Brain Drain (comics)
Encyclopedia
Brain Drain is a fictional character
that appears in comic book
s published by Marvel Comics
. The character first appears in Invaders
#2 (Oct. 1975) and was created by writer Roy Thomas
and artist Frank Robbins
.
, leading a group of beings claiming to be Teutonic gods against the World War II
superhero
team the Invaders. Brain Drain recounts in flashback
his origin to Captain America
, explaining how a falling meteorite
all but killed him. The meteorite was in fact a spaceship
, with the four alien
inhabitants saving Schmidt's brain
and eye
s and placing them in a robot
form. With his brain waves heightened during the process, Schmidt dubs himself Brain Drain and taking mental control of the aliens - which he calls "Star Gods" - renames them after old German
gods: Donar, Log, Froh, and Brunnhilde. When Brunnhilde is released, she taunts Brain Drain into committing suicide
in a vat of chemicals, which destroy the characters. The Invaders escape as the aliens then destroy themselves and the installation.
The character's is mentioned by fellow Nazi villain the Red Skull
in the title Marvel Premiere
, and reappears in a two part story in the title Marvel Two-In-One
, and together with Nazi allies Master Man
, U-Man
and Skyshark plans to sabotage
New York City
with a new super weapon. The plan, however, is foiled by time travel
ling Fantastic Four
member the Thing
and the Liberty Legion
.
The title Alpha Flight
reveals that Brain Drain's brain casing is apparently lost in the snow
below a mountain
for decades, and is rescued after taking mental control of a nearby hiker. The character allies himself with the Master, a perennial foe of the superhero team Alpha Flight. Joining the Master's team Omega Flight
in a new robot body, Brain Drain and other villains battle the heroes on several occasions, before finally being defeated.
Brain Drain is mentioned in the one shot Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special, as heroine Miss America
believes the character to be the mastermind behind a Nazi plan.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
that appears in comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s published by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. The character first appears in Invaders
Invaders (comics)
The Invaders is the name of two fictional superhero teams in the . The original team was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema in The Avengers #71 . A present-day incarnation was introduced by writer Chuck Austen and artist Scott Kolins in The Avengers vol...
#2 (Oct. 1975) and was created by writer Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and artist Frank Robbins
Frank Robbins
Franklin "Frank" Robbins was a notable American comic book and comic strip artist and writer, as well as a prominent painter whose work appeared in museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, where one of his paintings was featured in the 1955 Whitney Annual Exhibition of American...
.
Fictional character biography
Werner Schmidt first appears as Brain Drain in the title InvadersInvaders (comics)
The Invaders is the name of two fictional superhero teams in the . The original team was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema in The Avengers #71 . A present-day incarnation was introduced by writer Chuck Austen and artist Scott Kolins in The Avengers vol...
, leading a group of beings claiming to be Teutonic gods against the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
team the Invaders. Brain Drain recounts in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
his origin to Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
, explaining how a falling meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
all but killed him. The meteorite was in fact a spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
, with the four alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
inhabitants saving Schmidt's brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
and eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
s and placing them in a robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
form. With his brain waves heightened during the process, Schmidt dubs himself Brain Drain and taking mental control of the aliens - which he calls "Star Gods" - renames them after old German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
gods: Donar, Log, Froh, and Brunnhilde. When Brunnhilde is released, she taunts Brain Drain into committing suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in a vat of chemicals, which destroy the characters. The Invaders escape as the aliens then destroy themselves and the installation.
The character's is mentioned by fellow Nazi villain the Red Skull
Red Skull
The Red Skull is a name shared by several fictional characters, all supervillains from the Marvel Comics universe. All incarnations of the character are enemies of Captain America, other superheroes, and the United States in general....
in the title Marvel Premiere
Marvel Premiere
Marvel Premiere is an American comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. It ran for 61 issues from April 1972 to August 1981....
, and reappears in a two part story in the title Marvel Two-In-One
Marvel Two-in-One
Marvel Two-In-One was an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics that featured the Fantastic Four member, the Thing, in a different team-up each issue with a different character. The series continued from the team-up stories starring the Thing in the final two issues of Marvel...
, and together with Nazi allies Master Man
Master Man (Marvel Comics)
Master Man is the name of three fictional characters that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original Master Man first appears in the title Giant-Size Invaders #1 and was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins. The second version , first appears in Namor the Sub-Mariner #11 ...
, U-Man
U-Man
U-Man is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in Invaders #3 and was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins.-Publication history:...
and Skyshark plans to sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with a new super weapon. The plan, however, is foiled by time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
ling Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
member the Thing
Thing (comics)
The Thing is a fictional character, a founding member of the superhero team known as the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in The Fantastic Four #1...
and the Liberty Legion
Liberty Legion
The Liberty Legion is a fictional superhero team in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team was first created in 1976 and set during World War II...
.
The title Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight is a fictional superhero team published by Marvel Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero teams. Created by John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 ....
reveals that Brain Drain's brain casing is apparently lost in the snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
below a mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
for decades, and is rescued after taking mental control of a nearby hiker. The character allies himself with the Master, a perennial foe of the superhero team Alpha Flight. Joining the Master's team Omega Flight
Omega Flight
Omega Flight is the name used by three teams of fictional characters with superpowers in the Marvel Universe, one of the few Canadian teams published by an American comic book company. Omega Flight first appeared in the pages of Alpha Flight as a supervillain team...
in a new robot body, Brain Drain and other villains battle the heroes on several occasions, before finally being defeated.
Brain Drain is mentioned in the one shot Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special, as heroine Miss America
Miss America (comics)
Miss America is a long-standing beauty pageant, which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands.Miss America may also refer to:...
believes the character to be the mastermind behind a Nazi plan.