Superman #23.2 Braniac

Brainiac has been many things. AI Machine. Machine Alien Hybrid.

But I can't recall the last time I saw Brainiac the father or family man. Well, we get that here!


Not that Brainiac is much different in this changed story. He is still cold and clinical, experimenting on his own off-spring. But in a sharp parallel to long-time nemesis Superman's father Jor-El, he too is a scientist attempting to save a doomed planet.

Yes, we have come back to the multitude, introduced in Grant Morrison's great run on Action Comics (which requires frequent re-readings. Still can't make sense of the entire thing!).

Here we have Brainiac, known as Vrill Dox of Yod-Colu. Due to experimenting on his own son (who looks totally like the Braniac 5 of 31st century Legion), he was sent off-planet as punishment. But he escapes and his first ' collection' is done on his home planet. This he continues for decades, always taking a shrunken city from a planet doomed to fall to the multitude.

I won't go into what or who the Multitude is (read Action Comics), but it is sufficient to say Jor-El stopped them and even through he perished before Braniac could reach him, Vrill still admired him (and it helps to read this before the Cyborg Superman issue).

Coming back to the present, a scientist on the planet Noma (who looks like an Earthling? C'mon!) is able to sent a distress signal while being attacked by Brainiac which is received by Shay Veritas, an Earth scientist and friend of Superman.

This issue was good and served as a starting point to what may be an arc on Superman later on. It made me equally sad and angry at Brainiac or should I call him Vrill. Atleast it made him a more compelling villain without stripping him of anything.

Hoping to see a good Superman arc with Brainiac soon.

So, I give this 9 out of 10.