Brainiac Probe
Brainiac Probe are robots that feature in DC Comics.
Contents |
History
Brainiac Probes were robotic creations that were built by the Coluan known as Brainiac who utilized them in his universal plans for gathering knowledge. On the planet Krypton, the destruction of the lunar colony at the hands of the renegade scientist Jax-Ur led to the planet falling under the attention of Brainiac. (Action Comics v1 #867)
This led to numerous probes being dispatched to the surface around 35 years ago where they assault the city of Kandor where they massacred the Kryptonian population. A number of citizens were brutally killed where their knowledge was taken by the probes who also repelled the defense forces of General Zod. They oversaw the deployment of an energy dome around Kandor that separated the city from the wider world whereupon it was shrunk and collected by Brainiac as one of a number of bottled cities. Afterwards, the probes departed Krypton though certain damaged units were left behind where they were studied by the Kryptonians. From them, they learnt the nature of the villain known as Brainiac and his mission in the cosmos. (Action Comics v1 #866) Kara Zor-El came to witness the loss of Kandor with the experience traumatising her. (Action Comics v1 #867)
One probe was captured by General Zod and later studied by Zor-El who used the forcefield technology inherent in the machine to create a protective dome around Argo City when it was lost in space. However, there were some fears that the deactivated unit would go online in the future and attract the attention of its creator. This result to pass when Brainiac discovered Argo City and forcibly incorporated it into the Bottle City of Kandor which was part of his collection. (Action Comics v1 #869)
In the modern day, a Probe was sent through space where it came upon the planet Earth where it crashed through a satellite as it headed towards the surface. It was stopped from hitting the ground when it was intercepted by Superman with the Probe transforming to battle him. Their fight stopped though when the construct detected the presence of a Kryptonian with it shutting down but not before it transmitted its findings back to Brainiac. (Action Comics v1 #866) The Probe's information was incomplete though and he was unable to determine its location with Brainiac instead continuing his mission in collecting a city from a nearby planet named Larroo hosting an intelligent civilisation. By this point, Superman had ventured into space in an effort to stop Brainiac leading to him landing on the planet being attacked by his Brainiac Probes. The Kryptonian battled the androids and defeated many of them but was unable to stop Brainiac who encased a city in an impenetrable force field and then detonated the system's star. His vessel's shields protected him from the resultant explosion which knocked out Superman who was taken aboard for study. (Action Comics v1 #867) Probes then began to study where they found their instruments unable to pierce the Kryptonians body. Others also began to investigate his craft in order to determine his origin. Superman came to regain consciousness where he destroyed several Probes before confronting the real Brainiac himself. (Action Comics v1 #868) By this point, Brainiac had learnt the existence of Earth and went to acquire a city from it for his collection. This saw numerous Brainiac Probes arriving in the vicinity of Metropolis where Supergirl came to battle them as she sought to save the city. (Action Comics v1 #869) Ultimately, Brainiac came to be overwhelmed by the sensory stimulation from being out into the world which allowed Superman to defeat the Coluan. In a last ditch effort, Brainiac fired a homing missile at Superman's farm home with the intention of eliminating his loved ones with this being stopped. In the aftermath, Brainiac was captured and kept in stasis with his probes going off-line as a result. (Action Comics v1 #870)
Overview
In appearance, the Probes were humanoid androids with a skeletal form with them having a metallic skin along with red eyes. Their hands contained an opening in the palm that was able to fire a spiked tendril that was capable of piercing through non-powered flesh. However, those with impenetrable skin such as yellow sun empowered Kryptonians were easily capable of resisting the tendril spike. For protection, they possessed a force field that was able to repel against heat vision. (Action Comics v1 #866)
They were capable of retracting themselves into a pod-like form which they used to travel through the gulfs of space. (Action Comics v1 #866)
Notes
- Brainiac Probes were created by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank where they made their first appearance in Action Comics v1 #866 (August, 2008).
- In Action Comics v2 #3 (2012), the Post-Flashpoint continuity introduced a different kind of Brainiac robotic creation called Terminauts.
Alternate Versions
- In Superman '78 v1 #1 (2021), Brainiac drones appeared in the setting of the comic continuation of the 1978 film universe. These humanoid robots served as soldiers of Brainiac who was a cataloguer of life and preserved ecological balance. They were dispatched to worlds to assess the population and to find examples to be preserved from extinction that were then shrunk into cities kept in Brainiac's collection. One such drone came on Earth where it fought against Superman and was defeated but not before sending a transmission back to its creator. The presence of a Kryptonian on Earth was deemed to be the presence of a dangerous invasive species that threatened the ecological balance of the world. Thus, Brainiac travelled to Earth and deployed numerous drones to eliminate Superman.
In other media
Films
- In Superman: Unbound, these probes make an appearance in the animated film where they follow the storyline seen in the comic. Within this continuity, they were shown to had been created by the Coluan scientist Brainiac in his quest for knowledge where they aided him as his servants. During the course of their operation, they killed the inhabitants of countless planets and helped in securing sites for miniaturization as a bottle city before the world itself was destroyed. One of their campaigns saw them arriving on Krypton where they effortlessly defeated the Kryptonian defenders and culminated in Kandor being abducted by Brainiac who left the world. This event became a tale of terror for people of Krypton with Kara Zor-El being aware of the story. In the modern age, a Probe arrived at Earth where Superman managed to defeat it and after seeing the machine Supergirl revealed her knowledge of Brainiac to her cousin. Kal-El would later journey into space to confront Brainiac where the Probes were ravaging another world until Superman managed to destroy them. However, he was knocked unconscious when trying to enter Brainiac's ship and through the encounter Brainiac learnt of Earth where he deployed his Probes to secure Metropolis. Their invasion was ended only when Superman brought Brainiac to Earth's surface and overwhelmed of the disorderly nature of his environment causing his brain to shutdown.
Video games
- In Injustice 2, robots resembling the probes made an appearance in the campaign mode for the video game. They were shown in a flashback attacking Krypton under Brainiac's commands to harvest knowledge from the inhabitants with Kara Zor-El escaping them. Her mother Allura saved her by getting her into a ship to escape their world before it exploded with Kara seeing her mother captured by a probe that prepared to kill her. Decades later, Brainiac arrived on Earth where he intended to collect the last few Kryptonians for his collection and collect a city on Earth. Thus, he dispatched hordes of his probes in order to accomplish his goal with them being defeated by the planet's heroes after they fought Brainiac.
Appearances
- Action Comics v1: (2008)
- Supergirl v5:
External Links
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