The OTHER alien cities Brainiac shrunk

[llozymandias]

another thing that was never established was when the coluans overthrew the computer tyrants.  brainiac's mission could have been intended to take several decades, if not a century or two.  maybe the revolt happened before braioniac was to return.  then when he found out about it he decided to become a free agent.  He was programmed with the mannerisms & thought patterns of a coluan scientist.  the tyrants could have given him 12th level intelligence, but didn't.  they were afraid that if they did he (as their superior) would become their master.  lex luthor later upgraded brainiac to 12th level iq.  How about this?  he had a base hidden somewhere.  all the alien cities (other than kandor)  he shrunk, are still there.  unless he enlarged them when he was in that temporary "good guy" mode.  the reason he kept kandor with him at all times?  maybe he considered it the prize of his collection.

[Just a fan]

Or there is the possiblity that he kept Kondor with him out of fear of enlarging a city of super beings

[Just a fan]

The Coluans revolted against the computer tyrants so they arguably had access to all the technology and shrunken cities, esp. since Vril Dox had a 12th-level intelligence compared with the tyrants' 10th-level ones.  While not shown, arguably the Coluans, or at least Vril, restored those other cities.  I can't honestly see them keeping those shrunken victims around after asserting their own justice for themselves.

The shrunken cities were never shown either in the present or 30th century Colu, so I suspect that's what happened.

It shows in http://superman.nu/tales3/greatest/?page=76 that Brainac never passed on the secret of enlarging the citites.  So that leaves with what, that there where no bottled cities except those from earth and kondor at the time?

I've wondered did Brainiac shrink any more after his first encounter with Kal?

[NotSuper]

Here's a question: What were Brainiac's motives after his creators were destroyed?

Brainiac was created to be a spy, so what happens when he has no one to work for? Did he seek to conquer the universe and rule it with his logical mind?

[Captain Kal]

Excellent reference, Just a fan.

I've not read that story before, so thanks for the link.  I'm sure I'll enjoy the whole thing when I get to it.

Seeing as Brainiac was retconned later into being an android and he was 10th level intelligence when he created the ray instead of Vril's 12th level one, I find it hard to believe that Brainiac 2 couldn't figure out how to create an enlarging ray invented by a mere 10th level guy.  It would be like saying a two-year-old could outwit a genius; he might do so for a time on an off-day but certainly couldn't do so forever.

I'm inclined to think Brainiac 5 simply lied to Supergirl to keep history intact.  It was a bit unethical of her to ask for help from the future like that which certainly could endanger the timeline.  At least that's what I gleaned from that one panel.  I'll have to read the whole thing to see if my opinion changes.

It must be noted that we never saw other cities captured besides Kandor and the Earth cities.  It may be Brainiac only chose to capture those ones for whatever his reasons.  He seemed to have ignored all the rest of Krypton's cities except for one but chose to grab a bunch of Earth ones.  His standards for this remain unknown but we know of at least one instance where he treated planets differently.

[Captain Kal]

NotSuper, apparently, Brainiac was motivated to conquer all lesser beings than himself.  And he considered everyone else less than himself -- even Grax who had a 20th level intelligence.  Go figure.

His other motivation was to avenge himself against the puny 6th level super-hero, Superman, who always managed to defeat his superior intellect somehow.  His pride would not allow him to accept this.

[Captain Kal]

OK, Just a fan, I just read that whole story in your link.

I propose one of two things can resolve Brainiac 5 seemingly not to know how to enlarge Kandor.

One way is that he was deliberately lying in the note to preserve history.

Another way is Supergirl misremembered the note despite her super-memory.  How can this be?  As I posted earlier, both Superboy and Supergirl have had super-post-hypnotic commands imbedded in their minds to prevent them remembering anything from the future that could alter their present (aka the LSH's past).  That command kept her from remembering Querl's real message re: an enlarging ray so her mind substituted something else she considered plausible.

[llozymandias]

silver-age superman was far greater than a 6th level intellect.  when kandor was finally enlarged it was kal who created the enlarging ray did it.  grax (the alleged 20th level intellect) admitted that he could not invent a force field anywhere near as powerful as brainiac's.  that was another thing brainiac invented as a 10th level intellect.  it was never established how long it took him to invent his greatest weapons; shrinking/enlarging ray, force field.  he considered the super-computer (in the fortress of solitude) to be the most advanced in the galaxy.  he was going to use the super-computer to upgrade his own mind from 12th level iq to 21th level.  superman invented & created that computer himself.  brainiac seemed to only respect the intellects of two beings:  kal-el/superman, his arch-enemy; & lex luthor, his most frequent partner-in-crime.