Archie Goldsmith
One of Senator Miles Brickman's fixers, Archie Goldsmith wants his big break. He's best buddies with "Freddy" Greenfield, and has a brother named Hiram R. Goldsmith, who he calls "Ham".
Fiction
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Archie and Fred had the misfortune of being in Brickman's campaign office when the senator went on his latest rant about Machine Man. Fred suggested Brickman could tie his hatred of Machine Man into a campaign against unemployment, and he shared a sly look with Archie when Brickman claimed the idea for himself. After they left the office under orders to find a way to discredit Machine Man, Fred called the senator a loony bird, and Archie told him to ignore it as he paid well.
Archie invited Fred to dinner after the two visited his brother's lab. Dr Hiram Goldsmith was in too critical of a stage in his latest experiment to leave, so Archie and Fred decided to observe. They watched as Ham siphoned excess mass from other dimensions and saturated test subject Barry Witherspoon with it, turning him incredibly dense and thus unstoppably strong. The injured Hiram equipped Archie and Fred with sonic amplifiers to try and communicate with Witherspoon, and the two goons discovered they now had a powerful hypnotised slave at their command.
Archie and Fred had Witherspoon go on a crime spree while dressed as Machine Man. After their first heist, they considered quitting Brickman's employ with their ill-gotten gains. On their second heist at Tower's Jewelry Store, they waited in a getaway van as Witherspoon came into conflict with the real Machine Man. The criminals and Witherspoon fled with the jewels, leaving Machine Man in the company of the police. They held their third heist while Machine Man was in a prison cell, tipping the authorities off that there was a Machine Man impostor on the loose.
Archie wanted to quite while they were ahead, worried that they'd stolen too much and that the hospitalised Ham would tell the police what happened at the lab. Fred refused, revealing he had killed Hiram, and set Witherspoon on Archie. Archie fled to Peter Spaulding's apartment in the hopes of finding Machine Man, who was there to fight Witherspoon once he'd caught up. After Witherspoon threw himself and Machine Man through the window, he was recalled to Fred, apparently unaware the living robot could cancel the gravity around him. Machine Man tailed Witherspoon and apprehended Fred, who squealed on Brickman. Archie, collaborating with the district attorney, claimed that Fred had been the mastermind behind their crime spree, an angle which Brickman used to prove his own innocence. The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls
