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Vessel

The Black Ship in the Hondurian jungle.

The Black Ship was a large, black Kryptonian spacecraft that arrived on Earth during the 2005 meteor shower. The ship housed the Brain InterActive Construct as well as the Disciples of Zod, Nam-Ek and Aethyr.

Physical Appearance[]

The Black Ship was shaped like the five-sided Kryptonian pentagon, had a frictionless surface,[1] and bore the symbol of Zod on its underbelly.[2] The Black Ship also served as the power source to the Brain InterActive Construct.

Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton[]

The Black Ship was on Krypton while Zor-El and two of Zod's disciples, Nam-Ek and Aethyr, were having a conversation via holograms. The ship was visible behind the disciples, open and ready for their journey to Earth. [picture needed]

Season Four[]

Commencement black ship

The Black Ship after its landing during the 2005 meteor shower

The Black Ship came to Earth during the 2005 meteor shower, after the Crystal of Air was stained with the blood of Genevieve Teague. The ship's crash-landing was witnessed by Lana Lang.

Season Five[]

After the meteor shower, Lex Luthor had the Black Ship retrieved and moved to Warehouse 15, where Lex's team of scientists attempted to study and open it, beginning Project Scion.

Solitude 398

The Black Ship disappears from Warehouse 15.

It was later proclaimed by Jor-El (at the Fortress) that it's not just a ship. The ship and Milton Fine are one and the same entity.....The Brain Interactive Construct which can regenerate in any form. When Clark plunges a black crystal into Fine, he and the ship simultaneously become distorted and vanish. Brainiac decided to cut his losses in Smallville after Clark refused to become Zod's vessel.

Black kryptonian black ship

The ship abducts Lex.

Brainiac and his ship reemerge in the Hondurian jungle. Fine generates duplicates of himself to scour the globe for samples of deadly viruses. The ship later vanishes again, leaving a burnt out shape of itself on the jungle floor. Soon after, the ship appears over Smallville, and Lex Luthor is abducted. Brainiac appears and announces that he is "preparing" Lex to be the next Vessel for Zod to inhabit when he is released from the Phantom Zone. Clark is presented with a Kryptonian Dagger to destroy Zod's Vessel. Instead, Clark stabs the dagger into Fine, which opens a portal, releasing Zod, and partially damages the Fortress of Solitude. Fine has finally achieved his goal.

Season Six[]

Now inhabiting Lex's body, Zod goes to Warehouse 15 to retrieve the Black Ship. By typing in a code on its hull, he retrieves the Black Box, which is The Brain Interactive Construct's hardrive from the ship and then makes the Black Ship disappear. Zod later uses this black box at the Luther Mansion to stop the computer virus that has been attacking the world's infrastructure. Zod reveals his plan to reshape the earth's crust into a Kryptonian landscape. Clark uses his heat vision to destroy the Black Box, yet (after Zod has been vanquished) a damaged fragment of it is salvaged by Lex.

The alien Baern (an escaped Phantom Zoner) is drawn to the exponential energy of the Black Box. Baern is drawn to the Luthor Mansion and devours the Box, reducing it into a seemingly useless pile of black ash.

Season Seven[]

In her efforts to expose Lex's secrets, Lana later found out that Lex's scientists have been studying the remnants of The Black Ship. After a year, the ashes began to evolve into its natural form, a black metallic liquid; the liquid was Brainiac trying to reboot. After Lex's lab was destroyed during a battle between Clark and a super-powered Lana, Brainiac escaped and inhabited the body of Casey Brock in an attempt to take humanoid form again.

Without the Black Ship, however, Brainiac had to reboot and repair by absorbing trace metals and large sums of electricity from electric generators and power plants.

In the Comics[]

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Brainiac's Ship in the New Earth Era.

During a time when Brainiac was trapped within the core of a computerized prison world, he was able to tap into the planet's control systems and stimulate the nearby sun Epsilon 4 into going supernova. The solar winds from the nova created an electrical surge in the planet's field that disintegrated Brainiac's physical form. Brainiac downloaded his consciousness into the planet's computer networks and was able to reconstitute a robotic body for himself. In addition, he used the planet's resources to create his trademark "Skull Ship". Brainiac could interface with the ship's control systems, making the vehicle an extension of his own body. Brainiac flew the ship to the planet Systus 2 where he used its weaponry to force the planet's native population into slavery. When Superman arrived to save them, Brainiac launched missiles filled with concentrated red sun radiation that robbed Superman of his powers. Brainiac later used his Skull Ship as a haven for many of Earth's super-villains during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

He has also been seen using the ship various times in the post crisis universe. In the current comics, Brainiac travels the universe and steals the knowledge of various alien cultures, abducting and shrinking cities from each planet as samples, and then destroys the planet so that the value of the destroyed civilization's knowledge is increased. There, Superman had the robot looked over by his cousin Kara, who was sent from Krypton to look over baby Kal-El, but was trapped in suspended animation before coming to Earth years late. Still having vibrant memories of Krypton and its undesirables, Kara, now known as Supergirl, informed her cousin that the robot Superman had captured was in fact not Brainiac. Superman was soon captured by Brainiac after Superman found him attacking an alien planet and preparing to steal a city from its surface.

Superman escaped from his imprisonment on board Brainiac's spacecraft and saw Brainiac emerging from his "bio-shell." Brainiac's ship then traveled to Earth and prepared to abduct the city of Metropolis. Brainiac successfully stole Metropolis, and prepared to fire a missile that would destroy the sun and the Earth itself. Supergirl stopped the missile, while Superman battled Brainiac. Superman knocked Brainiac out of his ship and into a swamp, where Brainiac was overwhelmed by the microscopic organisms covering his body; Superman used this distraction to defeat Brainiac. While Superman freed the cities of Metropolis and Kandor, the villain launched a missile to the Kent Farm in an act of spite. The farm was destroyed, and Jonathan Kent suffered a fatal heart attack because of it.

In Superman: New Krypton, Brainiac is imprisoned on Earth by General Sam Lane and is being studied in hopes of providing the United States Armed Forces with ways to kill Kryptonians, should Earth's 100,000 new Kryptonian residents start any trouble. Lex Luthor, imprisoned, is assigned to discover his secrets. Luthor eventually manages to use Brainiac's connection to his ship to kill the soldiers assigned to watch him. Brainiac manages to free himself from Luthor's control, forcing him on board the ship, and the two make their escape. The two masterminds form an alliance against Superman, with a plan Brainiac had.

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Brainiac's Ship in DCnU.

In the New 52 Universe, the ship Clark was placed into as a child was described as having "Brainiac AI". Superman then uses his rocket from Krypton that had also been miniaturized with Metropolis to attack Brainiac's mind, which the rocket was able to do since it's primary mission was to protect Kal-El. In doing so, Metropolis was returned to Earth and Superman took possession of Brianiac's ship and the ship served as his original Fortress of Solitude.

Appearances[]

See also[]


Kryptonian artifacts in Smallville
Major Stones of Power (Crystal of Fire, Crystal of Air, Crystal of Water) • Book of RaoOrb
Fortress Crystal of KnowledgeFortress of Solitude (console, dagger)
Ships Kal-El's shipBlack Ship (Black box) • Kara's ship
Kawatche Kawatche CavesMemory pendantAltarKeyPalak
Other Phantom Zone crystalBlack crystalBlue crystalCrystal of ElDax-Ur's shieldMirror box

References[]

External links[]

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