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Brainiac was the planetary-wide supercomputer of Krypton until it left Krypton shortly before the planet's destruction. Afterwards, Braniac traveled the galaxy in pursuit of knowledge and destroyed the sources of the knowledge to increase its value. Brainiac sought to apply this to the entire universe, to complete what it perceived as its function and purpose.
History
Krypton's destruction
Brainiac's original likeness.
Brainiac, the planetary-wide supercomputer of Krypton, sensed the imminent destruction of the planet, but rather than warn others, it chose to save itself and the collected records of Krypton. In its mind, as long as the records of Krypton existed, the loss of the planet itself — and all its living inhabitants — was acceptable. It also knew that if word of Krypton's impending doom escaped, it would be forced to calculate a way to stop this, which Brainiac knew to be impossible and would only distract him from the more essential task of saving Krypton's records. Before Krypton exploded, Brainiac uploaded its core program and all of the collected data to an artificial satellite.[3]
Years later, it was discovered by an alien spacecraft, which Brainiac then hijacked. After Brainiac killed the crew of the ship,[4] it began to explore the universe. Each time it came to an inhabited world, it would upload all the knowledge it could from that world, then destroy it — decreasing the number of beings that have access to the knowledge made it that much more valuable and destroying the planets ensured no new information would be created. Along with raw data, it also assimilated whatever useful technology it could find, improving itself with every world it visited.[5]
Arriving to Earth and Lex Luthor
Brainiac eventually made its way to Earth, under the pretense of a peaceful exchange of knowledge with LexCorp. He revealed that he was another survivor of Krypton, getting the attention of Superman. However, through the information from the cultures that Brainiac destroyed, Superman concluded that Brainiac would do the same to Earth and destroyed Brainiac's ship with the help of Lex Luthor.[5]
Brainiac was seemingly destroyed, but the data that Brainiac had downloaded into LexCorp's computers was not alien knowledge, but a copy of Brainiac's programming. This copy tricked Luthor into entering the room where Brainiac was using LexCorp's automations to construct a new body. However, the automations were not advanced enough to perfectly fine-tune the body, so Brainiac required Luthor. Luthor was locked in and forced to complete the body. Luthor knew that once Brainiac was done with him, he would kill him, so he refused to continue when the body was in the final stages. However, the body was developed enough that Brainiac was able to enter it and finish building itself. Brainiac fired a blast at point blank range at Luthor, which mysteriously failed to kill him. Superman arrived and was able to defeat this copy by magnetizing it so that the attracted metal would completely overwhelm him. The body was taken into the possession of LexCorp.[6]
Another copy was created when LexCorp formed a partnership with Wayne Enterprises.[7] A new body was built, and Brainiac was able to control Bruce Wayne through nanotechnological machines implanted in his office phone, which entered his ear to infect his brain. As this control made Wayne unable to act as Batman at night, crime in Gotham City increased, getting the attention of Superman. With Robin's help, Superman deduced that Wayne was under Brainiac's control and that it sought to use Wayne Enterprises technology to leave Earth. While it was able to launch its ship, Superman managed to destroy the ship and its passenger.[8]
Apokolips
However, this was still not the last of Brainiac. Somehow surviving, the robotic villain succeeded in escaping into space. In his new journey throughout the cosmos, Brainiac found his way to Apokolips. His timing couldn't have been worse for Darkseid, who was facing a considerable military disadvantage following a feud with New Genesis. So, before Brainiac could absorb his planet, Darkseid proposed a bargain that could satisfy both parties: Darkseid would capture Superman for Brainiac, and in exchange Apokolips would be spared. Brainiac accepted and both forces engaged in a fake battle to convince the Justice League that they were in fact on opposite sides.
Brainiac allowed them to believe that they succeeded in deflecting his invasion, and he retreated. This was, however, a tactic to lure the League into his headquarters — a giant asteroid shaped in his likeness.[2] Inside, Brainiac renewed his offer to Superman to join him in carrying on the legacy of Krypton, which the Man of Steel promptly rejected. Upon this, Brainiac summoned an army of replicas and fought the Leaguers.
In the middle of the brawl, Darkseid boom tubed inside the ship and subdued Hawkgirl and J'onn J'onzz with just a few blasts. The allied villains combined their powers to overwhelm Superman, and Brainiac took him into his headquarters' central core. There, he explained to Darkseid that, after years of data gathering, he had finally reached the limits of his programmed functions, and to evolve to the next level, he needed to extract living DNA from the last Kryptonian, thus becoming a true life form. However, Brainiac let his guard down during the procedure, and Darkseid took the opportunity to hack into his control circuits, taking over Brainiac. In spite of being self-aware, Brainiac was compelled to obey Darkseid, and so he fought off the League. Batman managed to disrupt Brainiac's program, setting off a chain reaction that culminated in the obliteration of the asteroid headquarters. Both Brainiac and Darkseid were destroyed. All that was left of him was a piece of alien metal which the Justice League took into custody and kept in stasis aboard the Watchtower.[2]
Young new enemies
When a cosmic anomaly strikes the Watchtower, causing a power failure, Brainiac was able to escape and began taking over the Watchtower's computers. Static was tapped to help recharge the generators and along with Gear travelled to the Watchtower. After sending the League members off with a fake distress call, Brainiac attempted to eliminate Static and Gear so he could then transform the Watchtower into his new body and proceed with his plans of collecting the data on Earth and destroying the planet. Fortunately, while the Justice League did battle with the Watchtower's defenses outside and Gear overloaded the computer by downloading music into it, Static was able to drain the core of the Watchtower and seemingly deactivated Brainiac. However, Brainiac managed to download itself into Gear's Backpack droid, and later turned Richie into a cyborg under its control.[9] Brainiac proceeded to use Richie's hands and technological skills to build a warship and to take over the League one by one with small implants. However, Static's electrical powers shorted out his control disk and he soon freed the League as well. Meanwhile, Richie attempted to fight back and to tell to his friend the means by which to defeat the rogue program: Backpack's remote control had an off switch. Static eventually discovered it and was able to stop Brainiac's scheme at the source, saving Earth.[10]
Possessing Luthor
Brainiac reveals himself inside of Lex Luthor during the Cadmus Crisis.
Brainiac later resurfaced from within Lex Luthor's body during the Cadmus Crisis. Back when he kidnapped and forced Luthor to rebuild his robotic body, the blast he fired at Luthor wasn't intend to kill him.[6] Instead, it placed a nanotech copy of his program inside Luthor's body.[11] Since then, Brainiac had laid dormant, subtly influencing Lex's actions and protecting his body ― giving him super-strength and curing his Kryptonite induced cancer.[12] Brainiac's ultimate goal consisted in having Lex build him a super-powered android body, based on the Amazo android and finally transferring himself into it. However, Amanda Waller destroyed the android and when the core League confronted Lex, Brainiac was forced to emerge.[13] He engaged them and attempted to digitize their inner selves, but was foiled by J'onn. So, Brainiac/Luthor summoned a giant spaceship that kept the League occupied, allowing him to flee.
The Brainiac/Luthor fusion.
Brainiac intended to pursue the fulfillment of its program: recording information and destroying the original. However, seeing how shortsighted Brainiac was, Luthor offered it a purpose beyond that of its limited programming. He proposed to combine Brainiac's vast information and resources with his own imagination. They broke into Cadmus and assimilated the Dark Heart technology into their database. This way, they could control the nano-assemblers into converting any raw material into whatever they wished. Given its failed liaison with Darkseid, Brainiac didn't fully trust Luthor, so they agreed to completely merge into one single being using the nanotech.
Then, Brainiac/Luthor set off to build a machine that would absorb the information of the entire Earth, then the galaxy and finally reshape the universe to their will. When the Justice League stepped in, Brainiac created nanotech duplicates of himself to hold them off, but the Luthor part decided they could do better than that and had the duplicates morph into versions of the Justice Lords. Even though the League overpowered their counterparts and destroyed the absorption machine, Brainiac/Luthor managed to subdue them, except for Flash who he decided to kill, believing it would cause events similar to that of the Justice Lords' universe. However, Flash managed to break free and seemingly ran away. Brainiac/Luthor then attempted to reassemble his absorption apparatus, but was attacked by the Flash, who had tapped into the full power of the Speed Force, and physically dismantled Brainiac from Luthor.[14]
After the defeat, all that was left of Brainiac was a small piece of its body, which came into the possession of Grodd. Luthor himself continued to speak to Brainiac's consciousness, apparently still existing within Luthor's mind. Brainiac apparently enjoyed the brief time they were merged together. After breaking out of prison, Luthor was picked up by Grodd's Legion of Doom and convinced to join with the promise of getting his hands on the Brainiac fragment, with which he could reconstruct and re-merge with it.[15]
Darkseid resurrected, merged with Brainiac.
After usurping leadership of the Legion from Grodd,[16] Luthor remained unable to unlock the Brainiac fragment for some reason,[17] until Tala located the quadrant of the universe where Brainiac and Darkseid had been destroyed. In a last attempt, Luthor used Tala's mystical properties to reconstitute Brainiac from the debris. However, he unwittingly resurrected Darkseid instead, reformed with extensive Brainiac technology integrated into his person, allowing the dark lord to destroy the Legion's headquarters and return to Apokolips.[18] Luthor and the surviving Legion members returned to Earth and allied with the Justice League to stop Darkseid's attack on Earth, and Luthor claimed to no longer be able to hear Brainiac inside his head. However, Luthor was mysteriously able to retrieve the Anti-Life Equation from a realm that it was said only a 12th level intellect could survive, which Brainiac was.[19]
In the future
Some time before 2979, Brainiac learned how to pass its code down biologically. Brainiac 5 was Brainiac's biological descendant.[20] As of 2979, Brainiac opposed the Legion of Superheroes. That year, Brainiac traveled back to the past to destroy a teenage Clark Kent before he would become Superman. Thanks in part to Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl, Clark defeated Brainiac and teleported it into the Sun, where it was incinerated.[21]
Powers and Abilites
Just like a computer can store data in its memory, Brainiac could record (or absorb) all knowledge from a planet. Its "function" was to travel throughout the universe, collecting all data and destroying all of creation.
Brainiac could also transfer its programming into another computer, which resulted in it repeatedly returning when thought destroyed. As well as technology, Brainiac could also transfer its programming into living beings through nanotechnology.
In addition, Brainiac's robotic bodies were all endowed with a high level of superhuman strength and durability, though not on par with Superman. These robotic bodies could also project metallic telescoping tendrils from Brainiac's limbs, and channel electricity through these as an offensive attack. Brainiac was also able to generate energy to blast at enemies as well as deliver nanotech payloads.
Appearances
Superman: The Animated Series
- "The Last Son of Krypton, Part I"
- "The Last Son of Krypton, Part III"
- "Stolen Memories"
- "Ghost in the Machine"
- "Knight Time"
- "New Kids in Town"
Justice League
- "Twilight"
- "Secret Society, Part I" (Cameo) (As board cut-out)
Static Shock
Justice League Unlimited
- "For the Man Who Has Everything" (Hallucination)
- "Panic in the Sky"
- "Divided We Fall"
- "I Am Legion"
- "Grudge Match"
- "Far From Home" (Mentioned Only)
- "Alive!"
- "Destroyer" (Mentioned Only)
Footnotes
- ↑ Justice League Unlimited, "For the Man Who Has Everything"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Justice League, "Twilight"
- ↑ Idem, "The Last Son of Krypton, Part I"
- ↑ Idem, "The Last Son of Krypton, Part III"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Superman: The Animated Series, "Stolen Memories"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Idem, "Ghost in the Machine"
- ↑ Idem, "World's Finest"
- ↑ Idem, "Knight Time"
- ↑ Static Shock, "A League of Their Own, Part I"
- ↑ Idem, "A League of Their Own, Part II"
- ↑ Justice League Unlimited, "Divided We Fall"
- ↑ Idem, "Question Authority"
- ↑ Idem, "Panic in the Sky"
- ↑ Idem, "Divided We Fall"
- ↑ Idem, "I Am Legion"
- ↑ Idem, "Dead Reckoning"
- ↑ Idem, "Grudge Match"
- ↑ Idem, "Alive!"
- ↑ Idem, "Destroyer"
- ↑ Idem, "Far From Home"
- ↑ Superman: The Animated Series, "New Kids in Town"
External links
- Brainiac at Wikipedia
- Brainiac (Pre-Crisis) at the DC Database
- Brainiac (Modern Era) at the DC Database