Vril Dox (Earth-One)

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See also Brainiac for a complete list of references to distinguish between these closely named or closely related articles.

Real Name

Current Alias

Aliases

Master of Super Scientific Forces

Identity

Secret

Race

Coluan

Alignment

Bad

Affiliation

Frequent Partner with Lex Luthor; ally to many different powered beings in his personal quest to conquer the known universe

Relatives

No physical relatives due to the fact he was a constructed android; Quil Dox 2 (Brainiac 2; adopted son); Querl Dox (Brainiac 5; adopted decendent; member of the Legion of Super-Heroes)

Universe

Earth-One

Base Of Operations

Brainiac was known to operate throughout the Earth-One dimension with his various interplanetary transport platforms (spaceships)

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Height

6' 1"

Weight

Humanoid form: approximately 300 lbs

Eyes

Red

Hair

Bald

Skin

Green

Unusual Features

Although Brainiac orginally appeared as a male humanoid, he was actually a highly advanced artificial construct with cybernetic components, the most obvious of which, was his mental computer input nodes that encircled his head. After his upgrade, Brainiac was completely composed of "living metal" in a robotic form. His head, torso, arms and legs could be reconfigured into any necessary form as needed including elongation or switching, as well as directly melding into wafer-thin electronic forms.

Status

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Originally humanoid interface for computer indexing project, later Conqueror

Origin

Originally created as an advanced mobile computer project to create and develop a reliable artifical solder in the secret operations of the Colu government, Brainiac developed true independent consciousness and exceeded his original programming and began a "life" of conquering and domination of the known cosmos.

Place of Birth

Colu

Creators

Otto Binder, Al Plastino

First appearance

Action Comics #242
(July, 1958)

History

Originally created on the distant planet of Colu as the humanoid interface for a massive computer network, Brainiac was created as a perfect operating system that began developing by cataloging and storing massive amounts of data and information of the planet. Gaining functional sentience, Brainiac was processed into a functional spy for the ruling class of Colu who were being assaulted by rebels who sought to overturn the represssive government ^[1]

To increase the illusion that Brainiac was an actual living biological Coluan and not a very mobile super computer, Brainiac was given a "son", a young Coluan boy named Quil Dox who would later become known as "Brainiac 2". Later stories changed this history and state Brainiac created the boy himself rather than was an independent being. Vril Dox 2 was an independent person and not a cloned creation ^[2].

Upon developing his cover Brainiac achieved his original mission and successfully infiltrated the rebels and destroyed them from within. But Brainiac's independence soon overgrew his masters and he defeated them as well. But with now two different factions unified in removing Brainiac from power, the humanoid computer was forced to flee the planet. Brainiac would establish a new power base on Bryak but was again driven from it as with Colu. Re-evaluating one of his original directives to begin cataloging information but now for his own personal power, Brainiac began searching the universe for ever increasing powers and techniques that would ensure his success over other opponents. Brainiac would find one such technique that would allow him to literally tower over others through a shrinking ray whereby he could remove entire massive kilometer wide cities and minimize them and their populace into almost microscopic sized beings. Brainiac began testing the technique on other planets cities but usually met with mixed results if not complete failure in restoring the cities later.

It was during one of these search of populated cities that Brainiac encounterd Superman of the Earth-One dimension as Brainiac intended to take Metropolis as a test for his shrinking and re-enlargement process. Superman defeated Brainiac and his advanced weapontry driving him away from Earth.

Finding Superman as the ultimate test of his abilities which would practically ensure his practices of conquerance throughout the cosmos, Brainiac would return tin many attempts to overwhelm Superman in various schemes. On several occasions, Brainiac teamed up with the equally super-intelligent Lex Luthor in his plans to defeat Superman and various other parallel heroes throughout the years.

Brainiac and Luthor both get upgrades

Despite having superhuman strength and speed in his original form, Brainiac found that his original form was limited especially in comparison to Superman who would routinely defeat him. Brainiac decided to recreate his biological format into a more robotic looking format comprised of "living metal" which also comprised his mobile weapons platform as a means of direct advancement whereby he was no longer just limited to one body but could directly merge into electronic devices and other metals. ^[3] After this upgrade, Brainiac was able to directly merge and interface with all forms of computer electronic devices directly controlling them and accessing other devices than just through pre-crafted interface plugs like the one on his original head. Brainiac was also no longer just limited to his singular body as he could now transmit his mind into other electronic devices that were capable of containing his consciousness or at least some major portion of it.

Brainiac would remain in this format during the Crisis on Infinite Earths where he was destroyed and recreated as the biological Vril Dox, who transmitted his consciousness to the human Milton Fine and restarted his personal ambitions to conquer the universe and be opposed by the current incarnation of Superman and many times teaming up with the new Lex Luthor though mostly against Brainiac's own decisions and choices unlike the open partnership the Earth-One incarnations had.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Superhuman intellect as due to his true android computer neural network.

Abilities

Many intellect abilities afforded to him by his computer nature as well as other abilities.

Strength level

Both of his artifical bodies possessed superhuman strength and endurance though his later Robotic form had far more strength and endurance than his biological-simulation body.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Many offensive and defenses devices used in his plans of conquest:

Hyper-Ray
Ultra-Force Shield
Transportation:
Various interstellar transport ships
Skull Ship: Later mobile platform composed of the same "living metal" that he upgraded his primary body out of that was mostly shaped like his new skull-like head with tenticles extensions on the lower levels of the platform.

Skull Ship

Weapons:

Brainiac had access to a wide variety of futuristic weaponry.

Notes

Unlike the current incarnation of the character, the Earth-One Brainiac is an manufactured android and not a biological being. The current Brainiac is indeed the cover that this incarnation pretended to be, a biological Coluian scientist named Vril Dox with a biological son.

Though Brainiac interacted with other dimensional beings, most notably Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two (who Brainiac killed), there were no known published adventures of Brainiac in other dimensions.

There was never any Earth-Two (so called "Golden Age") version of this character.

antimatter Brainiac inside Ultraman and Superwoman's son's body (Adventures of Superman #605)

There was antimatter incarnation of the biological Brainiac in the Antimatter Universe who was revealed to have been possessing the son of antimatter Clark Kent (Ultraman) and antimatter Lois Lane-Kent (Super-Woman) in his plan to destroy the antimatter Ultraman and Superwoman for his enslavement by them. Superwoman appararently destroyed her son's body in order destroy Brainiac within. The antimatter Brainiac has not reappeared since, suggesting he was unable to escape the death of Ultraman's son.

Trivia

It is mostly this incarnation of the Brainiac character that is used in the 1990s animated series Superman whereby Brainiac is once again a robotic creation. But unlike that version who was created by people of the planet Colu, the animated series' Brainiac was the Kryptonian human interface for the planet wide computer system who origianlly had no physical independent body.

Links and References

Footnotes

[1]

[2]

[3]