BRAINIAC 5 (Querl Dox, aka Brainiac 5.1)

Brainiac 5- The Most Important Legionnaire Ever:
-There is absolutely NOBODY on this team who is more important that Querl Dox (notably, ALWAYS called “Brainy” or “Brainiac 5” in every issue I have featuring the character). Every single aspect of the team more or less depends on him.

Brainiac 5 is a fascinating concept, and matters more to the Legion it seems, with every passing year. Because there’s two or three guys to match Mon-El’s strength, a bunch of people who shoot energy blasts, and a handful of guys great at espionage (Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid & Phantom Girl), but there’s only ONE guy as smart as Brainiac 5. The only comparable person is Lyle “Invisible Kid” Norg in the Reboot continuity, and even he’s a distant #2. Plus there’s the whole “I’m the ancestor of Superman’s worst non-businessman enemy”, which is something unusual, especially for the time (that was BEFORE every cool-looking villain a major push as a villain-turned-antihero- the idea of a super-villain having a heroic descendant in *1961* was incredible!). And then there’s his relationships… for some reason, he’s just the best possible fit for super-beautiful powerhouses like Supergirl & Laurel Gand, despite both of them having different personalities, because they temper his arrogance and humanize him at the same time.

Silver Age Brainiac 5:
-Brainiac 5 is a distant descendant of the original Brainiac, and wishes to atone for his great-great-granddather’s misdeeds. Eventually, the origin for Brainiac 1 was amended, and 5 became the descendant of Brainiac 2, and the CLONE of the original. Having no power beyond incredible genius and computing speed, Brainiac became a Legionnaire of vast importance- perfecting the Legion Flight Ring (actuaklly a creation of the Invisible Kid), Mon-El’s “Anti-Lead Serum”, and his own Force Belt. However, he also created the evil Computo and the Miracle Machine (which rendered Matter-Eater Lad insane for years, writing him out of the series- things that burned him for years. This created a habit for the character- a tendency to create things without first thinking about the consequences.

My favourite Brainy moment is when he offers his resignation because he nearly got everyone killed by Computo again… the Legion basically said “Rejected!” and refused to let him quit because the knew he was just trying to help, and still saved the day in the end. Wildfire amusingly adds “Even *I* make mistakes once in a while!”.

In the ’80s comics I own, he’s a good bit different from the stoic, boring Reed Richards or Doctor Doom-types, lacking obsessiveness or megalomania, and being more driven by compassion or guilt. He acted fairly normal in a few of the comics, if a bit arrogant- his crush on Supergirl humanized him. When she was killed during the Crisis, he was emotionally shattered… but pretty soon, DC erased her from continuity PERIOD, meaning the Legion slowly “forgot” about her. He tried curing the “Validus Plague” in the “Five Years Later” era, and saw Supergirl replaced by a Laurel Gand- a Daxamite girl who was a descendant of Mon-El’s brother. They had a relationship, but she eventually settled down with Rond Vidar, the Green Lantern of that time period. Brainy would meet his “SW6” Clone, but grew colder and more amoral as time went on, as Zero Hour took hold and messed with their continuity, and the Time Trapper aged him to becoming an elderly, enfeebled man. He was the best chance this continuity had of surviving Zero Hour, but it wasn’t to be- both he & his Clone were swallowed up by the Reboot.

Reboot & Later Eras:
-Brainiac 5 in the “Reboot” era was a bit more of a classical “Brain” character- an antisocial, arrogant ass, obsessed with holding his own emotions back (he was raised by robots, and had no social skill training), but desperately missing Andromeda (the new Laurel Gand) when she disappeared. He was trapped in the 20th Century for a while, and built the device that became the new C.O.M.P.U.T.O., then developed a crush on that era’s Supergirl (because of her similarity to Laurel, amusingly enough). When he returned to the Legion’s timeline, he was an “upgraded” Brainiac 5.1- now considerate and full of people-skills, and internalizing his Force Shield.

He eventually returned to his original name when he joined the “Legion Lost” team who were trapped in a faraway galaxy, and was going nuts over the pressure of being expected to find the way home all by himself. Eventually, however, the team returns home, but their continuity ends in 2004. Personally, I didn’t really care for the “arrogant ass” version of Brainiac. I like my comic scientists more like Reed Richards, in that they don’t INTEND to be dicks, they just forget that other people are around because they’re engrossed in their work; they don’t actively go out to hate on others.

Threeboot Era:
-Brainiac is an arrogant ass once more in this continuity, but is more politically savvy. He has an adversarial relationship with Dream Girl, owing to her ability to predict things she can’t, and of COURSE this ends up with them falling in love and getting married, though not without the hurdles like her death and resurrection into an ephemeral form. The other two versions reappear during the Post-Infinite Crisis era, with the original enacting the plan to defeat Superboy-Prime once and for all. He shows up briefly in the “New 52” era as well, but isn’t seen much.

Haha, Jesus- no wonder they called this the “Archie Legion”.

MAGNO (Dyrk Magz)

-Magno’s just as minor as Magnetic Kid (to the point where I almost forgot to include him when I statted these gusy the first time- I THOUGHT there were two “Lesser Cosmic Boys”, though), because he’s just a Post-Zero Hour Reboot character who was short-lived. He was another Braalian following in Cosmic Boy’s footsteps when Cos left the Legion, and earned his place after showing bravery in spite of Live Wire’s reluctance to replace Cosmic Boy. Sadly, he lost his powers after a triumphant battle with Mordru. Despite that, he remained a recurring character, never gaining his powers back, but becoming a successful future-cop in the meantime, meaning they did a whole “What Makes A Hero?” thing with him. He had some stuff, dating XS briefly, then the Threeboot removed him from continuity. Poor bastard.