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This is a contest of brute force versus brains. I'll take brains every time.
Vril Dox src

Vril Dox II aka Brainiac 2 is the son of Brainiac (Vril Dox I). He is also the founder and leader of L.E.G.I.O.N.

Origin

Vril Dox II was born on the planet Colu during the rule of the malevolent Computer Tyrants after his father, Brainiac was granted permission to impregnate one of the slaves.[1] Designed to be some sort of research assistant, he was artificially aged before his birth and born an adult with a child's emotions.[2] He is still regarded as Brainiac's son, heir, and clone, as he has inherited his father's high intelligence and extreme Machiavellian ethics.

Ren Daggle, better known as the Durlan met Vril Dox when he crashed on Colu and was forced into slavery by Brainiac.[3] Vril Dox II helped The Durlan escape, and seeing that the boy was also being treated like a slave, the Durlan took the young boy under his wing.

When Brainiac was overthrown and banished from the planet by the Computer Tyrants, the young Vril Dox II was given to the Dominators by the Computer Tyrants as a gesture of good faith in their Invasion of the planet Earth.[4] He was then detained in the Starlag prison. While incarcerated there, he befriended some other prisoners such as Stealth and Captain Comet. Along with Lyrissa Mallor, Garryn Bek and Strata, he helped to defeat the Dominators and escape.[5]

L.E.G.I.O.N.

After the group's escape from Starlag, the group went with Vril Dox II to his home planet of Colu. They were successful in shutting down Computer Tyrants who had conquered his people, but without the Computer Tyrants to guide it, Coluan society practically self-destructed. Vril Dox II designed a new program that would replace the Computer Tyrants' brainwashing to keep the Coluans from dying of stagnation, while secretly installing a Charisma Program that would make himself a Messiah in their eyes. After meeting Lobo, Vril Dox II discussed his idea to form a new police force to replace the former Green Lantern Corps. The others were hesitant to join, but ultimately decided that it might be a good idea to stick around, so as to keep an eye on Vril Dox II.

The band then journeyed to Cairn to take out Kanis-Biz, the drug lord in control of the police force and planet. Vril Dox II forced him to surrender before murdering him.[6] Afterwards, they turned the entire police force into the group called L.E.G.I.O.N.. The Durlan remained with the team as an adviser, but he also aided the team as a medical technician.

Stealth's unstable biology soon caused her to go into heat. Stealth then attacked, raped, and killed Vril Dox. Luckily their team found Vril's body, and Mari'jn Bek cloned it and transferred his consciousness, restoring Vril Dox back to life, but Stealth was already pregnant.[7]

Stealth fled to an unpopulated planet before going into labor. This event brought out the truly strange nature of the Gryxian race. During the birth, her body transformed into her native, non-humanoid form, and in feverish state, she heard the spirits of her people say, "the male is a necessary evil. He will dictate the form." Thus, her son was born a Coluan.[8] Afterwards, she decided to put the baby in protective care, and return to the L.E.G.I.O.N..

Vril demanded to see his child, but Stealth refused, fearing his influence on their baby. This didn't matter when Vril met and fell in love with Ig'nea, daughter of the galactic gangster Maximillian G'odd. Convinced to run away with her, Vril disbanded L.E.G.I.O.N., much to his teammates' shock. He soon found out that Ig'nea had special pyrokinesis and mind control abilities, and had "flipped a switch" in his mind that caused him to fall in love with her.[9] He killed G'odd, but couldn't bring himself to kill Ig'nea, and she escaped. Vril reunited with his team and announced the L.E.G.I.O.N. was once more.

Ig'nea reappeared while L.E.G.I.O.N. wasinvestigating a trafficking scheme. She uses her abilities to find where Stealth has hidden Lyrl and kidnaps him. Vril, Stealth, and their team intercept her, and father is finally introduced to his son. Realizing his own traumatic adolescence would interfere with his ability to raise his son, Vril surrendered custody to Stealth.[10]

Vril's distance from Lyrl didn't matter. Lyrl had inherited his father's advanced intelligence, and could speak seven languages at a year old.[11] Initially impressed, Vril elevated his son to a senior role in the force. Lyrl began plotting to take over his organization. He used his father's "enhanced charisma program" to brainwash the team's operatives to serve him. Realizing what was going on, Vril attempted to strip him of authority, but it was too late, and he was forced to flee with his team to escape imprisonment and/or death.

R.E.B.E.L.S. Vol 1

Vril Dox II later regains control of L.E.G.I.O.N. by bartering with the demonic entity Neron. The deal is for the soul of one of his unborn offspring. After the R.E.B.E.L.S. had helped restore L.E.G.I.O.N. as a force of good, Brainiac 2 retired and left the leadership in the hands of Captain Comet.

R.E.B.E.L.S. Vol 2

When Starro was taking control of the L.E.G.I.O.N., Brainiac 2, along with his old compatriot, Strata, formed a new team to regain his former status.

Vril Dox II later comes into contact with the mother of his son, who had recently been killed by L.E.G.I.O.N. drones, and was subsequently revived as a Black Lantern.

Vril Dox II was also in an area in which a Sinestro Corps member was murdered by another Black Lantern. When the ring started to search for a new host, it selected Vril Dox II, making him a member of the Sinestro Corps. However, not even the power of the ring was a match for the Black Lanterns, forcing Vril Dox II to teleport them to Starro's home world, despite the fact that his son, Lyrl was also there.

The ring rejected Vril Dox II, as he had repeatedly refused Sinestro's mandate that all members of the Sinestro Corps were to gather at Korugar, and declared that he had been discharged from the Corps.


Abilities

  • Genius Level Intellect: Vril Dox, like all members of the Brainiac family, possesses a superior intellect, on the order of a 10th-level intellect due to his father/creator castrating his mental aptitude.[12] (In the 30th century, it has been said that the collective intellect of the entire population of Earth is no greater than a level 8 intelligence, while in the 20th century they are a level 6 at best.)[13]
    • Tactical Analysis
    • Science: Vril Dox could suppress Lobo's bio-fission ability and create a cure for daxamites lead poisoning.
  • Martial Arts: Vril was trained in Durlan traditional combat by The Durlan.
  • Intimidation

Equipment

  • Force Field Belt: Brainiac 2 possesses a force field apparatus located in his belt similar in design to that of his decedent Querl Dox.[14]
  • Flight: Through a spatial folding function on his belt, Brainiac 2 has the ability to maintain self-sustained flight.[14]
  • Yellow Lantern Power Battery(Formerly)

Weapons

  • Yellow Lantern Ring: Vril was instated as a Sinestro Corpsmen, having all the abilities the yellow lantern ring entails for its wearer.[15](Formerly)


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Related

Footnotes


L.E.G.I.O.N. member
This character is or was primarily a member of the intergalactic peacekeeping force L.E.G.I.O.N., otherwise known as the Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the "L.E.G.I.O.N. members" category.

Sinestro Corps member

This character is or was a member of the Sinestro Corps, chosen by Sinestro to counteract the Green Lantern Corps and spread terror throughout their sector with a Power Ring.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Sinestro Corps members category."