Brainiac being unpowered and reliant on external weaponry was largely still the case even when he was retconned as an android, but in the 1980s, this changed and he gained the abilities that would stick to all subsequent incarnations: superstrength and durability, technopathy, and super longevity. His technopathic abilities extend to control of his ship, with which he shares a symbiotic relationship. The android version of Brainiac was capable of downloading his consciousness to spare, robotic bodies in the event that his original was destroyed or damaged. He could also possess organic beings in certain circumstances, as he did to Luthor during "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?".