SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL
The Man of Steel starts just a few years after the incidents that we saw in
Superman Returns. Kal-El is doing what Superman does best, Lois Lane is raising her kid Jason, who of course is Superman's child, and the world is getting use to having Superman back.
Now there are storyline threads that go back to
Superman Returns, one is the ongoing plot of Superman's original reason of going back to Krypton. He has always wondered if he truly is the last Son of Krypton.
Remember New Krypton that Lex created with crystals he stole from the Fortress of Solitude and Kryptonite that Supes launched into space that nearly killed him? New Krypton continues to grow in space and has become an almost perfect sphere. It is now the size of a small moon.
Besides giving humans something to admire at night, Earth’s new satellite has also brought some unexpected attention from a galaxy far, far away.
A massive spaceship arrives Earth's orbit. Superman flies up to meet the spacecraft and we are introduced to our out of this world visitor.
Superman quickly finds out that our visitor is also a Kryptonian survivor who has been traveling the known galaxies and was able to detect Kryptonian technology thanks to our new green/black satellite that has started to orbit the Earth.
Superman finally has found a Kryptonian buddy and starts showing him around the planet – a planet full of problems, disease, famine, crime, and nations at war with each other.
Our new Kryptonian friend asks Superman why, with all his power, is he not changing the world for the better? Why is he not getting rid of famine, disease and war? Of course fans know that Superman has always been instructed not to interfere with Earth's development.
Superman explains that he is not allowed to interfere, but his Kryptonian buddy tells him that with their powers they are required to "interfere." Superman disagrees.
Kryptonian buddy decides to take charge and starts "interfering" from day one. One of the first things that he does is get involved in a political mess that is heating up between two third world nations.
War breaks out between these two nations, but before any real battle breaks out, Kryptonian buddy interferes and lays waste to these two Armies.
He declares to the world that he will not allow anymore wars and/or the destruction of our planet. He is declaring a "War Free" planet and for those who disagree he will have to deal with them.
The major nations of the planet applaud his actions and all agree to an immediate worldwide peace. In return he promises to share technology, fight hunger, famine, and disease.
The population of the world rejoices and any small pockets of resistance is quickly squashed by Kryptonian buddy or even the world governments.
Superman has now become a pariah. The way the world sees it, he has been here for years and had kept technology that could have solved many of the worlds problems.
Superman starts getting a bit suspicious of Kryptonian buddy and decides to go talk to him. He goes to his spaceship and has a revelation. This massive ship is full of thousands of identical bodies aboard. Yep, clones of Kryptonian buddy, in stasis.
So Superman digs a bit more inside the "computer" system [and] finds out that Kryptonian buddy is actually an artificial intelligence from Krypton that has evolved since the destruction of their world.
He escaped Krypton just like Kal-El did and his real name is Brainiac. He has been going from planet to planet, taking their technology, helping these worlds reach a relative perfection and then he destroys them and moves on.
Superman also finds out that [Brainiac] was actually responsible for the destruction of Krypton and tries to warn the leaders of the world, but is confronted by Braniac. A massive battle ensues and Superman is about to defeat his foe, but Brainiac downloads his [consciousness] into one of his clones.
Superman realizes that he must destroy this massive ship along with all the clones aboard. After another massive battle he is able to disable the ship, destroy the clones, and the new Braniac, but right before the ship is destroyed, the Braniac main frame does a local search for another body that he could download into. It has to be Kryptonian, and he finds another one on Earth: Superman's kid, Jason White.
So Brainiac uses Kryptonian technology and beams/downloads itself into Jason's body and this causes causes him to age and grow into a full adult but with Brainiac in complete control.
Superman realizes what just happened and rushes to confront his very own son who is now possessed by Brainiac.
Is Jason still there or is it all Brainiac? It's all Braniac and Superman knows what he has to do: he must defeat Brainiac at all costs or the planet and it's inhabitants will be doomed.
It's a battle between two gods, but Superman has already been run ragged and beat down pretty bad in his previous battles of the day. Brainiac has the upper hand and Superman is trying to not to do any permanent damage to Jason's body.
Will Jason survive? The answer is no.
There is a Christ like metaphor here. Superman has to sacrifice his own son to save humanity.
