Machine Man: Difference between revisions

 

After [[X-35]] became the latest of the X series to become plagued with existential questions and go on a violent rampage, project head Dr [[Oliver Broadhurst|Broadhurst]] reluctantly activated the protocol to detonate all of the remaining robots. Becoming aware of the detonation order, Abel removed the bomb from Aaron, who was confused by his father's unusual behaviour. Abel insisted that he had taught Aaron everything he can, and that it was now time to go out and explore the world. He gifted Aaron with a humanised mask to help him blend in, and, as a final request, had Aaron scan a photograph of him to conserve forever in his memory bank. Aaron flew the nest, and was too far away to notice that the failsafe circuit had detonated, taking Abel with it. {{storylink|Introducing Machine Man}}

 

Machine Man was once caught in an earthquake which, unbeknown to him, was caused by [[Khan]] in an attempt to destroy him. {{storylink|Byte of the Binary Bug!}}

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.

 

Making it across town on his boot skates, Machine Man prevented the theft of the ostentatious religious artefact and subdued the men of the Satan Squad, including [[Snake Marston]] and [[Hammer Harrison]]. He then turned his attention to the criminals' waiting helicopter, from which Baron Brimstone pushed Pamela, whom they had taken captive for carrying out her own investigations.

 

Machine Man detached his left arm to catch Pamela, negating gravity for her safe descent. Boarding the helicopter, he defeated the remaining henchmen and, though he was once again subjected to a blast from Sol-Mac, managed to electrocute the entire craft using its own power source, stunning the villains. After dismantling the Sol-Mac and transferring the helicopter into police control, Machine Man returned to check up on Pamela, for whom he feels strangely concerned for. He found no time to address his confusing emotions, as his failure to establish radio contact with his detached arm told him that it had been stolen from the immediate vicinity. {{storylink|Baron Brimstone and his Sinister Satan Squad!}}

 

Regrouping at his and Peter's apartment, Machine Man paced, troubled, as Peter and Gears bickered over their next course of action. He reacted poorly to Gears' suggestion of building a replacement arm: he's a person, it's ''his'' arm, and he wanted it back. Gears excused himself to work on a device to help and, ignoring Aaron's suggestions of enjoying some Billy Joel or Johnny Carson, Aaron donned a trenchcoat and fedora and his the streets.

 

After aimlessly walking for hours, Machine Man happened across a pub called [[Molly's]], which he suspected had underworld connections. Inside, he was approached by [[Bear Benson]], but the man fainted at the sight of the living robot's extending arm. A vengeful [[Gorelick]] attempted to mash him with a chair, but Machine Man's punch in self defence threw the thug across the bar, trigging an all-out bar fight. Although tempted to ease his frustrations by cutting loose, Machine Man decided he was finding no answers, and he made his escape by overloading the pub's electrics and plunging it into darkness. Skating home, he admitted he was no Jim Rockford.

 

 

Madam Menace was called away on business a short time later, and Machine Man took the opportunity to overload the electromagnets and break free, subdue his [[Madam Menace's henchmen|guards]], and re-trace his arm's radio signal. This took him to a ship out in New York Bay, where he was attacked by the combined forces of Menace's henchmen and those of her anarcho-terrorist client, [[Zarkoff]]. Fully enraged, Machine Man made short work of the assembled men, many of whom were tossed overboard during the fight. Once he realised Zarkoff had abandoned ship, Machine Man detected another signal on his boosted receiver, but he was too late to escape the ship's detonation. After recovering from his disorientation and realising that no-one else was caught in the blast, Machine Man continued his search, and he located Menace's sample case underwater. Though joyous at the reunion with his left arm, Machine Man remained pensive, disturbed by his loss of control, and he was left brooding over the uncertainty of Madam Menace's survival. {{storylink|Arms and the Robot!}}

 

[[File:Machine Man sight has sickened him.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8]]

*Machine Man was included as part of a competition in [[The Transformers issue 21|issue 21]] which required readers to pair characters with their opposites.

*Machine Man was one of the many robot and cyborg characters pictured as part of the ''[[Techno-X]]'' pitch.

 

[[Category:Machine Man characters| ]]