Absolute Superman #7 (2025)

An Omega Men strike team break into Lazarus Corp's R&D facility in Nevada, hoping to find and bring down the server from the Brainiac system. To their surprise they find that it appears unoccupied despite drawing huge amounts of power. Suddenly, one of them is hit with purple lightning; his skin disappears and he dies screaming in agony. They hear an unfamiliar voice in their heads as something taps into their telepathic communications network. Another one collapses paralysed as his muscles disappear, begging for death, while another literally pukes up his own bones. The lone survivor tries to flee, but he is struck by the lightning and his hand grows to a gigantic size. He is attacked by what appear to be giant virus cells and Brainiac, a psychotic cyborg alien, carries him away into his lab. Brainiac dismembers the Omega Man while he is still alive and places his brain in a jar, still connected to the body. Brainiac complains that he can't figure out what Superman is and screams at his bottled cities that they are useless as none of them recognise him. He smashes a bottle open and stomps the miniaturised aliens inside to death. Brainiac calms down and decides to reveal his life story to the Omega Man, saying that he rarely has someone to talk to. Brainiac explains that he comes from an alien civilisation dedicated to the acquisition of knowledge called the Brainiac Collective, where all members are known as "Brainiac" and distinguished by an alphanumeric code. He was a Level 0 Effector, the lowest rank in society; created to spend his entire life sealed inside a single room on a starship, shovelling the dead bodies of other Brainiacs into the ship's liquidator. After two-thousand eight-hundred and forty-four days of shovelling, he found a living Brainiac among the dead. This Brainiac, Brainiac 8,238,759, attacked 419,732 in a violent rage and stabbed him in the head, exposing his brain. Brainiac 419,732 was able to kill 8,238,759 with his shovel but the head wound, along with his prolonged isolation, caused him to gradually go insane. By day thirteen-thousand six-hundred and thirty-eight, he had propped up some of the bodies and was speaking to them as if they were his superiors, pretending that they were complimenting him and telling him that his work was valued. Eventually, the endless stream of bodies stopped and he was able to finally clear the room. On day forty-nine-thousand nine-hundred and one he broke out of the room and went looking for other Brainiacs but found the ship deserted. On the bridge he discovered a lone Brainiac in the captain's chair, seemingly dead by suicide. He shoved the last body into the liquidator and declared himself the one and only Brainiac. He spent years travelling through the stars, gathering up the bottled cities before eventually arriving on Earth. As he cannot work out where Superman comes from, he has decided to contact the Collective for the first time since that day. He submits all the data related to Superman and the Sunstone dust he leaves in his wake, asking them for Superman's identity or planet of origin. The Brainiac's tell him that his readings cannot be accurate as np known creature has Superman's abilities, and condemn him for wasting the Collective's time. However, one of them recognises that the Sunstone comes from Krypton, but as they never considered the planet worth studying all they know is that it was destroyed. She explains that she did recently visit the former site of Krypton and analysed the radioactive remains of the planet. She transmits the chemical makeup of the material to him, but the others then ask who he is and he ends the transmission. He kills the Omega Man and then synthesises a sample of the radioactive material. Later he goes to another lab where Smith is being converted into a cyborg, awake and without any painkillers. He yells at Brainiac to just kill him but Brainiac says he is not being punished, instead he is being prepared for a special deployment at the order of Ra's al Ghul himself. A deployment to what will soon be the most dangerous warzone in the world: Kansas.