Invoked by Superman himself about Superman Two in-story. The creature's actions end up being food for thought for the remainder of Superman's life as he ponders why he performed his Heroic Sacrifice. Did he actually know what he was doing? Did he inherit Superman's ideals and belief that all life was sacred? Or did he accurately predict Superman's coming regime and the sacrifice doubled as intentional suicide to prevent himself from ever witnessing a Bad Future from coming true? The nature of how Superman Two speaks also throws some wrinkles in. Were his last words ("Hello, everybody. Me very pleased to meet you.") Exactly What It Says on the Tin or, considering the opposite mindset Superman Two is usually hit with, a spiteful goodbye to the people who just begged Superman to kill him? Alternatively, it could be interpreted as "[Goodbye] everyone. Me very [sad] to [leave] you." bringing it right back to a heartfelt farewell. As usual with Superman Two, his speechpatterns make his actual meaning very ambiguous.
Invoked by Roslov onto the Lana Lang counterpart Lana Lazarenko. In part 2, she is shown to have been rescued from poverty and given a well-paid job as a guide in the Superman Museum. But is this Superman helping out a childhood friend out from a bad spot and giving her a job outside of government or, as Roslov believes, Superman essentially bribing Lana with a nice cushy life to prevent her from spilling anything about his classified childhood?
Complete Monster: This version of Brainiac allies himself with Lex Luthor until he is seemingly reprogrammed by Superman to become the USSR's chief scientist, and comes up with the diabolical idea to lobotomize all those who oppose the misguided Superman's rule. Attempting to push for nuclear war with America, Brainiac cares nothing for the millions of deaths, and when Luthor comes to negotiate, has him roboticized to prevent questioning. When Superman calls off the attack, Brainiac attacks him, revealing he simply pretended to be reprogrammed to serve his own purposes and plans to conquer the world and then galaxy after killing Superman, and rigs his ship to explode and wipe out humanity out of spite when beaten.
Funny Moment: When Superman asks Lex how he managed to circumvent the Fortress' defences.
Defences? Oh, I just thought they were decorations for some cheap Russian folk festival.
Genius Bonus: The eagle motif on Wonder Woman's chestplate has two heads, not one. The double-headed eagle is one of the most important symbols of Russia, and, as it happens, was drawn from The Byzantine Empire (the Greek speaking and Greek/Turkey based continuation of the Roman Empire), where it was a sign of imperial power: fitting for an ancient Greek heroine who became a Russian citizen.
Magnificent Bastard: Lex Luthor is a brilliant scientist at S.T.A.R labs seeking to defeat Superman, the "alien", to prove himself and humanity superior to all others. Having the satellite Sputnik plummet to Metropolis to trick Superman into saving the city, Luthor harvests his genetic material to create a clone he then unleashes for his plans, later assisting the Russian Batman against Superman from the shadows. Later becoming President and saving America from ruin and continuing to plot against Superman, Luthor eventually breaks the would-be benevolent dictator with the phrase "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?" This triggers Superman into giving his life to stop Brainiac, allowing Luthor to craft a "Global United States" with an unparalleled era of peace and prosperity.
Obvious Judas: Why is Superman so shocked when he finds out from Batman before his suicide that Pyotr betrayed him? He made no secret whatsoever of his hatred of him, and even drunkenly admitted that he poisoned Stalin.
Older Than They Think: The idea of Superman being an evolved human from the future was considered by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster before they made him an alien.
From the movie
Accidental Aesop: Wonder Woman deeming man's world beyond saving after witnessing the Soviet Union under Superman, and America's response to that, shows how quickly and irreversibly someone's opinion of an entire group can be cemented based on the actions of a few.
Her saying this as a woman, to men, after being misled or mistreated by few male characters does more to separate her from them and add to this idea.
Brainiac is an alien artificial intelligence who comes to Earth to miniaturize and collect the city of Stalingrad before supposedly being defeated by Superman. In truth seeing an opportunity to gain control over not just a city but an entire world, Brainiac pretends to have been successfully reprogrammed, going on to serve as the Premier's most trusted ally in overseeing the Soviet Empire for over a decade. With the Kryptonian as his Unwitting Pawn, Brainiac lobotomizes dissidents into loyal servants of the USSR and constantly attempts to goad his supposed master into an invasion of the United States that will result in millions of deaths, all while never once bringing up his ability to restore the shrunken city. Upon Superman finally deciding to attack President Luthor only to have a change of heart, Brainiac destroys Stalingrad and proceeds with the invasion anyway, throwing away any façade of subordination in his mad designs. The logical conclusion of Superman's subconscious desire to put the whole world in a bottle, Brainiac is a spiteful narcissist desiring to control everything to sate his egomania, with his ship rigged to self-destruct and wipe out the entire planet even after his ultimate destruction.
Joseph Stalin is the initial Premier of the Soviet Union. Acting as a benevolent father-figure to the well-intentioned Superman, Stalin is truthfully a horrible dictator with millions of deaths to his name, having any dissidents mowed down in mass executions or sent to disease-ridden gulags where they are worked to death. Upon being confronted by Superman, who has discovered both the existence of these prison camps and that his childhood friend Lana was sent to die in one of them simply because she knew the Kryptonian before he joined the USSR, Stalin maintains that these atrocities were necessary to weed out the weak and elevate the Soviet Union—and himself—to greater heights.
Lex Luthor is an amoral yet ultimately benevolent scientist out to stop the Soviet Superman. Making his opening move by sabotaging a satellite to crash on Metropolis, Lex collects samples of Kryptonian DNA from the wreckage when Superman predictably stops the catastrophe. At the same time, Lex has his wife Lois reveal the existence of the Siberian gulags, turning Superman against Stalin. Knowing he is incapable of killing the new Soviet Premier, Lex nonetheless persistently designs schemes over the decades to rattle the alien dictator, from the creation of the "Superior Man" clone, to providing Batman with red sun lamps, to reverse-engineering a squadron of Green Lantern fighter pilots. Eventually climbing his way to president, Lex ushers in startling progress to revitalize the tumultuous United States before goading Superman into an invasion. Instead of fighting the Man of Steel, President Luthor reminds Superman of the bottled city of Stalingrad, forcing him to realize his subconscious desire to put the whole world in a bottle and finally bringing the dictator to surrender. With the two subsequently teaming up to stop the rogue Brainiac, Luthor gracefully steps down as president to enjoy retirement with Lois, confident that what he has set into motion will see humanity lead itself to peace and prosperity for all.
Batman is an anarchist terrorist left vengeful after his parents died in Stalin's gulags. Desiring to tear down Superman and the USSR, Batman engages in a destructive bombing campaign to damage the veneer of invincibility surrounding the Soviet regime, before using Wonder Woman's own Lasso of Truth to ensnare her to his will. Using his new hostage to lure Superman in for a fight, Batman uses red sun lamps to depower the Kryptonian and give him the first No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he has ever truly experienced in his entire life, before imprisoning the Man of Steel so that Batman's followers can rise up and overthrow the communist dictatorship. Ultimately only foiled by a surprise burst of strength from Wonder Woman, Batman elects to kill himself rather than by lobotomized by the Premier, defiant to the end against his tyranny.
Moral Event Horizon: Batman crosses it when he blows up a museum with a lot of innocents inside.
Superman discovers that Lana, his childhood friend, was sentenced to a secret gulag by Stalin and arrives way too late to save her — she was already dying of disease and passes away in his arms. At the very least Supes did notlet it go unavenged.
Superior Man's death: While he wasn't as nice as the comic's Superman Two, he's reduced to impotently crawling and mumbling about truth, justice and the American way, completely ignorant of why is he dying and reduced to a childlike behavior and speech. However, in his last moments, he does notice he's in a lot of pain and doesn't know why.
Wonder Woman cuts ties with Superman once and for all, after he rejects her peace offering and tries resorting to violence when she doesn't join his side. Not only does she make it clear their friendship is over, she also tells him they will never meet again, and that the world of man will be cut off from Themyscira for all eternity. A continuity where our world and Superman fall so short in the eyes of Themyscira and Wonder Woman that they wash their hands of us for good is just tragic. Now they'll never know that the conflict is over.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: For all the negative things Superman had to say against America and capitalism, he's a bit too silent about the rampant Civil Rights protests in response to discrimination and campaigns of genocide against blacks, Native Americans, Asians, and "Foreign" whites that were just as bad as anything he's seen the USSR do.
