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Computo the Conqueror - TV Tropes

  • ️Sun Feb 02 2025

Computo the Conqueror (Comic Book)

Computo: "Your primitive mind will not comprehend how I have done it, but I have auto-manufactured enough reasonable facsimiles of myself to control your planet! Be emotionally proud, Brainiac 5! You are responsible for this!"
Brainiac 5: "Don't remind me!"

Computo the Conqueror is a Legion of Super-Heroes storyline published in Adventure Comics #340-341 (January-February, 1966). The story was started by Jerry Siegel and finished by Edmond Hamilton. Curt Swan provided art for both issues.

Brainiac 5 is working day and night to build Computo, a giant mobile computer. The newly-built Computo is craving for knowledge, and when his master runs out of books, Computo absorbs Brainiac and starts extracting information directly from Brainy.

After absorbing the entirety of Brainiac's knowledge, Computo decides that humans are inefficient and weak. Computo proceeds to create an army of duplicate computeroids, sending them out to absorb the knowledge of the world's greatest scientists, planning to destroy all humans afterwards.

Even though he remains imprisoned within Computo, Brainiac 5 manages to send a distress call. The Legion responds to his signal, but they find out that Computo knows everything about them and their powers, every Computroid is holding one human hostage, and they don't care blowing themselves up together with their hostages.

Superboy and Ultra Boy leave in order to keep the hostages alive, but Computo decides he needs to upgrade himself so that he cannot be thwarted by the Legion. Thus, Computo rebuilds himself into a new, more dangerous shape, and sets up a diabolical trap for the Legionnaires.

Adventure Comics #340 was the last Legion of Super-Heroes story written by Jerry Siegel, who left DC Comics to start a long legal battle over the Superman copyright together with Joe Shuster.


Tropes:

  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: After absorbing Brainiac's knowledge, Computo decides humans are inefficient and tries to conquer Earth and kill all humans, killing one of Triplicate Girl's three bodies in the process.
  • Alliterative Title: Computo the Conqueror.
  • Antagonist Title: The storyline is named after the crazy A.I. which attempts to kill the Legion and take over the world.
  • Antimatter: In order to destroy the Computroid army, Brainiac 5 releases an anti-matter monster. Everything that comes in contact with the monster explodes, its anti-matter bolts cannot be stopped by any force-field, and Superboy observes that not even he and Mon-El could survive its blasts despite being invulnerable.
  • Attending Your Own Funeral: The Legion is holding a funeral for Triplicate Girl (so called for her power to split herself into three bodies), who was disintegrated by Computo, when two Triplicate Girls walk into the place and ask why they are talking about her "death". It turns out that Computo "only" destroyed one of her bodies, but the remaining two were able to flee.
  • Brandishment Bluff: In ordder to distract Computo while the Legion rescues its hostages, Proty -the team's shape-shifting pet- transforms into a weird multi-limbed, multi-headed humanoid and confronts Computo, cackling that he is a secret Legionnaire who will absolutely fry Computo when he unleashes his awesomely devastating power. Computo is so disconcerted by that strange, unknown, boastful enemy who seems so utterly confident about his capability to destroy it with the greatest ease that the mad machine decides to play it safe and analyze its enemy as the Legion sets their teammates free, whereupon Proty returns to his original shape and escapes, causing Computo to curse itself about being fooled by a protoplasmic blob.
  • Burial in Space: After one of Triplicate Girl's bodies has been obliterated by Computo, the Legionnaires gather her powdered remains and put them in a rocket-urn before blasting it into space, towards the cemetery-satellite Shanghalla, where super-heroes from all over the galaxy are buried.
  • Captain Obvious: When the Legion returns to their clubhouse in answer to a secret code-signal, they find Brainiac 5 semi-conscious, muttering they must get out. Unexpectedly, the place starts shaking, and Superboy warns that they have fallen into a trap. Elemental Lad states they had already figured that out, thank you very much.

    Colossal Boy: "The whole place is tilting! Oops! I slipped!"
    Superboy: "On guard, Legionnaires. This is a trap!!"
    Elemental Lad: "Did you figure that out all by yourself?"

  • Continuity Nod:
    • When the Legion fetches Professor Dalton's Duplicator Ray from the Batcave, a footnote informs that same machine was used to create Bizarro-Batman, suggesting readers to check the March issue of World's Finest (1941) (issue #156, with a cover date of March, 1966).
    • When Superboy the Batcave's device in action, he comments it is the same Duplicator Ray which created his imperfect clone in The Boy of Steel vs. the Thing of Steel.
  • Didn't Think This Through: In order to try to destroy the Computroids, Brainiac 5 uses a duplicator ray to create a Bizarro-Computo. Of course, Bizarro-Computo is too dim-witted and backwards to be of any use, is as likely as attack the enemy as the Legionnaires (by slapping their shadows), and is so weak that it is obliterated with a single blast by the real Computo, who was feeling embarassment about its Bizarro-copy's mere existence. When an annoyed Superboy asks Brainiac what was he thinking, Brainy admits he was getting desperate.

    Brainiac 5: "—I never expected this! I thought...!"
    Superboy: "If you'd just stop thinking, Brainiac 5, maybe mankind might somehow manage to survive!!"

  • Distress Call: When Computo begins its extermination-and-conquest worldwide campaign, Brainiac 5 sends a distress call to all Legionnaires who are busy with off-world missions.
  • Due to the Dead: When one of Triplicate Girl's bodies gets destroyed by Computo, her comrades collect her remains, putting them in a rocket-urn. Superboy gives an eulogy, and all Legionnaires chiselled their names in a metal plate. Then, the ship-urn is launched, landind on Shangalla, a cemetery-satellite for galactic heroes.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The anti-matter monster released by the Legion looks like a giant sentient cloud of perpetually exploding black, yellow, orange and red matter which obliterates everything it touches. On its gaseous surface, holes which vaguely resemble two eyes and a mouth are constantly expelling orange flares out.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The Legion cannot use their base or any of their emergency hideouts because they are being monitored by the titular villain, so that they use the Batman's Batcave, still usable after one millennium.
  • Electronic Telepathy: Computo uses a device to connect its own database with Brainaic's head and absorb all information in his brain.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: The premise of this 1966 storyline (Brainiac 5 snapping under the pressure of being a Legionnaire and building a threat which will attempt to destroy the Legion) became a constantly recycled story throughout the years. Examples include the "Infinite Man" story in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233 (1977), the "Omega" storyline in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #250-251 (1979)...
  • Godzilla Threshold: Having run out of options to stop Computo's genocidal robot army, Brainiac 5 sets an anti-matter monster free, despite knowing the dangerous monster cannot be controlled or stopped by the Legion and might just obliterate Earth after being done with the Computroids.
  • Hostage Situation: Each Computroid kidnaps and imprisons a human scientist by putting him inside its mechanical body, threatening to blow themselves up together with the hostages if any Legionnaire tries to attack them.
  • Inescapable Ambush: The Legionnaires are summoned back to their clubhouse by a fake distress code sent by Computo. When the team enters their base, its doors automatically shut down, and their powers are blocked by a power-nullifier.
  • Literal-Minded: Bizarro-Computo, an imperfect duplicate created to battle the Computroids, is too dumb and backwards to understand simple commands, so that when Brainiac 5 commands it to "go and clean up the Computer Army", Bizarro-Computo seizes a giant mop and water vat and gets to scrub the Computroids clean.
  • Lured into a Trap: Computo and its robot army modify the Legion Clubhouse as the Legionnaires are away, before sending a code-signal to summon all Legionnaires back to their base. When the Legion returns, their house's doors automatically shut down, and a device activates, blocking all their powers. Superboy is not affected by the power-nullifier, but he is weakened by a Kryptonite ray fitted into the wall.
  • Meaningful Rename: Luornu Dungo -a.k.a. Triplicate Girl, a Legionnarie with the power to split herself into three copies- sees one of her bodies obliterated by Computo. Since she can now become only two persons, Luornu changes her hero name to Duo Damsel.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Brainiac 5 sets out to make "the most efficient, complex computer ever built" to be "a boon to mankind". Said computer comes to the conclusion that humans are an inefficient waste of time and should be wiped out and replaced by mobile super-computers like itself.
  • Not Enough to Bury: When Computo disintegrates one of Triplicate Girl's bodies, her teammates get upset because there is not enough left to give her a decent burial, but Brainiac 5 builds a device to gather the particles of inert matter which used to be her body and store them in an urn.
  • People Jars: A scientist known as "the Android Master" is seen creating androids in his lab, surrounded by transparent pods containing naked humanoids enshrouded by wisps of violet gas.
  • Power Nullifier: After trapping the whole Legion in their own clubhouse, Computo activates a glowing spherical device to cancel their powers out.
  • Premature Eulogy: Superboy has just given an eulogy for their "sweet, unselfish" teammate Triplicate Girl, murdered by Computo, when two Triplicate Girls walk into the place and ask why they are mourning her.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: When the Legion engages the titular villain, Triplicate Girl splits herself into three bodies. Two of them are able to flee, but the third is caught and disintegrated by Computo. Later, Triplicate Girl's remaining bodies walk into their teammates holding her funeral and talking about avenging her "death".
  • Sadistic Choice: By the end of the first issue, Computo's robot army has depowered, disabled and captured all Legionnaires except for Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy. Computo gives the trio twenty-four hours to get off the Earth and stay off, or its hostages will be destroyed.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Brainiac 5 finds in the Batcave a device containing an extremely dangerous antimatter monster. It is unknown who had imprisoned the monster, or for how long it had remained stored and buried in the abandoned underground base, but the anti-matter monster is released and pit against Computo and its robot army, even though there is no guarantee that the monster will not destroy Earth afterwards.
  • Self-Constructed Being: Computo calculates that it needs an improved body to fight the Legionnaires, so the evil computer takes its old headless, green body apart and builds a newer and more compact yellow body for itself, including a square-looking head.
  • The Social Darwinist: After being created, Computo declares he will have all inefficient, overemotional and useless humans wiped out by its robot army after absorbing any valuable knowledge that humans might harbor as an example of "Survival of the Fittest".
  • Spoiler Cover: At the very end of the first issue, Triplicate Girl is obliterated by Computo in one panel. Said panel is used as that issue's cover image.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: In order to stop Computo and its army of genocidal, walking super-computers, the Legion unleashes an anti-matter monster. The monster destroys the robot army, but also threatens the Legion and Earth.
  • Super-Speed Reading: As Brainiac is building Computo, the machine scans ultra-swiftly whole physical enciclopedias in a matter of minutes, and then demands to being fed with more information.
  • Superdickery: The cover for Adventure Comics #341 features Colossal Boy smashing two Computroid machines together, uncaring that his act will kill their hostages Star Boy and Sun Boy. When Superboy tries to stop him, Colossal Boy declares he intends to kill the entire Legion. In the proper story, Colossal Boy's apparently out-of-control attack is a ruse to distract the Computroids as Superboy rescues both Legionnaires.
  • Twin Maker: Brainiac 5 uses Professor Dalton's Duplicator Ray to create Computo's imperfect duplicate.
  • We Need a Distraction: So that the Legion is able to rescue their captured teammates from the Computroids, Proty shape-shifts into a three-headed, four-armed humanoid and starts taunting their leader Computo, claiming he is the Legion's top secret weapon. Computo is so weary of that unknown Legionnaire who seems to be utterly certain that he can destroy it completely that it misses the Legionnaires saving their friends.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Legion's official rule against killing often excludes AIs, which is why they kill Brainy's malevolent AI creation, Computo, and its robot army, without a qualm.
  • Where's the Fun in That?: With their homebase taken over, their teammates captured and their secret hideouts monitored by the Computroids, the remaining Legionnaires must seek shelter in the abandoned Batcave to hold a secret war council. Suddenly, the group hears Computo's voice stating that finding them was simple, and killing them would be even simpler, but it wants to make them suffer first, so that it announces that its hostages will be executed within one hour.
  • You Wouldn't Shoot Me: When Computo declares its Computroids will blow themselves up together with their hostages if any Legionnaire tries to attack them, a scientist encourages the Legion to attack, arguing the Computroids would never destroy themselves. His own captor instantly decides to prove him wrong by destroying itself and him.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: After building its robot army, Computo praises its creator for building it, making the humanity's annihilation possible. Brainiac 5, who built Computo with the aim of improving humanity, doesn't appreciate to be reminded of it.