Who is BRAINIAC?
BRAINIAC is a fictional DC Comics supervillain mainly appearing on Superman comics. The character debutted in Action Comics #242 (July 1958). He was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino.In most of his incarnations he appears as an extraterrestrial android, he is responsible for shrinking and stealing Kandor, the capital city of Superman's home planet Krypton. Due to complex storylines involving time travel, cloning, and revisions of DC's continuity, several variations of BRAINIAC have appeared. Most incarnations of BRAINIAC depict him as a green-skinned being in humanoid form. He is bald, except for a set of diodes protruding from his skull.
First appeared in Action Comics #242, BRAINIAC's deeds when he arrived on Earth was shrinking various cities, including Metropolis, storing them in bottles with the intent of using them to restore Bryak, the planet he ruled. Superman discovered that the villain had previously shrunk the Kryptonian city of Kandor. He was able to restore the Earth cities to full size, but the Kandorians sacrificed their restoration to help him.
First Appearance:
BRAINIAC's legacy was revealed in Action Comics #276 (May 1961), in a Legion of Super-Heroes back-up story. This story introduced a green-skinned, blond-haired teenager named Querl Dox, or BRAINIAC 5, who claimed to be BRAINIAC's 30th century descendant. Unlike his ancestor, BRAINIAC 5 used his "twelfth-level intellect" for the forces of good and joined the Legion alongside Supergirl, with whom he fell in love. His home planet was given variously as Yod or Colu.
In Superman #167, BRAINIAC was revealed to be a machine created by the Computer Tyrants of Colu. To explain how BRAINIAC 5 is his descendant, BRAINIAC adopted a young Coluan boy who was given the name "BRAINIAC 2".
At some indeterminate point in time, BRAINIAC fled into the 30th century. During this time he remade himself as white-robed "Pulsar Stargrave". He became a powerful enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and once masqueraded as BRAINIAC 5's biological father.
In the 1980s, BRAINIAC was re-envisioned. In Action Comics #544, BRAINIAC had constructed a giant, artificial, computer-controlled planet and used it in his latest attempt to destroy Superman; unfortunately, his defeat at the hands of the Man of Steel left him trapped at the center of the planet, unable to escape. He was forced to make a nearby star explode in a nova in order to destroy the machine-world and allow him to recreate his form. His new body had the appearance of a skeleton of living metal with a grey, honeycomb-patterned "braincase." He also created a starship to house his new body which was actually an extension of himself; the ship was shaped like his own skull, with metal tentacles dangling from it that he could manipulate at will. BRAINIAC retained this appearance until after the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
BRAINIAC's history was again completely rewritten In the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe. This time BRAINIAC was a radical Coluan scientist called Vril Dox who, having attempted to overthrow the Computer Tyrants of Colu, was sentenced to death. In his last moments before disintegration, his consciousness was attracted light years away to Milton Fine, a human sideshow mentalist who worked under the alias "BRAINIAC". Needing cranial fluid to maintain his possession of Fine, Dox went on a murder spree. He discovered that Fine had genuine psychic powers, which he frequently wielded against Superman.
In the 1990s, BRAINIAC returned in the "Panic in the Sky" storyline. He seized control of Warworld, with the assistance of willing and unwilling superpowered individuals, with a plan to conquer Earth next. BRAINIAC then taunt Superman, which prompted Superman to go on the offense by gathering a coalition of most of the world's superheroes and launched a preemptive strike at Warworld before it could arrive on Earth. BRAINIAC ended up lobotomized, his vegetative body was taken back to New Genesis for observation
At the turn of the millennium, BRAINIAC revealed that he had placed a sleeper virus in LexCorp's Y2K bug safeguards which was intended to dramatically boost his abilities. Instead, it allowed his upgraded future self, BRAINIAC 13 (or "B-13"), to travel from the 64th century to the present day and take control of BRAINIAC's body.
Following recent revisions to Superman's continuity in Action Comics #850, a Brainiac robot probe arrives on Earth and battles Superman. After being defeated, the probe sends information about Superman's blood to the original Brainiac. In current continuity, no one has ever actually met the "real" Brainiac. Superman is soon captured by the "real" Brainiac after Superman finds him attacking an alien planet and preparing to steal a city from its surface.Superman escapes from his imprisonment and sees Brainiac emerging from his "bio-shell". This new version of Brainiac resembles a much larger and more muscular version of the original, pre-Crisis Brainiac. This Brainiac travels the universe and steals the knowledge of various alien cultures, abducting and shrinking cities from each planet as samples, and then destroys the planet so that the value of the destroyed civilization's knowledge is increased. Brainiac's ship then travels to Earth and prepares to abduct the city of Metropolis.Superman was able to stop Brainiac, and the captured Brainiac was brought to a top-secret military base, where an imprisoned Lex Luthor is assigned to discover his secrets. Luthor eventually manages to use Brainiac's connection to his ship to kill the soldiers assigned to watch him. Brainiac manages to free himself from Luthor's control, forcing him onboard the ship, and the two make their escape.
During the events of "The Black Ring" story arc, Lex Luthor is attempting to discover the mysteries behind the black spheres. Brainiac was introducing nanites to Luthor in planning to control him. Little did Brainiac know that Lex had caught on to his scheme and was secretly setting in motion his plans for Brainiac's downfall. So whilst Lex is in space experimenting in space Brainiac launches his attack against Lex thinking to take Lex unawares. Lex reveals he had known for a while, a fight then ensues which ended with Lex breaking Brainiac's neck forcing Brainiac to return to his skull ship to repair himself.
BRAINIAC - The Brain InterActive Construct
LIVE APPEARANCE
James Marsters
In the fifth season of Smallville, Brainiac is introduced as a recurring villain played by James Marsters. He takes the name of Prof. Milton Fine, posing as a professor at Central Kansas A&M University. "Brainiac" is mostly referred to by his assumed name, although Jor-El refers to him in the fifth season finale "Vessel" as the "Brain InterActive Construct", and Raya is the first person to call him "Brainiac" in Season 6's "Fallout." Smallville's interpretation of Brainiac is similar to the DC animated universe version; that of a self-aware computer in humanoid form with a Kryptonian origin.
POWERS & ABILITIES
Note: Due to the nature of comicbooks being an on-going tale, the character's powers along with his appearance, is in a constant state of flux.
The Milton Fine version had powerful telepathic and psychokinetic abilities.
The various robotic versions had technopathic abilities
All versions of the character have a 12th level Coluan intellect.
Strength levelThe Milton Fine version had the strength of an adult human male who engaged in moderate infrequent exercise.
The original version possesses superhuman class 100+ strength, capable of combating Superman, provided he remained in proximity to his spacecraft.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAINIAC_(comics) : http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Vril_Dox_I_(New_Earth) : http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Vril_Dox_I_(New_Earth)/Gallery : http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Vril_Dox_I_(New_Earth)/Quotes : http://www.comicvine.com/BRAINIAC/29-4684/
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