In the animated versions, Brainiac was given Fighting a Shadow qualities, the green-skinned humanoid being just one of many bodies used by the villain whose nature as a program means all of his technology is 'him' and he need only upload himself elsewhere upon physical 'death.' The cartoons also made it his standard modus operandi to destroy planets after absorbing their information (and, in the Legion cartoon, shrinking and bottling their greatest cities), so no one else could have access to the power and knowledge he gained from them. In adaptations such as Superman: The Animated Series and its sequel Justice League, and later Smallville and Legion of Super-Heroes, he was made into a living supercomputer with Kryptonian origins to create greater enmity with the Man of Steel. Once again, Superman receives (in different circumstances) a Kandor shrunk by Brainiac, this time apparently a holding city for non-Kryptonian residents of Krypton, in the interest of keeping Superman the Last of His Kind. Eventually this was all retconned and he was reimagined again as an evil alien robot, then as time went on his exact origins and nature as either a robot, a pure alien or an alien cyborg robot was Depending on the Writer. Post-Crisis, he was reimagined again as an insane circus psychic named Milton Fine who believed he was possessed by an alien intelligence, though as that drew a fan backlash it was gradually implied that he might actually be Properly Paranoid and he began taking on genuinely alien characteristics, such as green skin and more audacious plans.

Skeletal Brainiac appears in the later seasons of Super Friends and was immortalized as an action figure for the popular Super Powers toyline. Later versions do usually retain a version of his skull-shaped spaceship introduced in this period, however. He received a major overhaul in 1983, turning him into a Skele Bot with vastly greater abilities note (in a story oddly reminiscent of the origin of V'Ger), but this version was wiped out by the Crisis on Infinite Earths only a few years later.

Due to legal issues, he was reimagined as a living supercomputer in humanoid form, the renegade agent of the Coluan race. He returned to menace the superhero over the years, often in a Villain Team-Up with Lex Luthor.

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