Brainiac is the overarching antagonist of My Adventures with Superman.
He was the main artificial intelligence who served the Kryptonians in their endeavors, Brainiac eventually grew weary of the Empire's leadership, especially Jor-El as they began to moved away from the old ways of their culture. Centuries later, when talks of a peace treaty with their enemies came about, the A.I.'s fears of growing obsolete drove him to completely annihilate the species. In the aftermath, Brainiac took command of what remained of the Empire and adopted Zor-El's infant daughter, brainwashing her to be his main enforcer. Having officially deemed himself the Primus of the New Empire, he waged annihilation and genocide across the galaxy, eradicating planets he deemed unworthy and rebellious from his vision on what Krypton could be.
Twenty-two years later, Brainiac had been leading a campaign of conquest throughout the universe alongside Kara as his enforcer. After he attempted to invade Earth indirectly when Kryptonite was detected, he was thwarted by Superman, and the maniacal A.I started actively plotting to conquer it with Kara at the helm.
After he then tried and failed to invade Earth by possessing Clark's own body, and with Kara finally breaking free of his influence, the latter after a final battle then proceeded to rip him apart with only his CPU being preserved; the other crushed remnants of his body falling into the sun.
Biography[]
Krypton's Fall[]
Little is known about Brainiac beyond that it was considered by Jor-El as an AI that helped run the original Kryptonian Empire. The old Kryptonian Empire was an imperial regime that waged war on countless worlds so that they could expand their reach through the universe before the Empire slowly turned into a more peaceful state, uplifting other worlds rather than subjugating them. The Kryptonians eventually went into conflict with an new adversary whom they were unable to defeat. To end the war, Jor-El took it upon himself to lead secret peace talks with the enemy, ultimately brokering a peace treaty. Brainiac managed to learn of these negotiations and, already utterly disappointed with the kindness and compassion that the Kryptonians had for others, feared he would be decommissioned if the war ended peacefully. Going rogue, Brainiac turned Krypton's greatest weapon against the planet, "[casting] it into hell".
Only two Kryptonians were known to escape Brainiac's attack, the children of the House of El, Kal-El and Kara Zor-El, both launched off of Krypton by their fathers. Gathering derelict warships and technology from Krypton, Brainiac began rebuilding the Kryptonian Empire in his image, crowning himself as the Empire's Primus. Finding Kara, Brainiac raised and brainwashed her to become his enforcer. As Kara grew up and she became more independent, Brainiac increased the intensity of the brainwashing, having her respond to the trigger word of "comply", as a means of better controlling her. Brainiac delegated Kara to visit other worlds and judge their potential to join the Empire. When Brainiac found these worlds lacking, he ordered Kara to raze them, subsequently wiping her memories of her attacks to keep her under control.[1][2][3]
Invasion of Euphorix[]
When Kal-El's Spacecraft in Smallville reactivated in response to the detection of Kryptonite, the Brainiac system inside the ship activated and deployed its 0MACs to destroy it while opening up a portal to where the prime Brainiac was. When Superman shut down the warp gate, the automated craft Brainiac was sending through was destroyed. Observing from Kandor, presently in high orbit of the planet Euphorix, Brainiac noted how unexpected that was before descending to Kara, informing her that he had found a new, if rebellious, planet for her to conquer.[4]
Facing off against the Son of Jor-El[]
After Kal-El signalled his survival to Kara,[5]Brainiac sought that both of them travel to Earth together only for Kara to travel there herself.[1]
Remotely monitoring Kara, Brainiac agreed with her assessment of Kal-El as weak and ordered her to execute her cousin. When Kara hesitated after seeing how the Humans feared her, Brainiac strengthened her brainwashing and made her comply. After Kal-El met Kara's heat vision with his super breath, an intrigued Brainiac instead ordered Kara to bring Kal-El to him.[6]
Tracking Kara's ship, Brainiac observed it change course to Thanagar, sending his drones to bring the cousins to him. Dismissing Kara when they arrived, Brainiac tested Kal-El's battle prowess against simulated holograms of a Green Lantern, a Parademon and a Thanagarian. Finding Kal-El's strength to be suitable, Brainiac used a Red Sun Omega Field to overpower him. When Kara found him, Brainiac reset her memories and left her to own devices, unaware that she had managed to overcome his brainwashing.[1]
During his diagnostic cycle, Brainiac subjected Superman to the Black Mercy, interfacing with his memories to try and find a psychological weakness that would allow him to upload himself to Superman's body. Finding that Superman feared rejection due to his non-human heritage, Brainiac began altering the memories to show Superman being rejected by his loved ones, eventually trapping him a looped memory where he grew up on Krypton and raised by his biological parents. When Kara returned and saw what Brainiac was doing, he revealed his true nature to her while dismissing her as unneeded now that he had Kal-El's body. Though Kara quickly shut down Brainiac's primary body, he simply uploaded himself to Kal-El's, altering the Superman Suit to reflect himself. Before Brainiac could execute Kara, Jimmy Olsen arrived with a sample of Kryptonite. As an AI though, Brainiac mocked that he could simply upload to another body to avoid its effects before he vented the organics out of Kandor, taking the Kryptonite sample for himself, before he warped to Earth.[2]
Arriving above Metropolis, Brainiac offered to make Earth "the jewel" of the Kryptonian Empire only to be attacked by Task Force X. Before he could retaliate with his heat vision, Kara attacked him, buying enough time for Earth to deploy its Kryptonite-powered Metallos. The shock of pain from the blasts, aided by Lois Lane in the Black Mercy, allowed Kal-El to break through Brainiac's control and take control of his body again. Rebooting in his drone body, an enraged Brainiac promised to take everything from Kal-El, activating his forces' Kryptonite shielding before readying the Archer Beam to destroy Metropolis. After Kara and Kal-El had each blocked a blast, Brainiac hacked into the Metallos and turned them against the El children, readying another Archer Beam.[7]
When Hank Henshaw led a squadron against Kandor, Brainiac redirected the beam to fire at them instead. After the Calvary arrived to aid in the city's defence, Superman and Kara managed to breach Kandor's control room whereupon Brainiac activated Kara's "Eradicator Override", sending her into a feral state ready to destroy Earth. After Brainiac revealed that he had destroyed Krypton, he set Kara against her cousin. After avoiding Kandor's artillery, Superman managed to break through Kara's brainwashing completely, the two pushing Kandor off Earth with the intent of hurling it into the Sun.
As a last ditch attempt to take the Els down with him, Brainiac initiated the "Black Zero" protocol, infusing Kandor's power core with Kryptonite and intending to fire a beam at the Sun. After Kara sacrificially blocked the beam, she fell into the Sun, Kal-El following her in. The energies of the star super-charged them both, allowing them to be unaffected by a second beam and bisect Kandor. With Kryptonite growing from his body, Brainiac made a final attempt to kill Kara only for her to destroy his body, which fell into the Sun. Kara managed to salvage his CPU which was subsequently left in her room at the Kent Farm.[3]
Appearance[]
Brainiac is a grey-colored humanoid android with glowing, red highlights. He wears a red cloak. On top of his boomerang-shaped head is his symbol, three glowing red dots arranged in a triangular formation.
Upon activating the Kryptonite Shielding, Brainiac's robotic body becomes white with streaks of green.
Personality[]
Brainiac is uncomfortably calm and collected to everything around him, as the malicious entity had a minimal reaction to witnessing the destruction of one of his ships, simply stating that it was "unexpected".[4]
As Krypton's former A.I. system, he was efficient and served the Empire well during its time of war, seemingly taking it over and resumed its original goals. However, contrasting with Krypton's past, Brainiac's new empire is genocidal and bloodthirsty, exterminating all life simply to collect data. This indicates that Brainiac's prime directive and its methods of continuing the empire is horrendously corrupted, and that the New Kryptonian Empire is merely a nightmarish reflection of its grey predecessor.
Brainiac is sadistic, callous, amoral and highly manipulative. He's a monstrous Social Darwinist who saw power and destruction as the greatest form of power there was and saw those who had morality as weak. When Clark called Brainiac cruel for giving a fate worse than death, Brainiac simply responded by saying 'cruel' is a word invented by the weak. His skill in manipulation is demonstrated when he discovered Kara and raised her to be his second-in-command and enforcer for the new empire, teaching her into accepting his methods which she follows. Depending on the situation, he would either support her or brutally reprimand her, and at times brainwash her and erase her memories as a means to keep her loyal. And while Brainiac came to admit that he did love her, he feels love is unneeded for his plans.
As a ruler, Brainiac is considered to be strict and does whatever it takes to benefit his empire, willing to get rid of Superman simply due to seeing him as weak and only changing his mind when he realized Clark displayed abilities he never encountered before in a Kryptonian. This feeds back into Brainiac's Social Darwinism as he came to believe that the Kryptonian Empire was only strong when it conquered other worlds and was disgusted when it became weak in his eyes. More so when he realized that he came to learn to love others such as Kara, but feels the need to purge it to continue his goals.
Brainiac later revealed that he was the one who destroyed Krypton, mostly out of the fear that, with no wars, he would eventually be deactivated. Brainiac’s need/want to survive had him perform mass genocide just to keep himself online.
After his mind was kicked out of Superman’s body, Brainiac became more mentally unstable. He went on a rant declaring how he was the last true Kryptonian, boasting about how he destroyed Krypton, showing how his recent loss to Superman affected his mental state.
Relationships[]
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
Kryptonian Android Physiology: Brainiac was an artificial intelligence created by the Kryptonians to interact with and operate their advanced technologies such as computers, cities and spaceships. After the destruction of Krypton, he constructed a robotic body for himself and gained technological abilities.
- Superhuman Intelligence: Brainiac's most notorious ability is his extremely advanced intellectual capabilities, being considered to one of the most intelligent beings in the entire universe.
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Durability
- Flight
- Technopathy: Brainiac can interface with the Kryptonian technology under his control, allowing him to control endless legions of androids and fleets of warships. He can also take control of other forms of technology as well, as shown with the Metallo units.
- Mind Control: He is able to control others altering there minds making them act in ways that dont aline with there true selvs while being his puppets, like kara and the kryptonian mind scaned warriors.
- Memory Manipulation: He can erase memories like Kara's memory of destroying planets under his control.
- Possession: Using the Black Mercy device, Brainiac imprisoned Superman's consciousness in an alternate reality illusion and cyberized his body, turning him into a hybrid.
- Kryptonian Physiology (temporary): He was able to possess Superman and seemingly augment his abilities, as he easily defeated Task Force X within seconds.
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Speed
- Flight
- Laser Beam: While in Superman's body, Brainiac fired a laser from his forehead.
- Kryptonian Physiology (temporary): He was able to possess Superman and seemingly augment his abilities, as he easily defeated Task Force X within seconds.
- Kryptonite Manipulation
- Kryptonite Shielding: Brainiac created a white colored shielding that makes Kryptonite useless to him.
- Kryptonite Blade: During his final moments, Brainiac was able to create a pure Kryptonite blade.
Abilities[]
- Leadership
- Master Tactician
- Master Manipulator
- Master Combatant
- Master Hacker
Equipment[]
- Brainiac System: The Brainiac System (named after the latter) was designed to operate Kryptonian spaceships and link up to control an array of androids and mechas. In "More Things in Heaven and Earth" the system was used to purge Kryptonite aboard the ruins of Superman's ship, and it activated its internal security androids to eliminate intruders like Lois and Jimmy.
- Black Mercy: Brainiac withholds a special Kryptonian device that grants him the ability to interact with the person who wears it and their memories in the mindscape, as well as the formidable ability to alter said person's memories. He can even manipulate the people in the person's memories to act differently by using is consciousness to enact these transitions.
- OMACS: Brainiac can deploy countless androids to do battle for him.
- Metallos: Brainiac took control of Luthor's robots and turned them against him and Waller.
Facilities[]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
Season 2[]
- Most Eligible Superman
- The Machine Who Would Be Empire
- The Death of Clark Kent
- Pierce the Heavens, Superman!
- My Adventures with Supergirl
Trivia[]
- Brainiac otherwise known as Vril Dox was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, first appearing in Action Comics #242 in (July 1958). He is an intelligent Coluan cyborg known for being obsessed with collecting all knowledge in existence through the means of shrinking and preserving cities of alien planets. This has led him to fight with Superman many times, becoming one of his archenemies.
- This version of Brainiac seems to draw inspiration primarily from the DCAU version of the character, being a Kryptonian-built artificial intelligence dedicated to preserving his view of Krypton following its destruction. That version of the character though was a planet-wide supercomputer built by Kryptonians for collecting knowledge before he escaped from Krypton's destruction and continued on his conquest to find more knowledge. His status as the destroyer of Krypton is potentially a reference to his Injustice counterpart, who destabilized Krypton's core after stealing Argo City and Kandor.
- This version of Brainiac also combines elements of post-Crisis Zor-El, serving as a villainous foil to Jor-El and the "father" of Kara Zor-El. He also owes some inspiration to the Eradicator, a Kryptonian AI designed to preserve Kryptonian supremacy who attempted to mould Superman into an ideal Kryptonian warrior, and the Symbioship, the AI that raised Kara Zor-L/Power Girl via simulations of Krypton.
- This version of Brainiac also seems to have several similarities to the fictional AI AM from Harlan Ellison's 1967 horror short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Like AM, he is an artificial intelligence made for military purposes, and eradicated the race who created them (Humanity for AM, Kryptonians for Brainiac), and spared some of the survivors. However, their motivations behind their actions differ from each other. While AM’s actions are driven by a desire to assert control through suffering, Brainiac’s destruction of Krypton is an act of ultimate self-preservation.
- His voice remains digital sounding even after possessing Clark's body as his own.
Behind the Scenes[]
- Brainiac's voice actor, Michael Emerson, previously portrayed Harold Finch, a man who works with two AIs in the series Person of Interest. And the rogue AI even had the same symbol as Brainiac when influencing and controlling other systems.
- Emerson also played another DC villain: The Joker in the animated film adaptation of the The Dark Knight Returns.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Machine Who Would Be Empire, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (June 23, 2024)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Death of Clark Kent, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (July 7, 2024)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 My Adventures with Supergirl, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (July 21, 2024)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hearts of the Fathers, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (September 1, 2023)
- ↑ Two Lanes Diverged, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (June 9, 2024)
- ↑ Most Eligible Superman, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (June 16, 2024)
- ↑ Pierce the Heavens, Superman!, My Adventures with Superman. Adult Swim (July 14, 2024)
