| Vril Dox | |
|---|---|
 Vril Dox as depicted inL.E.G.I.O.N. '91 #27 (May 1991). Art byDan Brereton | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Superman #167 (February 1964) revamp: Invasion! #1 (January 1989) |
| Created by | Edmond Hamilton (writer) Cary Bates (writer) Curt Swan (artist) revamp: Keith Giffen (writer) Bill Mantlo (writer) Todd McFarlane (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Vril Dox II |
| Species | Coluan |
| Place of origin | Colu |
| Team affiliations | L.E.G.I.O.N. R.E.B.E.L.S. Sinestro Corps |
| Notable aliases | Brainiac 2 |
| Abilities | Tenth Level Intelligence |
Vril Dox, also known asBrainiac 2, is a fictional character published byDC Comics. He first appeared inSuperman #167 (February 1964), and was created byEdmond Hamilton,Cary Bates, andCurt Swan.
Vril Dox is the heir ofBrainiac, one ofSuperman's greatest foes, and an ancestor of Querl Dox /Brainiac 5 of theLegion of Super-Heroes. The character first appeared inSuperman #167 (February 1964), byEdmond Hamilton,Cary Bates, andCurt Swan, in a story entitled "The Deadly Duo! - The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!". He was later resurrected inInvasion! #1 (January 1989), byKeith Giffen,Bill Mantlo, andTodd McFarlane, and reimagined as a clone of Brainiac.
He went on to star inL.E.G.I.O.N. '89 (February 1989) throughL.E.G.I.O.N. '94 (September 1994) byKeith Giffen,Alan Grant, andBarry Kitson. He returned in the follow-up seriesR.E.B.E.L.S. '94 (October 1994) throughR.E.B.E.L.S. '96 (March 1996) byTom Peyer and Arnie Jorgensen, and the subsequent seriesR.E.B.E.L.S. (2009–2011).
Vril Dox was a youngColuan who wasadopted by the Computer Tyrants of Colu and declared Brainiac's son (Brainiac 2). He escaped and led a rebellion against the Computer Tyrants which overthrew their rule.[a] He later appeared briefly in theSecrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes miniseries. His descendants (who had inherited long Coluan lifespans) were his son Pran Dox (Brainiac 3), his grandson Kajz Dox (Brainiac 4) and ultimately his great-grandson Querl Dox,Brainiac 5 of theLegion of Super Heroes.[b]
Vril Dox II is a now a clone of Vril Dox (Brainiac), rather than his adopted son, as he is created by Vril Dox himself. He is still regarded as Brainiac's "heir", as he has inherited the original's high intelligence andMachiavellian ethics.
Vril Dox is the founder of the interplanetary police forceLicensed Extra Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network (abbreviated as L.E.G.I.O.N., an acronym suggested by Strata but accepted by Dox). It was founded through outright murder when Vril and his allies destroyed a criminal drug ring. Chief Dox tries to manipulate everyone he came across, not generally accepting when they did not follow his plans. He manages to gain control of the bounty hunterLobo. This is partly by outsmarting and outfighting Lobo and taking advantage of one of the bounty hunter's simple ethics; that he never breaks his word. The group also has fought the alien crime lord Maximillian G'odd and the mercenaryIce Man.
Vril leads the Earth's heroes in the 1992Annual crossover, they travel to the Moon and defeat theEclipso entity.
Vril had a son named Lyrl Dox (Brainiac 3) who rebelled and took over his organization. Vril later regains control of L.E.G.I.O.N by bartering with the demonNeron for the information on how to do it. The deal is for the soul of one of his unborn offspring. In addition, Vril asks Neron to have Ice Man not be a problem to them. After the cancellation of the title, he would only occasionally appear in the more cosmic DCU titles.[1] For example, he appears in the2004 Adam Strange miniseries, using robotic soldiers to hunt Strange. Dox, now missing his hair, incorrectly believes Rann had been destroyed at the hands of Strange. Dox's forces assist in the limited seriesInfinite Crisis.
A new 2009 series featuresStarro taking control of a now completely automated L.E.G.I.O.N. Dox, along with his old compatriot, Strata, must form a new team to regain his former status. InBlackest Night, Dox comes into contact with the mother of his son, who was killed by L.E.G.I.O.N. drones and resurrected as aBlack Lantern. Dox was also in an area in which aSinestro Corps member was murdered by another Black Lantern. When the ring started to search for a new host, it selected Dox, making him a member of the Sinestro Corps.[2] However, not even the power of the ring was a match for the Black Lanterns, forcing Dox to teleport them toStarro's homeworld, despite the fact that his son, Lyrl (who had recently had his intelligence restored by the warlord) was there also. Soon after, the ring rejected Dox, who had repeatedly refusedSinestro's mandate that all members of the Sinestro Corps were to gather at Korugar, and declared that he had been discharged from the Corps.[3]
R.E.B.E.L.S. helped to save the Vega system and several galaxies by defeating Starro the Conqueror. The plight of Rann's people was soon resolved by Vril Dox, seeking to restore his reputation afterStarro the Conqueror stole L.E.G.I.O.N. from him and used it to enslave its client worlds. Dox Zeta-beamed Rann into the Vega system, in the orbit previously held by the now destroyed planetTamaran, and proceeded to terraform Rann and make it suitable to sustain life again.
The restoration of the planet Rann was not Dox's only reason for relocating it into the Vega system. First, by putting Rann into Tamaran's orbit, it restored the gravitational balance to the Vega system, which had been thrown off by Tamaran's destruction. Secondly, in exchange for restoring their planet, the people of Rann agreed to let Dox rebuild L.E.G.I.O.N. headquarters on Rann.
Tamaranian refugees, led byBlackfire, attacked Rann believing that since the planet was in Tamaran's orbit they had claim to it. The violence was ended when Vril Dox, who was off-world at the start of the conflict, arrived withThanagarian warships and stopped the fighting without bloodshed on either side. As it turned out, Dox was off-world negotiating an official end to theRann–Thanagar War, using Rann's new-found distance from Thanagar and change in leadership on both sides as leverage.
Dox then went on to mediate the tension between the Rannians and the Tamaranians by proposing that the Tamaranians live on Rann's uninhabited southern continent.
Dox,Adam Strange and other senior commanders of L.E.G.I.O.N. also ensured peace with the Green Lantern Corps and helped create an alliance between Rannians, Tamaranians and L.E.G.I.O.N. after defeating Starro the Conqueror, ensuring security for Rann, the Vega system and the galaxy, with Dox becoming consort to Blackfire.
In 2011, "The New 52" rebooted the DC universe. InSuperman vol. 3 Annual #2, Vril Dox is shown to be Brainiac's original identity.[4]
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". When Brainiac's home planet of Colu falls under the threat of four beings that escaped the Source Wall at the end ofDark Nights: Metal, the teams of heroes and villains realize that their armor is pulling them into four teams towards four different energy sources in the form of trees that coincide with the four entities. Batman's team finds Vril Dox, who claims that his father would never put his faith in the Earth heroes, as he only needed their powers to save Colu, but his plan required him at every step. With Brainiac's death at the hands of Amanda Waller, the planet of Colu and Earth are doomed.[5]
An alternate future version of Vril Dox appears inArmageddon 2001.[6]
Vril Dox appears inHarley Quinn, voiced byJill Talley.
Vril Dox appears inLegion of Super-Heroes, voiced byBenjamin Diskin.[7] This version is a clone of Brainiac and member of theDark Circle who was created to steal the Miracle Machine. After his failure to do so, Brainiac fuses him into himself, but Brainiac 5 later manipulates Vril and his fellow clones into fighting and killing one another from the inside.
