Cerebro

Cerebro in X-Men #7 (September, 1964 Marvel Comics). Art by Jack Kirby.

Cerebro first appeared in X-Men #7 (September 1964). Professor Jeffrey J. Kripal, in his 2011 book Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal, calls Cerebro "a piece of psychotronics" and describes it as "a spiderlike, Kirby-esque system of machines and wires that transmitted extrasensory data into Professor Xavier's private desk in another room".[1] Kripal notes that Cerebro made multiple subsequent central appearances, including Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), where Cerebro senses and locates a supermutant across the globe, resulting in the recreation of the X-Men team.[1]

Cerebro amplifies the brainwaves of the user. In the case of telepaths, it enables the user to detect traces of others worldwide, also able to distinguish between humans and mutants. Depictions of its inherent strength have been inconsistent; at times in the storylines it could detect mutated aliens outside of the planet, when at others it could only scan for mutants' signatures in the United States. It is not clear whether it finds mutants by the power signature they send out when they use their powers or by the presence of the X-gene in their body; both methods have been used throughout the comics.

Using Cerebro can be extremely dangerous, and telepaths without well-trained, disciplined minds put themselves at great risk when attempting to use it. This is due to the psychic feedback that users experience when operating Cerebro. As the device greatly enhances natural psychic ability, users who are unprepared for the sheer enormity of this increased psychic input can be quickly and easily overwhelmed, resulting in insanity, coma, permanent brain damage or even death. The one exception has been Magneto, who has been said to have minor or latent telepathic abilities as well as experience amplifying his mental powers with mechanical devices of his own design.

The only characters to use Cerebro on a frequent basis are Professor X, Jean Grey, Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos. However, Rachel Summers, Kitty Pryde, Danielle Moonstar, Psylocke and Ruth Aldine have also used it. After the device was upgraded to Cerebra, Cassandra Nova used it in order to exchange minds with Xavier. The Stepford Cuckoos once utilized the machine to amplify their combined ability, with only one of them directly connected to the machine, but all of them experiencing its interaction due to their psychic rapport.

Some mutants have learned to shield themselves from Cerebro, usually via their own telepathic ability. Magneto can shield himself from the device through use of minimal telepathic powers; in the film series, he does so with a specially constructed helmet.

It would soon become apparent as to just what and how Cerebro was really meant to be used; on top of tracking and locating mutants across the globe the tracking device's primary function was to act as a soul jar that could catalog the thought pattern self of any and every mutant ever pinpointed through it. X essentially utilized this function to resurrect the mutant strike team lost while battling Orchis by withholding their hard copied mind's, their anima, onto home grown clone bodies; which would effectively allow him to resurrect any and every mutant who has ever died or will die by imprinting a shell with their respective neuropsychic imprint.

Originally, Cerebro was a device similar to a computer that was built into a desk in Xavier's office. This early version of Cerebro operated on punched cards, and did not require a user (telepathic or otherwise) to interface with it. A prototype version of Cerebro named Cyberno was used by Xavier to track down Cyclops in the "Origins of the X-Men" back-up story in X-Men #40. In the first published appearance of Cerebro, X-Men #7, Professor X left the X-Men on a secret mission (to find Lucifer) and left Cerebro to the new team leader, Cyclops, who used it to keep track of known evil mutants and to find new evil mutants. The device also warned the X-Men of the impending threat posed by the non-mutant Juggernaut prior to that character's first appearance. Later, the device was upgraded to the larger and more familiar telepathy-based technology with its interface helmet.

When the human-Sentinel gestalt Bastion stole Cerebro from the X-Mansion, Cerebro was hybridized with Bastion's programming via nanotechnology. The resulting entity, a self-aware form of Cerebro, created two minions, Cerebrites Alpha and Beta, through which it would act without exposing itself. It also used its Danger Room-derived records of the powers of the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to create its own team of imposter "X-Men" whose members possessed the combined powers of specific members of each of the two teams. Cerebro's goal was to put human beings in stasis so that mutants could inherit the Earth, and to this end it hunted down a group of synthetic children called the Mannites who possessed vast psychic powers. It was destroyed by the X-Men, with the help of Professor X and the Mannite named Nina.[2]

More recently, following the example set by the X-Men films, Cerebro has been replaced by Cerebra (referred to as Cerebro's big sister), a machine the size of a small room in the basement of Xavier's School For Higher Learning. Though designed to resemble the movie version of Cerebro, Cerebra is much smaller than the films' version. It resembles a pod filled with a sparkling fog that condenses into representations of mental images.

After it is discovered that Terrigen is toxic to mutants and Storm's X-Men move to Limbo, Forge programs Cerebra into the body of a Sentinel and uploads her with the capability to showcase human emotion. Cerebra accompanies the X-Men on many of their missions to help find mutants and bring them to X-Haven where they'll be safe from the Terrigen. Along with being able to detect mutants Cerebra can also fly and teleport, serving as a bridge between Earth and Limbo.[3]

When the X-Men and Inhumans went to war to decide the fate of the remaining Terrigen cloud, Cerebra was destroyed after getting caught in the crossfire when Emma Frost unleashed an army of Sentinels programmed to kill Inhumans instead of mutants.[4] While Storm's team of X-Men began returning refugees to their homes from X-Haven after Medusa destroyed the Terrigen cloud, Cerebra was found severely damaged in an abandoned barn surrounded by wild Sentinels. Once she was discovered and the X-Men saw that her current sentinel body was far beyond repair they uploaded her into a new body.[5]

Later when a mutant nation was created on the Living Island Krakoa, Xavier reveals that when he approached Forge and asked him to expand the abilities of Cerebro, Forge was able to create a version of Cerebro that not only was capable of merely detecting mutant minds but also creating a copy of each mutants' mind. Forge was able to create this seventh version of the Cerebro as a portable unit able to be worn as a helmet by Xavier to focus his psionic talent at all times. Xavier first donned this Cerebro when he announced the existence of Krakoa to the world and invited all mutants to Krakoa. He then utilized its true functioning of stirring and transplanting persona & psyche while in conjunction with the technomorphically modified genus loci of Krakoa and the unified teamwork of the Five; a mutant conclave consisting of Joshua Foley, Hope Summers, Eva Bell, Kevin MacTaggert and Fabio Medina who gestate and accelerate the regrowth of fallen mutants by combining their powers.[6] Xavier also had five working Cerebro Cradles: one main unit, three backup units, and one additional backup unit for unforeseen complications. These Cerebro Cradles are strategically located at multiple locations.

Not soon after, XENO mercenaries were able to infiltrate Krakoa's defenses and successfully assassinate Professor X, destroying Cerebro in the process. Before Professor X was resurrected, Magneto reshaped the broken shards of Cerebro into the Cerebro Sword to represent Xavier's dream, once broken, but now forged anew and refined. The sword retained the information stored in the other Cerebro Cradles, however, it is encrypted.

Later one of the backup Cerebro unit become sentient and rebranded itself under the name Cerebrax. Hunger for intelligence and power, the sentient machine begins killing mutants across the island and eventualky takes control of Krakoa and begins unleashing a full-on attack. Answering the call to fight are Kid Omega, Omega Red, Wolverine, Domino and Phoebe Cuckoo. Kid Omega flies into Cerebrax and, with some help from Sage, unleashes a powerful explosion that ultimately destroys the Cerebro unit and himself. Given that Krakoa has the power to resurrect dead mutants, Wolverine tells Sage that they're going to have to do so for Kid Omega, however Sage reveals a problem, there's no trace of Kid Omega anywhere. He's wiped from all the Cerebro cradles.

In Chris Claremont's X-Men: The End storyline, which takes place some 20 years ahead of standard X-Men continuity, Cerebro has been replaced in turn by the disembodied brain of Martha Johansson, a human psychic who was introduced during Grant Morrison's run on the X-Men.

In the video game X-Men Legends, Cerebro is identical to its appearance and usage in the X-Men film. Jean Grey and Emma Frost use the device at one point to attempt to return Professor X's mind to his body. In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, it was destroyed along with the rest of the mansion, but Forge mentioned plans on building Cerebra to replace it. He described Cerebra as Cerebro's big sister.

In the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, while the team is staying in the Sanctum Sanctorum, Professor X used a device created by Beast allowing him to use Cerebro from long distance in order to find Nightcrawler, who had been kidnapped by Dr. Doom.

In the universe of Marvel Zombies, zombified versions of Beast and Mr. Fantastic reprogram Cerebro to help them and the other zombies track down the last remaining humans on Earth. Cerebro locates many in the European nation of Latveria, but all escape. In Marvel Zombies Return, the surviving zombies escape to another world where many of them restart the original infection, this time permanently fusing Professor X's partly zombiefied body with Cerebro so that he can find humans for them.

In the MC2 universe, the X-People carry "mini-cerebros", that can detect mutants just as well as the full-size version.