Brainiac

Revision as of 12:30, 22 June 2015

Brainiac is a comic supervillain that features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Brainiac was originally a humanoid android created by the Computer Tyrants of Colu. Endowed with an incredible 12th-level intelligence (the other Tyrants were 10th-level, and humans are a mere 6th), his mission was to explore and examine the universe- primarily by stealing cities from planets and shrinking them to miniature size, and keeping them on his ship. Among other planets' cities, he stole Kandor from Krypton.

When Brainiac came to Earth, he was stopped by Superman, beginning years of frequent conflicts. Once his "son" Vril Dox (really a Coluan child adopted to help make Brainiac seem more humanoid to the races he encountered) led a revolt against the Computer Tyrants, Brainiac decided to conquer the universe. On occasion, Brainiac worked with other villains such as Lex Luthor.

Eventually, however, Brainiac was trapped in a computerized planet of his own design by Superman, and opted to destroy the planet's sun in the hopes its energies would free him- instead (unsurprisingly) he was disintegrated. Reduced to a mere cloud of molecules, Brainiac drifted until he merged with a planet of living machines. Integrated into the planet's computers, Brainiac absorbed vast amounts of knowledge, and repeated the process on other worlds. Finally returning to his computerized world, he reformed himself as an inhuman living machine, and began his battles with Superman anew.

Brainiac led an army of super-villains during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and survived the creation of the new unified "Earth-Sigma." However, his memories of the Crisis were wiped; but that didn't keep him from enlisting Darkseid's aid in defeating the Anti-Monitor. Brainiac ultimately fell in battle with the Omega Men.

In the timeline seen in Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow," Brainiac was destroyed, with only his head surviving in a snowy waste. He was found by Luthor, who intended to dissect him for his alien technology, but Brainiac took over his body and used him in an attempt to finally destroy Superman. Luthor was mercifully slain by a temporarily-empowered Lana Lang, but Brainiac was able to use it a while longer despite that. However, Luthor's body finally gave out, and Brainiac finally died soon after.

Post-Crisis

Originally Coluan scientist Vril Dox, he was disintegrated in an experimental teleporter when the computer tyrants of his world learned that he planned to overthrow them. Dox's mind came to Earth, and merged with circus mentalist Milton Fine, the Amazing Brainiac. Dox learned that Fine's body had untapped mental powers, and went on to become one of Superman's greatest foes, often trying to drive the Man of Steel mad.

Over the years his body was altered by cybernetics and genetic modifications provided (sometimes willingly, sometimes not) by Lexcorp, and Brainiac eventually attempted to conquer Earth with the stolen Warworld. Brainiac's invasion was defeated, and he was imprisoned by the New Gods, only to escape when his body's powers increased even further.

Finally, Brainiac tried to take over the body of Doomsday with the help of fellow Coluan Prin Vnok. However, Doomsday's body was hard to control, and Brainiac opted to kidnap Pete Ross and Lana Lang's newborn son, intending to change the boy into a new, more easily dominated Doomsday. Stopped by Superman, Brainiac was left without a body, and had to settle for a robotic substitute named Brainiac 2.5.

The New 52

Overview

Personality and attributes

Powers and abilities

Notes

In other media

Television

• In the animated Legion of Super Heroes Cartoon Continuity series, Brainiac appeared as the primary villain in the second season. In the distant future of the Legion of Super Heroes, its discovered that Brainiac 5 was a descendant of Brainiac 1.0 who was known as the Terror of Kandor for he was responsible for shrinking the city which in turn led to Krypton's destruction. In order to defeat Imperiax, Brainiac 5 entered deep into his mind where he came across a closed door that would open a link to the knowledge of his ancestor. Despite hearing the warning of being corrupted by the data, Brainiac 5 entered and met his ancestor who offered him an upgrade which would give him the power to help defeat Imperiax. Using this knowledge, Brainiac 5 empowered the Kandorian Kryptonians with Superman level power which defeated the villain. Furthermore, Brainiac's knowledge was used to restore Kandor's size as well as recreate Krypton. However, this knowledge came at a price as it slowly began to corrupt Brainiac 5 until he was overwhelmed by Brainiac 1.0's mind. Imperiax had forced an invasion of the United Planets in an attempt to gain a new and powerful ally which he succeeded in. Easily defeating Superman, Brainiac then went by Imperiax side where he stabbed the warlord in the back and seemingly killed him in order to begin reshape the universe into a more orderly form. He began by invading Brainiac 5's homeworld of Colu where he seemed to have been defeated. His people attempted to purge his mind of the corruption but Brainiac had only faked his defeat in order to gain access to the Coluan computer network and reprogram his people to serve as his soldiers. He then used his digitization technology in order to conquer the planet and nearly defeated the Legion. However, when victory was nearly in his grasp, Superman and Superman X entered Brainiac 5's mind where they managed to reform their friend who defeated the darker part of his personality. Though he seemed to be defeated, in the wreckage of his mothership, parts assembled together that formed into a new Brainiac 1.0 who stated "Evil does not die, it evolves." highlighting that Brainiac had managed to survive destruction as well as shape himself a new physical body.

Video games

• In Justice League: Heroes, Brainiac appeared as among the primary villains in the video game. Brainiac arrived on Earth after he was contacted by a telepathic voice within a stone he discovered on the planet. This mysterious being claimed that if Brainiac performed its tasks then it would discover hidden secrets and knowledge of the universe. Intrigued, the villain embarked on various tasks using his android avatars which caused numerous distractions for the Justice League around the planet which included using Queen Bee, freeing Gorilla Grodd, creating a clone of Doomsday and sending White Martians to keep the heroes busy. While the League were busy attempting to stop the Martian invasion force, Brainiac snuck into the Watchtower where he retrieved a Mother Box in order to put the mysterious plans in action. However, he was attacked by the Justice League who defeated him. Brainiac became empowered and seemed ready to attack the heroes once more before he was engulfed in energy and destroyed; only to be replaced by a reconstituted Darkseid who had tricked the villain into freeing him from his dimensional prison.

Notes

• It is unclear whether the pre-Crisis Brainiac ever existed in the fully revised post-Crisis universe, but the account of his defeat by the Omega Men in The History of the DC Universe suggests that he somehow did.

Appearances

• Superman:
• Action Comics:
• Convergence:

Links

Internal Links

• Brainiac (Super Friends)
• Brainiac (DC Animated)
• Brainiac-12
• Brainiac-13
• Optilux

For other uses of this name, see Brainiac (disambiguation).

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