>>96099950In this universe, Superman was raised in a totalitarian society, and alongside android!Brainiac (long story, he was seemingly reprogammed to be helpful in this universe) put his ideology into action when he conquered Earth (non-violently). He established a global Soviet Union where Superman and Brainiac controlled every little thing of every person's life. Crime and accidents were at all time lows. There was no homelessness, no starvation, and no unemployment. The only exception to the Global Soviet Union was the United States under President Luthor, which had stayed independent; Brainiac kept urging Superman to subdue it violently, but he always refused. In fact Superman's only regret in this universe was that he wasn't able to stop Brainiac sooner, and that to this day he still hasn't found a way to restore the city of Stalingrad after Brainiac shrank it and bottled it in his usual MO.
In the last stretch of the story shit happens and the Soviet Union and USA go to war. President Luthor deploys a super sci-fi fleet and an army of super beings including Wonder Woman and Doomsday, but Superman and Brainiac brush them all off easily. Everything else he tried had failed, so Luthor resorted to his secret weapon: a small handwritten note. Pictured above.
He specifically used the imagery of a bottle to call back to Stalingrad (in-universe) and Kandor (for the readers). The people of Kandor/Stalingrad are helpless. They have no power to defend or provide for themselves, they are totally subject to the whims of an all-powerful alien who controls everything. Luthor basically said that Superman's Soviet Union was little different. In that moment, the moment of his final triumph, Superman realized that he was a monster who was shrinking humanity just as Brainiac had shrunk Kandor. Brainiac in almost all continuities is Superman's arch-enemy and one of the most evil beings in the universe, so equating them is about the worst thing you could say to Supes.
