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“ | Once again, I am reborn. | „ |
~ Brainiac's most famous line. |
Brainiac is the titular main antagonist of 2006 direct-to-video animated feature film Superman: Brainiac Attacks, the first animated Superman standalone animated movie.
He is an evil Kryptonian artificial intelligence who wants to collect all data in the universe. Upon coming to Earth once more to accomplish such goal, Brainiac is physically destroyed by Superman, but Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor comes to Brainiac's rescue to offer him a partnership to finally get rid of the Man of Steel.
He was voiced by Lance Henriksen, who also played Sergeant Daniel Neff in Damien: Omen II, Chains Cooper in Stone Cold, Emil Fouchon in Hard Target, Dr. Jarret in Man's Best Friend and John Milton in Scream 3.
Biography[]
Brainiac first appears arriving to Earth in a meteor, which crashes near a Lex Labs installation in a mountain forest near Metropolis. Once there, Brainiac proceeds to break into the installation and starts downloading all of the Earth's data stored inside LexCorp's computers. Superman arrives shortly afterwards and they start fighting, with Brainiac hacking the control of the Lex 9000, a satellite designed by Lex Luthor to destroy any potential galactic menaces to Earth to make a positive impression which tried to destroy his meteor minutes earlier, using it to blast Superman with Kryptonite rays, burning some of the forest in the process and breaking an antenna tower in which Lois Lane had climbed on to watch the fight so she and Jimmy Olsen could publish a story for The Daily Planet. However, just as Brainiac uses LexCorp's weaponry to activate some missiles so he can drive humanity back to the dark ages and has the Lex 9000 blast Superman to prevent him from rescuing the endangered Lois Lane, Superman uses him as a human shield to protect himself from the missiles and freezes Brainiac with his breath, severing his connection with the Lex 9000 and then proceeds to punch him before going to rescue Lois, shattering Brainiac's corpse in pieces.
While this seemed to be the end of Brainiac, however, a piece of his mind in the form of a chip survived his body's destruction and was recovered by Luthor, who had witnessed the fight with his bodyguard Mercy Graves from his car and had come out from his vehicle to "congratulate" Superman. Eager to use Brainiac in yet another plot to defeat the Man of Steel so he can replace him as the Earth's savior, Luthor takes Brainiac's chip to LexCorp and revives him, offering to supply him a new body so he can annihilate Superman in exchange of later causing a rampage on Metropolis and allowing Luthor to "chase him" away from Earth to continue his data-collecting campaign in other planets. Brainiac agrees to the deal, saying that giving up the Earth over killing Superman once and for all is a small sacrifice he is willing to do. Having a deal, Brainiac rebuilds himself with technology supplied by Luthor, who also gives him a Kryptonite stalactite and a vial with Superman's DNA, allowing Brainiac to track him down wherever he is.
Sometime later, in his new body, Brainiac attacks Superman while he is dining as Clark Kent with Lois Lane at Le Chateau Laboe, a restaurant The Daily Planet meant to review. Superman engages him in a fight, during which Brainiac injures him with Kryptonite power rays. The military gets involved in the process, but Brainiac gets rid of their jets. The fight comes to an end when Brainiac blasts his Kryptonite rays against Superman and Lois Lane, critically injuring Lois in the process with a Kryptonite metallic-based poison that slowly galvanizes her blood, leading Lois to be hospitalized.
Brainiac then tracks Superman down to his Fortress of Solitude, where he has gone to seek a cure for Lois' sickness, which is a golden substance called Argonium 44 from the Phantom Zone. Brainiac assaults Superman and hacks his Kryptonian computer to download all Kryptonian data. Albeit reluctant, Superman resorts to initiate a self-destruct sequence to prevent such knowledge from falling in Brainiac's hands even though all of his civilization's secrets will be lost forever. Brainiac tries to kill Superman for doing that, but Superman manages to enter into the Phantom Zone to seek the Argonium 44 as the Fortress of Solitude crumbles, while Brainiac escapes from the falling fortress unharmed.
Believing that Superman died in the Fortress of Solitude's destruction, Brainiac returns to Metropolis and rampages through it. Donning one of LexCorp's exoskeletons, Lex comes to protect Metropolis as the new "Man of Steel", but Brainiac soon reveals to him that not only he never actually intended to keep his promise to hand the Earth over him, but he also deactivated the self-destruct mechanism Luthor placed within him in case he was double-crossed, proceeding to throw Luthor to the street and stomping on him. However, Superman comes to the rescue and fights Brainiac again, this time with the additional protection from the Argonium 44, which protects him from Brainiac's Kryptonite power rays, leading Brainiac to use Luthor inside his exoskeleton as a melee weapon and destroy a railway to distract Superman while he goes to a Lex Labs installation to heat up its reactor to destroy Metropolis.
Superman goes to the installation and stops Brainiac, with the reactor being shut down by a scientist who didn't run away with her colleagues. They resume their fight until both of them are electrocuted by a generator. With Superman temporarily incapacitated, Brainiac flies back to the streets and razes through streets and buildings until Superman reaches him and takes him to the sky to continue their with, with Superman eventually coming up with the idea to make Brainiac dizzy by flying around him many times and then punching his head open and flying inside his body, destroying him from the inside, with his remains plummeting into the streets, nearly falling on Luthor.
As Superman leaves to cure Lois and Luthor stays behind to keep talking with the press about his relationship with the Man of Steel, Brainiac's tentacled head emerges, swats Luthor away and follows an unknowing Superman. Tracking him down to the hospital, Brainiac looks at the window how Superman prepares to give Lois the Argonium 44 vial, so he takes it from Superman and spitefully breaks it for using it to protect himself during their fight. Enraged, Superman lunges at Brainiac and destroys him with his own hands, leaving only his eyepiece. For good measure, Superman crushes the eyepiece with a car. All that keeps tinkling from Brainiac's remains is his main chip, but Superman fiercely punches it, shattering the chip and bringing Brainiac to an end once and for all. Lois, meanwhile, makes a full recovery.
Trivia[]
- Although this Brainiac looks artistically the same as the Brainiac from the DC Animated Universe, Superman: Brainiac Attacks isn't part of that continuity, as Warner Bros. Animation wanted the Superman: The Animated Series classic style for the film, which was produced to cash in the mild success of Superman Returns, with writer Duane Capizzi stating in an interview that he didn't write the film as part of the DCAU. The fact that Lance Henriksen voiced Brainiac in this movie instead of his DCAU voice actor Corey Burton solidifies this instance.
- That said, given how Superman already knows about Brainiac in this film among other things such as the return of some DCAU voice actors, some audiences interpret that at least parts of the DCAU can be considered canon to the film. However, if this film were part of the DCAU, it would have to be set after Superman: The Animated Series and before Justice League, due to Lex Luthor's disappearance at the end of the latter and a mention to Green Lantern in the film, but this would be impossible as Luthor is revealed in that show to have joined forces with Brainiac, so if this film were canon, it would be highly unlikely for Luthor to associate himself with Brainiac after he betrayed and tried to kill him, in addition that the film's Brainiac seems to actually die at the end whereas the DCAU's Brainiac survived well into the 30th century.
- This is one of the two versions of Brainiac who were inspired by his DCAU version, alongside the version of the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series (which was likewise produced to cash in with Superman Returns).
- Despite the film's DVD cover, Brainiac only appears in his original body in the film's first minutes, being reduced to his sole surviving chip and to the robotic body supplied by LexCorp for the rest of the film.
External Links[]
- Brainiac on the Pure Evil Wiki