. The highest graded copy on the Census is a single 9.0. A near top-of-the-census 8.5 sold for $22,800 earlier this year in April on Heritage:
Considering that there's only one other copy of Action Comics #242 with a higher grade, $22,800 seems more than reasonable at least to me.
A much more affordable Silver Age Brainiac key is Action Comics #271 (1960), an issue that explains Brainiac’s alien origins for the first time. With only 69 universal blue label issues on the CGC Census, very few collectors / dealers have submitted this issue for grading. Throughout all of 2025, this is the ONLY graded copy that sold at public auction:
The low number of graded copies and low sales price suggests, at least to me, that this issue may be flying under the radar. CGC's label doesn't even mention that the issue includes Brainiac's origin.
There are many other affordable keys related to Brainiac if this doesn't strike your fancy. Because he's been repeatedly reinvented as an android, a humanoid Coluan, and as an evolved artificial intelligence, these reinventions have created other minor keys, many of which remain affordable. One good example of a reinvention occurred in Action Comics #544 (1983), a Copper Age double key issue. This issue introduced the robotic, Ultron-like, horror-themed Brainiac used throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s. Even though there are only 76 9.8s on the CGC Census, a 9.8 is an affordable $130. The most recent 9.8 sold on eBay earlier this month for only $103:
This issue is actually a double key issue since it also includes the first appearance of Lex Luthor's Warsuit. We already know we're seeing the Warsuit in Superman: Man of Tomorrow. If we see this version of Brainiac in the sequel as well, you can expect the value of this issue to see some serious action.
After researching many of Braniac's key issues for this blog, it appears to me that at least some of them may be undervalued.
