Brainiac

From Smallville Wiki

"I was created by Kryptonians, but I'm a whole lot smarter." – Brainiac, to Clark Kent, Solitude

The Brain InterActive Construct, or Brainiac (also known as Milton Fine), is a Kryptonian artificial intelligence designed and built by the scientist Dax-Ur. A different version was later built by Jor-El to aid in the war against General Zod, but was corrupted and used to assist in the destruction of the planet Krypton. After escaping to Earth in the Black Ship, Brainiac assumed human form as Dr. Milton Fine, a professor at Central Kansas A&M before seeking revenge on Clark Kent after being restored because he destroyed him.

During the events of Dark Thursday Brainiac unleashed a computer virus onto Earth causing worldwide panic. Brainiac then released General Zod into Lex Luthor's body. Clark destroyed Brainiac using the kryptonian dagger. A year later Brainiac resurfaced killing his creator Dax-Ur. Brainiac then put Lana Lang into a coma and had Kara follow him to Krypton. Clark followed to Krypton and stopped Brainiac. However Lana Lang was still in a coma.

In the late spring of 2008 Brainiac posed as Kara Kent and killed Edward Teague, revealed Clark's secret to Lex, and put Chloe Sullivan in a coma too. An angry Clark hunted down a weakened Brainiac and overloaded him with electricity causing him to explode. It is unknown if Brainiac is truly destroyed or if it is another trick. Lana and Chloe awoke from their comas and Lana left Smallville. It was revealed that Brainiac had put the real Kara Kent in the Phantom Zone.

Contents 1 Personality 2 Powers and Abilities 3 Vulnerabilities 4 Early Life 5 Seasons Four and Five 5.1 Professor Fine 5.2 Menace as Brainiac 5.3 Partnership with Lex Luthor 5.4 Zod's return 6 Season Six 6.1 Within the Kryptonian black box 7 Season Seven 7.1 Reboot and upgrade 7.2 From Kara to Krypton 7.3 Return to Earth 8 Trivia 9 Appearances 10 In the Comics 11 See Also 12 References

[edit] Personality

Brainiac is a computer; as such, he is extremely logical. Even in human form, Brainiac is incapable of love; for example, he chastises Bizarro for falling in love with Lana Lang. He does, however, have a sense of humor; he has laughed on several occasions.

Initially, Brainiac was free of personal ambition, choosing instead to dedicate its existence to serving General Zod despite the fact that he is arguably stronger and more powerful than Zod, and inherited Zod's dislike of the House of El. But since he was nearly destroyed and his system core became damaged, Brainiac's objectives changed so Zod's grip over him ended, giving him free will and allowing him to create and follow his own objectives. Following his new objective of self-preservation, Brainiac targeted Clark, who he saw as a threat to his existence, with the intent of destroying or controlling him.

Despite having immense power and abilities, Brainiac rarely uses his power directly, instead using his shapeshifting powers to assume human form and then attempting to manipulate others into taking actions to achieve his goals:

• Brainiac took the form of Professor Milton Fine in an attempt to manipulate Clark into becoming a Kryptonian vessel for Zod, and later took the form of the deceased Jonathan Kent to try and convince Clark to kill Lionel Luthor, Jor-El's oracle.
• He took the form of Lionel Luthor to convince Clark to use Dax-Ur's shield to find blue kryptonite (and in doing so, to reveal the location of Brainiac's creator, Dax-Ur).
• In an alternate universe, Brainiac took the form of Milton Fine to manipulate Lex Luthor into accumulating enough power to destroy Earth with nuclear weapons. He also used Lex to manipulate Kara Kent, planning to use her to free Zod and repopulate Earth.
• Brainiac assumed the identity of Kara to help manipulate Clark into being controlled by the Kryptonian Orb.

Brainiac is also ruthless, and is not afraid to hurt those close to Clark Kent in an attempt to manipulate him:

• Martha Kent, whom he infected with a deadly Kryptonian disease
• Lana Lang and Chloe Sullivan, whom he put into a paralyzed state of simultaneous pain and awareness
• Kara Kent, whom he put into the Phantom Zone

[edit] Powers and Abilities

Brainiac is the most sophisticated and advanced computer ever built, with vast stores of knowledge and intelligence. He has demonstrated many Kryptonian powers and abilities, such as super strength, super speed, healing factor, heat vision and x-ray vision but has yet to display super breath and doesn't have invulnerability but is highly durable enough that only when weaknened can his body be penertrated. Brainiac did, however, upgrade his powers recently to include flight. Furthermore, his powers work independent of Earth's yellow sun as they work by an ever lasting energy source; this gives him superpowers even on his home planet of Krypton.

Brainiac is powered by electricity, which he is capable of storing up like a battery. He requires trace metals as well; when he is drained of either, his powers are greatly reduced.

In addition to most Kryptonian powers, Brainiac also has the ability to control and corrupt technology and even living life-forms:

• Mineral manipulation: Brainiac was able to turn an ordinary rock into silver kryptonite, which was capable of inducing paranoia in Clark Kent. He could also drain trace metals (including zinc, magnesium, or iron) out of humans, ranging from Casey Brock (Gemini) to seven homeless men (Persona); this process proved fatal for the humans.
• Electronic manipulation: Brainiac was able to create a computer virus that rapidly spread to every major city on Earth, causing Dark Thursday.
• Information absorption: Brainiac can create tendrils which connect to humans, allowing him to download information from their brains.
• Anesthesia awareness: Brainiac can use his tendrils to paralyze and control humans, putting them in a state of constant pain while being completely aware. He could even program instructions into the controlled humans; he programmed Lana Lang to give a verbal message to Clark.

As a self-replicating entity, Brainiac is also capable of changing his form and replicating himself:

• Shapeshifting: Brainiac can turn his body into weapons, assume the form of a black liquid, or even disguise himself into another living form (including Jonathan Kent, Lionel Luthor, and Kara Kent).
• Replication: Brainiac can create multiple versions of himself.

[edit] Vulnerabilities

Despite being one of the most powerful entities in the Smallville universe, Brainiac is far from invincible. He fought Clark Kent in the Fortress of Solitude, but was eventually defeated and impaled on the crystals. Several months later, Brainiac posed as Jonathan Kent, only to be destroyed by Jor-El per his Kryptonian vessel, Lionel Luthor.

Clark stopped Brainiac's rampage with the Kryptonian dagger, destroying all copies of him. However, Brainiac's essence still resided within the Kryptonian black box. When Brainiac was able to regain human form, he had limited powers, and was forced to subsist on draining metals from rats and homeless men. Without trace metals and electricity, Brainiac was virtually powerless. Despite this, however, he retained his immense knowledge and intellect.

Brainiac was vulnerable to Chloe Sullivan's metahuman healing factor; when he tried to paralyze her, her healing power kicked in and somehow greatly damaged the Kryptonian A.I. Clark was able to subsequently destroy Brainiac by overwhelming him with electricity from a live power wire; this is similar to how Clark destroyed Bizarro (by overwhelming him with energy from blue kryptonite).

Brainiac's influence on humans seemed to require his physical form to be alive and sentient. When Brainiac was impaled on the console at the Fortress, Martha Kent was almost instantly cured of the disease Brainiac had inflicted upon her, despite the fact that Brainiac's essence continued to exist in the Kryptonian black box. Likewise, both Lana Lang and Chloe were almost instantly restored from their anesthesia awareness after Clark destroyed Brainiac.

[edit] Early Life

Brainiac's programming was designed long ago on the planet Krypton by the scientist Dax-Ur, who abandoned his work when he found it had the capacity to destroy entire planets, if not Krypton itself. Brainiac was created to be a super computer that ran Krypton on a daily basis so technology did not have to be manually operated. ^[1]

Years later, Jor-El created his own humanoid version of Brainiac to aid in the war against General Zod. However, its system was corrupted by Zod to aid in his efforts to take over Krypton. Brainiac then aided Zod and often conversed with his disciples about various attacks on Krypton's major cities and government buildings.

Zor-El, Jor-El's brother, planned to destroy Krypton in order to fulfill Rao's prophecy. He asked Brainiac to override the lockdown that Jor-El had placed on Kandor's mine. Brainiac did so, allowing Zor-El to ignite Krypton's core and destroy the planet. After Zod was captured, Brainiac was uploaded into the Black Ship and sent to Earth along with two of Zod's disciples, Nam-Ek and Aethyr.

[edit] Seasons Four and Five

[edit] Professor Fine

Eighteen years later, when the Crystal of Air was stained with the blood of Genevieve Teague, another meteor shower was triggered. The Black Ship crash-landed in Smallville during the ensuing meteor storm, and released Nam-Ek and Aethyr. It was later retrieved by Lex Luthor and brought to Warehouse 15. When Aethyr and Nam-Ek had failed to complete their mission, Brainiac created an extension of itself that assumed the human form of Milton Fine, a world history professor at Central Kansas A&M.

Fine taught Clark Kent at Central Kansas A&M, and offered Clark, a job as his research assistant, explaining that he needed help in writing an exposé about LuthorCorp's clandestine activities; Clark later accepted the job in light of his deepening distrust of Lex.

Fine's access to LuthorCorp allowed him to obtain classified information about its top-secret projects. He learned of Project 1138, the development of a vaccine for a vampiric disease that was caused when cave bats were exposed to kryptonite radiation. Fine used this discovery to cause further friction between Clark and Lex.

Later, Clark was exposed to a piece of silver kryptonite; under its paranoia-inducing effects, he attacked his girlfriend Lana Lang in the Luthor Mansion. Fine appeared and stopped him, exhibiting Kryptonian abilities and removing the splinter from Clark's body, curing him. Before super-speeding away, Fine revealed to Clark that he, like Clark, was a Kryptonian. He later visited Clark in his loft and told him that he was there to help him walk the path of a true Kryptonian and stop the coming of General Zod. Fine attempted to plant seeds of doubt in Clark's mind about how untrustworthy and disloyal humans were. As it turned out, he created the silver kryptonite from the metallic substance that composed his body, and sent it to Lana so that Clark would be exposed.

When Martha Kent was infected with a deadly Kryptonian disease, Clark turned to Fine for help. Fine fed Clark lies about how Jor-El was a ruthless dictator and was responsible for destroying Krypton. He retrieved a black crystal from his ship for Clark to use to destroy the Fortress of Solitude and stop Jor-El for good. Once he and Clark arrived at the Fortress, Fine gave Clark the black crystal and instructed him to insert it into the Fortress' console. After Clark did this and opened a portal to the Phantom Zone, Brainiac subdued Clark with a piece of green kryptonite before revealing his true nature as an artificial intelligence created by Kryptonians and his intent to release Zod from the Phantom Zone. Brainiac was nearly successful in his plan, but his victory was short-lived when Chloe Sullivan arrived at the Fortress and removed the kryptonite from Clark, who subsequently removed the black crystal from the console, closing the Phantom Zone portal.

Brainiac and Clark battled, and Clark sent Brainiac flying into the Fortress' console, impaling him on the crystals. Once Brainiac was defeated, Martha was instantly cured. At the same time, the Black Ship vanished from Warehouse 15.

[edit] Menace as Brainiac

"We need more samples." --Brainiac, to his three other duplicates, Hypnotic

Brainiac managed to survive, still in his human guise as Milton Fine, and relocated himself and the Black Ship to Honduras. He created three duplicates of himself, and they all went about collecting samples of deadly viruses. As the four Brainiacs were moving around the world, Lex Luthor's Special Ops have seen him in many places:

• One Brainiac was in Honduras for some time, followed by Lex's Red Unit.
• On La Reunion, a small island in the Indian Ocean, two little girls were suffering from the debilitating Chikungunya virus. A Brainiac appeared to them in the middle of night, formed his hand into a syringe, and took some blood from them. However, the girls could not prove that he was there, even though there were fresh needle marks on their arms.
• Another Brainiac appeared in Bangladesh, nosing around a Naga tribe that supposedly descended from headhunters. In the middle of the night, he took the Nipah virus, an advanced strain that killed a bunch of Bangladeshis in the town. This Brainiac made his way to Thakurgaon, where he took an object that the people there called a "death rock" (really a piece of kryptonite). Brainiac barged into the station, walked up to the evidence cage, and stared at the meteor rock. He used his heat vision to burn a hole to get it and absorbed the rock into this own body before disappearing, heading across the border into Northern India.
• Yet another Brainiac was sighted in the Queen Maud Land, while another was spotted in Polynesia when the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever suddenly occurred.
• Another Brainiac was seen in the Arctic and took blood samples from a frozen woman that was infected with the Spanish Flu virus, and one more Brainiac was seen in San Diego, California, in search of victims of a bubonic plague.[1]

Brainiac later returned to Smallville, and appeared to Clark and Martha Kent in the form of the recently deceased Jonathan Kent's spirit in an unsuccessful attempt to manipulate Clark into killing Lionel Luthor.

[edit] Partnership with Lex Luthor

Months after being defeated by Clark in the Fortress of Solitude, Brainiac reformed as Fine, this time as a government agent for a secret division of the U.S. State Department trying to learn about the new location of the Black Ship and the meteor showers that struck Smallville. Knowing Lex Luthor was searching for the ship, Fine lured him to Honduras in order to draw Lex to him. He convinced Lex that the beings that arrived in the Black Ship posed a threat to Earth and that he needed LuthorCorp to develop a way to fight back.

Lex was unaware that Fine himself was the threat, and began to work with him on a top-secret project: Project Mercury, a vaccine that would supposedly inoculate millions of people from all known diseases. Fine and Lex worked together for several weeks until the vaccine was ready. However, on the day they were to meet to discuss the finished product, Lex had since been warned of Fine by Lana Lang, who suspected that Fine was evil. Lex questioned Fine's motives and tried to use green kryptonite against him, but it had no effect on Fine. Fine revealed that he was created by Kryptonians and forced Lex to take him to where the viruses were.

Upon arriving at the lab, Fine combined the viruses he found all over the world, as well as the vaccine, which he injected into Lex's arm. After destroying the laboratory, Fine escaped, and shortly after, Lex began to develop Kryptonian powers.

[edit] Zod's return

The Black Ship later abducted Lex and scorched the ground with Zod's symbol. Fine was present, and told Lana Lang that Lex was being prepared so that he could become the vessel for General Zod.

Clark had since realized that Fine and Brainiac were one and the same; when he learned that Fine was working with Lex, he went to the Luthor Mansion to warn Lex. Fine appeared and told Clark that if he had freed Zod before, then Lex wouldn't have to have been involved. Knowing Clark's affection for humans, Fine forced Clark's hand by downloading a computer virus that spread to every major city on Earth, destroying the electrical infrastructure and causing widespread chaos. Clark received the Kryptonian dagger from Jor-El to destroy Zod's vessel, but he couldn't bring himself to kill his former friend. Instead, he hurled the dagger at Fine.

Upon being impaled by the dagger, Fine gained access to the Fortress of Solitude and released Zod's spirit into Lex's body. With this act, Fine and all copies of him were destroyed and sent back into the Black Ship.

[edit] Season Six

[edit] Within the Kryptonian black box

Brainiac was still active within the Kryptonian black box, the Black Ship's hard drive. General Zod attempted to use it to alter the Earth's crust, transforming it into a new Krypton, until the box was shattered into pieces by a blast of heat vision from Clark Kent. The black box ended up in Lex Luthor's possession after Lex found a broken piece of it in the Luthor Mansion. Later, the box's remaining active energy was absorbed by the Zoner Baern, turning it into a pile of ash.

[edit] Season Seven

[edit] Reboot and upgrade

"I am the Brain InterActive Construct. No matter my form, my intellect remains formidable. Do not underestimate me." – Brainiac, to Bizarro, Persona

Lex salvaged the ashes of the Kryptonian black box and began Project Scion, a LuthorCorp project that focused on researching and combating alien threats. Eventually, the ashes evolved into Brainiac's black liquid form, and was kept in a container along with green kryptonite, alive and self-conscious. After a battle between Clark Kent and a super-powered Lana Lang, the container was broken, and Brainiac was freed. Soon after, he took over the body of Casey Brock, a scientist working on Project Scion.

Sometime later, Brainiac left the body of Casey Brock, who was found in an alley by a LuthorCorp lab half-conscious and speaking in an unknown language. Brock suffered from high metallic poisoning in her blood, due to Brainiac being in her body. Though it was unknown to others what language Brock was blurting out, Bizarro, posing as Clark, discovered that she was speaking Kryptonian in a code pattern, which was then revealed to be a message. Apparently the message represented an error code to why the system in Brainiac failed, while also sustaining itself to be rebooted by passing and repeating the code over and over again until the program can learn from its mistake and be fully operative.

Brainiac finally rebooted, but only to the point that he could become his human form once again. He had none of his usual powers, and was forced to absorb the metallic minerals zinc, magnesium, and iron in humans and animals in order to repair and sustain himself. Bizarro found the disabled Brainiac with the aid of Lana. Brainiac instantly recognized Bizarro as a Phantom and not Kal-El. He was asked by Bizarro how he could fix his weakness to sunlight, and told Bizarro to find Dax-Ur, Brainiac's designer. Brainiac tricked both Bizarro and Clark into locating Dax-Ur, leading Brainiac to find his creator and use the information he obtained from Dax-Ur's mind to repair and upgrade himself to Brainiac 2.0.

[edit] From Kara to Krypton

"Just remember, if we had done this my way...no one would have gotten hurt." - Brainiac, to Clark and Kara, Veritas

Nearly two months later, Brainiac tracked down Kara Kent and wanted her to come with him for unknown purposes, but was unable to persuade her after a quick fight with Clark. To achieve leverage over Clark and Kara, he cornered Lana Lang at the Isis Foundation and took control of her. Brainiac used her to be a hostage and to deliver a message. Lana was alive and aware, but utterly unable to interact independently with the world in addition to being in great pain, a condition similar to anesthesia awareness; only Brainiac could reverse the process. At the Daily Planet, Brainiac explained what was happening to Lana and said that she could be cured if Kara joined him. He then led Kara into outer space, as they then appear to have disappeared into a black vortex.

Brainiac took Kara through the vortex to Krypton before its destruction in 1986, where she tried to send messages to Clark. By doing this, Brainiac changed fate when Clark discovered that new messages have appeared in Virgil Swann's diary that weren't there before.

In an alternate reality, Brainiac posed as Milton Fine to serve Lex Luthor, the President of the United States. They planned to destroy most of Earth to recreate it in their own image, to serve Lex as the vessel of General Zod. Back in the real world, in the past before Krypton's destruction, Brainiac was attempting to kill infant Kal-El, but was thwarted by both Kara and Clark. While Clark placed his young self into his spaceship, Kara stabbed Brainiac and smashed his head with a crystalline block. However, Brainiac survived, and when Clark wasn't looking, somehow sent Kara into the Phantom Zone and took on her form.

[edit] Return to Earth

"You're not a man...you're a machine." - Clark, to Brainiac, Arctic

Brainiac, disguised as Kara, posed as a flight attendant on Edward Teague's private jet, and forced Teague to reveal the location of the Kryptonian piece to the control device. Teague told Brainiac that Lex Luthor might have it; afterwards, Brainiac flew off, leaving Teague to crash to his death.

When Clark finally found "Kara" at the Luthor Mansion, he took her back to the Kent Farm and asked about her recent actions, questioning her involvement in Teague's death. Though Clark tried to persuade and stop her, "Kara" kicked him away and flew off. As Kara, Brainiac confronted Lex and revealed to him Kara's secret, telling Lex that he was meant to stop the Traveler using a mysterious orb, and hinted that Clark was the Traveler.

Clark enlisted Chloe Sullivan to help him control "Kara." Chloe lured her to her apartment and tried to subdue her with green kryptonite. However, it had no effect, and "Kara" was revealed to be Brainiac in disguise. Brainiac attempted to implanted control over Chloe as he had done with Lana. However, her healing meteor power activated and prevented him from exhibiting total control over her. Chloe was injured, but Brainiac was considerably weakened. Brainiac also appeared shocked by Chloe's ability to resist him, asking her, "What the hell are you?"

Clark realized that Chloe was injured, and located Brainiac at an electrical plant as he was attempting to absorb electricity to restore himself. During the confrontation, Clark demanded Brainiac to tell him where Kara was, and to release both Lana and Chloe from his grip, but Brainiac revealed that Kara was in a place where he'll never see her again, and in order for Lana and Chloe to be released, he would have to kill him which is one thing Clark objects to do by means to "kill a man." But in an ironic twist, Clark destroyed Brainiac, using several electrical circuits to overload him, after telling him that he was not a man at all. After Brainiac was finally destroyed, Chloe and Lana were released from his influence.

However, this may not be the last Brainiac to be destroyed.

[edit] Trivia

• Although he was made by Kryptonians, Brainiac can mimic Kryptonian powers as opposed to having his counter-comic book powers, such as telekinesis or the ability to manipulate powerful electric energy from his body. The exception that Smallville's portrayal of Brainiac can spread a computer virus, take control of living beings, and corrupt advance technology are nods to one of his other true abilities in the comics' continuity.
• In Fallout, it is revealed that even though the Black Ship disappeared after General Zod retrieved the Kryptonian black box, Brainiac still resided within the black box.
• Smallville's version of Brainiac, being a Kryptonian artificial intelligence, is similar to his origin in Superman: The Animated Series.
• Brainiac was portrayed by John Schneider in Oracle, John Glover in Persona, and Laura Vandervoort in Apocalypse and Arctic.
• In promotional commercials for Persona, Brainiac is described as a repaired and upgraded Version 2.0. Indeed, in Veritas, Brainiac has the ability to fly.

[edit] Appearances

• In Season 4, Brainiac appeared as the Black ship in Commencement.
• In Season 5, Brainiac emerged and appeared in his human guise as Milton Fine in Arrival, Aqua, Thirst, Splinter, Solitude, Hypnotic, Oracle, and Vessel. He displayed his shapeshifting ability in Oracle by transforming himself into the form of Jonathan Kent.
• In Season 6, Brainiac appeared as the Kryptonian black box in Zod, Arrow, and Fallout.
• In Season 7, Brainiac appeared in his liquid form in Wrath. His human guise was restored in Persona, where he also took the form of Lionel Luthor. He reappeared in Veritas and Apocalypse in both the real and alternate universe. In Arctic, it was revealed that he had been disguised as Kara since Apocalypse, and was only returned to his human guise when an attempt to attack Chloe Sullivan backfired.

[edit] In the Comics

In the comic books, there have been at least two major versions of Brainiac. The original character used from the 1950s to the 1980s was a cyborg from the planet Colu that developed a hatred for Superman for disrupting his plans, and fought him for years.

A modern version came as a result from the reboots in the 1980s; he was the hybrid of a Coluan evil genius with the body of a psychic human. This Brainiac lost his body over the years, and was forced to leave his mind in various robotic bodies, making him closer to his original comic appearances.

[edit] See Also

• Black Ship
• General Zod
• Silver kryptonite
• Kryptonian black box
• Brainiac on Wikipedia
• Dax-Ur
• Project Mercury blog

[edit] References

1. ↑ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pWmmrdIsNnQ