What's Brainiac's best design? Out of all media.

[Jim Kelly]

Hmm....the essential part of this is that evil carries the seeds of its own defeat....from great evil came the great good of Brainiac 5.

When I was posting that, it just occured to me a twist on that origin could be that Brainiac actually manipulated Vril into defeating the Computer Tyrants, in order to free him from their control--given Brainiac probably didn't like being a pawn of his creators. So Vril might have been doing Brainiac a favour without realizing it.

[Adekis]

My favorite overall version of Brainiac is the one from the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon- it keeps him as a pure robot but without all the weird crap about having biological offspring and being from a biological species. Instead, he's a robot from a robot species.

brainiac.jpg

[Phoenixx9]

Thanks, Doctor Know for answering all my questions.


In any Superman or Superfriends book/cartoon I never saw any explanation about Brainiac, just here he is!

[PyroTwilight]

Have they ever done a story where Brainiac 5 has to deal with his evil ancestor?

Not really deal with, B5 has no real reasons to what with him being in the past and all, as well as his ancestor. But there have been at least two stories one in the 90's (so I believe it was the Reboot Brainy there) and one roughly in the time of the War of the Supermen/New Krypton that had B5 meet or play a part against his ancestor along with Brainiac 2 (with the classic/Lightning Saga Brainy).

[Adekis]

And the series finale of the Legion cartoon, don't forget! It pretty much revolves around Brainy and his ancestor, and he's the one (if I recall correctly) to strike the final blow against Brainiac.

[Zero Hunter]

Have they ever done a story where Brainiac 5 has to deal with his evil ancestor?

They did have one during the reboot era when half the Legion was stuck in the present day. It was in Showcase issues 11-12. It was Brainiac 5 and Vril Dox vs Brainiac.

[Zero Hunter]

Colu



Brainiac is either a flesh and blood alien, or a machine created to catalog and study alien life forms by the Computer Tyrants that rule Colu.


Other way around. As a machine/cyborg, Brainiac endures through time. Creating new models, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 and all the way to 13 (from the 65th century), to continue his quest for domination.




Depending on whether the Coluans are orgainic, cyborg or androids, Brainiac 5 either carries Brainiac 1's programming, or is biologically descended from him.

Organic family line. 1.0 through 5.0.

It gets confusing when your talking the organic side because at different points it has changed. In some time lines there is a direct line from Brainiac 1 to 5 with it being explained the Coluans have much longer lives than humans so a direct linage is possible. In the one you show it is a title that skipped a few generations. In the reboot timeline it went:

Brainiac 1 - Vril Dox II - Lyrl Dox - Brainiac 4 (Brainiac 5's mother and leader of the Dark Circle) - Querl Dox (Brainiac 5)

It gets weirder with the Dox family line when you add in the fact that Lyrl Dox is only half Coluan to begin with so every Dox from him on carries the weird DNA of Lyrl's mother Stealth from L.E.G.I.O.N. so who knows how that effects the Dox line. I have always thought it was the odd DNA from Stealth that causes the mental problems that alot of the Dox family have latter one like Lyrl being evil as a baby, Brainiac 4 (Brainiac 5's mom) being a sociopath, and Braniac 5 have mental breakdowns from time to time and his temper.

[Doctor Know]

Thanks, Doctor Know for answering all my questions.


In any Superman or Superfriends book/cartoon I never saw any explanation about Brainiac, just here he is!

You're welcome, mate.

It gets confusing when your talking the organic side because at different points it has changed. In some time lines there is a direct line from Brainiac 1 to 5 with it being explained the Coluans have much longer lives than humans so a direct linage is possible. In the one you show it is a title that skipped a few generations. In the reboot timeline it went:

Brainiac 1 - Vril Dox II - Lyrl Dox - Brainiac 4 (Brainiac 5's mother and leader of the Dark Circle) - Querl Dox (Brainiac 5)

It gets weirder with the Dox family line when you add in the fact that Lyrl Dox is only half Coluan to begin with so every Dox from him on carries the weird DNA of Lyrl's mother Stealth from L.E.G.I.O.N. so who knows how that effects the Dox line. I have always thought it was the odd DNA from Stealth that causes the mental problems that alot of the Dox family have latter one like Lyrl being evil as a baby, Brainiac 4 (Brainiac 5's mom) being a sociopath, and Braniac 5 have mental breakdowns from time to time and his temper.

Yeah, I tried to be as comprehensive as I could when making my post. It's really the 90s where things got scrambled. The robot Brainiac 5 from the Reboot Legion, the popularity of android Brainiac from Superman TAS, Brainiac 2 getting his own book L.E.G.I.O.N. also, and by the time of the early 2000s all of that was uprooted and changed again. But DC, like Marvel, has the policy of "getting rid of everything", BUT "don't throw anything away".

[Doctor Know]

Superman and Brainiac drawn by the ever so awesome, Walter Simonson.

[Adekis]

It gets confusing when your talking the organic side because at different points it has changed.

See, this is why I prefer the show where they're just all androids.

Superman and Brainiac drawn by the ever so awesome, Walter Simonson.

What's this from? I didn't know Simonson ever drew Brainiac! Looks great, if not exactly what I'd go for.

[Doctor Know]

What's this from? I didn't know Simonson ever drew Brainiac! Looks great, if not exactly what I'd go for.

I think it's just a single panel promo. I couldn't find a corresponding issue it's from.


More Superman and Brainiac by Simonson. From Superman #666

[Jim Kelly]

It took some internet searching, but I finally found that Simonson pin-up of Superman vs. Brainiac is from ACTION COMICS No. 600 (May '88).

[Doctor Know]

For the love of Brainiac.


Anti-Matter/Earth 3



Superman & Batman Generations #3




Batman Beyond Universe #8

[Doctor Know]

[RedWhiteAndBlueSupes]

My favorite overall version of Brainiac is the one from the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon- it keeps him as a pure robot but without all the weird crap about having biological offspring and being from a biological species. Instead, he's a robot from a robot species.

sucks that season 2 of that show hasn't even been released on DVD.