Man of Steel: Five Villains We Could See in the Sequel

For weeks now, Warner Bros. executives and the creative types behind Man of Steel have suggested that the box office performance of the film will determine the future of the DC Cinematic Universe. Now, with what looks to be a record-setting opening weekend that will make it second only to Iron Man 3 for the year so far, Man of Steel is arguably already a big enough success to dismiss any doubts about future installments. So leaving aside all that exciting, sexy Justice League speculation for now, who might Superman square off against in his next solo movie? Here are our ideas... (Lex Luthor, obviously, will be involved in some way, but we're going to assume that he's either there or he's not and you don't need us to tell you why he makes sense.)

Hank Henshaw This is a character whose origin story is truly "comic-booky," and not necessarily believable. An astronaut bombarded with cosmic radiation, his body gradually gave out but instead of dying, his consciousness jumped into the computer of his shuttle and ultimately he became a kind of master machinist, crafting a body for himself out of pieces of Kryptonian technology. (In the comics, he blamed Superman for not saving him and his family, and it ultimately led him to take on Superman's likeness to commit horrible crimes and sully Superman's reputation following his apparent death. I contend that the Death of Superman isn't inherently necessary to make Henshaw work.) So, what makes him a good fit for the "realistic" world crafted by David S. Goyer and Zack Snyder? It's simple: Jor-El's appearance in Man of Steel. The fact that the films have an established logic by which a person's entire consciousness can be uploaded into Kryptonian machinery presents an interesting opportunity for Henshaw to really work within the film's world. Suddenly there's an established precedent that exactly the same massively-unlikely thing that happened to Henshaw in the comics can happen to people in the world of Man of Steel. Doomsday or Dev-Em

Based on the Man of Steel Prequel comic, it certainly seemed like they hoped to do something with either Supergirl or Dev-Em, or possibly both. Neither came up or was even mentioned in the film, so the next installment seems a likely setting. It would also tie the film to the Kryptonian threat and the first movie...and besides, if one of them really did survive somehow, they'd likely be pretty pissed that Superman took their house and moved it around. Doomsday we'll lump in here because this movie (Man of Steel) was a punch-em-up festival. People may complain that Superman didn't do enough to stop the property damage, but at least part of that is because he was so busy fighting multiple, incredibly powerful villains that he didn't really have much of a chance to stop just fighting back. Dev-Em or Doomsday would both carry that feeling on, giving fans a movie that "feels" the same as this one.

Magog/The Elite Following some of the criticisms about this film that it was too violent, not "hopeful" or idealistic enough, what better way to fight back at that than to present a version of Superman who finds himself outshone on the public stage by a new "hero" who doesn't adhere to Superman's moral code and who kills villains with impugnity? It would allow Superman to pick up threads from this film, coping with how he feels about the deaths during the big battle at the end of Man of Steel, and give a sense of what he stands for and why he's special, when he's juxtaposed next to a dark, violent antihero. The Elite would be obvious, since "What's So Funny 'Bout Truth, Justice and the American Way?" is such a well-known story and the Superman Vs. The Elite feature film was widely liked by fans. On the other hand, it's difficult to imagine that the studio would be interested in effectively remaking one of their direct-to-video animated films, and equally hard to see them Brainiac Once again following the logic that when you have a popular movie, you've got to make the sequel at least a little bit like it--Brainiac would be another alien invasion story, and one where he could raise an army, alter Earth technology and do other things that feel a bit like Man of Steel but are really just a step different. Provided the stakes feel higher, not lower, it could work. The Underworlders (for lack of a better description) Superman versus an army of failed genetic experiments where the challenge isn't so much about the power of any one villain but about the plan, who's behind it and the hero trying to be everywhere at once? That all sounds pretty promising to us, and it would allow Lex Luthor to be involved, and/or S.T.A.R. Labs, who are referenced in the film. It opens up a lot of possibilities, including Bizarro, Connor Kent, etc., without having to commit to them as the central focus of the film. It also brings back the concept that Kryptonians (or something like them) can be a threat.