The Colony of the Collector of Worlds was a strange techno-organic life form that travelled around the galaxies, bottling up cities. The Collector was a techno-organic AI comprised of both biological components as well as computing systems to dictate actions. Before the Collector AI was created, these biological components were known as Vril Dox and after the Collector AI was destroyed they became known as Brainiac to the general public of Earth. Due to the fact that on Krypton, the Collector hacked into Brainiac 1.0, he also became known as Brainiac there.
Biography[]
On the planet of Yod-Colu was the Collector first active. After Vril Dox merged himself with C.O.M.P.U.T.O. and his exile ship, he became known as the Colony of the Collector of Worlds. Although the Collector still looked Yod-Coluan at this point, aside from a few mechanical parts, he had lost all emotion and was determined to preserve the planets targetted by the Multitude. The Collector called this list the Masterlist. Using his dwarf star lensing, he copied the planetary database, created Terminauts and bottled a part of the capital city of Yod-Colu, preserving it and several artifacts forever, with his new ship being a museum of sorts. The Collector barely managed to preserve the citizens, fleeing moments before the arrival of the Multitude. The Collector's biological side hoped to one day reactivate Yod-Colu by finding a species that could help it "rehouse" the Coluan minds. However, the Collector also decided that if a world would be unable to aid him against the Multitude, he would simply preserve it anyways as a trophy.
The first world the Collector travelled to was Jazuur. Following this, the Collector decided that it needed to be more efficient in stopping the Multitude. Creating several different ships, and finding several different host bodies, the Collector destroyed it's own consciousness and distributed it among the host bodies, called vessels. On Bryak, the Collector became known as Mind2. Sometimes, these titles also depended on the internet or robot that the Collector hacked into, as for Noma, Pneumenoid was a robot, but for Krypton, Brainiac 1.0 was an internet. During this time, he was also known as Abbakus for an unknown world.
Through the vessel known as Brainwyrm, the Collector arrived at the doomed planet of Krypton. The Collector's visit to Krypton was noted for that was the first place where he was called Brainiac, due to his hacking into the Brainiac 1.0. There he grew fascinated with Jor-El, regretting not arriving sooner and having to bottle up Kandor. When Jor-El defeated the Multitude, the main body of the Collector rushed to Krypton, finding the planet to have been destroyed from natural causes. It was there, however, the Collector found Zor-El, who desired to be saved. Deciding to make Zor-El a cyborg, perfection as the Collector put it, he then ordered his new comrade to find others who desired to be perfect. El, however, failed at the task. When the Collector arrived on Noma, he became Pneumenoid and kidnapped Victoria Viceroy, who doubted his true intentions.
When Earth arrived on the Masterlist, the Collector contacted Lex Luthor and hacked into the Internet. Through his observations on Earth via Brainwyrm, the Collector learned of the presence of Superman. Discovering Superman to be the Last Son of Krypton and his Krypton collection to be therefore incomplete, the Collector used the Terminauts to invade Metropolis. Bottling of the Metropolis island of New Troy and hacking into John Corben's Metal-0 suit, the Terminaut Invasion appeared to be going the Collector's way. The Collector also located twenty citizens in Metropolis whose minds he could host to save Yod-Colu. Elevating these citizens to 12th Level Intellect and giving some powers, the Collector left them alone, albeit with a temporary intention, so that it could focus on the task at hand, stopping the Multitude. Eventually Brainwyrm was encountered by Superman himself, the Man of Tomorrow ended up using the Brainiac AI to hack into the Collector and reprogram the ship and Brainwyrm to be his Fortress of Solitude. The death of Brainwyrm ended up being the death of the Collector, as the main Collector had since simply been superseded by Brainiac.
Vessels[]
The Collector had several different vessels:
- Mind2
- Pneumenoid
- Brainiac 1.0
- Abbakus
- Internet
Legacy[]
Due to the presence of a Kryptonian Shuttle in Metropolis when it was bottled up, on Earth, only Superman remembered the Collector as the Colony of the Collector of Worlds AI. The shuttle being the terminal of the Brainiac AI resulted in the public learning the name Brainiac and incorrectly giving the name to the Collector. When the biological components of the Collector returned, free of the Collector AI, he took no hesitation in accepting the name Brainiac. The Collector's actions in the Terminaut Invasion also resulted in the changing of the Earth world, the rise of science and magic, a larger Metahuman population and the formation of the Justice League. A battle more directly based off of the Collector's actions was later waged in Metropolis and became known as Psi War.