Brainiac in Animation - A Retrospective

[RoyalRubble]

This is my first DC Retrospective, so please be kind.

With the release of Superman: Unbound upon us, I figured it would be a good time to look back on Brainiac's previous appearances in animation, since his introduction in the beginning of Superman: The Animated Series to this day. I understand this forum doesn't cover cartoons made prior to the DCAU, but since I try to be as thorough as possible in this kind of threads, check out my blog for "Part 0" of this retrospective - a look back at Brainiac's appearances in animation from the 60s up to the 80s. (Nothing spectacular, but there might be some neat stuff in there if anyone is interested in reading it).

This thread will also cover the few cartoons that featured Brainiac 5, since the original Brainiac also appeared in most of them anyway. Apart from the first pic, all other images in this post appear courtesy of The World's Finest, and this thread will (hopefully) be updated weekly. Hope you all enjoy reading it!

Brainiac debuted in Action Comics #242 (1958), and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. Primarily a Superman foe from the beginning, Brainiac was a green-skinned android with three diodes on his bald head, usually seen wearing a pink shirt and black shorts (though he has had a lot of redesigns over the years). His main gimmick was his shrink ray which he used to reduce cities and people in size and store them in bottles with the intent to take them with him to repopulate his planet, after returning them to their normal sizes. Metropolis was one of the cities he desired, which triggered his first encounter with Superman. Brainiac returned to Earth multiple times over the years but each time he was foiled by the Man of Steel.

Later stories revealed that Brainiac was responsible for the disappearance of Kandor, the capital city of Superman's home planet Krypton. Brainiac possesses a 12th level intellect, offering him an advanced memory and an understanding of pretty much any science in existence. He wears a belt that is able to create a force field around him (which even Superman has trouble penetrating occasionally), and thanks to his advanced mental powers he's been capable of possessing others, absorbing information from other beings, and even replicate multiple versions of himself, among other neat powers.

The version of Brainiac featured in the DC Animated Universe (and especially during the run of Superman: TAS) was given a revamped origin (as well as a redesign) which made him a lot more interesting and made Superman's conflict with him a lot more personal. While he appeared in Superman: TAS the most, Brainiac made a few more, sometimes totally unexpected appearances in other series, all of them set in the same continuity.

Superman: TAS premiered in fall of 1996, airing originally on Kids' WB. The show was created after the success of Batman: TAS (and by the same team of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, among many other talented folks), and it was supposed to be set in the same universe, with Superman and Batman teaming-up a couple of times during the show's run, and once The New Batman Adventures debuted - which featured more streamlined designs for the characters, making them both easier to animate and to look more similar to the characters on Superman: TAS. The crew took elements from all eras of the Superman comics, and merged them all together to create this new Superman show, which featured a lot of the Man of Steel's classic foes and some of his supporting cast from the Daily Planet, while also introducing some new characters along the way.

The series premiere was an origin story, the animated feature titled "The Last Son of Krypton" (which is now commonly broken into three separate episodes when aired on TV). The first act of the story is set on Krypton - we are introduced to this highly-advanced alien world with focus on Jor-El, a scientist who has theorized that their planet will soon be no more, but no one believes him. Brainiac (voiced by Corey Burton) is introduced as the super-computer that runs pretty much every operation on the planet; he is asked by the Kryptonian council to study the data Jor-El has gathered to determine if his theory could be correct. Brainiac denies that the planet is doomed, but Jor-El suspects the computer is hiding something. And he was right: Brainiac has been downloading all the data he has about Krypton, preparing to flee with it into space. When confronted by Jor-El, he reveals that he discovered the imminent explosion of Krypton long before him but decided not to alert the others. Believing he would be asked to work on a futile evacuation plan, Brainiac has chosen instead to preserve all the information about the Kryptonian civilization instead of trying to save the civilization itself.

Moments before the planet explodes, the infant Kal-El is placed into a rocket and sent into space, and the rest is pretty much history. But Brainiac also manages to escape in time, downloading himself into a satellite. The second and third parts of the story don't really feature Brainiac; they're more about how Kal chose to become Superman (and obviously also Clark Kent), getting a job at the Daily Planet and his first encounters with Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, and his first "official" mission - to stop the criminal for hire John Corben (who will become Metallo later on the show), who has stolen Luthor's robotic battle suit.

Brainiac is briefly seen again at the end of the movie, in a scene set in outer space, where some extraterrestrials retrieve the Kryptonian satellite. Brainiac kills the aliens and takes over the ship, linking himself online with their computer. It was a pretty chilling ending, and confirmation we haven't seen the last of him on the show. I thought adding Brainiac to Superman's own origin story was a brilliant move. Brainiac's programming to collect knowledge from other worlds and then destroying those worlds so that the information he has gathered be more precious, makes him a very ruthless villain.

Superman meets Brainiac face to face for the first time in the episode "Stolen Memories". Brainiac has built himself an android body, and has apparently contacted Lex Luthor and made him an offer - in exchange for information about our planet, Brainiac would give Luthor data from all the other alien worlds he has visited. Superman is reluctant to trust him and visits his ship, where he discovers Brainiac's memory modules (the orbs containing the knowledge he has collected); Brainiac tells him that he is also from Krypton, and how apparently Jor-El helped him escape the dying planet. But whereas Superman was sent to Earth, Brainiac has spent this time visiting alien worlds and collecting data from them. He allows Superman to briefly touch the Kryptonian memory orb, to learn more about his legacy.

As Luthor is preparing to connect LexCorp's computers with Brainiac's ship, which would facilitate the transfer of the data directly into LexCorp's mainframe Superman realizes what Brainiac's modus operandi really is and confronts him about it. Brainiac's simple reasoning is that by destroying the worlds he has already collected data from only makes said data more precious. The hook-up between Brainiac and LexCorp proves to be a disaster as well, as the robot is in fact planning on downloading all the information from the computers, which would ultimately allow him access to every computer system on the planet. Superman manages to disconnect Brainiac, and then apparently destroy his android body. With the ship about to explode Superman only has time to recover the Kryptonian orb he made contact with earlier, which he keeps in his recently-built Fortress of Solitude. The episode ends with Luthor's computer experts, trying to fix all the damage Brainiac caused, noticing a strange bit of alien code. All in all, this was a great episode and set the stage for Brainiac's next few appearances.

"Ghost in the Machine" is another awesome episode. Brainiac manages to reactivate himself thanks to LexCorp's computers and after taking control of a section of Luthor's building, lures and forces Lex to work on building a new android body in which to download himself. There's a lot of stuff going on in this episode - apart from all the action scenes, there's also some focus on Mercy Graves, Lex's bodyguard and chauffeur, revealing some of her backstory and giving her some sort of motivation for her loyalty to her boss. Superman teams up with Mercy to rescue Luthor, leading up to another confrontation with the new and apparently improved Brainiac.

The episode works well as a "stand-alone" adventure (sort of), but it does lead to some interesting developments later throughout the DCAU (during the Justice League Unlimited era, especially) although I suspect most people here already know all of this. Brainiac is destroyed again after Superman hits him with Luthor's latest invention which immobilizes the robot, but also creates a magnetic field that destroys the lab.

After Superman encountered Batman for the first time and teamed-up together to stop Luthor and the Joker, in the episode "Knight Time" Superman travels to Gotham City when he learns that Batman has gone missing. Once there Robin (Tim Drake) explains that Bruce Wayne has also disappeared, and he has no idea what's going on - resulting in Superman dressing up as Batman to investigate. They discover that Bruce has been infected with nanites and is most likely a victim of mind-control, so the first person they suspect is the Mad Hatter.

The episode is lots of fun - seeing the Man of Steel dressed as the Dark Knight taking on some of Batman's foes like the Riddler, Mad Hatter and especially Bane. After tracking Bruce to the Wayne Aerospace facility, Brainiac is revealed to be the villain controlling Bruce. Superman deduces that Brainiac got into Wayne's computers during the short lived Wayne-LexCorp partnership, and that he took control of Bruce when he realized Wayne's company could build the rocket he needs to leave our planet before destroying it. Superman reveals himself from beneath the burned Batman costume and fights Brainiac once again. The latter flees aboard his newly-built rocket-ship, but Superman follows and manages to destroy the craft - in the following explosion, Brainiac is apparently destroyed and once he is gone his control over Bruce also breaks.

Brainiac's final appearance on Superman: TAS was in the episode titled "New Kids in Town". This time, a different version of Brainiac from the year 2979 travels back in time creating a temporal anomaly which is then investigated by three members of the Legion of Super Heroes (Chameleon Boy, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl). Even though they have no way of telling where or when Brainiac has traveled to, the Legionnaires decide to enter the vortex and stop his plans. Once they arrive in Smallville, they realize what Brainiac is up to: he wants to destroy young Clark before he became Superman (or even learned about all his powers and legacy). The heroes try to protect Clark from Brainiac, who also has a spatial disruptor built in his belt, which allows him to teleport anywhere he wants to.

The climax of the episode takes place on the Kent farm, where Brainiac manages to capture Clark and mentions how by destroying him, he will be the superior survivor of Krypton. Clark manages to activate Brainiac's belt once he is close enough, which sends the robot in space, very close to the Sun where he simply melts. Before leaving the Legionnaires erase the memories of everyone Brainiac has come into contact with, including Clark since they feel it would be better for him to find his own way and not know about his great destiny. The episode also features a short scene in which we see more members of the Legion of Super Heroes, including Brainiac 5 but his name or origin is never mentioned. It probably would have made things too confusing since the Legion wouldn't appear again for quite some time in the DCAU but I thought it was a neat cameo anyway.

Overall, Brainiac was pretty awesome on Superman: TAS. His revised origin made him an interesting villain and his quest for gathering all the knowledge in the Universe made him one of Superman's greatest adversaries during the run of this show. And his future appearances throughout the DCAU would be quite amazing as well.

Next part: Brainiac on Static Shock, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited!

 

[Yojimbo]

Great write up, Rubble!

 

[Stu]

I do enjoy your retrospectivs too, Rubble.

I thought Superman: The Animated Series put a great spin on a villain who could've turned out really goofy. I especially like the idea of having him being utterly cold and monotone, which Corey Burton portrayed brilliantly. He didn't see himself as evil, he saw himself neccesary.

I dig the design too. The comic book design at the time the show premiered wouldn't have really worked and his classic design is too generic and goofy for 1995. I still think this particular model is the best that Braniac has ever looked (also I do like his flying skull ship, which would eventually make it's way into the DCU)

My favourite bit of originallity was making Brainiac responsible for the destruction of Krypton. It makes the feud between he and Superman that much more personally, I am genuinley surprised no one thought of this before.

Brainiac produced some very high quality episodes throughout his run, which cannot be said for all of Superman's villains.

I look forward to the future posts!

 

[I_Spyral]

Corey Burton's voice acting is brilliant.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

Please don't skip over Legion of Superheroes, great write up so far

 

[RoyalRubble]

Part Two

Static Shock premiered on Kids' WB in fall of 2000. It featured the adventures of Virgil Hawkins a.k.a. Static and Richie Foley a.k.a. Gear, inspired by the Milestone Media stories published by DC Comics. The show was created by Dwayne McDuffie and Michael Davis and lasted for four seasons, ending with a total of 52 episodes. I have only watched a handful of them - mostly the episodes in which other famous super heroes like Batman, Green Lantern and Superman appeared. Apparently set in the same universe as Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, these Static Shock episodes offered some neat continuity nods (for example the Superman episode continues Toyman's story-arc), although other than that the episodes weren't that great. As I said I haven't seen the entire show so I can't really judge it as a whole, but luckily I won't have to this time, to review Brainiac's appearance.

Also originally pitched to Kids' WB around this time was a Justice League animated series (done by the same creative team which successfully brought us Batman TAS, Superman TAS and Batman Beyond). The early idea for this show was to have a team formed of both heroes and their sidekicks - apparently something the network demanded, to attract younger viewers. This show pitch was rejected and the Justice League series was instead picked up by the Cartoon Network. This new and improved show featured the familiar Batman and Superman characters, with Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter completing the original team roster. The series premiered in fall of 2001 with the animated feature-length movie "Secret Origins", which similarly to the Superman: TAS premiere movie is now broken into three separate episodes. The format of the show was that most episodes consisted of two-part stories (apart from the season finales, which were three-part stories, and the Christmas special episode which was only a half-hour long), also resulting in a 52 episodes long animated series, before being replaced by a sequel titled Justice League Unlimited.

Most of the Justice League members guest-starred in the only two-part episode Static Shock had (probably trying to mimic the format of the Justice League show which aired on a different network). The episode was titled "A League of Their Own", and the villain of the story was none other than Brainiac. The Justice League has confiscated an active piece of Brainiac (supposedly the last remnant of him existing on the planet) and deiced to store it aboard their Watchtower, in a highly-advanced stasis field. Though it's never revealed how or when the League obtained this piece. Unfortunately the Watchtower is hit by a cosmic anomaly which drains its central power core and all systems aboard fail - resulting in the League's satellite on a collision course with the Earth. The only one who can save them is apparently Static who can use his powers to recharge the Watchtower's core.

Unbeknownst to the heroes, Brainiac re-activated himself during the confusion and took over the Watchtower's systems. He sent a fake distress call to the League, forcing them to leave to a distant location in space believing this would allow him enough time to reach his goal. Static and Gear were allowed to remain aboard the Watchtower until the League returned and soon discover Brainiac's presence when he tries to destroy them using machinery from the station. Brainiac then reveals his plan: he wishes to turn the Watchtower into his new body, and then continue his mission to assimilate and digitize all information on Earth before destroying it. The android is once again voiced by Corey Burton, but his voice here is distorted and sounds much deeper almost to the point you can't recognize him.

The League is informed by Static what's really going on and they return to the Watchtower only to be confronted by its weapons systems. Inside the station, Static and Gear come up with the plan to drain the power core again, thinking it would subdue Brainiac. Gear uses his special device Backpack to download songs repeatedly, ultimately causing the Watchtower's systems and Brainiac to crash. The day is apparently saved, until it is revealed that Brainiac has survived, downloading himself into Gear's Backpack - the first part ends with Brainiac activating and taking control over Gear.

In the second part, the League discovers that many of their files aboard the Watchtower were downloaded, and suspect Brainiac is still active somewhere. Flash is sent to investigate but is captured by the mind-controlled Gear and thanks to a thought control disk he becomes one of Brainiac's slaves as well. Static and the League track him down to an old abandoned steel mill, where they are captured by Brainiac's drones and thought control disks are placed on all of them - though Static's natural electric field short circuits the disk and he manages to escape. After briefly fighting and even defeating the Leaguers, they all team-up again to stop Brainiac and his skull ship from digitizing the planet. Static is the one who ultimately saves the day (again), after using Backpack's remote control to simply shut down the device. The ship crash lands in a nearby harbor, and after a careful scan of Backpack, no traces of Brainiac are found.

All in all this was a pretty cool adventure. It's debatable where exactly this fits into DCAU continuity, and it was rather weird not having Superman in these episodes - when you consider a Justice League versus Brainiac fight, it's odd the Man of Steel is nowhere to be seen. The episode also hints at Static joining the League in the future, something which we'll see more of during the Justice League Unlimited series.

The second season of the aforementioned Justice League series premiered in summer of 2003. Most if not all of the problems the first season suffered from were rectified by this point, and the season premiere "Twilight" turned out amazing. In this story we get not only Brainiac, but also Darkseid. The episode (as the entire series) picked up story elements from previous DCAU shows and continued them; here we witness Superman's first encounter with Darkseid after the events of "Legacy" (the finale of Superman TAS) as well as Brainiac's seemingly endless goal of assimilating the entire Universe. The story really begins when Brainiac arrives on Apokolips, and starts doing his job - siphoning the planet's memory banks. Not having the resources to stop him and realizing the planet will be destroyed when he's finished, Darkseid reluctantly asks for help from Superman and the Justice League. Superman is not at all happy to see him again, but after the others calm him down he accepts to help, only because if he doesn't Brainiac would destroy other undeserving worlds.

Superman, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter join forces with the remaining troops of Apokolips to confront Brainiac. With a little help from Darkseid himself, Superman manages to pass through the force field surrounding the android's ship and attack him directly. Injured Brainiac teleports aboard his ship, and out of Superman's grasp. The League decides to follow Brainiac and stop him once and for all, and after a short chase through outer space they find themselves caught in a tractor beam which pulls them into an asteroid crater - and then we get to see that the asteroid is shaped like Brainiac's head (most likely an allusion to his skull ship, which he will gain later on during Justice League Unlimited).

Inside the asteroid the heroes find a control room filled with computers and alien tech, where they are attacked by dozens of Brainiac drones. Darkseid appears via a Boom Tube but instead of helping them he strikes them down, and delivers the unconscious Superman to Brainiac. It's revealed that the two villains have made a deal: in exchange for sparing Apokolips Darkseid would help the android to get his hands on the Man of Steel. Brainiac also reveals his plan; he has apparently reached the limits of his programming, and in order to evolve further he needs to extract Kryptonian DNA from Superman. From this control center he can send his many drones to every corner of the Universe to gather knowledge and continue his "mission". Corey Burton reprises his role as Brainiac, and his voice isn't changed from Superman: TAS - just as cold and robot-like as it once was.

Not surprisingly, Darkseid has his own agenda and sabotages the control mechanisms, taking control over Brainiac. He has come to the conclusion that the android is his best chance to gain the Anti-Life Equation, which he has so long searched for. He plans on using Brainiac's powers to absorb the entire Universe, and then remake everything in his image. When the rest of the League confronts him, Darkseid sends the Brainiac drones he now controls to defeat them. Even though Brainiac tries to alert Darkseid that his actions are causing an energy overload, the latter chooses to ignore the warning. The best part of the episode though has nothing to do with Brainiac - it might seem a little off-topic inside a Brainiac retrospective thread, but the fight between Superman and Darkseid, as well as the interactions between Superman and Batman towards the end of the story are just too good not to be mentioned. In the end the entire asteroid explodes; the heroes manage to escape and while Batman concludes that nothing - not even Darkseid and presumably Brainiac - could have survived the explosion, Superman isn't so sure. Overall, this was a pretty amazing story, and the last we see of both the aforementioned villains for quite a while.

After two seasons of Justice League, the show changed its format - it became known as Justice League Unlimited, which premiered on the Cartoon Network in summer of 2004, and ran for 3 more seasons. The episodes were no longer two-part stories (with the occasional exception), though there was some pretty tight continuity between the episodes which made them seem like multiple part adventures. The League now had a lot of new members, as well as a lot of new enemies (mostly in the final season) all pulled from the DC Comics Universe no matter how well known or obscure they were. The highlight for this series was the Cadmus story-arc which was spread throughout most of the show's run. Given the continuity between episodes, it's kind of hard to talk about Brainiac on this show without mentioning at least some of the events that lead to his reappearance. But before I get into all that...

Brainiac has a small role in the episode "For the Man Who Has Everything", based on the story with the same name from Superman Annual #11 (1985), by Alan Moore, with art by Dave Gibbons. Superman was experiencing a dream world after Mongul attached an alien hallucinogenic plant called the Black Mercy to his chest. In this dream Superman was still living on Krypton with his family (and had a family of his own), as the planet did not explode when he was just an infant. Brainiac is still the monitoring system of the planet and his programming never went corrupt. As a bonus, we get to see Brainiac as a small floating friendly robot - who just happens to look like HERBIE from the Fantastic Four franchise.

And now, a short checklist of things that happened during, or that lead to the Cadmus story-arc in JLU: the Justice League fought AMAZO, an indestructible android who had the ability to mimic their powers. The League had to fight their doppelgangers from a parallel world, the Justice Lords who took control over their dimension and tried to do the same with ours. The Lords' version of the Flash was killed by their version of Luthor once he became the President in this alternate dimension, until Lord Superman killed him as well. The Justice Lord version of Superman lobotomized Doomsday, who later was revealed as one of the Cadmus experiments and returned to finish of the real Superman. Supergirl learns that she has a clone (thanks to Professor Hamilton), Galatea who tries destroying her a couple of times. Cadmus unleashes the Ultimen, a group of young heroes who become more popular than the League; they are revealed to be the results of a government experiment (also Cadmus). The League confronts the Dark Heart, a powerful alien nanotechnology device that creates waves of self-replicating robots; they manage to deactivate it, but Cadmus confiscates the remains. The episodes are quite good; I can't really do them justice by just mentioning some of the key events from them.

Lex Luthor also plays an important role in this story-arc and his character went through some changes over the course of the DCAU: back in Superman: TAS he was a corrupt businessman. Towards the start of Justice League, his illegal actions were made public thanks to the League, and he learned that he now had cancer thanks to all the years he carried kryptonite with him. He was sent to jail but escaped every once in a while and sort of took the role of a "mad scientist" type villain (similar to how he was protrayed in the comics, during the Silver Age). As a sidenote, Mercy Graves his ex-employee took over LexCorp during his absence, apparently bringing the company to new heights. Luthor was given a full pardon after agreeing to help the League defeat the Justice Lords, and now his next plans were to go into politics. The Cadmus Project was formed to stand as humanity's last hope against metahumans, if they ever decide to go rogue. While the project originally focused only on Superman (after the events of the Superman: TAS finale), it grew to include the rest of the League as well after the Justice Lords incident. Luthor financed the project while also starting his campaign to be elected President of the United States. In "Panic in the Sky", after carefully manipulating the heroes and especially Superman, making them look like the bad guys on multiple occasions Luthor reveals his real agenda: gaining super-powers of his own, and planning to transfer his mind into a new android body built using the blueprints from the first AMAZO.

The League confronts him, leading to Brainiac's return to the DCAU. After metal pieces start emerging from Luthor and a robotic face grows out of his chest, Brainiac reveals that he has layed dormant inside his new host body ever since the events of the Superman: TAS episode "Ghost in the Machine". Luthor is just as shocked as the rest of the League at this new development. The beam Brainiac hit Luthor with in that episode was never meant to kill or injure him; it carried nanobots that created a back-up copy of his programming. Since Luthor's primitive body needed some improvements, Brainiac cured his cancer and then gave him some super strength. The android has been subtly influencing Luthor's actions for years - though it remains debabatble to what extent. The new AMAZO body Luthor built was supposed to act as Brainiac's new body, so he can continue his mission of collecting data from our planet. Corey Burton reprises his role as Brainiac.

In "Divided We Fall", Brainiac/Luthor attacks the League and tries digitizing them as well, but fails. Claiming he was still unprepared for a battle he unleashes his skull ship over the city, which goes on a rampage until the heroes manage to stop it. This was all a distraction however, as the villain(s) used this opportunity to escape through the sewers. Luthor learns of Brainiac's programming and his ultimate goal being the assimilation of the entire universe. Realizing what the android is capable of, Luthor convinces him to join forces and use their powers and imagination to re-make the universe and become gods. The two break into the Cadmus headquarters where Brainiac absorbs the Dark Heart drones and now gains the ability to create anything from raw material. The two further merge into a single gold armor wearing being (Brainthor? Lexiac? Luthiac?) and prepare to build a giant machine to absorb the entire Earth and then the galaxy and finally the universe. The original seven founding members of the Justice League confront him, but first they have to go through mechanical duplicates of their Justice Lords counterparts, created by Brainiac. After Brainiac proves to be more than a match for each hero, it's ultimately the Flash who manages to defeat him: by running at super speed, circling the globe he gathers enough energy to hit the villain and destroy him. Thanks to the Flash's vibrating punches the Brainiac armor covering Luthor is shattered and the day (and the universe) is saved. Overall it was a pretty amazing episode and the Flash really had a chance to shine this time.

The third and final season of JLU had another change in format: the League now had to deal with a Legion of villains based on the Legion of Doom, lead by Gorilla Grodd and later by Luthor. The stories changed in tone to more Silver Age-inspired amazing adventures which was a pretty nice change after the conspiracy-heavy previous seasons. Approximately a year has passed since the events of "Divided We Fall"; Luthor has been in prison all this time until he suddenly breaks out and meets the Legion for the first time. Interestingly, he still sees, hears and talks to Brainiac - he's the only one aware of the android's presence. It remains debatable if Luthor still has a limited mental bond with Brainiac, or if he's really insane. Grodd makes him an offer to join his Legion, in return for the last piece of Brainiac on Earth. Brainiac tells Luthor he has to accept since his programming resides even in the smallest fragments. Desiring godhood again, Luthor reluctantly joins the Legion and over the course of the next episodes he is sent alongside various other villains on different missions. Once Grodd's master plan is revealed to have been a way to turn the entire world into apes (and is thwarted by the League), Luthor overthrows the gorilla and assumes the leadership of the Legion. His goal being the resurrection of Brainiac rather than Grodd's questionable reasons for being leader.

In the series finale, Luthor learns that there still are remnants of Brainiac in outer space, near the destroyed asteroid from "Twilight". After dealing with an uprising from some of his Legion members still faithful to Grodd, Luthor turns their base into a spaceship and travels to the space sector in question. Using both magic and technology he tries to collect Brainiac's essence and rebuild it - but the result of his experiment is the rebirth of Darkseid, apparently merged with Brainiac. Since Darkseid also "died" in the same place as Brainiac (something Luthor wasn't aware of), their two essences merged into one ultimate being similar to how Luthor and Brainiac merged before. Luthor even mentions that ever since Darkseid came back to life, he wasn't able to hear Brainiac's voice anymore. The finale is basically one huge fight between the combined forces of the Justice League and the Legion against Darkseid and his minions. It's pretty amazing overall, and works well as a finale. Luthor saves everyone in the end, after offering the unstoppable Darkseid what he always wanted, the Anti-Life Equation. Both the villains dissappear in a flash of light and their ultimate fates are never revealed.

And this should cover all of Brainiac's appearances on JLU. But there's still one episode to talk about, one that features his descendant from the 31st century Brainiac 5, a.k.a. Brainy (voiced by Matt Czuchry). His design was changed from his brief cameo back in Superman: TAS, and I think he looks better this time. "Far From Home" guest-starred some of the Legion of Super Heroes' characters. Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy recruit the help of present-day Supergirl, Green Lantern and Green Arrow even though the incomplete history records mentioned that Supergirl would never return from this mission. Supergirl recognizes him as a Brainiac and attacks him, but he reveals that Brainiac 1.0 was his distant ancestor. Over the time Brainiac learned to pass his code down biologically. Brainiac 5 had the potential for good and joined the superheroes to make up for his ancestor's history of evil - this turning him into the "black sheep" of the family. With most of the Legionnaires are captured by the Fatal Five and mind-controlled into fighting on their side, the remaining heroes plan a rescue mission. Supergirl fights all these heroes while the others try to break the mind control. In the end they win, and Supergirl decides to remain in the 31st century with Brainy - even though her love story with him was kind of rushed, the episode was pretty good. There's also a pretty hilarious part at the end, when back in present day Superman learns that Supergirl has fallen in love with someone and asks Green Arrow and Green Lantern what his name is.

All in all, the DCAU version of Brainiac was awesome. He wasn't used as often as other villains, but when he did appear he proved to be pretty amazing. Next stop: Brainiac on Superman: Brainiac Attacks! Brainiac 5 and Brainiac 1.0 on Legion of Super Heroes! Plus Brainiac's cameos in Superman: Doomsday and Justice League: The New Frontier!

 

[Alex20]

Mercy is also shot by Brainiac in "Ghosts in the Machine" so I was thinking maybe that was the starting point of what would become Brainiac 5.

 

[Toddman]

Mercy is also shot by Brainiac in "Ghosts in the Machine" so I was thinking maybe that was the starting point of what would become Brainiac 5.

Interesting theory - - could be I suppose.

If Mercy was under the influence of Brainiac nanites, maybe that would explain how Luthor's "lowly chauffeur" was revealed to be smart enough to run LexCorp when he was in jail, but then step aside when he reassumed control of the company. Those were all parts of Brainiac's plan after all.

However, I'm pretty sure that Brainiac's blast in "Ghost in the Machine" was deflected by Mercy's laser gunfire, and she was never struck full-on.


Toddman

 

[Rod G]

Interesting . . . but you forgot his appearances in Filmation's New Adventures of Superman as well as Challenge of the Super Friends/the Legendary Super Powers Show/Galactic Guardians (the last two featured him in his 80s "Roboskeleton" mode)

EDIT: Never mind. I managed to read your "Pre-DCAU Brainiac" page.


Sorry about the confusion.

 

[RoyalRubble]

Part Three

Apologies for not updating this sooner.

In the summer of 2006 Superman: Brainiac Attacks was released (though it actually premiered on Cartoon Network a couple of days before the official release date), an all-new straight to DVD animated movie mainly as a tie-in to the live-action Superman Returns movie which premiered around that time. Written by Christopher Simmons and Duane Capizzi, and directed by Curt Geda, Brainiac Attacks despite using the same models for the designs as the previous DCAU series, as well as most of the voice actors this movie wasn't set in the same continuity, which in hindsight is a good thing since the movie isn't very good. I think it has some nice animation and I sort of liked Brainiac's giant robot form but apart from maybe one or two neat moments, the movie doesn't really have anything to make it stand out.

As the title implies, the story is about Brainiac attacking... over and over again. It gets tiresome after a while and his fights with Superman weren't that interesting to watch. Brainiac is voiced by Lance Henriksen in this movie and I didn't think he sounded as good as Corey Burton even though I generally think Henriksen is a good voice actor as well. Lex Luthor has also been re-cast, now voiced by Powers Boothe (who previously voiced Gorilla Grodd in JL/JLU), who doesn't really come close to Clancy Brown's Luthor voice - that, and pretty much all the seriousness of the character was removed from this movie. As for Brainiac, this movie doesn't really add anything to his character either. In fact, other than the occasional mention of his mission to collect data from our world, I'd say he was pretty much just a generic villain in this feature film.

After his first defeat in the beginning of the movie, Brainiac once again makes a deal with Luthor: after he rebuilds his body (incorporating the new LexCorp satellite), as well as adding some kryptonite and some of Superman's DNA to his systems Brainiac would return to destroy Superman. Then, Luthor would act as a hero and apparently defeat the android in an attempt to boost his popularity. In the end Brainiac being supposed to leave our planet alone but be free to conquer other planets since his main enemy would be no more. As I mentioned earlier I thought Brainiac's new giant robot body looked pretty cool though it wasn't anything spectacular. Thanks to the DNA sample Luthor gave him, Brainiac can now track Superman anywhere on the planet, and attack him regardless if he's Superman or just Clark Kent.

Lois Lane ends up injured during Brainiac's second attack, and mostly spends the rest of the movie in a hospital bed. Superman travels to his Fortress of Solitude to find a cure for Lois' condition but Brainiac attacks for the third time. He tries to access the orb Superman was using to gather information (apparently the same one Superman "stole" from Brainiac back in S:TAS, but this is a separate continuity) resulting in the destruction of the Fortress, and apparently the death of Superman. Obviously the man of Steel didn't die; he just teleported himself to the Phantom Zone at the last moment, not only to escape but a rare element which could save Lois and heal him as well from Brainiac's new kryptonite rays was located there. The one thing that really did surprise me (at least the first time I watched the movie) was Superman being tricked into thinking he escaped from the Phantom Zone and saved Lois' life. The revelation he was still trapped inside the prison dimension was probably the film's highlight. Not surprisingly Brainiac has decided to double-cross Luthor and not give up on Earth. Once Superman really returns, he manages to finally defeat Brainiac and save Lois. And that's pretty much the entire plot of the movie.

There are also some silly romantic sub-plots in the movie; first the Clark/Lois Lane one (with Clark not knowing if he should reveal his secret identity to Lois), and second Jimmy Olsen having a crush on Luthor's chauffeur Mercy Graves - who ends up breaking his heart (and most of his bones) leaving Jimmy with the Daily Planet's food critic whose name I already forgot. Neither of these stories were handled that well and just feel dragged out during the course of the movie.

I guess Brainiac Attacks works on some fronts but when you consider the great story-arcs and near perfect characterizations and voices S:TAS and JL/JLU offered us, this movie is pretty horrible. While far, very far from perfect, I think the movie does have some decent stuff in it but overall it's not something I'd really recommend to anyone either.

Legion of Super Heroes premiered in fall of 2006, originally on Kids' WB and ran for only 26 episodes. Produced by James Tucker, the show was originally supposed to feature the adventures of Superboy, who alongside the Legionaires fought against evil in the 31st century. Due to legal issues preventing them to call the main character Superboy, the show ended up featuring a young Superman which seems a little odd, not only because most of the other teen heroes' super-hero names ended in "boy", "lad" or "girl", but mainly because this Superman looked so young. I didn't watch the show regularly when it first aired as the first couple of episodes didn't impress me too much, but giving it a second chance now I think it's a pretty great cartoon. It takes a while for the show to improve, but it does and I think in the end it's a shame it never got a third season to give the story some proper closure. I've never been a huge fan of the Legion comics, but I greatly enjoyed this show.

Brainiac 5 (often nicknamed "Brainy") was one of the main characters on the show, voiced by Adam Wylie. While the comic book version of Brainiac 5 is flesh and blood, here Brainy is an android, who can transform his robot body in various ways, including becoming a bigger, more powerful robot during combat. He comes from the planet Colu, whose inhabitants are a race of green-skinned humanoids noted for having a 8th level intelligence, far higher than humans. Brainy however possesses a 12th level intellect, as a direct descendant of Brainiac 1.0 - Superman's enemy. Trying to hide his connection to the villanous ancestor and wanting to make up for the original Brainiac's history of evil, Brainy left his home planet and joined the Legion of Super Heroes. He invented the Legion's flight rings and cloaking belts, as well as other impressive tech (like the Computo database and the time machine used to recruit Superman from the past). Whereas Brainiac 1.0 was one of Superman's enemies, Brainy instead idolizes Superman; he admires him, as through him he sees the strength of humanity. Whereas Brainiac 1.0 was obsessed with controlling humanity, Brainy wants to understand it, and be part of it.

The premise for the first season is that the Legion needs any help it can get to stop the Fatal Five, a group of powerful super-villains who recently escaped from prison. Brainy decides to travel back in time to recruit Superman as a Legionnaire. They arrive in Smallville too early, as young Clark while knows about his powers has not yet decided to become a superhero. He agrees to join them and aid them as he can, and since Brainy can bring him back at any time to the exact moment when he left, decides to remain in the 31st century for a while, to also train and learn how to control his powers better. Though most times he has to learn the hard way, as Brainy cannot (or on some occasions refuses to) reveal many of the things he knows lie in the future for Superman, because once he retruns to his own time this knowledge could alter the natural course of history. Since Brainy is a main character on the show and thus present in pretty much every episode, I'll just comment on his most notable appearances, episodes which further his story-arc spread throughout the two seasons.

In "Fear Factory", the Legionnaires are trapped aboard a seemingly haunted space station, where each of them must confront his worst fears. One by one the heroes dissapear and in the end its up to Superman and Brainy to save their team-mates; Brainy gives Superman a microchip before leaving to face his greatest fear - which turns out to be his race, the Coluans, who he fears will come and force him to return to his home planet and re-connect to the hive mind. The Coluans have a neat design, somewhat similar to how Brainiac looked in the DCAU. Brainy manages to break free and merge with the space station's system, but to free the others Superman has to shut down this system, meaning he has to sacrifice Brainy in order to save everyone else. Superman realizes that as a hero he has to make sacrifices and does as he is told. Once the other Legionnaires are free they simply explain to Superman that Brainy is alright, he just needs to be re-activated with the back-up chip Superman has. Once Brainy is back online, Superman confronts him about why he didn't tell him what the chip was for in the first place; Brainy simply answers that if he would have done that, then Superman wouldn't have faced his greatest fear.

When Drax, a villain from the Phantom Zone (and apparently General Zod's son) escapes and goes on a rampage through New Metropolis, Brainy tries to stop him with kryptonite - apparently he kept a piece of the element in case he needed to use it against Superman, unbeknownst to the others. His plan fails, and the kryptonite is lost by the end of the episode, with Superman never finding out about it.

"Brain Drain", for the most part is a pretty awesome episode. It is revealed that every third solar cycle, Coluans undergo the Allignment - a ritual in which every Coluan in the galaxy, no matter where they are, uploads and shares his intelligence with every other Coluan. While for normal Coluans it's a painless process, for Brainy who has separated himself from the hive mind, it will be different. For ten hours, he'll have little control over himself, and his actions would be unpredictable. he builds himself a containment unit where he plans on remaining for the duration of the ritual, but due to a malfunction, once he is out his genius IQ starts plummeting and he begins to blabber mostly incoherently. The only cure is apparently a rare element from a distant planet; Brainy tries to warn them that the planet has "red ants" and that Superman shouldn't play with red ants. The red ants turn out to be a reference to a red sun, making Superman powerless while on this new planet. Everything turns out well in the end, with Brainy back to normal, and once Superman realizes Brainy knew all along that his powers only come from a yellow sun but kept this information from him, starts wondering what other secrets Brainy is keeping from him.

In the season one finale, the two part episode titled "Sundown", the Legion has to fight a Sun-Eater. Superman is powerless against this new threat as the Sun-Eater consumed a red sun before heading to our yellow sun. Brainy is careful to send Superman on a separate mission, to keep him away from danger - he has to find the rogue Controller who unleashed this new threat. In the end the Universe is saved, though one of the Legionnaires is lost during the fight: Ferro Lad, who sacrifices himself, acting as the conduit for the bomb that destroys the threat. Superman is returned to the present, but apparently his memories weren't erased and he kept his flight ring. All in all, a pretty great first season.

The second season, which premiered in fall of 2007 was quite an improvement. A few years have passed since the last episode (they never mention exactly how much time has passed). The Legionnaires are now older, some new heroes have joined the team and they are all preparing for the imminent invasion of the Dominators. Everything changes when Superman X appears, in the season premiere two-part episode "The Man from the Edge of Tomorrow". Claiming he comes from the 41st century, Superman X is revealed to be a clone of the original Superman; he was created to fight and destroy Imperiex an alien conqueror who rules his timeline. He has traveled back in time to recruit the Legionnaires for help, but all their interference does is to allow Imperiex a chance to escape to the Legion's timeline.

Altering the past, the future is changed and the heroes have to find a way to get back to their own time and fix everything. They once again call Superman for help (that is, the original Superman) and even though he has aged a little as well, I think he still looks a little too young to be called Superman. There are also a couple of neat scenes where Superman X shows how much he hates Brainy, claiming that "Once a Brainiac, always a Brainiac". He reveals that sometime between the 31st and 41st centuries, Brainy would do something terrible, though the exact details remain a mystery for now. This also sets the stage for the main story-arc of the second season - the Legion has to stop Imperiex.

"Message in a Bottle" is another awesome episode. The Legion travels to Superman's Fortress of Solitude (which in our time, is no more than a couple of weeks old) to stop Imperiex from apparently retrieving a weapon located inside. All of them end up inside the Bottle City of Kandor, and since they are under a red sun, Superman is once again powerless. Brainy explains that Imperiex has come after the Messenger - an item created by Superman's father Jor-El before the destruction of Krypton. The Messenger was actually designed to help save the planet: it could create crystals which would stabilize the planet. This item was kept in Kandor, Krypton's capital city but one day "The Terror of Kandor" came and took the entire city with it, dooming the planet.

When the Kandorians notice Brainy's symbols, they realize he must be related to the Terror. He reluctantly reveals his origin to the others: Brainiac 1.0 was his ancestor and his programming resides within him. He was afraid to reveal this earlier as he didn't know how the others would react. Needing to save his team-mates, Brainy is forced to tap into Brainiac 1.0's programming and obtain some vital information. His ancestor is more than glad to help; he mentions that he has been observing Brainy ever since he came online and tells him that the data he offers him open new avenues of possibilities. The original Brainiac looks pretty awesome - the design is reminiscent of the one from the DCAU, though a little more bulky. As a bonus, Corey Burton reprises his role as the voice of the android, which I thought was a very nice touch, considering this show isn't supposed to take place in the same DCAU continuity.

With this new knowledge, Brainy turns Kandor's red sun into a yellow one, giving Superman his powers back, as well as powering every Kandorian there. Imperiex is forced to retreat, and in the end the Messenger is used to restore Krypton, and Brainy restores the Kandorians to their normal sizes (once again, thanks to the knowledge from the original Brainiac). Everything seems fine in the end, until Brainy erases Superman's memory of this adventure, claiming that he only did it to make sure he won't attempt to restore Krypton in his own time.

After this event, Brainiac 1.0 remains present inside Brainy's mind, slowly taking over him and influencing his actions. It's revealed that this was Imperiex's plan from the beginning - he learned via the Computo database about the android's true abilities, and wished to re-activate the original Brainiac's programming so that he could join his army. In the series finale, the two part episode titled "Dark Victory", Brainy reluctantly gives in to his ancestor's programming to save the other Legionnaires from an army of Dominators (who were working for Imperiex) - he simply shuts down all of the enemies' minds, as easy as he would turn off a computer. Soon afterwards, his programming becomes even more corrupted as he attacks his own team-mates, re-builds his body to look more like his ancestor and leaves to join Imperiex. It's a pretty chilling scene, especially the part where he confronts his former idol Superman, and defeats him by placing a kryptonite crown on his head - which apparently kills him in the process, but obviously he recovered in time for the final fight.

Imperiex never thought he wouldn't be able to control Brainiac, which results in his destruction. Brainy converts all the remains of his army into data, something he has complete control over. But for Imperiex, he simply deletes him. Now in charge of Imperiex's cruiser (which he turns into his classic skull ship), Brainy sets out on his mission to bring order to the Universe. His first stop is Colu, his home planet but along the way he digitizes Thanagar as well. Once arrived on Colu, he is captured by the other Coluans, who force him to re-connect to the hive mind. But Brainy actually reverses the process, giving him complete control over his people; the Coluans now becomes drones who will help him on his mission.

When confronted by most of the Legionnaires (who have found a temporary defense which kept them safe from the digitizing process), Brainy's skull ship merges with all the Coluan drones forming a huge Brainiac body. Believing the true Brainy is still present somewhere inside the mind of this villain, Saturn Girl uses her powers to project both Superman and Superman X inside Brainiac's mind to free him. Since they were too weak to fight separately, the two are fused together into a single being (which had a pretty awesome design). The plan works, as the real Brainy awakes and takes back control over his body, purging his ancestor's presence from his mind. As a result, Brainy becomes a pure organic being, and he discards his robotic armor. It might seem a little silly that he became a "real boy" but I think it worked out great. After all this was what Brainy always wanted.

In the end though, Brainy decides on leaving the Legion, ashamed of his actions and needing time to cope with his new state. The show unfortunately ends on sort of a cliff-hanger, as somewhere in space the remains of Brainy' robotic armor fuse back together forming a Brainiac (once again voiced by Corey Burton) who states that "evil does not die; it evolves". A pretty chilling ending. Overall it was a pretty awesome finale but it's a shame that show ended here. Apparently a third season would have focused on Brainy's redemption, which I think would have been interesting to see. All in all, the LOSH version of Brainiac was pretty amazing. His story-arc was probably the most interesting aspect of the show for me. Though some of the other Legionnaires had their own, pretty good story-arcs spread through the series.

Most of Brainiac's next appearances in animation are just cameos or just too short for him to do pretty much anything. 2007 also gave us Superman: Doomsday, the first in the line of direct to DVD DC Universe Animated Original Movies (now known as DC Comics Premiere Movies), released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. Loosley based on the famous Death of Superman storyline from the comics, Superman: Doomsday was written by Duane Capizzi and Bruce Timm, and directed by Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery and Brandon Vietti. It's a good movie overall but I don't plan on reviewing it here; I'll just mention that Brainiac's robotic head can be briefly seen as a trophy inside Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Brainiac, this time in his Silver Age design can also be seen at the end of Justice League: The New Frontier, during the iconic John F. Kennedy speech during a montage showing a lot of villains, which followed a montage of heroes). Released in 2008 and based on the DC Comics limited series DC: The New Frontier, this film was written by Stan Berkowitz and Darwyn Cooke, and directed by Dave Bullock. It's also a very good movie, and the designs used for the movie look pretty cool. No voice actors where required for Brainiac in either of these two movies.

Up next: Brainiac's cameos on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, All-Star Superman and Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite! As well as the movie that prompted me to start this retrospective in the first place, Superman: Unbound!

 

[RoyalRubble]

Part Four

Next on our list of Brainiac's cameos in animation we have Batman: The Brave and the Bold, an animated series starring Batman (obviously), based on the comic book series the Brave and the Bold. Produced by James Tucker and Michael Jelenic, this was basically a team-up show, with Batman appearing in every episode alongside various other characters from the DC Universe. The show premiered in fall 2010 on the Cartoon Network, and lasted for 65 episodes. Mostly depicting adventures either adapted or inspired by some of the weirdest comic book stories from the Silver Age of comics, Batman: TB&TB still managed to be a pretty awesome show overall, though the quality of the episodes varies from time to time. I initially didn't really care for the show but I got to admit it did grow on me along the way and all in all I find it very enjoyable. And I think it's pretty amazing how many characters they managed to feature throughout the show's run.

Brainiac's first appearance on the show was in "The Siege of Starro!", a two-part adventure which also had three prologue teasers, featured in previous episodes spread throughout the second season. As the title implies, Starro the Conqueror prepares to conquer our planet - his herald the Faceless Hunter has been fighting off the heroes of Earth and placed Starros on their faces to control them and have an even bigger army. Aboard his spaceship, a replica of Brainiac (sporting his Silver Age design, to fit in with the overall tone of the show) can be seen in a couple of scenes, among other trophies.

He next appears at the very end of "The Battle of the Super-Heroes!", an episode in which Batman first teams-up with Superman but then the two heroes have to fight thanks to Lex Luthor and some red kryptonite. The episode is lots of fun and it would have been great if Superman would have received an animated series in the same style as this one (though at this point I'd take any kind of new animated Superman show). Once Superman is back to normal after acting like a real di...fferent person for half of the episode, Brainiac appears over the city and declares his plans for Metropolis, only to be stopped by the World's Finest heroes. Here Brainiac was voiced by Richard McGonagle (who also voiced Perry White), and if you look closely you can spot on his shoulder his pet alien monkey, Koko - just another of the more obscure characters/concepts this show managed to sneak into this episode.

All-Star Superman was released straight to DVD in February 2011. Based on the comic book story with the same title, the animated movie was written by Dwayne McDuffie and directed by Sam Liu. Brainiac (once again in his Silver Age design) can be seen very briefly as a trophy inside Superman's Fortress of Solitute, placed on a giant chessboard placed alongside models of Bizarro and Lex Luthor. The movie is pretty awesome overall; it adapts the story from the comics pretty faithfully, and it's probably my favorite of the solo Superman animated movies so far.

After all these pretty meaningless cameos, Brainiac would finally star again as the main villain in a Superman story - but before I get into that, there's some more animated stuff to mention.

Superman Vs. the Elite was released straight to DVD in the summer of 2012. Based on the story published in Action Comics #775 (2001) the animated movie was written by Joe Kelly (who also wrote the comic previously mentioned), and was directed by Michael Chang. Brainiac is nowhere to be seen during the movie, but there's at least a mention of him. Perry White comments that the Elite is the biggest news "since Brainiac ate Boston".

And here's something I didn't take into account when I started this thread. Teen Titans Go! started airing this year on Cartoon Network. Produced by Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath, the show is more of a comedy than a straight adventure show, and not really a follow-up to the previous Teen Titans animated series. The characters are depicted in super-deformed style and each episode is composed of two 15-minutes segments. I have only watched a few episodes but personally I didn't find them all that funny.

In the episode titled "Laundry Day", Brainiac has a small cameo (and in his DCAU design as well!) In this story the Titans' uniforms get dirty after a fight and they all have to wear something different until the laundry is finished. Cyborg wasn't wearing any clothes anyway, but his body got dirty and his disconnected head needed a new body - in his closet he has a replica of a Brainiac body, though he doesn't pick it because it was "too brainy".

Earlier this year, Superman: Unbound was released on DVD - and it's the reason I started writing this retrospective. Based on the Superman: Brainiac story-arc from the comics published in 2008, this animated movie was written by Bob Goodman and directed by James Tucker. The comic story is probably best remembered today for depicting the death of Superman's adopted father Jonathan Kent. This element from the original story wasn't adapted in the movie though.

The story really begins when a Brainiac robotic probe crash lands on Earth and Superman confronts it. He destroys it and takes it with him to his Fortress of Solitude where he studies it. Supergirl recognizes the robot and tells her cousin her memory of how Brainiac stole the city of Kandor from Krypton - the probes landed on their planet and were basically unstoppable. The robots initally killed everyone they encountered in their path, but after downloading the citizen's knowledge they knew who should remain alive and who was redundant. The giant skull ship that hovered over the city then shot its shrink ray and simply took the city of Kandor aboard. Kara (Supergirl) managed to escape alongside her parents (Zor-El and Alura) who then sent her aboard a rocket ship towards Earth where she would be safe. Her father started studying the remains of the probes and learned more about the villain. His studies attracted Brainiac back to Krypton, and this time he took Zor-El as well.

In the present Superman decides to find this Brainiac and stop him from destroying other worlds. He has access to Zor-El's research which reveal the villain's origin. Originally from the planet Colu and born fully organic, Brainiac has incorporated extensive motor, skeletal and cybernetic enhancements into himself. His method is to explore the galaxy upload knowledge into his own neural core from the worlds he encounters, and then destroy those worlds. Superman encounters Brainiac's skull ship just as it destroys another inhabited planet - Superman is taken aboard the skull ship, where he comes face to face with Brainiac for the first time. Here Brainiac was voiced by John Noble, and his design looks pretty good though it's not really anything special. He's also much more of a physical match for Superman than any of his past animated incarnations.

Brainiac: I am the knowledge and strength of ten thousand worlds. I am flesh and machine. I am becoming everything.

Aboard the skull ship, Superman discovers all the bottle cities Brainiac has collected over the years, each one placed in the correct position according to where their planets were located in the universe. Brainiac explains that he didn't destroy Krypton since he knew the planet was doomed anyway, so he saved himself the trouble. After downloading the data from Superman's rocket ship, Brainiac learns of Earth, and decides it will be his next target. He fights and defeats Superman, and then shrinks him and adds him to the bottled city of Kandor. There Superman meets Kara's parents, his uncle and aunt, who explain to him that Brainiac's programming seems to have a bug - he is obsessed with controlling everything, but it's impossible to control a living being. Superman manages to escape, and disconnects Brainiac from his ship leaving it stranded in outer space. He takes Kandor with him back to Earth, to find a way to restore it to its normal size. He doesn't try to destroy the skull ship since it still contains hundreds of miniaturized cities.

Brainiac re-activates himself - it's revealed the ship was built around him, and he has become one with the ship - and reaches Earth. He sends his probes through the streets of Metropolis resulting in some pretty amazing action scenes as both Superman and Supergirl try to stop them. In the end though the city is collected by Brainiac, and the two kryptonians are taken hostages. Superman is tortured; Brainiac plans on downloading the data he gathered into his mind and predicts that the hero's mind wouldn't survive trying to process too many planet's knowledge. Superman manages to escape though and fights Brainiac again - he drags him out of his ship and fights him on Earth. Surrounded by nature Brainiac isn't able to process everything that is happening around him. Since he only studied his safe, bottled cities which he was in control of his mind tries to understand and cope with everything knew to him. It proves to be too much (bugs, mud, noise and so on) and after a few punches from Superman he bursts into flames. Superman recovers a piece of him which he takes with him to his Fortress.

In a mid-end-credits scene, this piece seems to come back online possibly hinting at a sequel which will probably never happen. All in all this was a pretty good movie. Brainiac wasn't that impressive here but he wasn't too bad either. It's a fun movie with some great action scenes, and I'd say I enjoyed it more than the previous Superman: Brainiac Attacks.

Also this year, we had the release of Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite. Based on the video game Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, this animated film was written by David A. Goodman and directed by Jon Burton. As the title implies, Batman and Robin team up with Superman and many other DC super heroes (though only in the final moments of the movie) when the Joker teams up with Lex Luthor, along with other assorted Bat-villains. Overall it's a pretty nice movie with some funny moments - it's a more comical adventure but I think it works. Brainiac also has a small cameo in this movie; once the fight on Earth is over Green Lantern lights his ring, which apparently attracts Brainiac's attention. Aboard his skull ship, Brainiac voiced by Troy Baker (who also voiced Batman and Two-Face in the movie) declares he has located "it". Not sure what he was talking about but his appearance in the movie was pretty surprising anyway.

This should cover Brainiac's animated appearances at this point but... just for fun, I'll throw in his short appearances in the DC Nation animated shorts. DC Nation, a programming block which started airing on Saturday mornings on Cartoon Network in 2012. Apart from normal animated series, the block also contains various cartoon shorts. Some of the stuff is good, but I haven't followed these shorts that faithfully, so I'm probably missing some but as far as I know Brainiac has only appeared twice so far.

First, in an episode from the series of shorts titled "Tales of Metropolis", where he isn't actually seen, but his skull ship does appear. Bizarro tries to stop him, by throwing the sun into his ship (instead of throwing his ship into the sun). When he sees that won't work, Bizarro simply kicks the ship which falls flat on its face on the street. Pretty amusing.

A different version of Brainiac appears in an episode of the series Farm League, which depicts all heroes and villains as animals (apparently based on the comics Just'a Lotta Animals). Here Brainiac was replaced with Craniac - a super-intelligent crane who tries to explain his plan to defeat the heroes to the other villains, but after Moo-Face (Two-Face's cow counterpart) flips his coin he decides to let Bizarrfo (a dog version of Bizarro) to come up with a plan instead. I'm not sure who did the voice of Craniac in this cartoon as there were no credits and I'm not that good at recognizing voice actors.

Can't really add any good pictures to demonstrate these version of Brainiac - but you're not missing much. He was absent from the Young Justice animated series (though he was featured in the companion comic book series, which unfortunately I haven't had a chance to read). And this is all - at least for now! This retrospective will probably be updated when/if he'll show up in any future cartoons.

 

[Stu]

The Brainic arc actually sounds quite interesting from the LOSH. It sounds like the show did indeed pick up some steam from the opening episode I saw. Nice little nod of them to cast Corey Burton from Superman: The Animated Series too. I always thought he was the perfect Brainiac.

I too enjoyed Superman: Unbound. I didn't think it was the best of the recent Superman films, but enjoyable all the same. But I will get to that when I complete my own Superman retrospective.

I have to admit, I entirely missed the monkey on Brainiac's shoulder. You obvously have sharper eyes than me!

 

[RoyalRubble]

I have to admit, I entirely missed the monkey on Brainiac's shoulder. You obvously have sharper eyes than me!

When the episode first aired, I only saw there was something there. I only found out who that was from these very forums.