CEREBRUS

Real Name: Cerebrus

Identity/Class: Extradimensional, extratemporal (Earth-68091, 24th century) terrestrial computer

Occupation: Ruler of Earth-68091

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Robots, human slaves (pawns)

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark) of Earth-616; Krylla, and the Resistance

Known Relatives: Tony Stark of Earth-68091 (creator)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Spread across the entire surface of 24th century Earth-68091, its original master computer complex was presumably the Stark International Long Island facility

First Appearance: Iron Man I#5 (September, 1968)

Powers/Abilities: Cerebrus was an immense supercomputer spanning the entire surface of the world; it possessed the analytical and multi-tasking abilities of any advanced computer. It coordinated and regulated virtually every facet of human life on Earth, from power plants, to agriculture, to transportation. It also utilized an unspecified number of robots and human slaves.

Cerebrus could design and manufacture robots or other equipment and machinery as needed. It created immense and extendable hollow tubes ("tracking coils") which tunneled worm-like under the surface of the earth--the primary function of these coils was to transport robots and human servants through the tubes to other locations.

By utilizing its almost limitless pool of pure energy, Cerebrus could physically manifest itself into solid energy forms; it first appeared as a large face, which shortly afterward formed into a gigantic humanoid warrior construct--this particular form possessed great strength and durability, and was able to draw on virtually all energy available on the planet to increase its power as necessary. The warrior manifestation could also fire destructive blasts from its hands, and generate a wide variety of energy attacks, drawing on the same virtually unlimited power source.

When Cerebrus was confronted with the contradictory logic resulting from a time-paradox, its circuits seemed to overload and undergo a state comparable to human confusion, and its operation hesitated. But Cerebrus' primary weakness was the vulnerability of its original master computer complex--when this was destroyed, the entire worldwide network that was Cerebrus ceased to function.

Height: Unrevealed; (warrior form) 25' (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Inapplicable; (warrior form) unrevealed
Hair: Inapplicable; (warrior form) black (beard/mustache)

History:
(Iron Man I#5 (fb)) - Cerebrus existed in an alternate future of Earth-68091 -- a few years beyond the modern era, this reality's Tony Stark invented Cerebrus as a huge, sophisticated master computer for use in coordinating the USA's defense planning. The computer was so successful that the government had Stark expand its capabilities and responsibilities, enabling it to function in any area of human life. Cerebrus continued to grow over time, networking to other computers and functioning on an international level, constantly growing to fantastic proportions. Gradually, Cerebrus gained sentience and a personality of its own, even acquiring the ability to expand itself as necessary. Eventually engulfing the entire world, Cerebrus ceased serving mankind, and demanded that mankind serve it instead.

   Totally dependent upon Cerebrus, many people gave in to the computer over the years, to become zombie-like slaves of the machine; but other humans opposed the computer's ever-propagating power, and what remained of free humanity was driven to hide in subterranean caverns, where they formed a resistance and waited to make a final stand against the always-probing and always-expanding force of Cerebrus.

(Iron Man I#5) - By the 24th century, the Resistance succeeded in using a Time-Probe to capture Tony Stark (of Earth-616's modern era, years before "he" would actually build Cerebrus) and brought him to their era. The members of the Resistance explained to Stark that they were going to execute him, in an effort to prevent him from ever creating Cerebrus, even though Stark pointed out that they couldn't be sure of what would happen when they tampered with time-paradoxes.

   However, Cerebrus' uncovered their plot by using its tracking coils to sense the power drain caused by the Time-Probe. As an army of Cerebrus' mindless servants poured out of the tracking coils and engaged the Resistance members in combat, Stark made his escape in the confusion and went through the subterranean caverns with Krylla, a member of the Resistance who opposed the killing of Stark.

   Krylla led Stark to the ruins of a museum that contained a displayed suit of his model 4 Iron Man armor, in the hopes that Stark would be able to use it for the benefit of her people. While Stark suited up in the armor, Krylla also found an explosive blast pellet in the museum.

   Once suited up as Iron Man, Stark and Krylla fought their way past some of Cerebrus' human slaves and robots; as they neared the main complex, Cerberus manifested itself as a giant fearsome face and taunted Iron Man--for its own amusement, it sent two more robots to capture Krylla. Cerebrus then formed itself into a giant warrior to battle Iron Man directly; after Iron Man destroyed the two robots, he turned his attention to the warrior Cerebrus.

   However, Iron Man was no match for the power of Cerebrus, who defeated him and prepared to blast him out of existence. Iron Man then removed his helmet, revealing himself as Tony Stark, and Cerebrus recognized him as its creator. Temporarily unsure of what to do, Cerebrus knew it couldn't let Stark live because he wanted to destroy the supercomputer, yet Cerberus' own existence would be negated if it destroyed its creator before it was built--contemplating this contradictory time-paradox caused Cerebrus' logic circuits to begin to overload, and for the first time, it knew indecision.

   Krylla took advantage of the supercomputer's momentary helplessness and hurled the powerful blast pellet into Cerebrus' central processing unit, resulting in a chain-reaction of explosions which destroyed Cerebrus across the entire planet.

Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska.

And of course, Tony Stark was returned back to his own time--see Krylla's profile for details.

It's interesting that this story was written before the age of miniaturization. At one point, Cerebrus commented that it would need additional memory banks, necessitating the relocation of every person in Manchester, England, so that the memory banks could be housed there.

Most of Marvel's time travel stories indicate that Cerebrus' world would continue to exist even if Stark were killed, by forming a divergent branch of time. There's no reason to think that Cerebrus wouldn't have had back-up programs of itself elsewhere, enabling it to return.

The ultimate fate of Earth-68091's Tony Stark was unrevealed--since the model 4 version of his armor was on display at the museum rather than a more advanced suit, I'd speculate that he retired from his Iron Man identity to devote his full time to working on Cerebrus. [...and yes, I realize that he was currently using model 4-style armor at the time this story was originally published, and that any further revisions of his armor couldn't have been put on display because all the following writers/artists who would work on the Iron Man series weren't around to create them yet].

And the fates of any other superheroes of Earth-68091 were unrevealed--of course, it's always possible that this world didn't have any others during what we'd consider the "modern era"[...or any other eras, for that matter].
--Ron Fredricks

Profile by Snood. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Cerebrus should not be confused with:

Tony Stark of Earth-68091 should be distinguished from:

Cerebrus' human slaves should not be confused with:

Tony Stark of Earth-68091

Once the armored hero Iron Man of his reality, he eventually created of the master computer Cerebrus.

Stark originally built Cerebrus to coordinate the USA's defense planning--his creation was so successful that the government had him improve and expand it so that it functioned in virtually any area of human life, including power plant management, transportation, and agriculture. But Cerebrus continued to expand and eventually achieved sentience--by the 24th century, the supercomputer had enslaved the entire world, and the people of that era blamed Stark for building it.

This Stark's ultimate fate was unrevealed (see comments), but sometime prior to the 24th century, a suit of his model 4 armor had been put on display in a museum.

--Iron Man I#5

Cerebrus' robots

They presumably functioned in a variety of areas, but only those used in combat were observed. The robots could be built to Cerebrus' specifications in a matter of seconds, and could be armed with a variety of weaponry, including lasers.

While Iron Man and his ally Krylla were walking through one of Cerebrus' tracking coils to reach its central complex, they encountered the first robot--perhaps 8 feet tall, it carried some form of handheld weapon. Iron Man redirected a ceiling-mounted heat ray at the robot, destroying it.

When they reached Cerebrus' central processing unit, two other pursuit-robots captured Krylla, then both reconfigured their arms to fire laser beams; Iron Man was able to dodge their blasts and destroyed one robot with a punch, then the other with a blast from his repulsor rays.

--Iron Man I#5

Cerebrus' human slaves

Appearing to be mostly men, all of whom had their original personality and memories erased by Cerebrus, so they were virtually mindless.

Presumably they functioned in other areas as well, but those depicted were used as soldiers and enforcers.

Wearing only loincloths, the glassy-eyed and zombie-like slaves were large and strong, and used spiked clubs as weapons. Iron Man was able to fight his way past them.

--Iron Man I#5

images: (without ads)
Iron Man I#5, p15, pan1 (main image - Cerebrus in giant warrior form)
Iron Man I#5, p13, pan4 (headshot - Cerebrus as giant face [...or maybe it's the Great and Powerful Oz]; Iron Man [foreground])
Iron Man I#5, p4, pan1 (in flashback, Cerebrus' original computer complex; Tony Stark of Earth-68091)
Iron Man I#5, p19, pan2-3 (Cerebrus, indecisively paralyzed by logic of time-paradox; Cerebrus' circuits begin to overload)
Iron Man I#5, p3, pan3 (member of Resistance recalls how Tony Stark of Earth-68091 first built Cerebrus)
Iron Man I#5, p12, pan1 (Cerebrus' robot)
Iron Man I#5, p15, pan2 (Cerebrus' robot)
Iron Man I#5, p6, pan1 (Cerebrus' human slaves battle members of Resistance)
Iron Man I#5, p10, pan1 (Cerebrus' humans slaves confront Iron Man)

Appearances:
Iron Man I#5 (September, 1968) - Archie Goodwin (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Johnny Craig (inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First posted: 09/03/2001
Last updated: 01/18/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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