When I was younger, I used to watch as many of the DC Comics animated shows and movies as I could. At some point, I fell off and stopped watching them. It wasn’t really an intentional “I’m not watching these anymore.”, but I just didn’t keep up anymore. I decided to change that.

The first one that I checked out was Superman: Brainiac Attacks. It was released in June 2006 as a tie-in with the Brandon Routh led Superman Returns on the big screen. The two aren’t related in any way besides being about Superman though.

Brainiac Attacks kicks off with Lex Luthor trying to figure out how to make the public like him. He’s launching a satellite into space called Lex 9000, but Brainiac attacks and takes over the satellite shooting Superman with it. Lex is conflicted. He was hoping to use that satellite to shoot down asteroids, but he also sees how well it does at fighting Superman. So, of course, he takes Brainiac’s “brain” and tries to use it to fight Superman. Then, he builds a suit to try to fight Brainiac and be a “hero” again.

The “B Story” that made this movie work, however, was Clark wanting to tell Lois that he is Superman. While it didn’t come to fruition in this story, we know that he eventually does tell her. Superman stories work, because you care about Clark Kent and Lois Lane. While some of these animated movies struggle in this department, Having time with Clark and not just Superman is what makes him work as a character.

Brainiac Attacks isn’t the best of the DC animated movies, but they tried to give me more about Clark as a person. I will always appreciate that.