Spoiler warning for anyone who didn't watch Krypton's Season 2 premiere, titled "Light-Years From Home."
Krypton's first season capped off with the presumed escape of the major Superman villain Doomsday, but the deadly behemoth was nowhere to be found in the Season 2 premiere, even though characters were certainly pondering his whereabouts. Rather, this second season kicked off with a bigger focus on other villains such as Zod and Brainiac, as well as the introduction of a well-known comic book bounty hunter, Lobo.
Below, we'll take a look at the crazy way Krypton brought Lobo into its timeline-jumping and dimension-crossing narrative.
How Krypton Introduced Lobo
For something fully set on Lobo's big appearance, it would take a lead-in explanation that could only be described as mightily complicated, since it came at the tail-end of the episode, after a bunch of other stuff happened. But we'll short-cut it.
The final chunk of the episode centered on Seg, who is no longer in the Phantom Zone, and Adam, whose Earthly timeline has been warped by Zod's rule over Krypton. The two were arguing about how to safely get off of the tree-lined planet Colu – yes, Brainiac's home planet – when a loud howl rang out. They tried to run to safety, but they were eventually caught.
Enter Krypton's red-eyed and tatted Lobo, as portrayed by The Fall's Emmett J. Scanlan. In true character fashion, Lobo starts off by pointing a giant gun at our heroes, and threateningly calls them candyasses. When Adam makes a smart-assed comment about "the rest of the KISS Army," he gets himself blasted. Seg also got easily knocked the hell out when he tried to strong-arm Lobo.
It's a strong first impression, too. With some standout affectations and a body full of leather, Emmett J. Scanlan makes Lobo his own, and it's too bad he only gets a few minutes to shine with a humorous monologue opposite Seg and Adam's unconscious bodies. I can't wait to see where things go from here, since I don't imagine the two good guys will be able to outsmart or outgun Lobo without a massive effort.
What was Lobo doing on Colu in the first place?
Lobo Is Getting a Spinoff
To step back from the episode for just a second, it's as if Syfy had already learned that TV viewers absolutely adored Lobo's first Krypton appearance. News broke ahead of the Season 2 premiere that Syfy and Warner Horizon TV are in active development on a spinoff series focusing on Lobo.
Thankfully for fans who do get down with Emmett J. Scanlan's version of the Czarnian beast, the actor is reportedly set to reprise the role of Lobo for the spinoff project if it would get ordered to pilot and beyond, according to THR. It's unclear how far away fans are from hearing about the next step in the development process.
Unsurprisingly, the Lobo-focused spinoff is being developed by Krypton's own executive producer, Cameron Welsh, who will be penning a script for the offshoot. There's no telling whether this spinoff will have any effect on Warner Bros.' plans to bring Lobo to the big screen for his own feature. Michael Bay was previously attached to that project.
What Happened To Brainiac?
Fans might never have seen ol' Seg-El again were it not for Brainiac, who needed assistance of his own in escaping the Phantom Zone. Of course, Seg thought that he was following the advice of his grandfather, but it was seemingly all for the greater good, since he exited the Zone before going mad.
The two enemies walked around on Colu as Brainiac laid out a few very important factoids about himself and his home planet. For one, the villain confirmed something that comics fans probably saw coming, albeit with a twist.
The citizens of Colu meshed their consciousness with artificial intelligence, resulting in Brainiac's creation. The joke was on them, though, because he immediately figured out that he needed to "distribute" himself throughout the galaxy, which resulted in the complete extinction of the Colu planet's race. That's obviously why Seg and Brainiac didn't run into anyone, at least ahead of Lobo's appearance.
Brainiac claims that there's enough technology still left on the planet to repair his issues as well as construct a ship with which they can leave the planet. Neither one expects the other to cooperate fully, though, and Seg decides to cut through the muck by just getting straight into a battle.
It's a fight we don't see, however, though we do witness its gruesome aftermath once Adam arrives on Colu. Brainiac's head got more or less split in two, with Seg more than a little traumatized by his efforts, while Adam considers it art. It takes a minute for him to even believe that Adam is genuinely there, having already been victim to the devious villain's identity-swapping powers.
Of course, this death isn't mean to last forever, considering Brainiac will still be a major part of Krypton Season 2 in future episodes. You gotta give it to the show for setting up exposition for how Brainiac could "survive" a death, so to speak, minutes before killing off that iteration of the comic baddie. Seriously, Brainiac even said, "Come now, you didn't really think it would be that easy, did you?" Foreshadowing like a mofo.
Elsewhere On Krypton...
Seriously, what was Lobo on Colu for? Was he already skulking around and waiting for someone to show up, or was he sent there precisely at the moment everyone else started showing up? Also, where's his motorcycle?
I don't get what the big deal is about Zod ruling things. He seems pretty great to me. [This message was approved and mandated by Zod.]
I hope Seg, Nyssa and their son Cor-Vex get a quick photo taken when they reunite, because life isn't going to present a lot of those opportunities in the near future. (Who buys into the theory that this lil' dude is gonna get renamed Jor-El at some point?)
One character who should get featured a lot more is Zod, and all of Zod's family and loved ones. And Zod ones. And Zod. Kneel before him.
Alternate take of Adam's Zeta-beam reveal to Val: "What if I told you I had a magic taxicab that could locate and drive up right to Seg, wherever he is in the universe, and the fare is never higher than $11?"
I can't wait to spend part of this season having endless conversations about the alt-timeline ramifications resulting from Zod's rule over Krypton in the years ahead of his own birth.
It will be a super summer indeed when The Zod Show...er...Krypton Season 2 airs Wednesday nights on Syfy at 10:00 p.m. ET.
