Machine Man

There are so many things that I don't understand.

X-51 may have been born on an assembly line, but he was raised a human. The last in the X series line of experimental "living" robots, X-51 was taken in by the scientist Abel Stack to discover whether or not his development would be affected by staying in a loving family home. Taking on the name Aaron Stack, he learned to be compassionate, have a strong sense of justice, and to help out anyone in need, even if the intricacies of human interaction are foreign to him. Forced to leave his father's care early, he now seeks to live among Johnny Average. He is helped to navigate the human experience by his friend, psychologist Peter Spaulding, and in turn his robotic logic offers a refreshing perspective for Peter.

Tales of a roaming robotic good Samaritan have not gone unnoticed, however, and Aaron has found himself labelled as the superhero "Machine Man". When fighting his foes, Machine Man makes heavy use of his telescopic limbs, and his ability to cancel the gravity equation around himself, allowing him to fly. He also lists super strength, flame resistance, and computer interfacing among his powers. Perhaps his most state-of-the-art gadget is his "humanised face", a mask that covers his head and, with the addition of a pair of dark glasses, fully conceals his mechanical nature from the humans he wants to live among.

Fiction

X-51 was the last and latest in the X series line of robots, created in a secret underground military complex in America. Unlike his brothers, X-51 was taken in by Dr Abel Stack and raised under the name Aaron.

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 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. 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. Byte of the Binary Bug!

By the time Aaron was more than three years old, Xanadu! he had befriended Peter Spaulding, who tried to get him a job with his old friend Byron J. Benjamin. At Benjamin's apartment, the two found a robbery in progress by the Binary Bug; though they were subdued by the crook, Aaron managed to prevent the theft of Benjamin's bonds and, in gratitude, Benjamin hired him. Gussied up as a human, Aaron replaced a fired investigator at Delmar Insurance, though he strained in the office environment, finding the clientele's greed distasteful and his colleagues uninteresting.

After the Binary Bug hit James Anderson, a client of Delmar, Aaron reasoned that all of his thefts had centred around Delmar and, with a chat to the company's computerised records room, Compucord, began to suspect the man who had previously filled his position, Joseph Rambo. More sleuthing led Machine Man to the airship fortress Xanadu, where he caught Binary Bug threatening to take the ten million dollars' worth of valuables owned by reclusive businessman Khan. Machine Man pursued Binary Bug into the air, where the latter accidentally flew into live power lines. Aaron lamented the waste of human life. Byte of the Binary Bug!

There's a world within me that I cannot explain.

Aaron's disillusionment with humanity reached a boiling point one night in the Bowery. As Machine Man, he stopped a mugging, but was called a monster by the lady he helped. He captured a motorist guilty of a hit and run, and was disgusted to learn that it was a deliberate hit on the victim, who had stolen from the mob. It was the senseless shooting of a man simply for money that really made Aaron mad, violently attacking the gunman and raising into the sky for a electrical and melodramatic outburst.

The shot man's son implored Machine Man to help his dad, and Machine Man mused that if he failed to help, he would only be proving humanity right that he was a monster. Aaron used the magnetic current in his hand to remove the bullet. After the gunman came to, Aaron resumed his attack on him, but was stopped by a group of evolved humans empowered by Machine Man's energy, who told him that violence wasn't the answer.

Over the course of their conversation, Machine Man discovered that the beings – who thought of themselves as his children – were immune to his powers, and that they could foresee a utopia in Earth's future... but were unsure if Aaron's behaviour would impede its progress. Aaron, at the height of his cynicism, refused to defend himself from his own death sentence, but he was saved by the boy, who argued that he couldn't be beyond salvation if he still did the right thing when pressed. Aaron realised he was seeing the worst in people, and learned that, for all his supposed superiorities, he was just as fallible as humanity. The glowing beings, satisfied by Aaron's change of heart, ascended to their destiny elsewhere in the universe. Where Walk the Gods!

Machine Man found himself caught in an lift shaft, with the elevator car hurtling down towards him at 55 miles per hour. Unable to stop it with his telescoped limbs, he instead used the power of the lift's generator to create a positive magnetic flow, repelling the elevator car back up the shaft from his position at the bottom. On exiting the building, he was confronted by armed mercenaries, but was unable to glean any clues from his attackers, as explosive devices implanted in their necks detonated.

At Delmar, Aaron was once again caught by the unwanted attention of Eddie Harris and Maggie Jones. When he snapped at the two that he was trying to work, he was called into Benjamin's office, where the boss told him his co-workers were beginning to sense something strange about his mechanical personality. As he left the office, Aaron took the suggestion to associate with his colleagues to heart, as he immediately accepted an invite to a party for Tom and Ginny Williams. At the party that evening, Eddie and Maggie pranked him by giving him a glass of 190 proof alcohol, knocking him out.

Aaron awoke almost nineteen hours later in Peter's apartment, where his friend diagnosed him with a hangover. As Aaron tried to right himself, he was attacked by a sonic blast audible only to his delicate sensors, and was instructed by a voice to follow its instructions. As with the lift shaft, he was put to the test in a junkyard, where he was attacked by a wrecking ball and flying, laser beam-equipped derelict cars, and in the Catskill Mountains, where he was trapped in a retractable maze. His captor was impressed by his endurance and intelligence, and drew him to Xanadu, finally revealing identity as Khan.

On the dirigible, Machine Man was apparently disabled in a fight with Khan's new henchman, Tong, who was enhanced to feel no pain. Machine Man and Khan were attached to a device designed to transfer their consciousnesses, allowing Khan to have an immortal body to match his powerful intellect. Machine Man feigned the device's success to get the drop on Tong, who he realised could still be harmed despite not feeling it, and in reality he had sent an electric backlash into the lab's instruments. With Tong downed and the dirigible exploding, Machine Man taunted Khan that if he wanted to escape such a nasty accident, he would have to save himself. As he escaped the exploding blimp, Machine Man pondered on how Khan's greed and vainglory reminded him of the worst of humanity. Aaron disregarded his despair to instead move on and, as always, hope for a better future for mankind. Xanadu!

Notes

Machine Man on Marvel Database, an external wiki

• Machine Man was one of the many robot and cyborg characters pictured as part of the Techno-X pitch.