Christopher Reeve is still widely regarded as the best incarnation of Superman and while his first two films are considered the best to date, three and four are not. The arrival of Nuclear Man in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace was the final nail in the coffin that killed the franchise. It was resurrected twice, with Bryan Singer's Superman Returns serving as a sequel of sorts to I and II - and then Man Of Steel, which has retrospectively kicked off the DC Movie Cinematic Universe with a fully rebooted take on the character. But back when Reeves's Superman films were being made by producer Ilya Salkind, there were plans to take the franchise back to the highs if the first two films. Returning to the comic book roots, comic writer Cary Bates was hired to produce a script which pitted Superman against supervillain Brainiac. The story would have seen Brainiac shrink Metropolis with Superman / Clark Kent inside it and the final showdown between the two would have seen Superman killed and resurrected as a mortal, presumably bringing the franchise to a satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately Salkind lost the rights to the character and Christopher Reeve's Superman ended not with a bang but a whimper...