Which Came First? Brainiac or BRAINIAC?

Although Superman's villains don't enjoy as high a profile as, say, Batman's, most comic book fans are aware of Brainiac, an inhuman computer mind bent on destroying civilizations and stealing their knowledge. 

However, modern fans may not be aware that Brainiac's earliest appearances portrayed him not as an malevolent computer, but as a living, green-skinned humanoid with an advanced intellect. Sort of an intergalactic version of Lex Luthor. In fact, his original design in Action Comics #242 (1958) didn't even include the telltale diodes that have criss-crossed the top of his head for decades (and, strangely, that same issue's cover).

Then, six years later in Superman #167, Brainiac was suddenly revealed to be the evil computer we're familiar with today. Why the sudden switch?  For the answer, look no further than the Special Announcement printed on this issue's letters page:

Considering Otto Binder's affinity for actual science (which I infer from his work on Space World magazine), I'm guessing that his selection of the name "Brainiac" may not have been the "remarkable coincidence" the editor claimed it to be (perhaps under advisement from DC's legal department), but setting that aside, it IS pretty amazing to find out how DC Comics intersected with a guy like Berkeley (above inset photo), very much a "brainiac" himself in the nascent field of computer science & robotics.

So...how did DC respond to Mr. Berkeley's earlier claim to the term "Brainiac"?

 

Now, as much as I love the straight-forward innocence of these old letter pages, the 21st century cynic in me wants to peek a little further behind the scenes. In other words, was this public acknowledgment of the name duplication, and DC's decision to make Brainaic a "computer personality" enough for Edmund C. Berkeley and/or those representing his interests (i.e. "lawyers")?  My answer seems to materialize in the very next paragraph, as DC hypes the living daylights out of Mr. Berkeley's "Brainiac" home computer kit...a little quid quo pro, perhaps?

Far be it from me to just end it here, right?  After reading about this mysterious Brainiac Computer Kit, I just had to see a visual.  After a bit of searching, I finally found a shot of an original kit in all of its "less than $20" glory.  What do you think...does that look "simple" enough to construct at home?

Comments

[Pat Curley]

Looks pretty cool; I suspect it's not all that difficult to connect although I know that back then I'd inevitably have gotten something wrong.

There's one on ebay, but computer collectibles don't come cheap; it's $499 BIN. It does show some of the circuits that you could create with it. I remember having something similar where you could set up a mini quiz, say with six states on one side and six state capitals on the other and if you correctly connected the state with its capital, a light would come on.

On the comics side DC constantly had problems with continuity because of this decision. For example, Brainiac 5 was supposedly a descendant of Brainiac, but when they made the original a computer, they gave him a fake son who ran away at the first opportunity, so that was his great-grandfather. Who then named his son Brainiac 3? See the problem? It makes no sense, and that's before we get into the whole problem of "Was the Legion 100 years in the future or 1000 years in the future?"

[Rottgutt]

Interesting. And they both appeared before the Mexican movie Brainiac:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054668/

I'm not sure what year the movie picked up the "Brainiac" title as the actual movie name is "The Baron Of Terror" and the "Brainiac" title was the movie's title when it was released on TV here in the U.S.

[Greg Walter]

That's a rather haunting picture of Supes and Brainiac at the head of this post. Where is it from?

[Mark Engblom]

It's a section of the cover from Action Comics #868 (2008), which was part three of the grand re-introduction of the Brainiac character.

A highly recommended storyline!

[J Martell]

The only problem I can see is your current definition of Brainiac as a computer.... I understood that Brainiac is a Colluan... a race of super intelligent (but still humanoid) aliens with green skin. Isn't it viable that the original portrayal of Brainiac was just his actual Colluan body, where as all versions of Brainiac thereafter until Action Comics #868 were simply is robotic pods and their own pods/creations. The storyline of #868 actually explains how all earlier versions of Brainiac were just robots themselves (even those that had no diodes on the heads).

That being said, I'm enjoying your "Which Came first" section a lot.

[Bob]

@Pat Curley: If memory serves, the original computer Brainiac adopted a son (Vril Dox) to reinforce his masquerade as a living Coluan. Vril escaped, and discovered a way to increase his own intelligence to equal Brainiac's. He organized a revolution against the ruling computers, Brainiac fled the planet, and Vril kept the name Brainiac 2 as an ironic reminder of the former tyrant. He passed his name and his advance intelligence to his descendants.

@J Martell: A very nice try, but you're applying post-Crisis continuity to a pre-Crisis story. It's not a good fit, but you'd have to read the original stories to understand why.

[Mike Ransom]

That's me with a Brainiac, called Geniac in the U.S., in the photo at Boing Boing (their story linked to my name below).

I won 2nd place in the city science fair (math division) with it in high school. Might have gotten first, but I imagine the judges had a little trouble getting the switches to work consistently, they were so complicated. I had bolted two Geniacs together for my project, a Nim-playing computer.