posted
1. Shooter era - smarter than most, but otherwise no perrsonality extremes.
2. Crazy Brainy - he's INSANE
3. Early - mid Levitz Brainy - thoughtful scientist
4. Late Levitz Brainy - logical cold fish who doesn't connect well with others
5. TMK Brainy well, not so different from late Levitz
6. Reboot Brainy - Socially awkward child prodigy
7. WaK Brainy - Irrate schemer
8. Other
I like pretty much any of the Levitz versions, and though I have little good to say about the reboot I did like the child prodigy written by DnA. I'm otherwise loving the WaK Legion, but Brainiac 5 least of all.
From: seattle | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
8. Pre-Adventure "I'm sorry I'm descended from such an evil man!" Brainy!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I liked DnA's Brainy the most--naive, charming, slightly goofy but perceptive and capable of open strong affection. You don't want to call him just "Reboot Brainy," though, or you risk confusing him with Tom Peyer's "Incredible Jerk" Brainy.
After him, I found late Levitz and early TMK Brainy the most interesting and convincingly überintelligent.
WaK Brainy hasn't really connected with me yet...still feels like Vril Dox lite (though I loved Vril.) I need to see him in a mood other than "pissy" first.
From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Probably the early-mid Levitz Brainy, but I've got a soft spot for all of 'em. From the supremely immature early reboot Brainy to the colder but wiser TMK Brainy... good stuff, good stuff.
You also left out the SW6 "Legionnaires" Brainy, whose personality was a bit more timid and polite than the average Querl.
I'm withholding judgement on WaK's scheming Brainy until we get more information on exactly what he's doing and why.
From: Colu | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
My Favorite Brainy hasn't been written yet. I'd say DnA came closest, though - followed by TMK. Silicon Dream makes a good point that the TMK version was different from the pre-DNA reboot character. DnA made him both younger (maybe it was Coipel's & Batista's art) and more thoughtful. I thought he was the most real, and had the greatest potential to be a continuing, interesting character. A funny thing is that he didn't really invent much during the DnA era - some big things, like the Kwai-assisted threshold technology - but a far cry from the Adventure era stream of wacky machinery. They kept the focus on big thinking, not tinkering.
It's always been the emotional aspects of the character that have captured me - the misfit/outcast, the genius whose intelligence doesn't always serve him well, who struggles for some connection with the people around him. By the end of the DnA's tenure, he had established a collaborative-friendship with Lyle and appeared to get on well with the others, while not going so far as to be one of the guys drinking in the bar with the gang. We also saw some aspects of this in the Champagne story (with Wildfire) and in Simone's arc (with Tasmia lighting into him).
TMK's Brainy was also emotionally interesting and reflective. He was older and colder ... but not a totally cold fish; there were indications that he'd been less tightly wound in earlier times with his teammates. I think he could have gotten over Andromeda and achieved some balance. The Rond-Laurel-Brainy triangle was getting into Jo-Tinya-Imra territory (boring), although it had more variation (and a worse ending).
Re: the current version, so far - interesting, but not likeable. Potential.
posted
Yeah, me too. I can't really say much about the new Brainiac but there's a lot of potential for being a helluva good trouble maker there.
I really liked the B-5 version during Legion-On-the-Run. He was somewhat bitter about his past mistakes and emotionally withdrawn but as brilliant as ever. That guy had to struggle to overcome the damage Glorith did and it gave him a "weakness", something he was lacking throughout most of his history. I actually liked the 'old man' Brainy.
From: Smallville Sector : Greater Metropolis | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Somewhere between (3) and (4) for me, but I'm thinking especially of "LSH" v3 n30, a notable showcase for him, and one of my favorite Levitz issues.
"Brainy's Lucky Day!" had him despairing with his head in his hands on the cover, while surrounded by blackness. A classic Lightle cover in its own right. The events of the day inside (by LaRocque) had him:
~ Apologizing to Jeckie/Sensor Girl. How often, to anyone, did he do that? ~ Tossing off to Brin, "The only thing I know about moopsball is how to spell it." ~ Responding with a Legion team to an electrical glitch at Niagara Falls Hydro. ~ Giving Nura a chance to shine by her creatively using his force-field belt. ~ Going out on the town with Dawny and Dirk at a nightclub, and at least getting amused by it. ~ Serendipitously finding Dr. Chaseer -- rowrrr! -- a bit later that night. ~ Not, er, occupying his own bed that night! How often did he do that?! ~ Breaking down in tears when he is told that Rond Vidar has died. He almost never did THAT.
All with savoir-faire and good humor, even while not dropping his own over-focus on the life of the mind ... he wouldn't be Brainy if he did. Still, ten different emotions in a day. I knew he had it in him!
That's the Querl I like.
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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Not a character I've ever really professed much love for, but probably one of the top 3-- if not THE-- most important characters to the Legion mythos/dynamic in general. A character that, if you removed him from the dynamic, would make for much poorer stories.
Brainiac 5 is vital to the Legion in all its incarnations.
And I'm totally digging the current Nura-knocking, Rokk-blocking, goat-herding, smart-assed, trouble-making Brainy as much as any of 'em!
posted
I think I like Levitz era Brainy the best (all Levitz eras), but I have a soft spot for him in all carnations. I've always liked to see him develop friendships with certain Legionanires, whether Superboy or post-boot Lyle, since his gradual move away from being a 'cold, calculating computer mind' to a more 'human' man has endeared him to me.
The scene Brainy mentions where he learns that Rond died, as well as the scene in V3 where he stops for a second and takes a moment in front of Lyle Norg's gravestone on Shanghalla to remember his friend are some of his best ever. To see him that emotional, which was not like him but totally in character, always invoked some emotion in me.
These moments also made him more understandable in TMK/Legion on the Run as well.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by joe mondo: 7. WaK Brainy - Irrate schemer
This one for me. I love this particular characterization of him. He's a cold, logical bastard - on the surface - but has something softer lurking below.
-------------------- Dan
From: Newburgh, NY | Registered: May 2004
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