Brainiac is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, and debuted in Action Comics #242 (July 1958). He has since endured as one of Superman and the Justice League's greatest enemies. The character's name is a portmanteau of the words brain and maniac.

In his comic book appearances, Brainiac is commonly depicted as a superintelligent android or cyborg from the planet Colu who is obsessed with collecting all knowledge in the known universe. He travels the galaxy and shrinks cities to bottle size for preservation on his skull-shaped spaceship before destroying their source planets, believing the knowledge he acquires to be most valuable if he alone possesses it. Among these shrunken cities is Kandor, the capital of Superman's home planet Krypton, and Brainiac is even responsible for Krypton's destruction in some continuities. His attempts to do the same to Earth have brought him into repeated conflict with Superman and the Justice League. Though stories often end in Brainiac's apparent destruction, the character's artificial consciousness is resurrected in new physical forms, some robotic and others more organic-based in appearance.

Brainiac has been adapted in various media incarnations, having been portrayed in live-action by James Marsters in Smallville and Blake Ritson in Krypton. Corey Burton, John Noble, Jeffrey Combs, and others have provided the character's voice in animation and video games.

Fictional character biography

Silver Age
The first Brainiac/Kandor comic book story in Action Comics #242 (July 1958) was based on a story arc in the Superman comic strip from April through August 1958. In the comic strip story, Superman's foe was named Romado, who traveled the cosmos with a white alien monkey named Koko, shrinking major cities and keeping them in glass jars. The strip's Kryptonian bottled city was named Dur-El-Va. This cross-continuity conflict was not unprecedented; in 1958 and '59, editor Mort Weisinger used the comic strip to prototype a number of concepts that he planned to introduce in the book, including Bizarro and red Kryptonite.

Brainiac is a bald, green-skinned humanoid who arrives on Earth and shrinks various cities, including Metropolis, storing them in bottles with the intent of using them to restore the then-unnamed planet he ruled. He was originally notable only for having shrunk the bottle city of Kandor with his shrinking ray and for using a force field. In his initial story, he also traveled with a white alien monkey named Koko; the monkey also appears in a 1960 Superman story retelling the story of Kandor's disappearance (Superman #141 (November 1960)). Koko was quickly dropped from Brainiac's stories, but a version of the monkey has made sporadic appearances as the villain's pet in the series Justice and the 2008 storyline "Brainiac" in Action Comics. The villain's descendant Brainiac 5 also had a pet named Koko for several stories in the 1990s.

In subsequent appearances in this early period, Brainiac was used mostly as a plot device rather than as a featured villain of the month. Brainiac's next appearance was mostly behind the scenes, when he tried to kill Lois Lane and Lana Lang, prompting Superman to give Lois and Lana superpowers. But the villain remained unseen except as a plot twist at the end of the story. Brainiac's next appearance was in "Superman's Return to Krypton" in Superman #141 (November 1960), in which the villain stole the bottle city of Kandor, the only city on Krypton that believes Jor-El's warning of doom for the planet, and which had already built a space ark within the city to save the population. Brainiac's next present-day appearance was in Action Comics #275 (April 1961), which showed the villain planning to defeat Superman by exposing him to red-green kryptonite, which he had created, giving Superman a third eye on the back of his head, forcing him to wear various hats to hide it. Superman soon defeated Brainiac and sent him off into the distant past. This was the first in-story appearance of Brainiac's iconic red diode/electrode-like objects atop his head, which had previously appeared on the cover of his first appearance in Action Comics #242 (July 1958), but were not shown in the actual story. In Superboy #106 (July 1963), an infant Superman meets Brainiac, and it is explained that Brainiac looks the same due to his 200-year life span. In Superman #93, Brainiac regenerates himself. It is revealed that he came from a planet called Bryak and, after a voyage in space, he returned to find everybody dead from a plague. He intended to get people from other planets (in shrunken cities to be enlarged with his growth ray) to repopulate Bryak, where he would rule them.

Brainiac's legacy was revealed in Action Comics #276 (May 1961), in a Legion of Super-Heroes back-up story. This story introduced Brainiac 5, who claimed to be Brainiac's 30th-century descendant. Unlike his ancestor, Brainiac 5 used his "twelfth-level intellect" for the forces of good and joined the Legion alongside Supergirl, with whom he fell in love. His home planet was given variously as Bryak, Yod, Yod-Colu, or simply Colu. 20th century Colu is a rim world found on the approach to the Magellanic Clouds.

In Superman #167 (February 1964), it was retconned that Brainiac was a robot created by the Computer Tyrants of Colu to spy on and invade other worlds. Brainiac's distinctive forehead diodes  are explained as "electric terminals of his sensory nerves" necessary for him to function. To explain the 1961 introduction of the villain's living descendant Brainiac 5, the story reveals the Computer Tyrants provided the villain with an assistant, a young Coluan boy named Vril Dox tasked with masquerading as his "son" so others would believe Brainiac to be a trustworthy organic alien scientist with a family rather than a deadly robot. The young boy Vril Dox was designated "Brainiac 2". In the same issue, the letter column contained a "special announcement" explaining that the change in the characterization of Brainiac was "in deference" to the "Brainiac Computer Kit", a toy computer created by Edmund Berkeley (and based on the Geniac) that predated the creation of the comic book character.

In this same story, Lex Luthor discovers the Computer Tyrants could have given their robot villain a twelfth-level intellect but only gave him a tenth-level, the same as them, so he would not dominate them. Luthor frees Brainiac from imprisonment and increases his intellect to a twelfth-level one. He also implants a device to temporarily disable him or destroy him if necessary. The two join forces, but Brainiac later removes the device and blocks out Luthor's memory of his inner workings and the fact that he is a machine. This story becomes the first of many Brainiac/Luthor team-ups. Meanwhile, Vril Dox leads a revolt against the Computer Tyrants, eventually destroying them and freeing Colu. Brainiac sees a monument to this when he returns to Colu later on.

King Kull later enlisted Brainiac and Mister Atom of Earth-S to attack the city of Tomorrow and speed up the rotation enough for the people of Earth to fly into the air. They are defeated by Green Lantern of Earth-Two, Green Lantern of Earth-One, Flash of Earth-Two, Flash of Earth-One, Mercury of Earth-S, and Ibis the Invincible of Earth-S.

30th century (Pre-Crisis)
At some indeterminate point in time, Brainiac fled into the 30th century. Developing the ability to absorb and manipulate stellar energy, he remade himself as "Pulsar Stargrave". He became a powerful enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and once masqueraded as Brainiac 5's biological father. In current continuity, Brainiac's connection to Pulsar Stargrave remains an open question, one even Brainiac 5 has yet to resolve.

Bronze Age

After Brainiac was revealed to be a robotic being, some stories would end him seemingly being destroyed, only for him to appear again in a repaired body or having transmitted his consciousness into a new form. Since he was essentially a living computer program that could be housed in different forms if "killed", Brainiac was sometimes referred to on comic book covers as "the villain who won't die!".

In the 1980s, DC Comics attempted to re-define several aspects of Superman's stories to boost sagging sales. In Action Comics #544-546 (June–August 1983), Lex Luthor acquires a renewed sense of purpose and dons a high-tech warsuit, while Brainiac is reimagined by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gil Kane and given a new appearance designed by Ed Hannigan. In a previous story, Brainiac had constructed a giant, computer-controlled planet to destroy Superman only to then be defeated and trapped in the planet's core. In Wolfman and Kane's story "Rebirth", published in Action Comics #544, Brainiac attempts to free himself by causing the nearby star, Epsilon 4, to go nova and utilize its energy. Instead, his body is converted into energy; his living program, his consciousness, experiences a strange journey before returning to his technology, where a new body is created for him over the next few months. As Brainiac recollects, during his journey he saw a great hand reach out from a void, ensnaring him briefly before releasing him. He also remembers seeing Superman's face at the same time. Reborn in a new body, the villain believes he has seen the Master Programmer, the divine force behind the universe's creation, and that this entity created Superman as an "angel of death" to destroy Brainiac. More determined than ever to kill and study Superman, Brainiac now has a colder, more merciless, and robot-like personality than before (he claims he is without emotions, yet shows signs of hatred and fear in regards to Superman). His new body is overtly robotic with a skull-like face and a reflective, iridescent honeycomb-patterned "braincase." He also creates a starship shaped like his new skull and adorned by metal tendrils, often referred to by fans and comic creators as the "skull ship." The ship acts as an extension of Brainiac himself. Brainiac retains this robotic appearance until after the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries ends in 1986, rebooting DC Comics continuity.

This incarnation of Brainiac meets his final end in the "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" storyline that ended the Pre-Crisis Silver/Bronze Age Superman chronology. Lex Luthor finds Brainiac's robotic head unit, with barely any power left. He hopes to team up with the evil living program again, only to become an unwilling host body for Brainiac instead. Fighting Brainiac's control, Luthor begs a superpowered Lana Lang to kill him, who complies by breaking his neck. Luthor dies and Brainiac retains control of the body for a short time until rigor mortis sets in. "Propelled by sheer malice", Brainiac's head unit leaves Luthor's corpse and crawls a few inches before finally running out of power for good.

Modern Age
In the Post-Crisis DC Universe, Brainiac's history was completely rewritten. The Post-Crisis version of Brainiac was now a radical Coluan scientist called Vril Dox who, having attempted to overthrow the Computer Tyrants of Colu, was sentenced to death. In his last moments before disintegration, his consciousness was attracted light years away to Milton Moses Fine, a human sideshow mentalist who worked under the alias "The Amazing Brainiac". Needing cranial fluid to maintain his possession of Fine, Dox went on a murder spree. He discovered that Fine had genuine psychic powers and was thus a metahuman, which he frequently wielded against Superman.

"Panic in the Sky"
In 1990, Brainiac is able to take over the minds of several LexCorp staffers. He makes the scientists create a new version of the skull ship (saying he thought of the design "in a dream") and use advanced genetic science to grow a new body for himself, resembling Milton Fine's form but taller, more physically fit, and with the green skin of a Coluan. He also has a new braincase helmet that resembles his Silver Age diodes. Now free of Fine's body and consciousness completely but still possessing the man's metahuman telepathic powers, Brainiac confronted Superman and then left Earth to plan another attack.

Brainiac returned in the "Panic in the Sky" storyline after seizing control of the mobile planetary fortress Warworld and recruiting assistance from Maxima and the alien warrior Draaga. Discovering a lost and confused Matrix (an artificial life form who at this time operates as Supergirl), Brainiac brainwashes her into becoming his soldier. He clashes with the New Gods and then launches a pre-emptive strike on Earth. Rather than wait for an invasion, Superman gathers a large group of superheroes and allies, one team attacking Warworld directly while the other remains on Earth to counter further attacks. Through duplicates of his braincase, Brainiac briefly takes control of some of Earth's heroes, but ultimately he fails. Supergirl and the other heroes are freed from mental control and the villain is rendered catatonic. His vegetative body is taken back to New Genesis for observation.

"Dead Again"
A year after the seeming death and then return of Superman, a dead body matching the Kryptonian's appearance is found in his abandoned tomb, leading some to wonder if the hero's return was a deception. It is revealed that Brainiac is no longer on New Genesis but revived and returned to Earth, leaving behind an illusion that he remained in a coma. While hidden, he created more delusions to turn the public against Superman and make the hero question his own sanity. The two battle and Superman taunts the villain by insisting he is just Milton Fine, a cheap entertainer. Fine's personality seemingly emerges and shuts down the Brainiac persona. Fine was then escorted off to a psychiatric facility.

The Doomsday Wars
During a later skirmish with Superman, Fine's body is irreparably damaged, leaving Brainiac with only a short time to live. With help from a new Coluan assistant named Prin Vnok, Brainiac retrieves Doomsday, the monster that seemingly killed Superman before, and uses him as a new host body. Now a cunning psychic with a super-strong, near-indestructible body, Brainiac attacks the Justice League. But Doomsday's own raging mind fights back and Brainiac realizes he still needs a suitable host. Hoping to create a clone Doomsday form by manipulating human DNA, Brainiac attempts to steal a prematurely born baby Superman is transporting to a Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit, the newborn child of Pete Ross and Lana Lang. Brainiac sees this as an opportunity for revenge, correctly concluding that Ross and Lang are close to him. Using a 'psi-blocker' device, Superman thwarts Brianiac's plans and the villain is forced to house his consciousness within a completely robotic body. Dubbing his new form Brainiac 2.5, the villain fears he is now trapped in this form.

Brainiac 13

At the turn of the millennium, Brainiac 2.5 revealed that he had placed a sleeper virus in LexCorp's Y2K bug safeguards. This virus was intended to dramatically boost his abilities. However, the virus instead allowed his upgraded future self, Brainiac 13 (or "B-13"), to travel from the 64th century to the present day and take control of Brainiac 2.5's body.

Brainiac 13 then began transforming Metropolis into the 64th-century version of the city, which he controlled, and also began upgrading Metallo into a giant-sized version of himself. Brainiac 13 then took control of several android superheroes, such as the Red Tornado and Hourman, and used them against Superman. The Metal Men's responsometers were able to protect them from his programming, and allowed them to help defeat Metallo.

During a fight with the Eradicator (who was attempting to 'hijack' the B13 virus and use it for its own ends), Superman discovered that Brainiac 13 could not cope with Kryptonian technology, due to incompatibility issues. This gave Superman a plan to stop Brainiac 13's scheme. With the aid of the rebuilt Kelex, Superman tricked Luthor into connecting a Kryptonian battlesuit to one of Brainiac 13's power conduits. Kelex then reactivated the Red Tornado to help Superman break Brainiac 13 down into his respective nanobots and trap him in the suit.

Brainiac 13 was able to work with Brainiac 2.5—now transferred into the aged body of Lena Luthor—and prepared a tactic against Imperiex for the upcoming Imperiex War. The Brainiacs successfully engineered Imperiex's defeat, allowing Brainiac 13 to absorb Imperiex's power and use it to overpower the combined heroes and villains of the universe while simultaneously devastating both Earth and Apokolips. Brainiac 13 planned to use the power he stole from Imperiex to conquer the universe and reshape it in his image, and is made so powerful by the absorption that none of the heroes, not even Superman, can hope to damage him. However, with help from Lex's temporal displacement technology and Darkseid's Boom Tube technology boosted by magic supplied by Tempest and the Amazons, Superman was able to destroy Brainiac 13 and Imperiex by sending them through a temporal Boom tube where they were annihilated in the Big Bang. Brainiac 13 had his body disintegrated and the remnants of his mind scattered across sixty trillion light years, finally killing the chronologically last known version of Brainiac.

After the death of Brainiac 13, Superman discovered that the version of Krypton he previously visited via the Phantom Zone was, in fact, a trap created by Brainiac 13. Having been defeated by Kryptonian technology, Brainiac 13 had traveled back in time to the real Krypton prior to its destruction. There, he stole the Eradicator matrix and Jor-El's diaries, and created a false Krypton based on Jor-El's favorite period in history.

Sometime later, Superman traveled into the future and battled Brainiac 12. He learned that everything Brainiac 13 did in the past was designed to ensure things reached the point where Brainiac 13 would be created. Brainiac 12's defeat before his upgrade apparently reversed the advances Brainiac 13 had made to Metropolis.

The Insiders
Around the time of the Graduation Day event, a future version of Brainiac, called Brainiac 6, used his "granddaughter", Brainiac 8 (also known as Indigo), to kill Donna Troy to ensure the fate of Colu. Indigo then infiltrated the Outsiders until she attacked the team, along with Brainiac 6 and his allies, Lex Luthor, and a brainwashed Superboy, who had attacked the Teen Titans. In the ensuing battle, Indigo died and Superboy broke away from the brainwashing, while Luthor escaped. While his ship was destroyed, Brainiac's condition and whereabouts after the battle are unknown.

Silver Age Brainiac in the Post-Crisis universe
Later stories revealed that elements of Brainiac's Pre-Crisis history occurred in the Post-Crisis character's history prior to his possession of Milton Fine and his first encounter with Superman. The citizens of Kandor recall that Brainiac stole their city from Krypton, and not the alien wizard Tolos.

History of the DC Universe mentions his defeat by the Omega Men, although this is not seen in Crisis on Infinite Earths itself, and noted a second Brainiac was created in a laboratory on Earth two years later. In the Silver Age: JLA one-shot, the Injustice League discovered numerous shrunken alien cities found in Brainiac's abandoned spaceship.

Brainiac's updated mechanical form

Brainiac later reappeared as a swarm of interlinked nanotechnological units. Its operation was to sabotage a Waynetech research facility accomplished by infecting Metallo with a computer virus and controlling him from orbit. Superman and Batman tracked Brainiac's signal to an orbital facility and attacked. Brainiac's nanoswarm body was destroyed, though he had infected the Metal Men during their previous encounter with Metallo. Brainiac proceeded to use them to acquire a prototype OMAC unit, which Bruce Wayne had developed through the use of Brainiac 13 nanotechnology. Superman and Batman destroyed the OMAC body with the aid of the Metal Men, after the Metal Men overcame Brainiac's control.

Return

Following revisions to Superman's continuity in Infinite Crisis and Action Comics #850, Brainiac reappeared in a self-titled five-part story arc in Action Comics. In Action Comics #866 (August 2008), a Brainiac robot probe (resembling his skeleton-esque Pre-Crisis incarnation, and mistaken for the real Brainiac by Clark) arrives on Earth and battles Superman. After the probe is defeated, information about Superman's blood is sent to the original Brainiac. As Brainiac wakes up, his computer announces "Attempt #242 in progress", a reference to Brainiac's first appearance in Action Comics #242, and to the many encounters between Brainiac and Superman. In the following issue, Supergirl reveals to Superman that Brainiac shrunk the Kryptonian city of Kandor and placed it in a bottle, and that all previous incarnations of Brainiac that Superman has encountered were just probes, clones, and nanite-controlled bodies. She notes that no one has ever actually seen Brainiac. Inspired by Supergirl's story, Superman attempts to find Brainiac and stop him. He heads to a world under attack by Brainiac just in time to be caught in a supernova as Brainiac destroys the system's star and the populated world along with it. The supernova knocks Superman out, and he is caught and brought onto Brainiac's ship.

Superman escapes from his imprisonment and sees Brainiac emerging from his "bio-shell". This version of Brainiac resembles a much larger and more muscular version of the original, Pre-Crisis Brainiac, and has motives similar to the Superman: The Animated Series incarnation of the character in that he travels the universe and steals the knowledge of various alien cultures, abducting and shrinking cities from each planet as samples, and then destroys the planet so that the value of the destroyed civilization's knowledge is increased. Superman attacks Brainiac, but Brainiac manages to overpower the Man of Steel before restraining him with the help of his ship's internal systems. Brainiac inserts the subdued Superman into a machine that allows him to read the Kryptonian's mind, with the intent of assimilating his brain. Brainiac's ship then travels to Earth and prepares to abduct the city of Metropolis.

Brainiac successfully steals Metropolis, and prepares to fire a missile that will destroy the Sun and the Earth itself. Supergirl ends up captured along with the rest of Metropolis, but Superman breaks out of his restraints again and frees her. Supergirl stops the missile, while Superman battles Brainiac. Brainiac appears to have the advantage in physical combat yet again, but Superman knocks Brainiac out of his ship and into a swamp, where Brainiac is overwhelmed by the microscopic organisms covering his body. Superman uses this distraction to defeat Brainiac. While Superman frees the cities of Metropolis and Kandor, the villain launches a missile to the Kent farm in an act of spite. The farm is destroyed, and Jonathan Kent suffers a fatal heart attack because of it. Brainiac is brought to a top-secret military base, where the imprisoned Lex Luthor is assigned to discover his secrets. Luthor eventually manages to use Brainiac's connection to his ship to kill the soldiers assigned to watch him. Brainiac manages to free himself from Luthor's control, forcing him on board the ship, and the two make their escape.

Notably, upon learning of Brainiac's modus operandi of destroying planets by destabilizing nearby stars when he is done collecting cities and knowledge from said planets, Superman openly speculates that Brainiac destroyed Krypton, which was destroyed when its sun went nova soon after Brainiac abducted Kandor and Argo. He also asks the alien what he did to Krypton's sun. Brainiac ignores the query, neither confirming or denying his responsibility, though he does heavily imply it ("In fifty-seven minutes, my solar aggressor will reach your sun. It will flare up, and the Earth will be incinerated. Just like Krypton."). Superman still believes Brainiac had a part in Krypton's destruction after the end of this story arc.

New Krypton

Following this, Brainiac, now in possession of his ship again, unleashes his robot army against the newly created planet of New Krypton, and the Kryptonian citizens rise up to fight the drones. General Zod's army proves totally unable to fend them off, as the Brainiac's ship's force fields are seemingly invulnerable and his drones are equipped with red sunray guns, allowing them to kill tens of thousands of Kryptonians. Superman, being the only one who knows how to penetrate his force fields (having learned the trick in the previous story arc), manages to enter Brainiac's ship. Supergirl leads the Kryptonians against the drones, but is attacked by an anti-Kryptonian Brainiac probe. Superboy, Mon-El, and the Legion of Super-Heroes join the fight and save Supergirl.

After this, Brainiac shrinks Kandor again and re-bottles it, including a miniature red sun to de-power all the Kryptonians inside. The Legion, Supergirl, Superboy, Zod, and Superman all make it on to Brainiac's ship, thanks to Brainiac 5 hacking his ancestor's force fields and allowing them entry. The Legion explains to Zod that, just as Krypton's city of Kandor is held in a bottle onboard Brainiac's ship, other planets' cities are also imprisoned, and, therefore, Zod cannot destroy Brainiac's ship until the cities can be rescued. Zod sends Supergirl off and then arrests the Legionnaires, branding them terrorists. Meanwhile, Superman is about to face off against Brainiac when he is knocked down by a kryptonite energy blast fired by Lex Luthor and subsequently captured. Brainiac locks him in captivity with the intent to experiment on him, but Superman escapes and meets up with the rest of the superheroes and Zod on a separate section of the ship. Zod enters the scene and engages Brainiac in combat while Supergirl, Superboy, and the Legion recover the bottled cities on Brainiac's ship, including Kandor. Zod seems to be losing his fight with Brainiac, when suddenly Superman gets up and tackles Brainiac from behind. Before the battle between the two Kryptonians and the villain can continue, Brainiac's ship starts to destabilize and descend towards the planet. It is revealed that Lex Luthor sabotaged the ship and re-sized one of the cities while inside.

Luthor's intervention causes the ship to crash into New Krypton, destroying it while Supergirl and the Legion re-size Kandor. However, the city that Luthor expanded is still growing, now putting Kandor at risk. As Brainiac 5 works on the problem, Supergirl is shocked to discover Superman impaled by pieces of Brainiac's ship as a result of the explosion. Superman appears to have been fatally stricken. Luthor, though reeling from the explosion, is pleased with all the destruction he has caused. Brainiac confronts Luthor in the ruins of the ship and is furious that Lex sabotaged his ship. Luthor mocks him and spits in his eye before Brainiac angrily snaps Luthor's neck, killing him.

Now deprived of his ship and technology, and seemingly depowered by his ship's destruction, Brainiac finds himself faced by an entire city of angry, solar-powered Kryptonians. Zod is eager for a final showdown with Brainiac, who calls Zod a coward for confronting Brainiac with his powers intact and an army of super-powered Kryptonians at his back. In response, Zod fires the red sun radiation from an Archer rifle at himself, to remove his powers and thus supposedly level the playing field as he prepares to take Brainiac down. Brainiac 5 gives Superman a transfusion of Conner's blood and exposes him to a large dose of concentrated yellow sun rays, successfully reviving him.

Despite the loss of his powers, Zod is able to get the upper hand on the similarly powerless Brainiac and force him to his knees. Zod is about to shoot Brainiac when Superman intervenes. This causes a heated argument between Superman and Zod. Zod commands his soldiers to restrain Kal-El so Zod can proceed with the execution of Brainiac. Brainiac 5, sensing that this is his moment of destiny, steps in and teleports himself and Brainiac off of New Krypton.

It is revealed that Lex used a Luthor robot, supplied by the Toyman, to accomplish his mission on New Krypton, and that Brainiac killed the robot instead. Lex discusses with General Lane how his objective, to bring chaos to New Krypton, was achieved. Lex has been working as an agent of General Lane all along. The disarray that Lex caused provides Lane with a window of opportunity as he prepares for the impending war with New Krypton. Lex receives a Presidential pardon for his efforts. The story ends with Zod rallying his people as he declares war on the planet Earth. The story concludes in the next miniseries, Superman: War of the Supermen.

Mon-El plants the many bottled cities that Brainiac has captured over the years on various planets across the galaxy. These cities will one day become the United Planets by the 31st century, the same planets that will produce the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Brainiac 5 takes Brainiac to their homeworld of Colu where he hands him over to Vril Dox, a.k.a. Brainiac 2. Vril Dox happily turns his "father" over to his people for his crimes. However Lyrl Dox, a.k.a. Brainiac 3, releases his "grandfather" with a weapon called Pulsar Stargrave. What then occurs is an all-out battle for Colu between all three present-day Brainiacs. Vril Dox even calls in Lobo for help. Brainac breaks out of his prison and, after causing much damage on Colu, escapes with Pulsar Stargrave in tow for parts unknown.

The New 52
Brainiac's origin in "The New 52" is revealed in Superman #23.2. Vril Dox was acknowledged as the greatest scientist on his homeworld, Yod-Colu, given his advances in force field technology and miniaturization. He developed an artificial intelligence, C.O.M.P.U.T.O., allowing him to discover the fifth dimension. Dox discovered the fifth dimension was in a state of war, and a group of its inhabitants, the Multitude, had entered their dimension and destroyed over a hundred planets. Realizing Yod-Colu was next in the Multitude's path, Dox tried to find a way to save his planet, even performing experiments on his son. The magistrates of Yod-Colu sentenced Dox to exile, but Dox used C.O.M.P.U.T.O. to take control of Yod-Colu's computer networks. Copying the planet's database, Dox constructed an army of robot servants called Terminauts and miniaturized the city his wife and son lived on and bottled it in a force field, while the rest of Yod-Colu was destroyed by the Multitude.

After the destruction of Yod-Colu, Dox constructed an army of starships and distributed his consciousness across a series of robots that would each travel the universe to preserve planets from the Multitude, becoming known as the Collector of Worlds. One of these robots attacked Krypton. Dox became fascinated by Jor-El, a Kryptonian scientist who actually saved his homeworld from the Multitude. Upon returning to Krypton, however, Dox discovered Krypton had been destroyed.

Referred to at first as 'The Collector of Worlds', Brainiac is first seen as the mysterious informant that supplies Lex Luthor information of Superman and his alien nature. Clark is having a dream of Krypton's final moments in which an artificial intelligence that controls the planet wakes up robots in an attempt to preserve the Kryptonian culture. Later, while Clark conducts an interview in a robotic factory, the same harvester robots appear.

John Corben (the soon-to-be supervillain Metallo) is suddenly possessed by the artificial intelligence. It demands Superman. The robots create havoc throughout Metropolis, but Superman soon realizes that they are really after him. Superman fights the possessed Corben with the help of John Henry Irons.

Although they managed to defeat him, the alien sentience had already miniaturized and bottled the city of Metropolis and took it to his ship in space. Superman travels to the ship to find many alien bottled cities, Kandor included. The alien identifies himself as a being from the planet Colu where he was known as C.O.M.P.U.T.O and on Krypton he was called Brainiac 1.0. He claims that, without Superman and the ship that brought him to Earth, his Kryptonian collection is incomplete. The alien intelligence demands Superman make a choice: the intelligence will disable life support in both the Kandor and Metropolis bottles, and Superman must choose which city to save using indestructible Kryptonian armor found on the ship.

Superman decides on neither and wears the armor (which changes instantly into the current Superman costume design). Brainiac sends Metallo to attack Superman, but due to Superman reasoning with him over his feelings for Lois Lane, he breaks free of Brainiac's control and joins Superman in his attack. Superman then uses his rocket from Krypton that had also been miniaturized with Metropolis to attack Brainiac's mind, which the rocket was able to do since its primary mission was to protect Kal-El. In doing so, Metropolis was returned to Earth and Superman took possession of Brainiac's ship and made it his new super citadel.

Notably, the ship Clark was placed into as a child was described as having "Brainiac AI", leaving the identity of the Collector of Worlds in doubt. The Colony of the Collector of Worlds told Superman that its AI technology went by different names, beginning on Yod-Colu as C.O.M.P.U.T.O. On Noma, he was called Pneumenoid; on Bryak it was Mind2; on Krypton he was called Brainiac 1.0; and, finally on Earth, he is the Internet.

After this defeat, Brainiac retreated to deeper parts of the cosmos, and eventually came across the planet Tolerance, the setting of a bounty hunting glimmernet game show called The Hunted. Striking a deal with Lady Styx, overlord of the Tenebrian Dominion, he bottles a portion of the Sh'diki Borough of Tolerance to add to his collection. He encounters Jediah Caul, a former member of the Green Lantern Corps, who combats and infects Brainiac's ship. Ultimately, Brainiac abandons his plans with the Sh'diki Borough and ejects Caul and the bottled city before leaving for parts unknown.

Back on Earth, during an investigation of 20 kidnapped people who developed metahuman powers after being kidnapped by Brainiac, one of these 20 infects Lois Lane, thereby giving Brainiac control over a close ally of Superman. Brainiac plots his return to Earth, using Lane to infiltrate Earth's defense systems to allow an easier path for his physical return. and even upgrading her body to contain his 12th level intelligence. His minion Cyborg-Superman (a reconstructed Zor-El, father of Supergirl) constructs a portal to allow Brainiac's command ship and "daughter ships" to travel to Earth from throughout the galaxy.

Superman, whom Brainiac had conspired to 'infect' with the monster Doomsday to drive him away from Earth, uses his augmented power to attack Brainiac's gigantic mothership and break through to its core and, finally, Vril Dox himself. The Coluan appears still-humanoid, and explains his reasoning for stealing minds from throughout the universe: he has concluded that if he can 'unite' the minds of a certain critical number of people, he will be able to change reality itself. His motivation for this appears a desire to right the wrongs he feels responsible for: the loss of his wife and child back on Colu. His plan is undone when Superman drags him, mothership and all, into a black hole. But then, Vril Dox is snatched away to safety, it seems, by a being who appears to be the true Brainiac: an immensely powerful entity from outside the universe itself.

Convergence
This version of Brainiac, a composite of Brainiac from around the Multiverse, is revealed to be the pre-Flashpoint era Brainiac who, having found his way into the Source Wall and into the Multiverse, was thrown back in the timestream and mutated by the effects of "crisis" events such as Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, and 52, creating a godlike being. He then uncovered the location of Vanishing Point from nearly killing New 52 Earth-0's Michelle Carter, from which he could roam the complete history of the Multiverse, collecting doomed cities from defunct timelines, alternative futures, and parallel worlds to add to his collection, in Convergence, leaving behind an agent, Telos, to rule a planet of the same name containing the cities. Brainiac's attempt to do this to a future timeline of Earth-0 was narrowly averted by the heroes in the story The New 52: Futures End; Brainiac was contained in a T-sphere, leaving Telos stranded without his master, prompting the events of Convergence in which the planets are bid to fight each other. When the events of Convergence nearly end in an irreversible destruction of the Multiverse, the time traveller Waverider, formerly the pre-Flashpoint Booster Gold, frees Brainiac, who reveals he is sick from his mutations and only wishes to return to normal, to being Brainiac of Colu. He sends most of the heroes home, and with help from the Zero Hour Parallax and the pre-Flashpoint Superman, averts the collapse of the Multiverse from Crisis on Infinite Earths, and is returned to the normal Brainiac. His actions also allow various parallel universes and alternate timelines to exist as the new Multiverse.

DC Rebirth
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Brainiac's name is first referenced in an issue of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. The entirety of the Green and Yellow Lanterns (including Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart), along with Starro the Conqueror, are lured into a trap and subsequently hit with a shrink ray while on the planet Xudar, leaving them tiny and helpless. In the next issue, they are trapped in a bottle, and their jailer is revealed to be a robot claiming to run on "Brainiac 2.0" software. The robot heavily resembles both Brainiac's 1983 skeleton-esque incarnation and the robotic drones utilized by the post-2008 version of Brainiac. It has a collection of shrunken bottled planets, and travels in a ship resembling Brainiac's skullship. At the time it was not clear if this was the true Brainiac after Rebirth or yet another one of his drones.

The machine's victory is short-lived, however, as it is revealed that Larfleeze was able to reprogram it to his side using an Orange Lantern ring, having rebooted its life systems after finding it inactive on his homeworld with its ship. Larfleeze is impressed that the machine was able to capture the Green Lanterns and Starro, and even more impressed with the machine's shrinking technology, and plans to hijack its technology to put together his own collection. He takes the ship and collection to his homeworld of Okaara. However, upon being informed that the Yellow and Green Lanterns are still fighting inside the bottle and trying to kill each other, Larfleeze's own greed for having everything gets the best of him and he ends up breaking the container. This frees the Lanterns, and somehow restores them to their normal size and strength, after which they immediately start rampaging inside the ship and trashing Brainiac/Larfleeze's collection. Hal, Kyle, John and Guy go on to lead the attack on the Orange Lantern Corps. With everyone fighting together, the Orange Lantern Corps are quickly overwhelmed. Larfleeze accuses the robot of playing him; when it responds that it simply did what he programmed it to do, Larfleeze destroys it in a rage.

The Superman storyline "New World" later confirmed via a flashback cameo that the Post-Crisis, post-2008 version of Brainiac (the tall, muscular, green-skinned cybernetic alien scientist) still exists in the post-Rebirth continuity, and has encountered Superman in the past. Thus, the robot that defeated Starro, the Green Lantern Corps, and the Yellow Lantern Corps before subsequently being dispatched by Larfleeze was, in fact, one of his drones.

No Justice
Brainiac later arrived on Earth again and battled the Justice League, who proved no match for him and his ship, until Superman arrived. However, he did not come to destroy the Earth, but to deliver a warning: that there is a cosmic-level threat in the universe coming to Earth, one that the heroes of Earth are woefully ill-prepared for. Brainiac thinks he can defeat the threat, but it means teaming up with Superman and the Justice League and combining members of the League with some of the most dangerous supervillains in the DC Universe and sending them into battle against this extinction-level menace. Four teams outfitted with Brainiac's technology are formed (including among other members, Lex Luthor, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Sinestro), with Brainiac himself working directly alongside his nemesis, Superman.

The No Justice miniseries begins with the Omega Titans, the aforementioned threat, attacking Colu, Brainiac's homeworld, which explains Brainiac's kidnapping of Earth's superheroes and supervillains. Brainiac claims to have developed a plan to defeat the Omega Titans and the superheroes only need to follow his orders to win, but Amanda Waller uses the hidden Protocol XI, which involves kidnapping the world's most dangerous psychics, to probe Brainiac's mind and find out what he knows. The strain of the psychic attack causes Brainiac's head to explode, apparently killing him. His clone-son, Vril Dox/Brainiac II, later revealed that if Brainiac's plan had been followed, he would've hijacked the power of the Titans himself, destroyed Earth, and conquered Colu before going on to dominate the universe.

Legion of Doom
Brainiac's body is later recovered by Lex Luthor, who sets Professor Ivo on reconstructing it with the intention of the alien joining the Legion of Doom. He initially tries to betray the Legion soon after awakening, but Luthor is able to convince him that they're better off working together after a linking of their minds. The Legion's plan revolves around reviving and empowering a cosmic being named Perpetua. Brainiac aids them in this goal, and as a result is able to go around the multiverse and bottle "hypertime", essentially entirely different timelines. Confronting the Justice League in the 853rd century, Brainiac used the knowledge and technology of these hundreds of advanced timelines to upgrade himself into Brainiac One Million, a colossal new form of unparalleled power. He planned to destroy the timelines he had abducted after completing his battle, to keep his knowledge exclusive, boasting that when this iteration of the multiverse dies, he alone will have its knowledge. Multiple alternate Justice Leagues from across the universe prove unable to defeat him even working together. However, when Perpetua is finally revived at full power, even his abilities prove nothing compared to her nigh-omnipotence, and she decides to use it to turn him into her new control station/throne, effectively subverting him into a tool.

Brainiac 6
Brainiac 6 and other members of the "gang" first appear in Adventures of the Super Sons #1.

Powers, abilities, and equipment
Brainiac's most consistent power (endemic to all versions) is his "twelfth-level intelligence", allowing calculation abilities, enhanced memory, and advanced understanding of mechanical engineering, bioengineering, physics, and as well as other theoretical and applied sciences. For comparison, the population of 20th century Earth constitutes a sixth-level intelligence, while the population of 31st century Earth are a ninth-level intelligence. His Post-Crisis incarnation claims that his brain can process and sort knowledge of over four hundred ninety octodecillion beings (4.9 × 1059), which is an enormous number, about five billion times the estimated number of atoms on Earth. All the different versions have created devices such as a force field belt capable of withstanding Superman's most powerful blows, and a shrink ray capable of reducing cities.

Brainiac's advanced mental powers have shown him capable of possessing others, absorbing information from other beings, transferring his consciousness, creating and manipulating computer systems, replicating duplicate bodies for himself, and exerting powers to traverse or control spacetime. Among organic beings, Brainiac views only his frequent partner Lex Luthor as a peer intellect. Brainiac is usually depicted with incredibly high levels of strength, durability, and speed; the exact level varies, but usually hovers at around Superman's strength. Brainiac's exact abilities vary drastically throughout his various incarnations.

Pre-Crisis abilities
Originally, Brainiac was a scientist with no superhuman abilities aside from his intellect. He fought Superman via the use of his advanced technology and cunning, similar to Lex Luthor. Among these were a force field belt that protects him from all harm, a shrink ray to capture and bottle cities (even Metropolis), and a headpiece consisting of a cluster of diode/electrode-like objects. His cybernetic headpiece lets him interface with technology and discharge energy blasts from his head, which were powerful enough to significantly harm Superman. The Man of Steel described these blasts as "blindingly painful... almost unbearable" and a threat to his life. When the Crisis on Infinite Earths struck, Brainiac could detect the lies of others by reading their thoughts. The Pre-Crisis Brainiac was referred to by an omniscient narrator as "the super-computer space pirate-- Superman's most powerful nemesis."

Brainiac as an unpowered being reliant on external weaponry was largely still the case even after he was retconned as an android, but in the 1980s, everything changed. This was when he gained the abilities that would persist through all subsequent incarnations: super physical attributes, intelligence, and technopathy. His technopatic abilities extend to control of his ship, with which he shares a symbiotic relationship. He is capable of downloading his consciousness to spare robotic bodies in the event the original is destroyed or damaged. Brainiac can also possess organic beings under certain circumstances, as he did to Luthor during Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?.

The final body utilized by the Pre-Crisis Brainiac (resembling a robotic skeleton) was technopathic, superhumanly strong, and resilient, and was capable of generating and "spinning" psychokinetic energies into a web-like net which could hold even Superman at bay. Among the knowledge he absorbed was extensive information of hand-to-hand combat techniques, making him a highly skilled combatant. Despite this, he saw physical confrontation as beneath him, and preferred to defeat foes with his mind.

Post-Crisis abilities

Probes
John Byrne's re-imagining of the character has telepathy and telekinesis, as well as extensive knowledge of various alien technologies. He was an artificial intelligence who had inhabited the body of a human psychic and awakened his powers, further enhancing them with an implanted electrode headpiece. His vast psychic powers allowed him to seriously challenge Superman and defeat many members of the New Gods (including Orion) with a single blast, but this body's lack of durability is the major liability and eventually led to it being rendered useless in a gasoline explosion. After the organic body was destroyed, his consciousness built and possessed multiple robotic bodies, and occasionally hijacks other organic bodies (such as Doomsday's). His abilities were dependent on the body he was inhabiting at the time, in which could vary from weak as normal to far stronger than abnormal. His nanoswarm incarnation, known as Brainiac 2.5 for instance, can shapeshift, regenerate, bend technology to his whim, project energy blasts and force fields, and match Superman blow for blow; Superman stated Brainiac to have physical strength on par with Doomsday in this form. His strongest incarnation was Brainiac 13, who, even prior to absorbing Imperiex, was so physically formidable that Superman cannot remotely affect, much less damage him. By contrast, Brainiac could easily kill Superman in a short time, if he have not been devoted to torture the Man of Steel.

True form
It was later revealed that this version of Brainiac (like the previous ones) is merely a mentally-controlled probe. The real Brainiac, who was a living Coluan, had himself both genetically and cybernetically modified. The true Brainiac lacked psychic powers, but still have abilities identical to his original incarnations. He possesses a level of strength and durability far greater than Superman; capable of easily overpowering the Kryptonian in unarmed combat, and withstanding several consecutive blows to the face from Superman without visible harm. His speed is vastly surpassing, so fast that he once caught a punch thrown by the Man of Steel. At one point, Brainiac 5 warns Superman that he would most likely die against Brainiac in a straight fight.

Despite his massive biomechanical modifications, Brainiac has a few weaknesses. Like the Pre-Crisis Brainiac, he is telepathically linked to his ship in such way that if separation of it without warning can disable him for a short period. But, prolonged periods causes him to physically deteriorate and become less powerful; just as Lex Luthor observed this while studying his unconscious body over course of several days when it was in custody of the U.S. government. Initially, he is only overloaded in particularly dirty environments and human society via mysophobia while landing into the Earth's atmosphere. Though, Brainiac does not seem to have this defect on Earth in his later battles, such as defeating Superboy. Suggesting that he fixed it.

This Brainiac is an incredibly experienced fighter, but like his Pre-Crisis counterpart is most dangerous due to the advanced technology he wields, much of it of his own invention. These include his classic shrink ray and force field belt, and other gadgets such as missiles capable of causing stars to go into a premature supernova state. His force fields are so impregnable that a direct hit from an energy weapon killed several solar-powered Kryptonians as collateral damage and didn't leave so much a single scratch on his ship. Brainiac also possesses an army of at least ten or thousand humanoid robotic "probes". These probes are strong enough to draw more blood from Superman and tough enough to survive some of his powerful blows. During the New Krypton story arc, Brainiac upgraded his drones with red-sun ray guns for the purpose of fighting fully powered Kryptonians. When Brainiac orders them to attack New Krypton, they quickly kill over eleven thousand Kryptonians.

He is a bionically engineered cyborg who wants to acquire more knowledge and become "better". With his ship, twelfth-level intellect, and powerful technology, Brainiac has captured a thousand cities, absorbed all the information, and destroyed many worlds. Making him into the most feared being in that known universe.

The New 52 abilities
Brainiac, in The New 52, seems to have kept most of the powers and equipment of his Post-Crisis incarnation (including his shrink ray, force field belt, and robot army), with notable additions. Brainiac's ship has been massively upgraded in this incarnation; it is now larger than the entire planetary system, and carries within a huge invasion fleet of smaller ships in numerous types. He still appears to possess the physical strength, near-invulnerability, and fast speed of his Post-Crisis counterpart, as shown when he easily defeats Zor-El. By the Superman: Doomed story arc, Brainiac utilizes his vast intellect to become an enormously powerful psychic, augmented by the alien minds that he had stolen and digitized from across every galaxy. Then, he is capable of taking control of eight billion minds on Earth at the same time. He also demonstrates considerable mental abilities, claiming that their combined brainwaves throughout the universe can allow him to alter reality at will. He plans on using this newfound power to remake it into own his image. However, Brainiac's plan prematurely ended when Superman battles him telepathically and crashes his ship into a black hole.

Following the Doomed story arc, it is further revealed that this Pre-Crisis Brainiac somehow escaped and mutated from the Crisis on Infinite Earths itself ever since. Becoming a god-like being, this version of Brainiac is virtually omnipotent with the ability to warp universes and time travel. Using this New 52 incarnation as one of his probes, he either created or interacted with different iterations of himself throughout the whole multiverse. Brainiac has grown so much in power that he can collect cities from other universes at will. At the end of the Convergence story arc, he recreates the DC Multiverse.

Reception
In 2009, IGN ranked Brainiac 17th in their "Top 100 Comic Book Vilains" list.

Other versions
The character has been depicted in various out-of-continuity stories. In the Amalgam Comics line, which was a joint venture between DC and Marvel Comics, readers are introduced to Galactiac, a combination of Brainiac and Marvel Comics antagonist Galactus. Brainiac also appears in Superman: Red Son, JLA: Shogun of Steel, and the novel The Last Days of Krypton by author Kevin J. Anderson. A Brainiac's Daughter appeared in Kingdom Come as a member of Superman's Justice League. She is the daughter of Matrix/Trix and Brainiac.

Superman: Red Son
In the Superman: Red Son graphic novel, Brainiac (here depicted as an alien AI) serves as the main antagonist. He first appears working with Luthor in 1978 to undermine Superman, eventually shrinking and bottling the city of Stalingrad. Superman defeats Brainiac soon after, but his inability to restore Stalingrad becomes his one failure and a recurring source of guilt. After his defeat, Superman has Brainiac reprogrammed to serve him and the Earth, helping run Superman's Global Soviet Union, a task he performs for four decades. While serving Superman, Brainiac repeatedly advises him to take more drastic courses of action to resolve his problems, such as suggesting he merely invade Luthor's United States, though Superman always rebuffs his most extreme suggestions.

At the climax of the story, after Luthor infiltrates his capitol, Superman does decide to invade the United States, defeating a futuristic US Pacific Fleet and an army of superbeings (including Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Doomsday). Luthor is yanked down deep into the recesses of the Fortress by Brainiac to be converted surgically into a Superman robot. Brainiac and Superman storm the White House after defeating all the US's defenders. They are greeted by Lois Luthor with the last weapon, a small note written by President Lex Luthor that reads, "Why don't you just put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?". Superman, realizing the error of his ways, is horrified by the revelation that he has essentially become another Brainiac — "an alien bullying a less-developed species." He calls off the invasion, but Brainiac objects; he reveals that his twelfth-level intellect let him easily subvert any attempts at reprogramming him, and that he has never been under Superman's control. He attacks Superman with a kryptonite beam weapon, nearly killing him while boasting about how he will conquer the entire universe after finishing off all his foes on Earth. However, Brainiac is defeated when Luthor (having escaped surgery through undisclosed means) hacks and shuts off Brainiac from the inside. Brainiac's body is promptly destroyed by Superman.

In one last act of spite, Brainiac's death automatically triggers his ship's self-destruct, which, according to Luthor, would eradicate the entire Earth and everything within a  radius. As the gravitational singularities powering Brainiac's ship threaten to explode, Superman rockets it into outer space, where it explodes. The Earth is saved, but Superman is thought to have been caught in an explosion and killed. In the epilogue at Lex Luthor's funeral a thousand years in the future, it is revealed that unbeknownst to the rest of the Earth, Superman survived the destruction of Brainiac's ship. He walks quietly away from the ceremony, planning to live among humans rather than ruling over them.

JLA: Earth-2
In the JLA: Earth 2 one-shot, the Justice League are drawn to the anti-matter universe to defeat the Crime Syndicate of America, their villainous anti-matter counterparts, with Brainiac apparently acting as the robotic servant of Ultraman. However, after the Syndicate travel to the League's universe, it is revealed that the true mastermind of the scheme was Brainiac, who is revealed to be an organic life form trapped in a tank acting as Ultraman's servant, since Ultraman captured Brainiac's HQ "The Flying Fortress" having manipulated both teams into a position where they will be trapped in each other's worlds and thus unable to win, as the god of each world means that 'good' and 'evil' will always win in each world. However, Brainiac is defeated when the League deliberately deserts: so that the Syndicate can return in time to stop him.

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
In Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, set in a world where heroes have been publicly 'retired' for years as Lex Luthor took over and blackmailed assorted heroes into acting as his discreet 'servants', Brainiac is working with Luthor to keep the city of Kandor contained, the two destroying one Kryptonian family each time Superman defies them. He is eventually loved by Lara, the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, who claims to be surrendering to him only to allow the Atom to break the bottle from inside and allow the Kryptonians within to access their powers, decimating Brainiac with their heat vision.

Bizarro Brainiac
Bizarro #1 created this doppelganger of Brainiac to live on Bizarro World. Since Brainiac shrunk the city of Kandor, his Bizarro counterpart felt compelled to do the opposite, and expanded a city in Antarctica, creating Big City.

Flashpoint
In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Brainiac is the ruler of 31st century Earth, and has captured Kid Flash, whom he then placed in stasis, but Hot Pursuit managed to rescue the young speedster. Escaping from Brainiac's base, Kid Flash and Hot Pursuit formulate a plan to return to the 21st century. Kid Flash then allows himself to be recaptured by Brainiac and put into stasis. Kid Flash uses his super-speed in the virtual reality

Justice League/Power Rangers
Brainiac is one of the villains in the Justice League/Power Rangers crossover, when the Power Rangers and Lord Zedd accidentally travel to the DC Universe through a teleportation accident, with the Rangers arriving in Gotham City, while Zedd finds himself in one of the trapped cities on Brainiac's ship. Escaping from the bottle, Zedd proposes an alliance with Brainiac in exchange for providing Brainiac with a city from his Earth, Zedd releasing a wave of monsters across the world to distract the Justice League. Using the distraction of Zedd's monsters, Brainiac dispatches his drones to take control of the Rangers' zords, stealing their powers and fleeing back to their world, forcing the Rangers and the Justice League to 'borrow' the Large Hadron Collider to create a temporary dimensional transporter that will allow them all to get back to the Rangers' world. Back in the Rangers' world, Brainiac nearly takes control of Cyborg, but Billy Cranston is able to regain his powers in time to take Cyborg down so that Batman can reboot him. Brainiac has captured Alpha 5, officially to question him as the only other example of independent artificial sentience he has ever met, but Alpha, although speculating that Brainiac abducted him because the villain is lonely, rejects the idea that the two are similar, arguing that Brainiac's actions show a selfishness and an inability to grow where true sentience relies on making oneself open to working with others. After regaining their powers, the Rangers are able to rescue Alpha and force Brainiac into retreat.

The Kingdom
A version of Brainiac appears in The Kingdom set in the reality of Kingdom Come. A destroyed Brainiac is briefly revived by Ibn al Xu'ffasch, Lex Luthor and Ra's al Ghul to travel back in time to seize Jonathan Kent II. Stored in a defective Superman Robot, he battled Ibn and Nightstar, until they were destroyed in their time machine.

In other media

Television

Live-action
 Brainiac appears in Smallville, portrayed by James Marsters. This version is the BRAIN InterActive Construct, a Kryptonian nano-supercomputer created by Dax-Ur and Jor-El that is corrupted by Major Zod into destabilizing Krypton's core. Introduced in the fifth season, Brainiac arrives on Earth and assumes the identity of "Milton Fine", a history professor at Central Kansas A&M University, in a failed attempt to manipulate Clark Kent into releasing Zod from the Phantom Zone. Brainiac returns in the seventh and eighth seasons but is taken to the future and reprogrammed by the Legion of Super-Heroes as Brainiac 5 by the tenth season.
 An alternate universe version of Brainiac appears in the episode "Apocalypse" as the White House Chief of Staff under President Lex Luthor.
 Brainiac appears in Krypton, portrayed by Blake Ritson. This version is an alien android from the planet Colu who collects cities from planets and initially takes over the mind of Krypton's religious figure, the Voice of Rao. Brainiac's design was created through a combination of extensive makeup, prosthetics and CGI.

Animation
 Brainiac appears in The New Adventures of Superman, voiced by Cliff Owens.
 Brainiac appears in Challenge of the Superfriends, voiced by Ted Cassidy. This version is a member of the Legion of Doom.
 Brainiac appears in the Super Friends short "Superclone", voiced by Stanley Ralph Ross.
 Brainiac appears in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, voiced again by Stanley Ralph Ross.
 Brainiac appears in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians episode "Brain Child", voiced again by Stanley Ralph Ross.

 Brainiac appears in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), voiced by Corey Burton.
 Introduced in Superman: The Animated Series, this version is initially the planetary supercomputer of Krypton. Brainiac dismisses Jor-El's warnings of Krypton's imminent destruction so that he can secretly save himself and escape, after which he travels to other planets and assimilates their information before destroying them, believing their knowledge to be most valuable in his sole possession. Brainiac makes his way to Earth under the pretense of a peaceful exchange of knowledge with Lex Luthor, but his true intentions are uncovered by Jor-El's son, Superman, who seemingly destroys him along with his starship. Brainiac returns by downloading his consciousness into LexCorp's computers and Wayne Enterprises' database, but is defeated by Superman twice more. Additionally, a future version of Brainiac from the year 2979 travels back in time to kill Clark Kent before he can become Superman, only to be thwarted by the Legion of Super-Heroes.
 Brainiac appears in Justice League. He agrees to spare Apokolips if Darkseid helps him lure Superman and the Justice League to his asteroid headquarters. Brainiac attempts to extract Superman's DNA to create an organic body for himself, but both he and Darkseid are destroyed when the asteroid implodes.
 Brainiac appears in Static Shock. One of his circuit boards contained in the Justice League's Watchtower is reactivated by a cosmic storm, allowing him to take control of the facility. Brainiac brainwashes Gear and most of the League, but Static manages to stop him.
 Brainiac appears in Justice League Unlimited. It is revealed that he planted a copy of himself in Luthor's body and laid dormant for years while influencing Luthor's actions, curing his Kryptonite cancer, and giving him super-strength. Brainiac manipulates Luthor into funding Project Cadmus to create a duplicate body of Amazo for himself. When Amanda Waller and the Justice League foil his plan, Brainiac merges with Luthor using Cadmus' Dark Heart nanotechnology, but the Flash taps into the Speed Force to purge Brainiac from Luthor's body. Brainiac survives in Luthor's consciousness and Luthor obsessively attempts to revive him, only to inadvertently resurrect Darkseid instead.
 Brainiac appears in Legion of Super Heroes, voiced again by Corey Burton.
 Brainiac appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Richard McGonagle.
 Brainiac appears in The Looney Tunes Show episode "SuperRabbit", voiced by Eric Bauza.
 Brainiac makes a cameo appearance in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Laundry Day".
 An alternate universe version of Brainiac appears in the Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles episode "Bomb", voiced by Tara Strong. This version is a child-like android with psychic powers created by Doctor Sivana.
 Brainiac appears in Justice League Action, voiced by John de Lancie.
 Brainiac appears in My Adventures with Superman, voiced by Michael Emerson.

Film

Animation
 Brainiac appears in Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006), voiced by Lance Henriksen.
 Brainiac appears in Superman: Unbound (2013), voiced by John Noble.
 Brainiac makes a cameo appearance in Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite (2013), voiced by Troy Baker.
 Brainiac appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash (2016), voiced by Phil LaMarr.
 Brainiac appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games (2017), voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
 Brainiac appears in Superman: Red Son (2020), voiced by Paul Williams.
 Brainiac appears in films set in the Tomorrowverse, voiced by Darin De Paul. This version is the founder of the Dark Circle and wields Kryptonite bullets.
 Brainiac appears in Justice Society: World War II (2021).
 Brainiac appears in Legion of Super-Heroes (2023).

Video games
 Brainiac appears in Superman: The Man of Steel (1989).
 Brainiac appears as the final boss of Superman (1992).
 Brainiac appears as the final boss of and a playable character in Superman 64 (1999).
 Brainiac 13 appears as the final boss in Superman: The Man of Steel (2002).
 Brainiac appears as a boss in Justice League Heroes (2006), voiced by Peter Jessop.
 Brainiac appears as a boss in the Nintendo DS version of Superman Returns (2006).
 Brainiac appears in DC Universe Online (2011), voiced again by Corey Burton.
 Brainiac appears as a support card in the mobile version of Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013).
 Brainiac appears in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (2013).
 Brainiac appears as the final boss of and a playable character in Injustice 2 (2017), voiced by Jeffrey Combs.
 Brainiac will appear in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024).

Lego series
 Brainiac appears as a boss and playable character in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (2012), voiced by Troy Baker.
 Brainiac appears in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014), voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
 Brainiac makes a cameo appearance in Lego Dimensions (2015), voiced again by Dee Bradley Baker.
 Brainiac appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains (2018).

Miscellaneous
 Brainiac appears in the novel The Last Days of Krypton, by Kevin J. Anderson.
 Brainiac appears in Young Justice (vol. 2) #20.
 Brainiac appears in Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century #9.

Notes

References

External links
 Brainiac at Comic Vine

DC Comics supervillains
Characters created by Otto Binder
Comics characters introduced in 1958
Cyborg supervillains
DC Comics aliens
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters who have mental powers
DC Comics characters with accelerated healing
DC Comics characters with immortality
DC Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
DC Comics characters with superhuman senses
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
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DC Comics male supervillains
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DC Comics telekinetics
DC Comics telepaths
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Fictional characters who can duplicate themselves
Fictional characters who can manipulate reality
Fictional characters who can manipulate time
Fictional characters with dimensional travel abilities
Fictional characters with eidetic memory
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Brainiac (character)


The Astronomy Tower of the Sorbonne is a tower at the Sorbonne University's Paris campus built to house an astronomical observatory for its students. The structure was erected during the reconstruction of the Sorbonne, between 1885 and 1901. The tower is 39 meters high, has an upper and lower dome, and includes several rooms. The upper dome houses the telescope, and the lower dome contains an optics workshop for amateurs to make mirrors (previously, a meridian circle was installed in that space). The tower is operated by the Société astronomique de France and is available for tours and amateur observations.

Telescopes
The observatory originally had an equatorial mount telescope of 241 mm diameter and a 3,755 mm focal length constructed by the R. Mailhat company. The  instrument was transferred to the Paris Observatory in 1909.

In 1980, an equatorial mount refracting telescope of 153 mm diameter and 2,300 mm focal length was installed in the upper dome. The telescope is owned by the Société astronomique de France. It was built in 1935 and was originally installed in the Observatory of the rue Serpente on top of the society's former headquarters at 28, rue Serpente, Paris.

See also
 List of observatories

References

Astronomical observatories in France
1885 establishments in France
Astronomy in France

Astronomy Tower of the Sorbonne


Jenny Camp was a famous horse that competed in the sport of eventing.

Jenny Camp is possibly the most famous US army-bred horse. Her sire, the Thoroughbred Gordon Russell, was well known for his jumping ability, although her dam was of unknown breeding (thought to be part-Thoroughbred, part-Standardbred). Gordon Russell also produced the 1952 bronze medal-winning jumper Democrat. She was poorly conformed, being short-gaited with upright front pasterns, but was found to be very brave and agile. Due to her small size, , she was first used as a polo pony; when her jumping prowess was discovered, she was sent to be part of the three-day team.

The small mare was ridden by the great Captain Earl F. Thomson in two Olympics: the 1932 Los Angeles Games and the 1936 Berlin Games. She had great success, winning the individual silver medals at both Olympics as well as the team gold at the 1932 Games. This record makes her one of only three horses to win medals at consecutive Olympic Games; the others being Mark Todd's (NZ) Charisma and Marcroix, ridden by Holland's Lt. Charles F. Pahud de Mortanges.

Following her career, she was transferred to the Remount Depot at Fort Robinson to be bred.

Pedigree

References

External links
"Jenny Camp" - Photo

Eventing horses
Individual mares
Horses in the Olympics
1926 animal births

Jenny Camp


Wendy Robbins (born 30 October 1963 in Bromley, Kent) is a British radio and television presenter and producer. She presents The House I Grew Up In broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and reports for The One Show on BBC1.

Career
Prior to her career as a presenter, she was a journalist for The Sunday Times, and was one of the reporters who worked with Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician kidnapped by Mossad for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times. She was portrayed by the actress Celia Meiras in Nuclear Secrets – Vanunu and the Bomb, which chronicled the Vanunu affair, shown on BBC Television in 2007.

Robbins has worked for the BBC on the current affairs programmes Panorama, Newsnight, Breakfast Time, Correspondent, Public Eye, Here And Now and Watchdog. For BBC Radio she has presented From Our Own Correspondent, File on 4, Taking Note, Violent Britain and Five Live's Breakfast Show as well as Jewish London on GLR. In 2010, she presented a two part "personal journey" on modern antisemitism in Europe for the Heart and Soul programme on BBC World Service.

Robbins has also presented France Inside Out for BBC Two's Learning Zone and What's The Story? on Channel Five as well as BBC London News and the regional programmes First Sight in London and Spotlight in Northern Ireland. On the day Diana, Princess of Wales died in 1997, she reported for BBC Television and took part in the subsequent funeral coverage. Since 2007 she has presented BBC Radio 4's The House I Grew Up In, and since October 2010 has presented reports for The One Show on BBC One.

She has been Executive Producer for numerous BBC programmes including Casualty 1907 and Everest ER and for the independent production company CTVC. She presented Bosnia's War Babies on the BBC World Service and was Executive Producer for Too Old To Be A Mum? on BBC One in 2010 and My Big Gay Jewish Conversion on BBC One in 2017.

Personal life
Robbins lives in north-west London with her partner, the journalist/presenter of BBC Panorama John Ware, and three children.

References

External links

Wendy Robbins at British Film Institute database

1963 births
Living people
BBC newsreaders and journalists
BBC World Service presenters
British Jews
British television presenters
English television journalists
British reporters and correspondents
British television producers
British women television journalists
English women journalists
People from Bromley
British women radio presenters
British women television presenters
British women television producers

Wendy Robbins


The Jász () are a Hungarian subgroup of Eastern Iranic descent who have lived in Hungary since the 13th century. They live mostly in a region known as Jászság, which comprises the north-western part of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county. They are sometimes known in English by the exonym Jassic and are also known by the endonyms Iasi and Jassy. They originated as a nomadic Alanic people from the Pontic steppe.

Geography

The cultural and political center of Jászság is the town of Jászberény.

Jászság is sometimes, erroneously, known as "Jazygia", after a somewhat related Sarmatian people, the Iazyges, who lived in a similar area in ancient times.

History
The Jász people descend from nomadic Alanic tribes who settled in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary during the 13th century following the Mongol invasions. Their language, which belonged to the east Iranian group that includes modern Ossetian, died out by the 16th century, since which time the Jász speak Hungarian.

Their name is almost certainly related to that of the Iazyges, one of the Sarmatian tribes which, along with the Roxolani, reached the borders of Dacia during the late 1st century BC (the city of Iași is named for them). Residual elements of these tribes, ancestors of the Jász people, remained behind in the central North Caucasus, mingling with Caucasian peoples to form the present-day Ossetes.

The Jász people came to the Kingdom of Hungary, together with the Cumanians ( people) when their lands to the east, in some in the later Moldavia (see Iași or ) were invaded by the Mongol Empire in the mid-13th century. They were admitted by the Hungarian king, Béla IV Árpád, who hoped that the Jászs would assist in resisting the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Shortly after their entry, the relationship worsened dramatically between the Hungarian nobility and the Cumanian-Jász tribes, which then abandoned the country. After the end of the Mongol-Tatar invasion they returned and settled in the central part of the Pannonian Plain, near the rivers Zagyva and Tarna.

Initially, their main occupation was animal husbandry. Over the next two centuries they were assimilated into the Hungarian population; yet although their language disappeared, they preserved a distinct Jász identity. The Hungarian rulers granted the Jász people special privileges. Thus, the Jász were able to be more or less self-governing in an area known as Jászság in which Jászberény developed into the regional, cultural and administrative center.

In the 16th–17th centuries, areas populated by the Jász people were under Ottoman administration, but at the end of the 17th century they were recaptured and returned to the Kingdom of Hungary, which was then part of the Habsburg monarchy. Habsburg Emperor Leopold I sold the area to the Knights of the Teutonic Order. This saw the end of the privileged position of Jászberény. However, the Jász people did not want to accept this situation and started to collect money with which they could buy their freedom. By 1745, they had collected half a million Rhenish gold florins, a considerable sum for those days. However, in this time the famous 'Act of Redemption' took place: the Empress Maria Theresa restored the Jász land and Jász hereditary privileges. From this point onwards, Jászberény flourished. The Jász regional autonomy was preserved until the year 1876, when the area populated by the Jász was administratively included into the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County.

After dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, areas populated by the Jasz people were included into an independent Hungary. Over a dozen settlements in the Great Hungarian Plain (e.g. the names Jászberény, Jászárokszállás, Jászfényszaru, Jászalsószentgyörgy) still include a link to the Jász. In 1995, the 250th Anniversary of the Act of Redemption was celebrated in Jászberény with the President of Hungary as guest of honor as well as with numerous foreign dignitaries.

Language
Jassic is the common name in English for the original language of the Jász. It was a dialect of Ossetian, an Eastern Iranian language. Jassic became extinct and was replaced by Hungarian. The only literary record of the Jász language was found in the 1950s in the Hungarian National Széchényi Library. The language was reconstructed with the help of various Ossetian analogies.

Genetics
Genetic studies on people from various Jász regions, have established a firm link towards other Hungarian ethnic groups, while simultaneously having shown a significant shift towards Iranian peoples, and especially Turkic ethnic groups with significant Sarmatian-related ancestry such as the Bashkirs of Bashkortostan.

Y-DNA haplogroups among people from Jász regions have been shown to be more diverse than those of other Hungarian people.

Notable people of Jassic descent
 Sándor Csányi
 István Csukás

Related articles and peoples
Alans
Hungarians
Székelys
Saka
Scythians
Iron people

References

External links
 Jaszbereny, Hungary. Yazd, Iran

Ethnic groups in Hungary
Iranian ethnic groups
Iranian nomads
Historical Iranian peoples
Hungarian people by ethnic or national origin
Ossetian diaspora

Jasz people


Mandelbachtal is a municipality in the Saarpfalz district, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated near the border with France, approx. 15 km southeast of Saarbrücken. Its capital is Ormesheim.

Community organization
Mandelbachtal is composed of the communities of Bebelsheim, Bliesmengen-Bolchen, Erfweiler-Ehlingen, Habkirchen, Heckendalheim, Ommersheim, Ormesheim, and Wittersheim.

Name
The municipality of Mandelbachtal was formed in 1974. The name is derived from the valley of the Mandelbach, in which four of the eight communities composing the town are located:  Erfweiler-Ehlingen, Wittersheim, Bebelsheim und Habkirchen. From the headwaters to the mouth of the Mandelbach there are many pollarded willows, Kopfweiden, also called Korbweiden ("basket willows"). From the shoots of these willows in previous centuries people wove baskets necessary for local agriculture.  Because the willow leaves resembled those of the almond the tree was colloquially called Mandelbaum ("almond"). This is where the neighboring stream of the Mandelbach derived its name. Near the confluence of the Mandelbach and the Blies there was formerly a town named Mandelbach, first recorded in 1239, which is today a neighborhood of Habkirchen. In 1974, during the reform of administrative districts in Saarland, today's Mandelbachtal was formed by the consolidation of eight formerly independent communities.

References

Saarpfalz-Kreis
Palatinate (region)

Mandelbachtal


The Honourable Sir Henry Duncan KCH, CB (1786 – 1 November 1835) was a prominent Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century. The second surviving son of the highly regarded Admiral Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, who defeated the Dutch Navy at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797, Duncan achieved a successful career in his own right, operating with great success against French and Italian shipping and shore fortifications in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars. For his services he was knighted and given numerous honours before dying at the young age of 49 from a sudden apoplexy in 1835.

Early career
Henry Duncan was born in 1786, the second surviving son of Adam Duncan, then a captain in the Royal Navy, later to become the admiral who defeated the Dutch fleet at the Battle of Camperdown and thus became Viscount Duncan. Henry's elder brother Robert inherited the titles on their father's death and was later created Earl of Camperdown. Their mother, Henrietta, was the daughter of Robert Dundas, a prominent Scottish judge. Following his father into the Navy at 14 in 1800, Duncan served as a midshipman on board the frigate HMS Maidstone until the Peace of Amiens the following year.

When the Navy was expanded once more at the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, Duncan joined HMS Narcissus in the Eastern Mediterranean and served in operations in the Aegean Sea and off Egypt. With Narcissus ordered back to Britain in 1804, Duncan joined the first rate HMS Royal Sovereign under Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton as a lieutenant and it was aboard this ship that he received news of the death of his father. The death of such a senior officer was marked by numerous letters of condolence, including one from Horatio Nelson which offered command of the small brig , whose captain Robert Corbet had been taken ill. When Duncan arrived to take command however Corbet had recovered and was restored to command. Duncan was instead promoted to commander and returned to Britain to take over the 18-gun  in the Channel Fleet.

Post captain
Returning to the Mediterranean, Duncan was promoted to post captain in 1806 and took over the sixth rate HMS Porcupine in 1807, sent to serve in the Adriatic campaign by operating off the coast of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1808 he moved to the small frigate HMS Mercury engaged on the same service, raiding French harbours in the Adriatic Sea and Eastern Mediterranean. During these operations, he captured numerous coastal merchant ships and destroyed large quantities of military supplies. With Mercury in a poor state of repair, Duncan was ordered to escort the Mediterranean merchant shipping back to Britain and pay the ship off, arriving in early 1810 after a stormy passage.

Duncan was then given the large frigate HMS Imperieuse and commanded her in the Western Mediterranean off Toulon and Tripoli, seizing a number of French merchant ships. Raiding the Northwestern coast of Italy, Duncan succeeded in capturing numerous ships and destroying large quantities of supplies in fortified harbours before Imperieuse was forced to undergo extensive repairs in Port Mahon. Offered two other frigates as replacements, Duncan was presented with a letter from Imperieuse's crew declaring their regard and respect for him and asking him not to move to another ship without them. Moved by this letter, Duncan remained with the ship and was given command of a squadron to operate against the Kingdom of Naples.

Post war service
Returning to Britain in 1814 at the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition, Imperieuse was paid off and Duncan given command of the new HMS Glasgow. Operating off the Spanish Atlantic coast and in the Bay of Biscay, Duncan saw little action before the final end to the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and his ship was paid off in September. Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, Duncan was unemployed for three years before taking over the 50-gun fifth rate HMS Liffey which he commanded on anti-pirate operations in the West Indies and later escorted the Prince Regent on his fleet inspection in 1819, during which he praised Duncan and his ship. He subsequently conveyed Sir Charles Bagot, Ambassador to Russia, to Saint Petersburg and took despatches to Naples, remaining in the Mediterranean until 1821.

Marrying Mary Simson Crawford, the daughter of naval officer Captain James Coutts Crawford, in 1823, Duncan was briefly detached to Lisbon on confidential duties. He subsequently conveyed King George IV to Ireland and Calais before the ship was paid off and Duncan entered retirement. Except for occasional and largely ceremonial shore duties, Duncan did not serve in a naval capacity again. He had one surviving son, Adam Alexander and a daughter Anne Mary. A third child, Henry Robert, died at only a few days old. In December 1834, Duncan was knighted in the Royal Guelphic Order, but two years later suddenly collapsed and died at his London home in Eaton Place from apoplexy. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, his funeral attended by many prominent serving naval officers.

Notes

References

1786 births
1835 deaths
Younger sons of viscounts
Royal Navy officers
Companions of the Order of the Bath
Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
People from Belgravia
Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery

Henry Duncan (Royal Navy officer, born 1786)


Friedrich Marx (April 22, 1859 – October 17, 1941) was a German classical philologist born in Bessungen — today part of the city of Darmstadt.

In 1877 he began his study of classical philology at the University of Giessen, then continued his education at the University of Bonn under Franz Bücheler (1837-1908) and Hermann Usener (1834-1905). In 1887 he achieved his habilitation in Berlin with Johannes Vahlen (1830-1911), afterwards working as a professor at the Universities of Rostock (1888-89), Greifswald (1889-93), Breslau (1893-96), Vienna (1896-99), Leipzig (1899-1906) and finally at Bonn (1906-1927), where in 1917-18 he served as university rector.

Marx is considered to be the last representative of the so-called Bonn school of classical philology, a scholastic entity that was initiated by Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (1806-1876) in the 1840s. He was the author of numerous scholarly works, including editions of: Plautus' play "Rudens" (1928), writings by the encyclopaedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus (1915), Filastrius' "Diversarum hereseon liber" (1898), fragments from the satirist Gaius Lucilius (1894-95) and a critical examination of "Rhetorica ad Herennium" (1894); the latter work being published over several editions up to the year 1993.

From 1925 to 1934 he was editor of the journal Rheinisches Museum für Philologie ("Rhenish Museum for Philology").

References
 This article is based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia.

External links
 German Wikisource bibliography of Friedrich Marx.

German classical philologists
Writers from Darmstadt
Academic staff of the University of Bonn
Academic staff of Leipzig University
1859 births
1941 deaths

Friedrich Marx


Edmund Beecher Wilson (Geneva, Illinois, 19 October 1856 – 3 March 1939) was a pioneering American zoologist and cell biologist. He wrote one of the most famous textbooks in the history of modern biology, The Cell.

Career
Wilson graduated from Yale in 1878. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins in 1881. He was a lecturer at Williams College in 1883–84 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1884–85. He served as professor of biology at Bryn Mawr College from 1885 to 1891.

He spent the balance of his career at Columbia University where he was successively adjunct professor of biology (1891–94), professor of invertebrate zoology (1894–1897), and professor of zoology (from 1897).

Wilson is credited as America's first cell biologist. In 1898 he used the similarity in embryos to describe evolutionary relationships. By observing spiral cleavage in molluscs, flatworms and annelids he concluded that the same organs came from the same group of cells and concluded that all these organisms must have a common ancestor.

He also discovered the chromosomal XY sex-determination system in 1905—that males have XY and females XX sex chromosomes. Nettie Stevens independently made the same discovery the same year.

In 1907, he described, for the first time, the additional or supernumerary chromosomes, now called B-chromosomes.

Professor Wilson published many papers on embryology, and served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1913.

The American Society for Cell Biology annually awards the E.B. Wilson Medal in his honour.

Sutton and Boveri
1902–1904: Theodor Boveri (1862–1915), a German biologist, in a series of papers, drew attention to the correspondence between the behaviour of chromosomes and the results obtained by Mendel. He said that chromosomes were "independent entities which retain their independence even in the resting nucleus... What comes out of the nucleus is what goes into it".

In 1903 Walter Sutton suggested that chromosomes, which segregate in a Mendelian fashion, are hereditary units. Wilson, who was Sutton's teacher, called this the Sutton–Boveri hypothesis.

References

1856 births
1939 deaths
Columbia University faculty
American geneticists
American zoologists
Cell biologists
Scientists from Illinois
Yale University alumni

Edmund Beecher Wilson


The Battle of Uxian Defile was fought by Alexander the Great against the Uxian tribe of the Persian Empire. The battle raged on the mountain range between the key Persian cities of Susa and Persepolis. Persepolis was the ancient capital of the Persian Empire and held a symbolic value among the native Persian population. They believed that if this city were to fall into enemy hands, then, in effect, the whole Persian Empire would fall into the hands of the enemy.

Background
Alexander had recently defeated Darius III Codomannus at the Battle of Gaugamela on the eastern side of the Tigris river, the result of which had been a disaster for Darius and the Persian Empire. Darius had prematurely fled the battle, and his army had dispersed. Thus Alexander had been unable to achieve his goal of capturing Darius during the course of the battle. Instead, Alexander chased Darius and, as a result, captured the important cities of the Persian Empire along the way.

Immediately after the battle, Alexander feared that the Persians would organise the defence of Babylon, which had thick walls. This city's walls covered a vast area, which included a large area of farm land, and could therefore hold out almost indefinitely against a siege. However, instead of finding the city closed to him, he found that it was open to him. The Persian satrap Mazaeus decided to capitalise on Alexander's famed generosity and let him into the city. It was as a result of this that Mazaeus was appointed satrap of this city and surrounding region, a lucrative post. It was Alexander's practice to, as much as possible, leave the old governors in their positions - a practice he had learned from Cyrus the Great.

Alexander rested his troops in Babylon for some days, and paid them amply with the treasures that were found there. In addition, he decided to set it up as a secondary base. From here Alexander set out for Susa, the winter capital of the Persian Empire. It took him twenty days to reach Susa, from where he obtained 50,000 gold talents. It was as a result of this that Alexander was able to send Antipater, the regent of Macedon, 3,000 gold  talents for the war against Sparta. From Susa, Alexander marched towards the mountain defile.

Normally, the tribes in the Persian Empire would pay tribute to the Great King, but the Persians had been unable to subdue the Uxians. As a result, whenever Persian armies wanted to use the pass for logistical purposes, they were required to pay a fee. The Uxians had sent Alexander an embassy to the effect that they expected him to pay the same tribute the Persians were required to. Alexander agreed, saying that on a given day he would follow the main road and pay the agreed upon tribute.

Battle
The Uxians had expected him to travel by the main road to pay the tribute before they let him pass. However, on that day, Alexander, with Craterus and his shield bearing guards, and 8,000 other soldiers passed by the northern road, Craterus occupying the high ground where it was assumed the Uxians would retreat as a means of last resort. He then attacked their village. After having done so, by a series of forced marches, he took the defile from the Uxians, who then retreated to Craterus' position, who quickly dispatched them.

After having attacked the village and taken the village, the main force arrived behind the Uxians. At this point the battle was over, the Uxians were entirely surrounded by the Macedonians, who put them to the sword.

Results
The surviving Uxians sued for peace. The agreed upon terms were that each year the Uxians were to give to the Macedonians 100 horses, 500 head of cattle and 30,000 sheep.

References

Uxian
331 BC
History of Khuzestan Province
the Uxian Defile

Battle of the Uxian Defile


The Tycannah Creek, a watercourse that is part of the Barwon catchment of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia.

The creek rises on the northern side of the Nandewar Range and flows into the Mehi River downstream from Moree. On its way to the Mehi River, it flows through the village of Terry Hie Hie. There are five main creeks which feed into Tycannah Creek which are Bald Hill Creek, Crossing Creek, Bowman Creek, Berrygil Creek and Brigalow Creek. From the upper most point to when it reaches the Mehi River, Tycannah Creek descends  over its  course; starting at an elevation of  and falls to be  when it joins the Mehi River.

Most of the land along Tycannah Creek is used for agriculture.

There have been many flooding events in Tycannah Creek. During February 2012, heavy rainfall in the upper catchment of Tycannah Creek lead to the evacuations of 12 people in the village of Terry Hie Hie. Flooding leading to evacuations also occurred in November 2011.

References

North West Slopes
Rivers of New South Wales
Murray-Darling basin

Tycannah Creek


Natalio Alberto Nisman (born December 5, 1963), also known as Alberto Nisman, was an Argentine lawyer. He worked as a federal prosecutor and known for his intervention as a prosecutor in the cases related to the AMIA bombing on July of 1994 in Argentina, the worst terrorist attack in Argentina.

On Sunday, January 18, 2015, he was found dead with a shot to the head, in his apartment in the Tower Boulevard building of the Torres Le Parc complex, in the Puerto Madero neighborhood where he lived.

Early life
Alberto Nisman was raised in a Jewish family. His parents were Sara Garfunkel, and Isaac Adolfo Nisman (born 1936), an upper-middle-class textile entrepreneur.

Education
He studied at the University of Buenos Aires, took half of the free subjects and graduated as a lawyer with an average of 8. He began to work "meritorious" (free work without a dependency relationship) in the Judicial Department of Morón. Once received, he began his judicial career in that jurisdiction.

Family
He was married to federal judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado ―who at the time of Nisman's death was in charge of the San Isidro federal court―, with whom he had two daughters.

When he divorced he left his wife the house for his children and rented an apartment in Le Parc.

Death
At 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 18, 2015, Nisman's mother was alerted that her son did not respond to calls and went to the apartment where the prosecutor lived, in the Torre Boulevard building of the Le Parc Tower complex, in the neighborhood of Puerto Madero (Buenos Aires), which was locked from the inside. After trying to get in, a locksmith was able to open the service door. Nisman's body was found in the bathroom, shot in the head, along with a .22-caliber Bersa gun and a shell casing.

The next day, Monday, he was scheduled to present his complaint to the Criminal Legislation Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Argentina.

A few days after the prosecutor's death, the locksmith who was called to open the door stated that it was not locked, but rather: "The service door was locked (from the inside) and had only the latch ... the latch opens with a little wire, I asked the mother for the key, I made the move, she turned the handle and opened it." The day after the locksmith's statements, Nisman's mother clarified that the service door was closed, and that she had previously opened it herself.

His remains were buried in the Israelite Cemetery of La Tablada, twenty meters from the tombs of the victims of the AMIA Bombing, in the so-called sector of the "Martires".

References

Other websites
 Nisman's charges against the President and Foreign Minister Página/12 (PDF)

 Death of a Prosecutor The New Yorker
 Nisman's denunciation YouTube

1963 births
Argentine lawyers
2015 crimes
2015 deaths
Argentine Jews
Argentine judges
Assassinated people
People from Buenos Aires
Unsolved murders

Alberto Nisman


Banarsi Prasad Saxena (aka Banarsi Prasad Saksena) was a historian associated with Allahabad University.

Saxena was awarded a PhD by University of London, School of Oriental Studies in 1931. He later became head of the departments of history in both the University of Allahabad and University of Jodhpur.

He was an expert on Emperor Shah Jahan, and his magnum opus Shah Jahan of Dilli (The subject of his PhD.) is regarded as the most authoritative text of that period and has run to several editions. Along with R.P. Tripathi he was noted as one of the major historians of the 'Allahabad School'. The idea of a "composite culture" in India, emphasizing mutual interactions between Hindu and Muslim communities in Indian history rather than treating the two communities as competitors with each other, was a particular contribution of this school.

Selected publications
. (Reprinted several times including 1962, 1968, and 1975.)
.
.
.

References

Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
20th-century Indian historians
Academic staff of the University of Allahabad
Historians of South Asia

Banarsi Prasad Saxena