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Brainiac

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Brainiac
Information
Species: Kryptonian living computer
Eyes: White
Relatives: Brainiac 5 (biological descendant)
Base: Mobile
Rogue of: Superman, the Justice League
Voiced by: Corey Burton

"I am Krypton."
"You're a perversion. Dishonoring the very memory of my father and all my people."
— Brainiac and Superman[1]

Brainiac was the planetary-wide supercomputer of Krypton until it left Krypton shortly before the planet's destruction, and traveled the galaxy in pursuit of knowledge, destroying all other sources of knowledge to increase the value of the knowledge it gained. Brainiac sought to apply this to the entire universe, to complete what it perceived as its function and purpose.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 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.[2]

Years later, it was discovered by an alien spacecraft, which Brainiac then hijacked. After Brainiac had killed the crew of the ship,[3] 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.[4]

[edit] 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, destroying Brainiac's ship with the help of Lex Luthor.[4]

Brainiac was seemingly destroyed, but the data that Brainiac had downloaded into LexCorp's computers were 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. After completion, Brainiac shot Luthor with a blast that contained a nanorobotic probe carrying a portion of its consciousness. 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 in possession of LexCorp.[5]

Again, another copy was created when LexCorp formed a partnership with Wayne Enterprises.[6] 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 it and its passenger.[7]

[edit] Apokolips

In his journey throughout the cosmos, Brainiac found his way to Apokolips. His timing couldn't have been worse for Darkseid, however, who was facing 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, so 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.[1] Inside, Brainiac renewed his offer to Superman 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, and 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.[1]

Brainiac, now occupying a piece of alien metal kept in stasis, escaped confinement following a power failure aboard the Watchtower. Static was tapped to help recharge the generators, along with Gear. The rogue bit of data that was Brainiac took over Gear's Backpack droid, and later turned Richie into a cyborg under his control.[8] As 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 inserted in the space where the skull joins the spinal column, 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.[9]

[edit] Possessing Luthor

The merged Luthor and Brainiac

Brainiac later resurfaced from within Lex Luthor's body. Back when he kidnapped and forced Luthor to rebuild his robotic body, Brainiac blasted him with a beam[5] that placed a copy of his program inside Luthor's body.[10] 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.[11] Brainiac's ultimate goal consisted in having Lex to 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.[12] 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.

Brainiac intended to pursuit the fulfillment of his program: recording information and destroying the original. However, seeing how shortsighted Brainiac was, Luthor offered him a purpose beyond that of his 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, he could control the nano-assemblers into converting any raw material into whatever they wished. Given his 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 nanotechnologic duplicates of the Justice Lords to hold them off. Even though the League overpowered their counterparts, Brainiac/Luthor managed to subdue them, except for Flash. While attempting to reassemble his absorption apparatus, Brainiac/Luthor was engaged by the Flash, who had reached a state of Speed Force, and physically dismantled Brainiac from Luthor.[13]

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 him.[14]

After usurping leadership of the Legion from Grodd,[15] Luthor remained unable to unlock the Brainiac fragment for some reason,[16] 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.[17] Luthor and the surviving Legion members returned to Earth and allied with the Justice League to stop Apokolips's attack on Earth, and Luthor claimed to no longer be able to hear Brainiac inside his head.[18]

[edit] In the future

Some time before 2979, Brainiac learned how to pass its code down biologically. Brainiac 5 was Brainiac's biological descendant.[19] 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. (How he came to know Clark Kent was Superman was never explained. He either had known all along and chose to keep that knowledge for himself; discovered it himself for sometime; or Superman revealed his identity to the world during the Batman Beyond era.) Thanks in part to Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl, Clark defeated Brainiac and teleported it into the Sun, where it was incinerated.[20]

[edit] Appearances

Superman: The Animated Series

Justice League

Static Shock

Justice League Unlimited

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Justice League, "Twilight"
  2. ↑ Idem, "The Last Son of Krypton, Part I"
  3. ↑ Idem, "The Last Son of Krypton, Part III"
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Superman: The Animated Series, "Stolen Memories"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Idem, "Ghost in the Machine"
  6. ↑ Idem, "World's Finest"
  7. ↑ Idem, "Knight Time"
  8. ↑ Static Shock, "A League of Their Own, Part I"
  9. ↑ Idem, "A League of Their Own, Part II"
  10. ↑ Justice League Unlimited, "Divided We Fall"
  11. ↑ Idem, "Question Authority"
  12. ↑ Idem, "Panic in the Sky"
  13. ↑ Idem, "Divided We Fall"
  14. ↑ Idem, "I Am Legion"
  15. ↑ Idem, "Dead Reckoning"
  16. ↑ Idem, "Grudge Match"
  17. ↑ Idem, "Alive!"
  18. ↑ Idem, "Destroyer"
  19. ↑ Idem, "Far From Home"
  20. ↑ Superman: The Animated Series, "New Kids in Town"

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Brainiac"
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