Wednesday, July 20, 2011

25 Days of Supporting Characters: Brainiac 5

#10 Brainiac 5

The smartest guy in the Legion of Superheroes, a hero that comes from villainous stock. Brainy has a connection to Booster Gold no matter what continuity. 

Why he's important to Booster: Booster gets two important bits of tech from Brainy: his Legion Flight ring and his forcefield belt. Post-Crisis the Legion helped Booster on his first mission to save the President of the United States. Realizing that criminal they had tracked actually needed to be a hero in that time Brainy voluntary gave up his  equipment so it would eventually end up in the museum Booster worked at. Post-Infinite Crisis it's revealed that in Boosters' future the two are good friends. Brainy helps by providing updated tech, allowing Booster to borrow other items and helping train Rip Hunter. Since Brainy has little patience for most people the fact that he becomes such good friends with Booster speaks very highly of our golden hero. Since Jurgens always made sure Brainy was the one he got his tech from this might have been in the cards all along.

Suggested Reading: Time Masters: Vanishing Point #3  This gives us the first impression of what kind of relationship Brainy and Booster will have. It's comforting to know that Booster will have someone in the superhero community not only supporting him but actively helping him in his efforts. Plus he's cool with letting a young Rip use his flight ring to take off over his lab. He must have a special regard for the Carters.

2 comments:

  1. I have to admit that Brainiac is just about the ONLY Legionaaire that I can stand...although I have a certain fondness for Matter Eater Lad. But there ARE depths to Booster that most people just can't be bothered to plumb.

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  2. From what I see I think I'd love Brainiac 5 if I saw more of him. True, even his friends don't always see it all. That makes it really special when people do see his depth.

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