Brainiac

Fictional character biography

Silver Age

The first Brainiac/Kandor comic book story in Action Comics #242 (July 1958) was based on a story arc in the Superman comic strip from April through August 1958. In the comic strip story, Superman's foe was named Romado, who traveled the cosmos with a white alien monkey named Koko, shrinking major cities and keeping them in glass jars. The strip's Kryptonian bottled city was named Dur-El-Va. This cross-continuity conflict was not unprecedented; in 1958 and '59, editor Mort Weisinger used the comic strip to prototype a number of concepts that he planned to introduce in the book, including Bizarro and red kryptonite.

Brainiac is a bald, green-skinned humanoid who arrives on Earth and shrinks various cities, including Metropolis, storing them in bottles with the intent of using them to restore the then-unnamed planet he ruled. He was originally notable only for having shrunk the bottle city of Kandor with his shrinking ray and for using a force field. In his initial story, he also traveled with a white monkey-like alien named Koko; the monkey also appears in a 1960 Superman story retelling the story of Kandor's disappearance (Superman #141 (November 1960)). Koko was quickly dropped from Brainiac's stories, but a version of the character has made sporadic appearances as the villain's pet in the series Justice and the 2008 storyline "Brainiac" in Action Comics. The villain's descendant Brainiac 5 also had a pet named Koko for several stories in the 1990s.

In subsequent appearances in this early period, Brainiac was used mostly as a plot device rather than as a featured villain of the month. Brainiac's next appearance was mostly behind the scenes, when he tried to kill Lois Lane and Lana Lang, prompting Superman to give Lois and Lana superpowers. But the villain remained unseen except as a plot twist at the end of the story. Brainiac's next appearance was in "Superman's Return to Krypton" in Superman #141 (November 1960), in which the villain stole the bottle city of Kandor, the only city on Krypton that believes Jor-El's warning of doom for the planet, and which had already built a space ark within the city to save the population. Brainiac's next present-day appearance was in Action Comics #275 (April 1961), which showed the villain planning to defeat Superman by exposing him to red-green kryptonite, which he had created, giving Superman a third eye on the back of his head, forcing him to wear various hats to hide it. Superman soon defeated Brainiac and sent him off into the distant past. This was the first in-story appearance of Brainiac's iconic red diode/electrode-like objects atop his head, which had previously appeared on the cover of his first appearance in Action Comics #242 (July 1958), but were not shown in the actual story. In Superboy #106 (July 1963), an infant Superman meets Brainiac, and it is explained that Brainiac looks the same due to his 200-year life span. In Superman #93, Brainiac regenerates himself. It is revealed that he came from a planet called Bryak and, after a voyage in space, he returned to find everybody dead from a plague. He intended to get people from other planets (in shrunken cities to be enlarged with his growth ray) to repopulate Bryak, where he would rule them.

Bronze Age

After Brainiac was revealed to be a robotic being, some stories would end him seemingly being destroyed, only for him to appear again in a repaired body or having transmitted his consciousness into a new form. Since he was essentially a living computer program that could be housed in different forms if "killed", Brainiac was sometimes referred to on comic book covers as "the villain who won't die!".

In the 1980s, DC Comics attempted to re-define several aspects of Superman's stories to boost sagging sales. In Action Comics #544-546 (June–August 1983), Lex Luthor acquires a renewed sense of purpose and dons a high-tech warsuit, while Brainiac is reimagined by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gil Kane and given a new appearance designed by Ed Hannigan. In a previous story, Brainiac had constructed a giant, computer-controlled planet to destroy Superman only to then be defeated and trapped in the planet's core. In Wolfman and Kane's story "Rebirth", published in Action Comics #544, Brainiac attempts to free himself by causing the nearby star, Epsilon 4, to go nova and utilize its energy. Instead, his body is converted into energy; his living program, his consciousness, experiences a strange journey before returning to his technology, where a new body is created for him over the next few months. As Brainiac recollects, during his journey he saw a great hand reach out from a void, ensnaring him briefly before releasing him. He also remembers seeing Superman's face at the same time. Reborn in a new body, the villain believes he has seen the Master Programmer, the divine force behind the universe's creation, and that this entity created Superman as an "angel of death" to destroy Brainiac. More determined than ever to kill and study Superman, Brainiac now has a colder, more merciless, and robot-like personality than before. He claims to lack emotions, yet shows signs of hatred and fear in regards to Superman. His new body is overtly robotic with a skull-like face and a reflective, iridescent honeycomb-patterned "braincase." He also creates a starship shaped like his new skull and adorned by metal tendrils, often referred to by fans and comic creators as the "skull ship." The ship acts as an extension of Brainiac himself. Brainiac retains this robotic appearance until after the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries ends in 1986, rebooting DC Comics continuity.

This incarnation of Brainiac meets his final end in the "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" storyline that ended the pre-Crisis Silver/Bronze Age Superman chronology. Lex Luthor finds Brainiac's robotic head unit, with barely any power left. He hopes to team up with the evil living program again, only to become an unwilling host body for Brainiac instead. Fighting Brainiac's control, Luthor begs a superpowered Lana Lang to kill him, who complies by breaking his neck. Luthor dies and Brainiac retains control of the body for a short time until rigor mortis sets in. "Propelled by sheer malice", Brainiac's head unit leaves Luthor's corpse and crawls a few inches before running out of power.

Modern Age

In the post-Crisis DC Universe, Brainiac's history was completely rewritten. The post-Crisis version of Brainiac was a radical Coluan scientist named Vril Dox who was sentenced to death after attempting to overthrow the Computer Tyrants of Colu. In his last moments before disintegration, his consciousness was attracted light years away to Milton Fine, a human sideshow mentalist who worked under the alias "The Amazing Brainiac". Needing cranial fluid to maintain his possession of Fine, Dox went on a murder spree. He discovered that Fine was a metahuman with psychic powers, which he frequently wielded against Superman.

In 1990, Brainiac is able to take over the minds of several LexCorp staffers. He makes the scientists create a new version of the skull ship (saying he thought of the design "in a dream") and use advanced genetic science to grow a new body for himself, resembling Milton Fine's form but taller, more physically fit, and with the green skin of a Coluan. He also has a new braincase helmet that resembles his Silver Age diodes. Now free of Fine's body and consciousness completely but still possessing the man's metahuman telepathic powers, Brainiac confronted Superman and then left Earth to plan another attack.

Brainiac returned in the "Panic in the Sky" storyline after seizing control of the mobile planetary fortress Warworld and recruiting assistance from Maxima and the alien warrior Draaga. Discovering a lost and confused Matrix (an artificial life form who operates as Supergirl), Brainiac brainwashes her into becoming his soldier. He clashes with the New Gods and then launches a pre-emptive strike on Earth. Rather than wait for an invasion, Superman gathers a large group of superheroes and allies, one team attacking Warworld directly while the other remains on Earth to counter further attacks. Through duplicates of his braincase, Brainiac briefly takes control of some of Earth's heroes, but ultimately he fails. Supergirl and the other heroes are freed from mental control and the villain is rendered catatonic. His vegetative body is taken to New Genesis for observation.

A year after the seeming death and then return of Superman, a dead body matching the Kryptonian's appearance is found in his abandoned tomb, leading some to wonder if the hero's return was a deception. It is revealed that Brainiac is no longer on New Genesis but revived and returned to Earth, leaving behind an illusion that he remained comatose. While hidden, he created more delusions to turn the public against Superman and make the hero question his own sanity. The two battle and Superman taunts the villain by insisting he is just Milton Fine, a cheap entertainer. Fine's personality seemingly emerges and shuts down the Brainiac persona. Fine is escorted off to a psychiatric facility.

The New 52

Brainiac's origin in "The New 52" is revealed in Superman #23.2. Vril Dox was acknowledged as the greatest scientist on his homeworld, Yod-Colu, due to his advances in force field technology and miniaturization. He developed an artificial intelligence, C.O.M.P.U.T.O., allowing him to discover the fifth dimension. Dox discovered the fifth dimension was in a state of war, and a group of its inhabitants, the Multitude, had entered their dimension and destroyed over a hundred planets. Realizing Yod-Colu was next in the Multitude's path, Dox tried to find a way to save his planet, even performing experiments on his son. The magistrates of Yod-Colu sentenced Dox to exile, but Dox used C.O.M.P.U.T.O. to take control of Yod-Colu's computer networks. Copying the planet's database, Dox constructed an army of robot servants called Terminauts and miniaturized the city his wife and son lived on and bottled it in a force field, while the rest of Yod-Colu was destroyed by the Multitude.

After the destruction of Yod-Colu, Dox constructed an army of starships and distributed his consciousness across a series of robots that would each travel the universe to preserve planets from the Multitude, becoming known as the Collector of Worlds. One of these robots attacked Krypton. Dox became fascinated by Jor-El, a Kryptonian scientist who actually saved his homeworld from the Multitude. Upon returning to Krypton, however, Dox discovered Krypton had been destroyed.

Referred to at first as 'The Collector of Worlds', Brainiac is first seen as the mysterious informant that supplies Lex Luthor information of Superman and his alien nature. Clark is having a dream of Krypton's final moments in which an artificial intelligence that controls the planet wakes up robots in an attempt to preserve the Kryptonian culture. Later, while Clark conducts an interview in a robotic factory, the same harvester robots appear.

John Corben (the soon-to-be supervillain Metallo) is suddenly possessed by the artificial intelligence, which demands to see Superman. The robots create havoc throughout Metropolis, but Superman soon realizes that they are really after him. Superman fights the possessed Corben with the help of John Henry Irons.

Although they managed to defeat him, the alien sentience had already miniaturized and bottled the city of Metropolis and took it to his ship in space. Superman travels to the ship to find many alien bottled cities, Kandor included. The alien identifies himself as a being from the planet Colu where he was known as C.O.M.P.U.T.O and on Krypton he was called Brainiac 1.0. He claims that, without Superman and the ship that brought him to Earth, his Kryptonian collection is incomplete. The alien intelligence demands Superman make a choice: the intelligence will disable life support in both the Kandor and Metropolis bottles, and Superman must choose which city to save using indestructible Kryptonian armor found on the ship.

Convergence

This version of Brainiac, a composite of Brainiac from around the Multiverse, is revealed to be the pre-Flashpoint era Brainiac who, having found his way into the Source Wall and into the Multiverse, was thrown back in the timestream and mutated by the effects of "crisis" events such as Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, and 52, creating a godlike being. He then uncovered the location of Vanishing Point from nearly killing New 52 Earth-0's Michelle Carter, from which he could roam the complete history of the Multiverse, collecting doomed cities from defunct timelines, alternative futures, and parallel worlds to add to his collection, in Convergence, leaving behind an agent, Telos, to rule a planet of the same name containing the cities. Brainiac's attempt to do this to a future timeline of Earth-0 was narrowly averted by the heroes in the story The New 52: Futures End; Brainiac was contained in a T-sphere, leaving Telos stranded without his master, prompting the events of Convergence in which the planets are bid to fight each other. When the events of Convergence nearly end in an irreversible destruction of the Multiverse, the time traveller Waverider, formerly the pre-Flashpoint Booster Gold, frees Brainiac, who reveals he is sick from his mutations and only wishes to return to normal, to being Brainiac of Colu. He sends most of the heroes home, and with help from the Zero Hour Parallax and the pre-Flashpoint Superman, averts the collapse of the Multiverse from Crisis on Infinite Earths, and is returned to the normal Brainiac. His actions also allow various parallel universes and alternate timelines to exist as the new Multiverse.

DC Rebirth

In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Brainiac's name is first referenced in an issue of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. The entirety of the Green and Yellow Lanterns (including Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart), along with Starro, are lured into a trap and shrunken. In the next issue, they are trapped in a bottle, and their jailer is revealed to be a robot claiming to run on "Brainiac 2.0" software. The robot resembles both Brainiac's 1983 skeleton-esque incarnation and the robotic drones utilized by the post-2008 version of Brainiac. It has a collection of shrunken bottled planets, and travels in a ship resembling Brainiac's skullship. At the time, it was not clear if this was the true Brainiac after Rebirth or yet another one of his drones.

The machine's victory is short-lived, however, as it is revealed that Larfleeze was able to reprogram it to his side using an Orange Lantern ring, having rebooted its life systems after finding it inactive on his homeworld with its ship. Larfleeze is impressed that the machine was able to capture the Green Lanterns and Starro, and even more impressed with the machine's shrinking technology, and plans to hijack its technology to put together his own collection. He takes the ship and collection to his homeworld of Okaara. However, upon being informed that the Yellow and Green Lanterns are still fighting inside the bottle and trying to kill each other, Larfleeze's greed gets the best of him and he ends up breaking the container. This frees the Lanterns, and somehow restores them to their normal size and strength, after which they immediately start rampaging inside the ship and trashing Brainiac/Larfleeze's collection. Hal, Kyle, John, and Guy go on to lead the attack on the Orange Lantern Corps. With everyone fighting together, the Orange Lantern Corps are quickly overwhelmed. Larfleeze accuses the robot of playing him; when it responds that it simply did what he programmed it to do, Larfleeze destroys it in a rage.

The Superman storyline "New World" later confirmed via a flashback cameo that the post-Crisis, post-2008 version of Brainiac still exists in the post-Rebirth continuity, and has encountered Superman in the past. The robot that Larfleeze destroyed was one of his drones.

Brainiac later arrived on Earth again and battled the Justice League, who proved no match for him and his ship, until Superman arrived. However, he did not come to destroy the Earth, but to deliver a warning: that there is a cosmic-level threat in the universe coming to Earth, one that the heroes of Earth are woefully ill-prepared for. Brainiac thinks he can defeat the threat, but it means teaming up with Superman and the Justice League and combining members of the League with some of the most dangerous supervillains in the DC Universe and sending them into battle against this extinction-level menace. Four teams outfitted with Brainiac's technology are formed (including among other members, Lex Luthor, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Sinestro), with Brainiac himself working directly alongside his nemesis, Superman.

Powers, abilities, and equipment

Brainiac's most consistent power (endemic to all versions) is his twelfth-level intelligence, allowing calculation abilities, enhanced memory, and advanced understanding of mechanical engineering, bioengineering, physics, and as well as other theoretical and applied sciences. For comparison, the population of 20th century Earth constitutes a sixth-level intelligence, while the population of 31st-century Earth are a ninth-level intelligence. His post-Crisis incarnation claims that his brain can process and sort knowledge of over four hundred ninety octodecillion beings (4.9 × 1059), which is an enormous number, about five billion times the estimated number of atoms on Earth. All the different versions have created devices such as a force field belt capable of withstanding Superman's most powerful blows, and a shrink ray capable of reducing cities.

Brainiac's advanced mental powers have shown him capable of possessing others, absorbing information from other beings, transferring his consciousness, creating and manipulating computer systems, replicating duplicate bodies for himself, and exerting powers to traverse or control spacetime. Among organic beings, Brainiac views only his frequent partner Lex Luthor as a peer intellect. Brainiac is usually depicted with incredibly high levels of strength, durability, and speed; the exact level varies, but usually hovers at around Superman's strength. Brainiac's exact abilities vary drastically throughout his various incarnations.

Pre-Crisis abilities

Originally, Brainiac was a scientist with no superhuman abilities aside from his intellect. He fought Superman via the use of his advanced technology and cunning, similar to Lex Luthor. Among these were a force field belt that protects him from all harm, a shrink ray to capture and bottle cities (even Metropolis), and a headpiece consisting of a cluster of diode/electrode-like objects. His cybernetic headpiece lets him interface with technology and discharge energy blasts from his head, which were powerful enough to significantly harm Superman. The Man of Steel described these blasts as "blindingly painful... almost unbearable" and a threat to his life. When the Crisis on Infinite Earths struck, Brainiac could detect the lies of others by reading their thoughts. The pre-Crisis Brainiac was referred to by an omniscient narrator as "the super-computer space pirate-- Superman's most powerful nemesis."

Brainiac as an unpowered being reliant on external weaponry was largely still the case even after he was retconned as an android, but in the 1980s, everything changed. This was when he gained the abilities that would persist through all subsequent incarnations: super-physical attributes, intelligence, and technopathy. His technopathic abilities extend to control of his ship, with which he shares a symbiotic relationship. He is capable of downloading his consciousness to spare robotic bodies in the event the original is destroyed or damaged. Brainiac can also possess organic beings under certain circumstances, as he did to Luthor during Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?.

The final body utilized by the pre-Crisis Brainiac (resembling a robotic skeleton) was technopathic, superhumanly strong, and resilient, and was capable of generating and "spinning" psychokinetic energies into a web-like net which could hold even Superman at bay. Among the knowledge he absorbed was extensive information of hand-to-hand combat techniques, making him a highly skilled combatant. Despite this, he saw physical confrontation as beneath him, and preferred to defeat foes with his mind.

Post-Crisis abilities

John Byrne's re-imagining of the character has telepathy and telekinesis, as well as extensive knowledge of various alien technologies. He was an artificial intelligence who had inhabited the body of a human psychic and awakened his powers, further enhancing them with an implanted electrode headpiece. His vast psychic powers allowed him to seriously challenge Superman and defeat many members of the New Gods (including Orion) with a single blast, but this body's lack of durability is the major liability and eventually led to it being rendered useless in a gasoline explosion. After the organic body was destroyed, his consciousness built and possessed multiple robotic bodies, and occasionally hijacks other organic bodies (such as Doomsday's). His abilities were dependent on the body he was inhabiting at the time, in which could vary from weak as normal to far stronger than abnormal. His nanoswarm incarnation, known as Brainiac 2.5 for instance, can shapeshift, regenerate, bend technology to his whim, project energy blasts and force fields, and match Superman blow for blow; Superman stated Brainiac to have physical strength on par with Doomsday in this form. His strongest incarnation was Brainiac 13, who, even prior to absorbing Imperiex, was so physically formidable that Superman cannot remotely affect, much less damage him. By contrast, Brainiac could easily kill Superman in a short time, if he had not been devoted to torturing the Man of Steel.

It was later revealed that this version of Brainiac (like the previous ones) is merely a mentally-controlled probe. The real Brainiac, who was a living Coluan, had both genetically and cybernetically modified himself. This Brainiac lacked psychic powers, but still has abilities identical to his original incarnations. He possesses a level of strength and durability far greater than Superman; capable of easily overpowering the Kryptonian in unarmed combat, and can withstand several consecutive blows to the face from Superman without visible harm. His speed is vastly surpassing, so fast that he even once caught a punch thrown by the Man of Steel. At one point, Brainiac 5 warns Superman that he would most likely die against Brainiac in a straight fight.

Despite his massive biomechanical modifications, Brainiac does have a few weaknesses. Like the pre-Crisis Brainiac, he is telepathically linked to his ship in such way that being separated from it without warning can neutralize him temporarily. However, prolonged periods cause him to physically deteriorate and become less powerful; Lex Luthor observed this while studying his unconscious body over course of several days when it was in custody of the U.S. government. Initially, he was only overloaded in particularly dirty environments and human society via mysophobia while landing into the Earth's atmosphere. However, Brainiac does not seem to possess this defect in his later battles, such as when he defeats Superboy.

The New 52 abilities

Brainiac, in The New 52, seems to have kept most of the powers and equipment of his post-Crisis incarnation (including his shrink ray, force field belt, and robot army), with notable additions. Brainiac's ship has been massively upgraded in this incarnation; it is now larger than the entire planetary system, and carries within a huge invasion fleet of smaller ships in numerous types. He still appears to possess the physical strength, near-invulnerability, and fast speed of his post-Crisis counterpart, as shown when he easily defeats Zor-El. By the Superman: Doomed story arc, Brainiac utilizes his vast intellect to become a powerful psychic, augmented by the alien minds that he had stolen and digitized from across every galaxy. Then, he is capable of taking control of eight billion minds on Earth at the same time. He also demonstrates considerable mental abilities, claiming that their combined brainwaves throughout the universe can allow him to alter reality at will. He plans on using this newfound power to remake it into own his image. However, Brainiac's plan prematurely ended when Superman battles him telepathically and crashes his ship into a black hole.

Following the Doomed story arc, it is further revealed that this pre-Crisis Brainiac somehow escaped and mutated from the Crisis on Infinite Earths itself ever since. Becoming a god-like being, this version of Brainiac is virtually omnipotent with the ability to warp universes and time travel. Using this New 52 incarnation as one of his probes, he either created or interacted with different iterations of himself throughout the whole multiverse. Brainiac has grown so much in power that he can collect cities from other universes at will. At the end of the Convergence story arc, he recreates the DC Multiverse.

Reception

In 2009, IGN ranked Brainiac 17th in their "Top 100 Comic Book Villains" list.

Other versions

Galactiac, a composite character based on Brainiac and Marvel Comics character Galactus appears in the Amalgam Comics story Challengers of the Fantastic.

Brainiac's Daughter, the child of Brainiac and Matrix, appears in Kingdom Come as a member of Superman's Justice League. Additionally, Brainiac appears in the tie-in The Kingdom: Son of the Bat #1.

An anti-matter universe version of Brainiac appears in JLA: Earth 2. This version is an organic lifeform trapped in a tank. Pretending to serve under Ultraman, he manipulates the Crime Syndicate and Justice League into trapping themselves within each other's worlds. However, the League foil his plot before allowing the Syndicate to defeat him.

An alternate universe version of Brainiac appears in The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Years after Lex Luthor blackmailed various heroes into retiring or acting as his servants, Brainiac works with him to keep Kandor contained and use it as leverage against Superman. However, Superman and Wonder Woman's daughter Lara and the Atom join forces to destroy Kandor's bottle. Using their newly acquired powers, the freed Kandorians destroy Brainiac.

An alternate universe version of Brainiac appears in JLA: Shogun of Steel.

A Bizarro Brainiac appears in Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #30, in which he expands a city in Antarctica to create Big City.

An alternate timeline version of Brainiac appears in the Flashpoint tie-in Kid Flash Lost #1. This version is the ruler of Earth in the 31st century.

An alternate universe version of Brainiac appears in Justice League/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. After the titular Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and their enemy Lord Zedd accidentally teleport themselves to the DC Universe, the latter strikes a deal with Brainiac. While he uses an army of monsters to distract the Justice League, Brainiac steals the Rangers' powers and travels to their world to steal a city from there. However, the League and Rangers join forces to pursue Brainiac, regain the latter's powers, and eventually defeat him.

In other media

Television

Brainiac appears in Smallville, portrayed by James Marsters. This version is the BRAIN InterActive Construct, a Kryptonian nano-supercomputer created by Dax-Ur and Jor-El that is corrupted by Major Zod into destabilizing Krypton's core. Introduced in the fifth season, Brainiac arrives on Earth and assumes the identity of "Milton Fine", a history professor at Central Kansas A&M University, in a failed attempt to manipulate Clark Kent into releasing Zod from the Phantom Zone. Brainiac returns in the seventh and eighth seasons before being defeated, taken to the future, and reprogrammed by the Legion of Super-Heroes as Brainiac 5 by the tenth season.

An alternate universe version of Brainiac appears in the episode "Apocalypse" as the White House Chief of Staff under President Lex Luthor.

Brainiac appears in Krypton, portrayed by Blake Ritson. This version is a Coluan cyborg who takes over the mind of Krypton's religious leader, the Voice of Rao. Brainiac's design was realized through a combination of extensive makeup, prosthetics and CGI.

Milton "Brainiac" Fine appears in Superman & Lois, portrayed by Nikolai Witschl. This version is a human computer engineer working for Lex Luthor.

Brainiac appears in The New Adventures of Superman, voiced by Cliff Owens.

Brainiac appears in the Super Friends franchise, voiced by Ted Cassidy and later Stanley Ralph Ross. This version is a member of the Legion of Doom.

Brainiac appears in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), voiced by Corey Burton.

Introduced in Superman: The Animated Series, this version is a Kryptonian supercomputer who dismisses Jor-El's warnings of Krypton's imminent destruction so that he can secretly save himself and escape, after which he travels to other planets and assimilates their information before destroying them, believing their knowledge to be most valuable in his sole possession. Additionally, a future version of Brainiac from the year 2979 travels back in time to kill Clark Kent before he can become Superman, only to be thwarted by the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Film

There have been many attempts to bring Brainiac into a live-action film that did not come into fruition. A planned film titled Superman Reborn was set to star Brainiac as the villain. Brainiac was also set to be the main antagonist in Tim Burton's Superman Lives. He was also considered to appear in the Superman Returns sequel. Zack Snyder planned to use Brainiac in the sequel to Man of Steel, while screenwriter Steven Knight wrote a treatment of the film that included Brainiac as the antagonist.

Brainiac will appear in the DC Universe (DCU) film Man of Tomorrow (2027), portrayed by Lars Eidinger.

Brainiac appears in Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006), voiced by Lance Henriksen.

Brainiac appears in Superman: Unbound (2013), voiced by John Noble. This version possesses cybernetic and genetic enhancements as well as a ship designed to interface with and act as an extension of his body.

Brainiac makes a cameo appearance in Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite (2013), voiced by Troy Baker.

Brainiac appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash (2016), voiced by Phil LaMarr.

Brainiac appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games (2017), voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

Brainiac appears in Superman: Red Son (2020), voiced by Paul Williams.

Brainiac appears in films set in the Tomorrowverse, voiced by Darin De Paul. This version is the founder of the Dark Circle and wields Kryptonite bullets.

Brainiac appears in Justice Society: World War II (2021).

Brainiac appears in Legion of Super-Heroes (2023).

Video games

Brainiac appears in Superman: The Man of Steel (1989), voiced by Eric Francis.

Brainiac appears as the final boss of Superman (1992).

Brainiac appears as the final boss of and a playable character in Superman 64 (1999).

Brainiac 13 appears as the final boss of Superman: The Man of Steel (2002).

Brainiac appears as a boss in Justice League Heroes (2006), voiced by Peter Jessop.

Brainiac appears as a boss in the Nintendo DS version of Superman Returns (2006).

Brainiac appears in DC Universe Online (2011), voiced again by Corey Burton.

Brainiac appears as a support card in the mobile version of Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013).

Brainiac appears as a boss and character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (2013).

Brainiac appears as the final boss of and a playable character in Injustice 2 (2017), voiced by Jeffrey Combs.

Brainiac appears as the final boss of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), voiced by Jason Isaacs. He joins forces with 13 of his multiversal doppelgängers to brainwash or capture his Earth's Justice League and conquer the multiverse, only to be opposed by his Earth's Suicide Squad.

Brainiac appears as a boss and playable character in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (2012), voiced by Troy Baker.

Miscellaneous

Brainiac appears in the novel The Last Days of Krypton, by Kevin J. Anderson.

Brainiac appears in the Young Justice tie-in comic.

Brainiac appears in Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century #9.

Brainiac appears in Superman '78. This version is a Coluan cyborg. After coming to Earth and deeming Superman a threat to its ecosystem, Brainiac fights him, threatening to destroy Metropolis. When Superman surrenders, Brainiac shrinks him and imprisons him within Kandor, but Lex Luthor contacts Superman, leading to Brainiac deeming humanity a threat to themselves and mounting an attempt to shrink Metropolis. However, Superman receives aid from his birth parents in escaping and thwarting the plot. Brainiac dons a powered suit to fight him once more, but is defeated and dies amidst his ship's destruction while Superman recovers the bottled cities within.

Etymology

A toy computer called Brainiac was introduced in 1958 by Edmund Berkeley, developed as a new model of the Geniac. The Brainiac character being introduced the same year was attributed by a DC editor to a "remarkable coincidence." The product was given as the reason for the character's 1964 shift in portrayal to a "computer personality."