Brainwave | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | All-Star Comics # 15 (February–March 1943) |
Created by |
Gardner Fox Joe Gallagher |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Henry King, Sr. |
Team affiliations |
Injustice Society Black Lantern Corps |
Abilities | Telepathy Telekinesis Three-dimensional hologram creation Psi-blasts |
Brainwave | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | All-Star Squadron # 24 (August, 1983) |
Created by |
Roy Thomas Jerry Ordway Mike Machlan |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Henry King, Jr. |
Team affiliations | Infinity, Inc. |
Notable aliases | Brainwave Jr. |
Abilities | Telepathy Telekinesis Three dimensional hologram creation Psi-blasts |
Brainwave (or Brain Wave) is a name shared by two characters in the DC Comics Universe, who are father and son. Both characters have psychic abilities, while the father is a villain and the son a hero.
The first Brain Wave was Henry King, a super-villain who used his psionic powers to battle the Justice Society of America in the 1940s, first appearing in All-Star Comics #15 (February/March 1943). He was a member of the Injustice Society. The character made his first appearance in the pages of All Star Comics #15 (February–March 1943) in a story titled The Man Who Created Images written by Gardner Fox with art by Joe Gallagher.
The second Brainwave first appeared in All-Star Squadron #24 (1983) and was created by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan.
Henry King, Sr. was born in the early 1910s as a metahuman with vast mental attributes. An introvert, he found solace in reading books, which he one day learned to create three-dimensional images of, such as Sir Lancelot of the Round Table. He had developed a crush on a neighbor girl named Lucy who eventually married his acquaintance Edwin Ackerman, causing King tremendous jealousy.
As an adult, King was a college and later medical school graduate, obtaining a psychiatry degree. He decided to use his now more fully developed image projecting abilities in a secret life of crime. His first criminal act was creating thought-constructs that stole money needed by him to fund his new activities. He then became a crime lord.
In early 1942, Brain Wave contacted Professor Elba, developer of the "insanity serum", augmented by Brain Wave's mental abilities. It was administered to people around the nation causing them to commit crimes. Professor Elba was defeated by the Justice Society and when he tried to inject Johnny Thunder with it, but Doctor Mid-Nite caused him to inject himself, he was killed when falling out of a window.