I was never a very religious comics reader, though I’ve re-read certain modern classics dozens of times (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Dark Knight Returns). I just picked up DK2, and realized I don’t know all that much about Luthor and Brainiac. I remembered that Brainiac captured Kandor in a bottle and all that, but don’t really know much about what the two of them have done in the history of the DC universe.
So I was hoping there was some sort of character profile page some doting fan has stuck up somewhere out there on the Web… but I haven’t found it yet on Yahoo!/Google.
Immediate questions, though:
What’s the deal with all of the Brainiac numbers? Brainiac-5, Brainiac-7, etc. Does each Brainiac build its successor or something?
In DK2, what’s up with Luthor? Why is he so apelike? He’s got massive freaking hands and a scarred face worthy of Harvey Dent. Did I miss something? Or is this just Miller’s take on Luthor’s disfiguration (from the accident that made him lose his hair)?
And the Brainiac numbers are simply the family order they come in, Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Superheroes is merely fifth in line from Brainiac 1 the Superman villain. Although the current DC writers seem to have muddied the waters somewhat with this ‘Brainiac 13’ thing or whatever it is. But then I don’t pay too much attention to any comics written after about 1992! so I wouldn’t be the best person to ask about that!
Don’t know anything about your second question either I’m afraid. Anyway hope the site helps.
Originally, “Brainiac 5” meant that he was the fifth generation after the original Brainiac. According to Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes # 2 (February 1981), Brainiac, Vril Dox, was a robotic spy who was given an adopted son in order that he be more easily able to pass for an ordinary Coluan. This son, Vril Dox II, was Brainiac 2, whose son Pran, was Brainiac 3, grandson, Kajz, Brainiac 4, and finally Querl, the Legion’s Brainiac 5.
Since the Crisis and Zero Hour, this has been re-interpreted as the Brainiac number being bumped up with every “upgrade” of the Brainiac intellect, with Brainiac 5 being four grades above the original Brainiac, Vril Dox. This Brainiac 13 would represent an intellect 8 steps above the Legion’s Brainiac 5. Oh, and also, the original Brainiac was an organic Coluan after all, with Vril Dox II being his genuine son.
Which puts things back in line with Brainic’s very first appearance. In Action 242, when he first appeared, Brainiac was an (organic) alien who was shrinking cities to repopulate his homeworld. (He also didn’t, IIRC have the blinky lights on his head)
Within two or three appearances, they retconed his origin and said that it was just a cover story and he was gathering samples for his masters, the Computer Tyrants of Colu.
Somewhere along the way, he “adopted” an organic son to further his “Computer Tyrants? No such thing. Nothing to be worried about!” story. He used his machinary to “upgrade” Brainiac 2’s IQ to a 12th level intellect (humans are 6th and Superman was a 10th).
Anyway, Brainiac 2 lead a revolt against the Tyrants and Brainiac, dropped the whole “I’m organic! Really!” story.
Somewhere along the way, they suggested that the intellect level had to do with how many parallel thought processes someone could cope with at a time.
DK2: As for why Luthor’s ape-like and scarred? Dunno why. I’m guessing artistic license.
The previous teams on the Batbooks had an utterly dumb idea: “We’ll take a city that’s essentially Chicago and say it’s no longer part of the USA. Constitiution? I’ve never heard of it.” Essentially someone saw “Escape From New York” and wanted to do it in Gotham for a year. The government was shooting down planes trying to airdrop food into Gotham. (Batman wouldn’t let Superman drop food in either. Why? Because the people of Gotham have to learn to do things for themselves. :rolleyes: For what it’s worth, the current team is dealing with the fact that the previous team portrayed Batman as insane.)
Anyway, Luthor, right before the Election started stirring up public sentiment against the Gotham situation. He started flying in food and rebuilding Gotham, getting a rep as “An Outsider Who Can Get Things Done Despite Those Fat-Cats In Washington”. Thus, he got elected. (There’re also some pretty strong hints that Luthor was the one who engineered the whole Gotham situation in the first place.)
As a sidebar, when the character of Brainiac 5 was introduced, the Legion of Superheroes stories were set in the late 21st century, making 5 generations seem plausible enough. At some point, the setting was pushed back to the 30th century (kind of like NASA’s plans for a Mars mission), but the name of the character was unchanged. I admit this caused me a great deal of confusion during my comic-collecting heyday of the mid-eighties.
DrFid, Dark KNight 2 doesn’t take place in the “real” DC timeline. In fact, it seems to mish mash elements both pre and post-CRISIS at will.
In the real DC timeline, Lex Luthor defeated the Vice President and governor of Texas in the 2000 elections, much to Superman’s dismay. And he’s been president ever since. It’s actually pretty cool. I dropped the Superman books after they broke up the “this week leads to next week” Triangle System, which I loved. But I still pick up any book that factors into the President Luthor storyline. Personally, I think the writing on Superman has suffered since the break up of the books (and I actually like NML, so what do I know? )
Well, I was going to say that for the official word on many of the current charatcters, you could go to http://www.dccomics.com/ and click on Secret Files. However, now it just brings up a window saying “Coming Soon.” It used to work, and maybe it will again someday.
I had the exact opposite reaction: I hated the premise (why wouldn’t Batman allow Superman to fly in food, anyway? The explanation given “They have to learn to be on their own” didn’t make any sense), read most of it and liked individual story arcs. But I still hate the premise.
But “Congress, despite the Constitiution, decides to declare Gotham a hostile enemy NATION (during NML, Gotham was declared to no longer be part of the United States) and will shoot anyone trying to leave or bring food in.” isn’t.
Rumor has it that the original idea was that Gotham would get sent to another dimension, completely cut off from the rest of the world and descends into anarchy and chaos: I coulda bought that and it would have been an interesting story.
But to assume that Congress would destroy America’s economy, the year before an election (imagine what destroying Chicago would do), that the populace wouldn’t mind seeing American citizens get shot trying to leave or airdrop food (We saw, on panel, American Fighters shooting down helicopters trying to airdrop food), that no-one cares about all the starving children trapped inside Gotham as a result of this policy (where’s Amnesty International?), and that Batman was so psychotic that he wouldn’t allow the JLA to help broke my willing suspension of disbelief. Allegedly, the story goes that Denny O’Neill (“Batman’s an urban legend! Even though he’s been on nation-wide TV in my own books! Everyone thinks he’s an urban legend, dammit!”) decided that the “other dimension” thing was too far fetched. :rolleyes:
That said, any of the NML stories written by Greg Rucka (best damned Batman writer since…um…Doug Moench back in the early '80s) rocked.
<<Batman wouldn’t let Superman drop food in either. Why? Because the people of Gotham have to learn to do things for themselves. >>
…Isn’t Bruce Wayne a billionaire, living in a mansion, while Gotham is going to hell in a handbasket? I mean, I don’t imagine him missing many meals. Jeez…
Wayne Manor was also destroyed. And his billions wouldn’t be enough to repair the entire city. It literally would take government-levels of cash. Luthor came in, got the ball rolling (and as part of a scam was planning to end up owning something like 90% of the property in the city, but Batman and Lucius Fox took care of that).
As for the Batman is an Urban Legend thing, I kinda like it. Its funny, when used right – they play it really well in Young Justice. Yeah yeah, he’s been on TV, and at the UN… but that was before Zero Hour.
I only read Robin and Detective, so I don’t keep up with everything that’s going on.
You know what DC could use? A relaunch line, ala Marvel’s Ultimates. Update the hero’s origins, make them fresher, more modern – and as a drastic step, have them ACTUALLY AGE (at the rate of like four years to us is one year or so to them – slowly, but discernably). They could call it… oh, how about “Eart 2”.
