This is an odd theory, so please hear me out on this. My theory is primarily based around the shows Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, more specifically the JL season 2 premiere and the JLU series finale.
My theory is that after Darkseid died in Justice League his spirit/consciousness was either now part of Braniac or haunting it (the idea that he was now part of Braniac systems from when he took over Braniac’s systems in Twilight part 2.) Both Darkseid and Braniac seemingly died in Twilight part 2, although it was revealed Braniac survived through Luthor’s body with a backup of himself he shot into Lex Luthor in Superman the Animated Series. Where my theory begins to take shape is in season 3 of JLU. Luthor is now desperate to bring back Braniac and merge with again to as he puts it “become a god.” He has delusions or hallucinations of Braniac talking to him, further motivating him to bring him back. His goal to revive Braniac eventually lead him what remained of Braniac’s fortress from Twilight and unintentionally resurrected Darkseid instead.
The idea in my mind is that Darkseid’s consciousness was haunting Braniac and began haunting Luthor after the JLU season 2 finale, slowly manipulating him into bringing him back to life. Some of you may claim that Darkseid couldn’t influence Braniac in Luthor’s body because it was injected into Luthor long before the events of Twilight, however Braniac directly referenced the episode and even referred to Darkseid by name when he mentions that he learned not to trust sentient organisms because of Darkseid. After the JLU season 2 finale, I think that Darkseid’s ghost began haunting Luthor, more specifically I believe that he’s making Luthor have delusions and hallucinations of Braniac telling him to revive him so they can remerge together, whilst planting his mind with ideas of grandeur. This would also explain why Luthor is acting more desperate to merge with Braniac again Throughout JLU season 3, even to the point of near recklessness. To explain what I mean up to this point, essentially Darkseid dies in Twilight and begins haunting Braniac and through Braniac in Luthor’s body begins subsequently haunting Luthor. My two final pieces of evidence are when Darkseid is revived. When Darkseid is resurrected, Luthor remarks that he no longer can see or hear Braniac. I think this is because Darkseid’s spirit is no longer giving Luthor delusions and hallucinations of Braniac because he’s alive again. My other piece of evidence is how Darkseid casually mentions that he’s been resurrected mere seconds after he is brought back to life, almost as if he was waiting to be brought back to life. When he says this, Darkseid has no confusion and no questions, he seemingly knows exactly what happened and resumes his work as if he’s been waiting to do it for a while.
This is simply my theory to what may have happened in Justice League Unlimited. This theory is not confirmed and is meant to be taken lightly as it is not canon. Feel free to comment your thoughts on this theory below.
That’s a super interesting theory. It would definitely add more layers to the Luthor/Brainiac dynamic. It does get tricky with Brainiac’s transferred memories though. As you said, he does reference Twighlight, but I see that as more of a transfer of computer data. Since Darkseid is a living soul (living might be stretching it, but whatever), would he really be able to to transfer himself? Would he be like a virus being spread? It’s definitely possible, but also an unknown. Either way, it really is a schway theory that I’ll have to do some more thinking on.
I’ve heard another theory that says that Brainiac wasn’t really there following his defeat at the end of the CADMUS arc, and was just mental manipulations by Grodd so that Lex would be under his thumb. There’s problems with it of course, but I still like it.
I’m glad you enjoyed my theory. I feel I could have fleshed some of my points a little more but I’m glad you found it interesting.
I’d postulate that Darkseid, existing in all universes of the multiverse and can look into any multiverse, merely inserted access to Brainiac and as a any single “cell” of Brainiac contains all his code. (Therefore the code could be modified.) As such, Darkseid could leave a version of a benign version of a Brainiac cell, in Lex’s body, where his consciousness could access that cell and feed Lex the delusion.
Your theory actually is interesting as well, my theory was more attempting to speculate solely on what we’ve seen in the DCAU rather than Darkseid as a whole, mainly because if Darkseid were to use more of his abilities beyond what we see from the DCAU avatar, he would probably have brought about a massacre to that entire universe and conquered it already.
Darkseid doesn’t want a massacre. He wants the least casualties possible, because than he has more people under his thumb. The anti-life equation doesn’t actually kill. Quite the inverse in fact.
You’re actually right. Although they would probably still be a little more than a few casualties assuming people attempted to stop him.