Brainiac 5
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Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox) is a fictional character who exists in the future of the DC Comics universe. He is a member in long standing of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
He is reputed to have a brain exponentially more powerful than a human ("12th level"; most humans have "6th level" brains, and even most of his fellow Coluans have "10th level" ones). This grants him excellent calculation skills, amazing memory and exceptional technical know-how.
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Original story
Template:Superherobox Brainiac 5 made his first appearance in Action Comics #276 (May 1961). A green-skinned, blond-haired teenager, dressed in a purple jumpsuit, he claimed descent from the original Brainiac, a Superman villain. He wished to join the Legion as atonement for his great-great-grandfather's misdeeds. (When Brainiac 1 was revealed to be an android created by the Computer Tyrants, Brainiac 5 "discovered" he was actually descended from Brainiac 2, the leader of the rebellion against the tyrants, whom Brainiac had briefly "adopted").
Brainiac 5's ingenuity led to the invention of, amongst other things, the Legion Flight Ring (based on a metal discovered by Mon-El), the anti-lead serum that allowed Mon-El to leave the Phantom Zone and the Force Shield Belt which became the signature device of the character.
Another of Brainiac 5's creations would have less beneficial effects. The super-computer Computo, which he created, attempted to take over the world, killing one of Triplicate Girl's three selves. He successfully destroyed his creation with "an anti-matter force", but this highlighted one of his major flaws; a habit of initiating projects without considering the dangers. Another, much later, example was when he and Invisible Kid inadvertently turned a fellow scientist, Professor Jaxon Rugarth, into the psychotic, all-powerful Infinite Man.
In fact, as time went on, Brainiac 5 began to be portrayed as downright unstable. Long attracted to Supergirl, Superboy #204 (Sept/Oct 1974) showed him building a robot duplicate of her in his sleep, and convincing himself this was the real Supergirl. He seemed to recover from this, but a few years later would become even more unbalanced.
In Superboy #224 (Feb 1977), the Legion encountered Pulsar Stargrave, a villain who convinced Brainiac 5 that he was the Coluan's long-lost father. Brainiac 5 joined Stargrave to battle the sorcerer Mordru, but the android's influence would haunt him long after that. (It was claimed in Superboy #225 that Stargrave was actually the original Brainiac android, but the truth of this is uncertain.)
When Stargrave murdered Ultra Boy's girlfriend, Brainiac 5, driven mad by Stargrave, framed Ultra Boy for the murder. Chameleon Boy, who suspected this from the beginning, finally found proof when Brainiac's madness led to him attempting to destroy the universe, utilising the Miracle Machine, a device that turned thoughts into reality. He was stopped by Matter-Eater Lad, who ate the machine, and they were both committed to a mental institution, the energies of the Machine having driven Matter-Eater Lad insane also.
Brainiac 5 eventually recovered his sanity and rejoined the group. Some time after this, however, he was accused of having murdered Ultra Boy's girlfriend himself. To prove his innocence, he went after Stargrave, and finally defeated him. He later managed to cure Matter-Eater Lad's sanity as well. Around this time, he also undid another of his mistakes, finally finding a way of controlling Computo.
Post-Crisis
In Legion of Super-Heroes (Vol 3) #15 (Oct 1985), published simultanously with Crisis on Infinite Earths #10, Brainiac 5 was melancholic, reflecting it was the thousandth anniversary of Supergirl's death. However, following the Crisis he had, like everyone else, no recollection of her at all. Beyond this, however, Brainiac 5's history was relatively unaffected by the Crisis, although it would be some time before he got an origin that reflected the new Brainiac 1. Supergirl's place in his story was taken by Laurel Gand, a Daxamite, and possible descendant of Mon-El. Unlike Supergirl, she was a native of the 30th century.
Following the death of the pocket universe Superboy, Brainiac 5 was one of a number of Legionnaires who swore revenge on the Time Trapper. To this end, he recreated the Infinite Man. The Infinite Man and Time Trapper seemingly destroyed each other, but Brainiac 5 was accused of murdering Professor Rugarth, and quit the Legion. He rejoined in #63 (Aug 1989), shortly before the Five Year Gap.
Post-Gap
The Gap was a jump in the Legion Timeline, during which things had radically changed for the heroes, most notably the disbanding of the Legion and an ongoing war with the Khund Empire, which had resulted in Earthgov signing a deal with the Dominators. When Legion of Super-Heroes (vol 4) began, Brainiac 5 was dedicated to finding a cure to the Validus Plague, a virulent disease that had afflicted an entire planet, and crippled the former Lightning Lad, Garth Ranzz.
Brainiac 5 joined other Legionnaires in searching for the space pirate Roxxas, and was present when the team officially reformed.
After the War, Brainiac 5 discovered the timestream was extremely unstable, and that Legion history was in a state of constant flux. This was the first indication of Zero Hour, the event that would lead to the Legion's whole history being rebooted.
Post-Reboot
Following the Reboot, the "new" Brainiac 5 was practically unemotional. He barely interacted with the other Legionnaires, although he was still somewhat attracted to Laurel Gand, now called Andromeda, who was now also something of an outsider. When Andromeda was believed killed, he was the only person who really missed her, a wrenching experience for someone used to suppressing emotion.
(It was later revealed that, even amongst Coluans, Querl Dox had been something of a loner, due to his even higher intelligence, interest in practical experiments than "pure" thought, and lack of concern about the consequences of his experiments.)
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Having created a method of travelling back to the 20th century, leading to the Legion's rescue of Valor, Brainiac 5 was arrested for unauthorised time-travel. He was later pardoned, when R.J. Brande became President of the United Planets.
Brainiac 5 was one of a number of Legionnaires who were trapped in the 20th century, and spent his time trying to find a way back, with 20th century equipment. He finally produced a computer capable of doing this, utilising a New Gods Mother Box and a responsometer from the Metal Men. Unfortunately, this proved to be the post-Reboot C.O.M.P.U.T.O., and the Legion had to defeat it, and separate it into its component pieces, before returning to their own time.
Whilst in the 20th century he also encountered his ancestors, Brainiac and Vril Dox II, as well as the post-Crisis Supergirl. Ironically, he was attracted to Supergirl due to her similarity to Andromeda. (Some stories suggested that Brainiac 5's attraction for tall blonde women was linked to his desire to find his mother, a tall blonde who had abandoned him at birth.)
Upon his return he was part of a team that investigated a mysterious space anomaly. The anomaly "upgraded" him: he was now more considerate of others, and had vastly improved people skills. He also internalised his force shield apparatus. His friend Gates dubbed the improved Querl Dox "Brainiac 5.1", a name he adopted.
Shortly after that, the Legion investigated the criminal/terrorist organisation called the Dark Circle. Querl learnt his mother, Brainiac 4, was the leader of the Dark Circle, having found that mass-destruction was the only thing capable of making her feel emotions. The shock of this almost caused him to revert to his former, distant self. Although he didn't, he began to be somewhat sarcastic and impatient again. He also began researching without considering the consequences again, inadvertently transforming the team into a "Bizarro Legion".
Brainiac 5.1 was one of a number of Legionnaires who were cast into a distant galaxy when the Stargate network was shut down. They spent a year travelling through the "Lost Galaxy". During this time, he felt under great stress, as his teammates all believed he could devise a way of getting them home, in addition to all the other responsibilities forced upon him by their circumstances. As he eventually confessed to Saturn Girl, however, he didn't have a clue how to get them home - or even where "home" was, relative to their location. In the same conversation, he also complained that he'd "always hated [his] name upgrade," and on the way out, as well as reassuring him, she made a point of redubbing him "Brainiac Five," and he dropped the ".1" from his name thereafter. Eventually, using his teammate Shikari's tracking skills and an interdimensional doorway they'd earlier found but been forced to leave, he did get them home.
Upon their return Brainiac began developing a replacement for the Stargates, based on the "threshold" doorway they had used to return from the Lost Galaxy. Restoring the connection to the planet Xanthu, they learnt that it had been at war with Robotica, the "robot homeworld", until they mysteriously disappeared.
Robotica's leader was revealed as C.O.M.P.U.T.O. A strike team was launched against it, but Brainiac 5 tricked it into upgrading itself, so it no longer sought vengeance. It was revealed that the Coluans disapproved of artificial intelligence, however, and Brainiac 5 was made a pariah on his homeworld for saving machine-life from destruction.
External links
- Supermanica: Brainiac 5 (http://supermanica.info/wiki/index.php/Brainiac_5) Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Brainiac 5