
Brainiac’s backstory has changed a lot over time. Sometimes he’s shown as a member of the Coluans, a highly advanced alien race, and other times as a runaway artificial intelligence. Regardless of his origins, Brainiac is consistently portrayed as a ruthless, galaxy-spanning villain obsessed with collecting knowledge, even if it means the destruction of entire civilizations. He uses his spaceship to capture and shrink cities, studying their cultures and data before wiping out the planet itself, ensuring he’s the only one with that information. Brainiac is consistently one of Superman’s most powerful and cunning enemies, and a recent comic, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #3, even tied him directly into Superman’s beginnings.