Abel Stack
Some would call Doctor Abel Stack a dedicated experimenter, though some would call him a reckless fool.
Let's hope the former wrote the eulogy.
Fiction
Dr Abel Stack was a computer programmer. Under Dr Oliver Broadhurst, he was part of a top secret U.S. military project to create a series of lifelike robot soldiers. Stack was of the opinion that for a robot to think like a man, it should be treated as one. The New Machine Man Consequently, he was entrusted the robot designated X-51, whom he raised as a son under the name of Aaron in his isolated farmhouse. Introducing Machine Man
While Stack raised Aaron, the other fifty X series robots began to show serious personality faults, becoming uncontrollable and dangerous; three quarters of them suffered complete nervous breakdowns. The New Machine Man The final straw was when X-35 suffered a violent existential crisis, causing Broadhurst to make the decision to end the project. He had Stack notified that he would be activating the self-destruct mechanism planted in every X series android. Stack's plans for Aaron were thus accelerated; he secretly removed the bomb from Aaron, gifted him a humanised face, and encouraged him to go out and explore the world around him. Suppressing a tear as his son flew the nest, Abel was engulfed by the explosion Introducing Machine Man and killed instantly. Aaron vowed that his father's sacrifice would not be in vain, and endeavoured to life peacefully among mankind. The New Machine Man Nevertheless, by the time he was more than three years old, Xanadu! Aaron considered his father's death to be the time he had felt his most frightened and alone. Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!
In a later confrontation with the Ethicals, Aaron was insulted when they spoke Abel's name in vain. Where Walk the Gods!
Khan had his people steal scientific journals on Machine Man's capabilities from whatever was left of Abel's laboratory. Xanadu!
When Machine Man was framed for a crime he didn't commit, he wondered if this life of persecution was what his father had envisioned for him. The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls
After Aaron violently attacked Alpha Flight and the henchmen of Madam Menace in a berserker blackout, Alone Against Alpha Flight! he ruminated that the only reason he hadn't followed his X series brothers into madness was because he was treated as a human by Abel, but that his recent actions may have put him on the verge of betraying his programmer's hopes for him. He hadn't felt as frightened or alone since Abel's death. Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!
Notes
 |
- Aaron's awareness of Abel's death was only implicit in TFUK until "Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!".
- "The New Machine Man" misspells his name as "Able Stack".
