Computo | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | Adventure Comics #340 (January 1966) |
Created by | Jerry Siegel Curt Swan |
In-story information | |
Full name | Computo |
Notable aliases | Mr. Venge |
Abilities | Artificial intelligence Mind possession |
Computo is a fictional character, a supervillain in the DC Comics universe and a foe of the Legion of Super-Heroes. It first appeared in Adventure Comics #340 (January 1966), in a story written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Curt Swan.[1]
Contents |
Computo was created by Brainiac 5 to be a mechanical assistant, but instead it becomes homicidal, and attempts an uprising of machines. It creates an army of replicas and begins terrorizing the city. Calculating that a confrontation with the Legion is imminent, it redesigns itself into its ultimate form, Computo the Conqueror, and send a distress signal which will recall all Legionnaires back to Earth. When the Legion returns unawares, Computo uses its database to create a weapon which neutralizes Legion members' powers and use it against them, and turns the Clubhouse into a walking automaton. Computo forces the Legion to leave Metropolis, but not before causing the death of one of the bodies of Triplicate Girl, resulting in her becoming Duo Damsel.[2] Brainiac 5 is finally able to defeat Computo by using an anti-matter device discovered in the ruins of the Batcave. Years later, after Brainiac 5 uses elements of its original circuitry, Computo re-emerges by possessing the mind of young Danielle Foccart. Computo is defeated when her brother Jacques uses the invisible formula invented by deceased Legionnaire Lyle Norg to become the second Invisible Kid.[3] Several months later, Brainiac 5 would succeed in removing Computo from the young girl and place it within a matrix which tames the program and it becomes the Legion's majordormo--after first exploding the Legion HQ and then rebuilding and redesigning the structure in minutes.[4] Years later, an army of Computo replicas would try to conquer Bismoll, but are defeated by Senator Tenzil Kem and the Legion of Substitute Heroes. This fiasco, although successful, drives Polar Boy to disband the group and apply for membership in the regular Legion.[5] Sometime later, after resigning from the Legion, Brainiac 5 constructs an organic body (which resembles a dwarfish version of Validus) to house Computo and help the Legion cope with his absence.[6] Following the events of the "Five Year Gap", the Dominators secretly seize the lifeform and use it as a basis for their enforcer B.I.O.N.[7]
Following the Zero Hour reboot of Legion continuity, C.O.M.P.U.T.O. (Cybercerebral Overlapping Multi-Processor Universal Transceiver Operator) is created by Brainiac 5 when he and other Legionnaires are trapped in the 20th century and attempt to find a way to return to the 30th century.[8] C.O.M.P.U.T.O is formed by the melding of three miniature supercomputers: a 30th century Omnicom communications device; a Mother Box; and the "responsometer" (personality module) of Veridium of the Metal Men. C.O.M.P.U.T.O creates a portal to the 30th century, but turns against Brainiac when he assures the other Metal Men that Veridium's responsometer will be restored once C.O.M.P.U.T.O has served his purpose. C.O.M.P.U.T.O is seemingly destroyed, but returns in the 31st century as Presidential Advisor "Mister Venge", seemingly serving the wishes of a returned Ra's al Ghul's agenda. After al Ghul's defeat, he reveals himself as the leader of the computer nation of Robotica which threatens Earth.[1]
In the Justice League of America/Justice Society of America crossover "The Lightning Saga", Sensor Girl replays the Legionaries' first battle with Computo wherein one of Triplicate Girl's duplicates were killed.[9]
Brainiac (although referred to only as 'The Colony of the Collector of Worlds') is first seen as the mysterious informant that supplies Lex Luthor information of Superman and his alien nature.[10] Clark is having a dream of Krypton's final moments in which an artificial intelligence that controls the planet wakes up robots in an attempt to preserve the Kryptonian culture. Later, while Clark makes an interview in a robotic factory, suddenly the same harvester robots appear. At the same time John Corben, who is receiving his last adjustments in his transformation into Metallo, is suddenly possessed by the artificial intelligence who demands for Superman.[11] The robots create havoc throughout Metropolis but Superman soon realizes that they are really after him. Superman fights the possessed Metallo with the help of John Henry Irons. Although they managed to defeat him, the alien sentience had already miniaturized and bottled the city of Metropolis and take it to his ship in space.[12]
However, the ship Clark was placed into as a child was described as having "Brainiac AI", leaving the identity of the Collector of Worlds in doubt.[13] However, The Colony of the Collector of Worlds told Superman that he was different technology that went by different names and he began on Yod-Colu being known as C.O.M.P.U.T.O., and on Krypton he was called Brainiac 1.0 and on Earth, he is the Internet.[14]
Computo appears on the Legion of Super Heroes animated series as the computer operating the Legion headquarters. In the series, Imperiex hacks into Computo to access classified Legion information. He later uses this information to awaken the original Brainiac within Brainiac 5's mind.
In archaic law, a computo was a writ, thus called from its effect, which was to compel a bailiff, chamberlain, or receiver to yield his accounts. The same was true for executors of executors; and against the guardian in socage, for waste made in the minority of the heir.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "article name needed". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (first ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.
Computo is the code name for Danielle Foccart, a female fictional character in the DC Universe who became a member of the "Batch SW6" group of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century. She is the younger sister of Jacques Foccart, who joined the Legion as the second Invisible Kid.
Danielle is a native of Earth, from what was once the francophone African nation of Côte d'Ivoire. As a preteen, Danielle was afflicted with a life-threatening neurological disorder which had baffled the best medical experts of the 30th century. As a last resort, her older brother Jacques brought her to Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes for treatment. Brainiac 5 rashly decided to utilize a piece of circuitry from the dismantled machine Computo, a highly advanced supercomputer he had created years earlier which rebelled against its creator and murdered one of Triplicate Girl's bodies. Still surviving as an artificial intelligence, Computo promptly possessed Danielle's body, and took control of Legion headquarters and the city of Metropolis, nearly killing several Legionnaires. In order to save Danielle and the others, Jacques drank Lyle Norg's invisibility serum and gained the original Invisible Kid's powers. Although the A.I.'s control of Legion HQ was broken, it maintained possession of Danielle's body. Brainiac 5 devoted most of his free time for at least a year to curing Danielle's disorder and exorcizing Computo. Eventually, he succeeded at both tasks. A healthy and apparently normal Danielle returned to the Foccart home in Côte d'Ivoire.