Who's Crisis Part 6: Brains and Bros

Continuing our exploration of whether or not Who's Who was actually a spotter's guide for the Crisis on Infinite Earths (go back one, to Part 5) because I can't stop in the middle of an issue. The question: Do all the entries in Who's Who feature in either the Crisis series or one of its tie-ins? Who's Who #3's back half, comin' right up...

The Brain: Having had appeared in New Teen Titans within two years of Crisis, it's no surprise Marv and George put him in with the villains featured in Crisis, but it's a minuscule role, just a background extra held by Monsieur Mallah. He would appear in Titans again within the year. (I'll be skipping his team, the Brotherhood of Evil, later, as they all have their own entries.)

Brainiac: Recently updated, Brainiac plays a big role in Crisis as the bad dude who wants to use the multiversal cataclysm to his advantage and corrals all the supervillains to try and take over the slowly-forming post-Crisis universe. He kills the Earth-2 Luthor and Psimon in the course of things, but things don't work out. They REALLY don't work out because after this, there's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" and then he gets severely rebooted along with the rest of the Superman mythos. It'll take years before he's a cool robot again.

Brainiac 5: A regular in the Legion of Super-Heroes series, B5 appears here and there in Crisis, and there's an issue of Legion in part devoted to his reaction to the death of Supergirl.

Brain Storm: This old JLA villain had appeared in Superman Family in the early 80s, so he wasn't a safe bet, but he does show up in Crisis #5. He'd had one final shot in DC Comics Presents before being relegated to a joke a few years later in the famous Justice League issue where all the crappy supervillains lose their gear at cards.

Brain Wave: Despite being a big deal in All-Star Squadron, America versus the JSA, and Infinity Inc. Brain Wave Sr. doesn't appear in the main series. We have to look to Infinity Inc. #23 where he appears to Jr. and Jade as an illusion. Despite the red skies, it's not really him brought forward in time or something. Jr. and Jade's reaction? Bangin' in a dank cave.

Brainwave Jr.: As a member of Infinity Inc. and thus on Earth-2, you better believe Junior appeared in Crisis. Except... in the series itself? Just that big group shot in issue 5. Marv Wolfman and Roy Thomas... not exactly besties in this era.

Breathtaker: The first character to sit out on this particular go, his entire history was just three issues of Fury of Firestorm about a year before the Crisis hit, and he'd ended up in prison. Who's Who marked his fourth and last appearance.

Bronze Tiger: Though he would soon be a big deal thanks to Legends/Suicide Squad, the closest Bronze Tiger comes to a Crisis-related appearance is a cameo in History of the DC Universe (which we've chosen not to count). Before appearing in Who's Who, he'd last been in a Whatever Happened to Richard Dragon? back-up in DCCP back in '81.

Broot: The Omega Men are a bit too far afield of the "Earths" so they mostly stick to their own book, which DOES tie into Crisis. So if you were a completist and bought, say, Omega Men #31, you'd really need Who's Who to tell you who all these characters were. Broot, not Groot, is among them, but only as a floating head.

Brother Blood: One of Marv's babies, he couldn't possibly resist having him in Crisis, if only briefly. There he is in issue 5 aboard the Monitor's satellite. He would continue appearing in Titans comics through the end of the decade.

Brother Power: Oh here's a more difficult ask! Before Who's Who, Brother Power the Geek had only appeared in two issues of his short-lived series in 1968. During this time, Ambush Bug made a joke about him in his Stocking Stuffer. And then it's four years later for another joke cameo in Blasters #1. So no Crisis appearance. I'm pretty bummed about it. Especially considering the following mort made it in.

Bug-Eyed Bandit: Having last appeared in a 1979 Atom back-up in World's Finest Comics after only a couple appearances in the 60s, Bertram Larvan is part of Brainiac's assembled force of villains in Crisis #9. He gets trounced by Lead of the Metal Men, and then isn't seen until Crisis II in Animal Man, more or less as a joke, 4 years later.

Bug & Byte: One-shot villains in Fury of Firestorm the year before, they do not appear in Crisis, and only actually show up again in 2002 issues of Young Justice.

B'wana Beast: After his couple of appearances in 1967 issues of Showcase, you might have missed him in the DC Sampler (1984), but not in Who's Who, an entry that immediately made you want to read more. It's going to be sporadic (DC Challenge, and famously the first Animal Man story arc, for example), but he DOES appear in two issues of Crisis. Yay! Part of the assembled heroes in issue 5, he also gets a little something to do in the final battle, riding a giraffe into action! Points off for it not being amalgamated with another animal though.

Byth: Hawkman's archenemy does not feature despite appearing in Hawkman comics around this time. He'd eventually be rebooted in the last-scare wave of Crisis, along with the rest of Hawkworld.

One third omission is just about the average, so this 5 out of 15 doesn't surprise me. After 3 issues, the score stands at 61/91, see?