While everyone shares their opinion Superman's new movie suit, the image James Gunn released also featured another big hint at the upcoming DCU movie. Interestingly, it's not exactly hidden in the background. In the image, as Clark Kent gets his boots ready to fly into battle, we see outside his window a giant orb, sending presumably destructive rays into the city of Metropolis. So what could this orb be? Brainiac? A different alien invader? Thanks to the people of Comicwe actually think we have an idea.
The giant orb in the sky resembles Solaris, the tyrant sun
The giant orb looks like a giant eye, staring down its death ray at the city below. This brings to mind Solaris, the Tyrant Sun. This is a pretty deep villain, first appearing in the 1998s DC one million crossover event. It was created by the writer Grant Morrison, who at that time was right in the middle of its iconic JLA to run. Solaris appeared again, in a lesser capacity, in Morrison Superman All-Star. Many consider this series to be one of the best, if not the best, Superman stories of all time. James Gunn has said that Morrison's Superman is one of his all-time favorites. So we think it only makes sense that he pulled out one of the Scottish scribe's creations Superman.
The comic book origins of Solaris
Solaris is a stellar supercomputer originating in the 853rd century. This artificial star was created to heat the outer planets of the solar system such as Pluto, which were terraformed and inhabited during this time. In this far-future era, the Justice League has evolved into the Alpha Justice Legion, a team of descendants of the modern Justice League. Eventually becoming malevolent and seeking to destroy organic life on Earth, this artificial sentient sun traveled back in time to the modern era. It was coded into a technovirus sent back to infect all known computer systems. The Justice League and the Justice Legion had to join forces to defeat her, but in order to do so, they had to create Solaris in the present to defeat her future. So, in a sense, Solaris' time travel was a paradox of predestination that ensured his own future existence.
The great powers and abilities of Solaris
As a sun, Solaris had the power of radiation and could fire powerful thermal blasts. Imagine the Death Star, if only it were alive and with a mind of its own. Solaris could also control all known computers and machinery. Long after Lex Luthor and Brainiac were dust, it continued to plague Superman's descendants for centuries. He became the biggest threat to Kal-El's ongoing legacy. Despite this, he only appeared a few times, mostly in stories by writer Grant Morrison. During the New 52 era, a version of Solaris affected Superman and Wonder Woman.
James Gunn just confirmed Solaris as the villain of? Superman?
Could a giant glowing orb above Metropolis that looks like an eye be anything other than Solaris? Absolutely. It could be a weapon of the villain Brainiac. Or even a sinister creation of Lex Luthor. In Superman All-Star, joined forces with Luthor to turn Earth's yellow sun into a red one. Maybe he creates Solaris himself in the new movie? Given James Gunn's status as a an unabashed Grant Morrison fan, we have the feeling that the globe in the sky is the dreaded tyrant sun. He's definitely a villain that gives Superman a physical challenge, beyond fighting another Kryptonian like General Zod (again) or Doomsday. We're interested in Gunn giving us a very underused villain from the deep well of DC canon for the Superman movie
