Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Should Brainy Die?

"We need to flux the capacitor."
"Wait, who are you?"
"Nyarl Dox, but you can call me Brainiac Six. Brainiac Five had some important research to do on Colu, and sent me, his clone, to handle his Legion responsibilities. Now hand me that power coupling, please, or the universe is going to collapse on itself and then explode." <muttering to self> "I'm only two days old, I was hoping it would be at least a week before I messed something up so badly that it destroyed the universe..."

We need Brainy and Supergirl to produce a Brainiac six with Kryptonian powers so that he can sort out his own messes

I wrote a fanfic story years ago where Brainy gets killed by Starfinger defending Legion HQ. Before he dies, he transfers his personna and personal engrams into the Legion's computo system. Consequently, he is the new permanent Mission Monitor Board watcher and services many other HQ systems (like an Oracle before Oracle was introduced). Down the road, he creates Probe units where he can function 'hands on' in different missions at the same time, multitasking and putting his 12th level mind to full use. Eventually, he runs into conflict with the Computo he's sharing, and is forced to re-humanize himself or risk being consumed by the major-domo.

On a side note, maybe Brainy can take Earth-Man with him on a mission to Galaxy-X to discover the mysteries of the universe. That should take a year or so...

That sounds faboo!!

I kinda did the same thing with Mentor, of the Imperial Guard. My notion was that he's not those green people you see, but has dozens of them as mobile units. Mentor himself is a planet in Shiar space whose sheets of silicon, quartz and iron and whatnot function as relays and circuits, in a naturally-developed planet-sized sentient supercomputer. It builds these humanoid 'Mentor' units (with which it is linked in real-time) to explore the galaxy and bring it data about distant locations and interact with humanoid society.

Unlike Marvin, the Paranoid Android, who merely *claims* to have a brain the size of a planet, Mentor really does!

I later re-used elements of that for Emerald Legion, with the original Brainiac being the sentience that is now integrated with the core of the planet Colu. He's not so bad these days, since he's got loftier things to calculate than running around shrinking cities.

Ah, but he needs a compelling reason to get Earth-Man to leave Earth. Perhaps the rumor is that Earth is *not* the center of the universe, and that in Galaxy-X, the true birthplace of humanity, and thus, all humanity-derived species, will be found, rendering Earth no longer the 'mother world.' Earth-Man goes along hoping to disprove it, of course...

As long as Earth-Man goes, I'm fine with that. My only two gripes with the new Legion so far is with the killer/maiming psycho Earth-Man as an accepted member (Double-Header & Color Kid, anyone?) and Mon-El as the demigod GL, especially after the good stuff James Robinson did with him in Superman.

I thought Earth-Man originally may be an interesting antagonist to the Legionnaires (hence, some characterization) but so far he's turned out to be an unlikable character I have no sympathies for and a panel hog where other Legion members greater deserve more time.

BTW, I am not that familiar with Mentor (I cut back on the Marvel books years ago), but the storyline sounds rockin' Mr. Set!

He used to be able to take beatings quite well. He even threw a punch or two in his early days. As was mentioned, he was also psychologically sturdy under torture. He was emotionally forthright rather than bashful and he was very empathetic.

It was around the 80's he started to degrade as they went for typical 'smart guy' flaws like social ineptitude and madness. I always thought the best flaws was his recklessness and his need to know everything. There is a great Computo story ready to be told because Brainy can't let it go. He thinks he has to fix it, he has to make it right because he has to know everything. That flaw has been skewed from 'I need to know everything' to 'I do know everything' and they are not the same.

If they are really struggling, Kara always brings out great character stories in Brainy. I did always wonder how we got from 'Remain and be my girl' to his utter inability to string a sentence about his feelings for her but it was a lovely pre-crisis bookend.

Yeah, back then, Brainy was, while not the most, a fairly modest actioner of the Legion. Last decade or so he's mostly been in his lab or something like that. He rarely goes to other planets in action.

Here's a thought.

Death is a merely a temporary inconvenience in the comics.

Maybe several of us Anti-Brainiacs could get together, make a little investment, incorporate, and PURCHASE HIS COPYRIGHT from DC.

That should keep him out of Action (or Adventure) until 2159 or so. (3159 Legion time)

I'm for a "no" on this one. He's too good a character to throw away (or go through the painful kill-retcon-kill-reboot-kill cycle)

At the end of the last Levitz run we saw his desire to run things, coupled with shock at things falling apart around him. But we also saw that his first actions had been to help Weber's World and come up with dozens of technological solutions for the crises within the UP. He has been portrayed as more empathic in the past. He has certainly been portrayed as more modest. But even here, in his way, he's trying to help.

I imagine that a possible next arc could have been Brainy getting his Legion, and how things turned out. Perhaps leading to a more humble person at the end of it.

I do recall when Brainy left towards the end of v4. With Dream Girl also gone and Mon El injured, suddenly Sun Boy was the chief scientist. Big, big shoes to fill. I couldn't recall seeing Morgna near a lab for ages.

Simply having him with multi tasking limits would be enough. Or have him support others. Rond- sorry he's dead Harmonia with Time Travel research for example. Contacting medical installations to help Shady & Mon-El but not be able to find a solution himself. A returned Kent Shakespeare taking over hands on medical issues. Not that he's better, but that Brainy shouldn't need to be involved in everything scientific. More on Naltorian science would be interesting too.



The 5YG nearly croaked him. He was an old man in an exo-skeleton for a while. Sun Boy nad both Lightning Kids have been shown to transform into , or at least be surrounded by, the source of their powers.

In general I'd prefer characters not die. Just find another intelligent way to right them out.

And it's not just because I'm a Brainy fan

Certainly if it's just for the sake of it, or a cheap sales boost. Just move them out to somewhere quiet.

It's also easier to bring characters back if they're simply retired or off doing other pursuits. Tenzil's a Senator now? Oh that's easy, he simply wasn't reelected. Chuck and Lu and Lydda busy at the Academy? They got bored and the Legion's shorthanded.

The revolving door to the DC underworld has spared writers even having to go to those lengths of research in recent years

Didn't they say they'd close that revolving door after Blackest Night?

Heh. Yeah. Because I'd totally hold the editors and writers at DC hostage to a promise made at the end of a comic book event (it was a pretty good event though).

Oh I believe them when they say they closed the revolving door. But only because they widened the main entrance to allow more traffic to go through.

I imagine that at the start of a reboot, there will be fewer people dying and coming back, but give it time.

Everyone knows my answer to this question. I'm like...president of the Brainy fanclub and would cry openly if he died. No one needs to see that kind of ugly, do they?

Considering there's a bit of a gulf in the team when he goes shopping, I dread to think what it would be like without him at least somewhere in the book (and I don't mean as a golden statue)

Brainy's just had so many memorable storylines that it's hard to imagine a Legion book without him. Oh, he doesn't need to be an active Legionnaire, but just knowing he's out there somewhere and can step in whenever things really get out of hand is a major comfort.

Brainy used to be a favorite (being really smart counts as a super-power! Woo!), but since he's been retconned into stealing all the other smart Legionnaires mojo, and turned into Vril Dox 2.0 in personality, I don't like him as much.

But, as with other Legionnaires I don't like as much as my favorites, I don't want him *dead,* just sidelined a bit, to let others shine.

Recent portrayals of Colu suggest that his homeworld is in dire need of some guidance, and it's possible that he could be, like Tenzil, pressganged into government service, for a time.

I've always rowed against the current, and preferred the lesser seen characters to those who get all the press, so the Founders and Superboy were rarely my favorites, and, now that Brainy seems to be the unofficial 'fourth founder,' the blush has gone off that rose, too.

Let the next Legion book begin with a lineup of Tyroc, Kinetix, Nightwind, Computo, Kid Quantum II, Gates, Chameleon Girl, Polar Boy and Dragonmage!

Throw in Night Girl and the second Invisible Kid and I'll consider it.

While we're at it, Infectious Lass and Tellus to add more "alien" Legionnaires.