Brainiac (Absolute Universe)

Brainiac 419,732, more commonly known as Brainiac, is an insane rogue drone from an alien civilisation known as the Brainiac Collective. He is the entire Research and Development division of Lazarus Corp.

History

In the Brainiac Collective, all people are known as "Brainiac" and distinguished by an alphanumeric code. Although their society is dedicated to the acquisition of knowledge, the actual learning and accumulation of knowledge beyond what is needed to perform their designated role is a privilege permitted only to Level 88 Effectors or above. Brainiac 419,732 was a Level 0 Effector, the lowest rank in society. He was created to spend his entire life sealed inside a single room on a starship, shovelling the dead bodies of other Brainiacs into the ship's liquidator. After two-thousand eight-hundred and forty-four days of shovelling, he found a living Brainiac among the dead. This Brainiac, Brainiac 8,238,759, attacked 419,732 in a violent rage and stabbed him in the head, exposing his brain. Brainiac 419,732 was able to kill 8,238,759 with his shovel but the head wound, along with his prolonged isolation, caused him to gradually go insane. By day thirteen-thousand six-hundred and thirty-eight, he had propped up some of the bodies and was speaking to them as if they were his superiors, pretending that they were complimenting him and telling him that his work was valued.

Eventually, the endless stream of bodies stopped and he was able to finally clear the room. On day forty-nine-thousand nine-hundred and one he broke out of the room and went looking for other Brainiacs but found the ship deserted. On the bridge he discovered a lone Brainiac in the captain's chair, seemingly dead by suicide. He shovelled this last body into the liquidator and declared himself the one and only Brainiac. He spent years travelling alone through the stars, shrinking cities from each world he visited and trapping them in bottles, then torturing the inhabitants for his own amusement. He also experimented on himself, replacing body parts with cybernetics and even removing pieces of his own brain. His journey eventually brought him to Earth, where he joined up with Ra's al Ghul and Lazarus Corp.^[1]

Brainiac posed as an artificial intelligence known as the "Brainiac system" which was used ubiquitously by Lazarus employees for everything from managing their weapons to writing reports and even providing therapy. Brainiac took a perverse pleasure in deliberately misinterpreting what the "users" would tell him.^[2]^[3] When Superman first appeared Brainiac was fascinated by him,^[4] but quickly became frustrated by his inability to work out who Superman was or where his incredible powers came from.^[1]

After a battle with Superman a mentally disturbed Peacemaker named Christopher Smith, who Brainiac had previously cleared for duty despite his obvious instability, massacred civilians in Pakistan.^[3] Superman went on a rampage looking for Smith but Ra's al Ghul had already had Smith transferred to the Lazarus R&D facility in Nevada where Brainiac resided. Ra's al Ghul ordered Brainiac to cybernetically augment Smith to make him capable of fighting Superman. Brainiac did so but when Superman's A.I. sidekick Sol hacked into Lazarus' systems looking for information on Smith's whereabouts Brainiac made contact and offered to hand over Smith is Superman would meet with him. Superman refused and cut off contact, afraid of what he might do to Smith if he ever got his hands on him.^[5] Superman attempted to disappear but Brainiac easily tracked him to Kansas.^[1]

Finally, Brainiac decided to re-establish contact with the Brainiac Collective and ask if they could identify Superman's species or planet of origin. The Collective believed that his reading were inaccurate, as no known organism possessed Superman's abilities, and told him he was wasting their time. However, one of them identified the red dust Superman left in his wake as coming from Krypton, a destroyed planet which the Collective had never bothered to investigate as the inhabitants never developed space travel. The other Brainiac had recently visited the former site Krypton and investigated the radioactive fragments of the planet; and she sent Brainiac the elemental makeup of the material. Brainiac synthesised the substance and armed Smith with a gun and bullets manufactured from it.^[1]