Machine Man: Difference between revisions

Noticing a high-pitched frequency, Machine Man found his [[Barry Witherspoon|impersonator]] bursting through the wall of a jewellery store, stolen goods in hand. He was surprised to find the crook shrugged off his super strength, showed no response to thirty thousand volts of electricity, and reacted and responded unnaturally. Machine Man was overcome, partially due to the effect of the frequency affecting his gyro and gravity centres, and the phony escaped in a van. He regained consciousness to find the police had him dead to rights at the crime scene, but escaped, protesting his innocence. Atop a building, Aaron wondered if a life of persecution was what his father had envisioned for him, before he visited Peter at the window of his prison cell.

 

The next morning, a photo taken by Mrs Mayson of Machine Man "invading" the prison was all over [[Daily Bugle|the papers]]. A frustrated Aaron suited up and handed himself in to the authorities. His impersonator committed another crime while Machine Man spent the night imprisoned, proving his and Peter's innocence. They regrouped at Peter's apartment, but were interrupted by [[Archie Goldsmith]] bursting through the door, chased by the fake Machine Man, who had orders to kill him. The two Machine Men fought, with the bout ending when the impostor took them both through the window and landing in the sewers. Machine Man followed him to [[Fred Greenfield]] and his getaway van, where he took Fred's supersonic device that was controlling the fake and apprehended him. The next day, realising that the impersonator, Barry Witherspoon, was being mind controlled, Machine Man called in a favour with Dr [[Oliver Broadhurst]], who restored Witherspoon back to normal. With the real crooks serving justice and Peter out of jail, Machine Man watched as his doppelganger reunited with his [[Gloria Witherspoon|loving wife and children]] and solemnly wondered, "What else could anyone want?" {{storylink|The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls}}

 

 

Machine Man broke free, despite the damage he had sustained to three of his limbs; however, his injuries affected the trajectory of his gravity negation, and an internal fail-safe mechanism deactivated it completely, forcing him to make an emergency landing in an empty auto yard to avoid human casualties. There he was met by mechanic [[Gears Garvin]] who, despite Machine Man's dissuasion, insisted on fixing up the robot, and impressed him by rewiring his arm muscles and lashing together a unicycled assembly to keep him mobile.

After thanking Gears, Machine Man monitored radio frequencies for news on "Ion", as the press were now calling Dr Todd. A police report tipped him off to a break-in at the Baxter Building, home of the [[Fantastic Four]]. After entering via the scenic route – a broken window – Machine Man met the [[Human Torch]], who immediately fought him, thinking he was Ion's accomplice. By lowering the temperature of his hand to absolute zero, Machine Man gave the Torch the cold shoulder – literally. Ion escaped in the confusion, and Machine Man had to abruptly trip the [[Thing]] in order to chase her.