Character/DC

Brainiac

Silver/Bronze Age DC, Superman villain

837 appearancesSince 1958

Part of the Brainiac mantle · 3 known bearers →

Brainiac first appeared in Action Comics #242 (1958-07), published by DC. 837 appearances are indexed across 60 series.

Brainiac was an android built by the Computer Tyrants of Colu. He adopted a young Coluan named Vril Dox (renamed Brainiac II) in order to appear more human (one thousand years in the future, Vril Dox's descendant, Querl Dox a.k.a. Brainiac 5 would join the Legion of Super-Heroes). Brainiac traveled the galaxy, shrinking entire cities and storing them in bottles. One such city was Kandor, the capital of Krypton. He eventually reached Earth, but was ultimately foiled by Superman. This defeat led to Brainiac becoming one of Superman's greatest enemies.

Character history