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| Cranius | |
| Aliases: | Doctor Cranius Otto von Schadel [1] |
| Continuity: | DC Universe |
| Notability: | Antagonist |
| Type: | Scientist |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race: | Un-Men |
| Location: | The Balkans Southeast Europe Aberrance City |
| Status: | Alive |
| First: | Swamp Thing, Vol. 1 #2 |
Cranius is a fictional mutated experiment featured in comic books published by DC Comics. He is considered part of DC's Pre-Crisis Earth-One continuity, though his existence and background have been preserved in the rebooted internal reality which existed following the 1985-86 maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. The character first appeared in Swamp Thing, Volume 1 #2 in January, 1973.
Biography[]
Cranius, the Living Brain, was literally a synthetically generated head resting a top a hand, which it used for locomotion. It was but one of many such scientific oddities created in a castle laboratory by the insane scientist Anton Arcane. Cranius was the leader of Arcane's race of monstrous servants, which he dubbed Un-Men. Unlike other Un-Men, Cranius was more than just a mindless brute. In addition to a genius-level intellect, Cranius could also communicate telepathically with others and always maintained a telepathic link with the other Un-Men.
Many years ago, Anton Arcane learned of the existence of a monstrous creature from the United States known as the Swamp Thing. He sent his Un-Men to capture the creature and Cranius coordinated the attack against and succeeded in subduing him for transport back to Arcane's castle laboratory in the Balkans. [2]
A short time later, Cranius and the others heeded the telepathic beckoning of Anton Arcane as his body lied broken and near death on the cliffs below his castle after a battle with the Swamp Thing. Tapping into Arcane's consciousness, he followed his instruction and brought his body to a new laboratory, where he then supplanted the man's psyche into a synthetic body. The resurrected Anton Arcane led the Un-Men back to the United States to confront the Swamp Thing a second time. Though Cranius was present, he did not actively participate in the following conflict between Anton Arcane and the Swamp Thing. The ghost of a woman named Auntie Elsbeth Bellum called forth the ghosts of slaves that had died in the area to drive the Un-Men off. [3]
Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Telepathy: Cranius possesses the ability to transmit and receive mental impressions from others. This ability seems to be limited to communicating, and to some extent, controlling the other Un-Men, but may extend to normal human beings as well.
Skills[]
Equipment[]
- Otto the Ottoman: This was a synthetic prosthetic body that Cranius used while operating as Doctor Otto von Schadel. Cranius concealed his fingers beneath the collar of Otto's uniform, which enabled him to give the appearance of being completely human.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Cranius was created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson.