Injustice 2: Brainiac's Biggest Weapon Is Bruce Wayne

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Injustice 2 #67 by Tom Taylor, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Rex Lokus and Wes Abbott, on sale now.

When Superman's regime took over Earth in Injustice, Batman, as expected, was responsible for ending his former friend's reign. When words didn't work, Bruce Wayne had no choice but to recruit heroes and villains alike into his resistance to stop the Man of Steel, who by then had power players such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Shazam and Flash, alongside him.

But if it was anyone who could have fixed things, it was the Batman, and so he did, bringing in a Justice League from an alternate dimension and even tapping mystical heroes like John Constantine, Doctor Fate and Zatanna to bring Superman down. Thus, come Injustice 2, with Kal-El imprisoned and the Dark Knight trying to rebuild the world, another threat presented itself in the form of Brainiac, the Collector of Worlds.

This time, Batman once more proves to be a key player in the conflict. Sadly, he's not the key to Earth's salvation, but instead, to Brainiac taking control of the planet.

In the video game story mode, the sequel's shaped around Brainiac coming to Earth to claim the Kryptonian for himself, after he attacked the Red Lanterns in space to ensure he remained the only cosmic powerhouse around. The comics, though, shed light into just how he invades Batman and Superman's homeworld, revealing the alien's biggest weapon is Bruce Wayne's arrogance.

As per the game, Brainiac pounces on Bruce's genius, but does so via the slightest of openings in the Brother Eye satellite system. Bruce implemented it, putting his intellect to work to police the planet after Superman's imprisonment, well, because his heroic army's really short on numbers. And just like the mainstream DC universe, Brother Eye is a surveillance system monitoring crime across the globe. As he's confronted by Alfred about it being used as a "peeping tom" device invading people's privacy, the Bat simply brushes him off.

It's a stubborn perspective, as Bruce is doing what he thinks is right for mankind. But it's the same kind of mentality the Last Son of Krypton had when he began his dictatorship. Alfred takes issue and condemns Bruce for blurring the moral line once more and not understanding this is a means of terror. He begs Bruce, if he isn't willing to decommission it, to least look over the operation, but the Caped Crusader, who seems distracted by domestic bliss with Catwoman as well, ignores the gravity of the butler's words. And so, Bruce's ego, sense of pride and that desire to always save the day turns into an opportunity for the villain.

Batman ends up being the weapon Brainiac uses as his drones are already hooked in and corrupting Brother Eye, poised to use it to control the planet and link with Grodd's evil society of villains. This, of course, is to level the playing field against the opposition, whether it be from Batman or Superman, as we saw in the game.

Ultimately, Bruce's hubris is akin to Kal-El's, showing that at times he really thinks he's above it all too, and even acts like a god among men. He thinks he knows everything and simply isn't willing to listen.

With Batman as one-track minded as ever, it's a decision he'll soon come to regret. Because later on he'll realize had he just listened to Alfred and shut down the spy project, he would have stopped Brainiac's invasion, or at least made it harder. Basically, he could have avoided having to make a deadly pact with the Kryptonian and thus, he may well have saved the world from the dark future looming.

CBR

Injustice 2: Brainiac's Biggest Weapon Is... Bruce Wayne