Machine Man
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Machine Man (X-51) is a fictional character created by writer/artist Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics. The character, an android, was created in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (July 1977), a comic written and drawn by Kirby featuring concepts based on the eponymous Stanley Kubrick film and Arthur C. Clarke novel. Shortly thereafter, Machine Man spun off into his own Kirby-created series.
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[edit] Publication history
[edit] Volume One
Machine Man originally appeared in the pages of 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (July 1977), which was written and drawn by Jack Kirby. He would go on to appear in his own self-titled series in 1978.
This title featured Machine Man entering the mainstream Marvel Universe. Jack Kirby wrote and drew the first nine issues, which dealt with the title character's status as a fugitive from the military after the death of his creator, and his first interactions with mankind. The book was cancelled at the end of 1978 with X-51 finally standing up to the military.
The title was relaunched in issue #10 after a nine-month hiatus. Status quo in the book changed with Machine Man now living amongst humanity, and dealing with his own new-found emotions. Marv Wolfman came aboard as the new writer, partnered by artist Steve Ditko, which helped setting a different tone from Kirby's previous stories. Issue 15 saw a new writer, Tom DeFalco, taking over the writing chores. The title lasted until issue #19, ending in February 1980.
[edit] Volume Two
In October 1984 - January 1985, the Machine Man title was resurrected, in a four-issue mini-series written by Tom DeFalco with art by Herb Trimpe (breakdowns only, issues #1-3) and Barry Windsor-Smith (finishes only, issues #1-3 & full art for issue #4), with Windsor-Smith also coloring the entire mini-series & co-plotting issue #4 with DeFalco. This series turned out to be one of the most popular of all the Machine Man titles, tying with previous continuity, but with the action set in the distant cyberpunk future of 2020, starting with Machine Man's reassembly.
The mini-series was first reprinted as a 96 page trade paperback in 1988 (ISBN 0-07135-458-6), with brand new cover art by Barry Windsor-Smith.
The mini-series was republished again in 1994 as two double-size books, with the name Machine Man 2020. Characters from this alternate future have made appearances in other Marvel books, namely Arno Stark, the mercenary Iron Man 2020.
In 1990, Machine Man guest-starred in Iron Man Annual #11 (part of the "Terminus Factor" storyline). That story created strong hints that the 2020 Machine Man may turn out not to be the true X-51, but instead a duplicate created by Sunset Bain.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Machine Man, whose real name is X-51, was the last of a series of sentient robots created by robotics expert Dr. Abel Stack for the US Army. However, all previous 50 experimental robots went mad as they achieved sentience and became psychotic, due to systems failures. X-51 was the only survivor, as he was treated humanely by Stack and given a human face mask as well as being exposed to one of the monoliths from 2001. After Stack died trying to protect him, X-51 assumed the human name Aaron Stack and escaped confinement, only to be relentlessly pursued by the army. While on the run, the newly-christened Machine Man (Mister Machine in his very first appearances) initiated contact with humanity in order to better understand it.
After being captured and later freed, Machine Man was found by psychiatrist Peter Spaulding and mechanic Gears Garvin. They set-up Machine Man with a human identity as Aaron Stack, insurance salesman, but he continued having superhero adventures on the side. In a meeting with the Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four, he also found and fell in love with another sentient robot, Jocasta, before she was destroyed by Ultron.
In more recent appearances, he has fought alongside the Avengers, which lead to the invitation to become a team reservist. Later he was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., who wanted to use his technology to create another Deathlok. He helped the X-Men and Douglock against the villainous Red Skull, who had taken over the Helicarrier where Machine Man was held.
He helped the X-Men again against Bastion and his Sentinels. As a consequence, he was infected by Sentinel programming, assuming a more robotic look in the subsequent series X-51, and losing self-control whenever he was faced with a mutant. During this series he was on the run from Sebastian Shaw, who wanted his technology for himself. Because of his new programming, while seeking aid from the Avengers, he attacked Justice and Firestar. Because of his actions against Justice and Firestar, X-51's membership in the Avengers was revoked. At the end of X-51, X-51 encountered one of the monoliths and disappeared, brought into the presence of the monolith's creators, the cosmic beings known as the Celestials. This can be seen as something of a satirical comment on his rather pretentious role in Earth X, where he was something of a surrogate watcher (who were themselves connected to the Celestials).
[edit] Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.
Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's Nextwave series sees Machine Man join a team formed by the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, or H.A.T.E. (a subsidiary of the Beyond Corporation©) to fight Bizarre Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now preferring simply to be called Aaron, Machine Man is partnered with Monica Rambeau, Tabitha Smith, Elsa Bloodstone and The Captain, and the team soon discovers that H.A.T.E. are funded by the Beyond Corporation©, leading them to go rogue and carry out their mission on their own prerogative.
Calling humans "fleshy ones" and expressing a degree of pride in his "roboty parts" - which he used to kill Fin Fang Foom - Aaron has developed a fondness for alcohol, stating "My robot brain needs Beer" on regular occasions. He could, allegedly, make a woman pregnant, as he is "full of useful devices". He is, however, not especially popular with his teammates because of his self-important attitude, and is learned in a flashback that after being brought to space by the Celestials at the conclusion of his previous series, he was dumped back on Earth because the space-gods considered him to be a "total ☠☠☠☠."
[edit] Avengers
Aaron and other Nextwave members appear on the solicited cover to Avengers: The Initiative.
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] Delmar Insurance
In Nextwave #10, Forbush Man forced each member of Nextwave to experience life in 'Forbush Vision'; they were cursed to suffer in a boring or mundane personal hell. Aaron's nightmare was life as an insurance adjustor for Delmar Insurance in Central City, USA. Bashing his head into a personal computer several times out of depression, he decapitated himself...only to answer the phone a moment later. Stack was freed from the nightmare by the intervention of fellow Nextwave member Tabitha Smith.
[edit] Machine Man 2020
Machine Man was reactivated in the year 2020 by a group of outlaw scavengers called Midnight Wreckers (led by X-51's old friend Gears Garvin), and forced to battle his old enemy, the industrialist ice queen Sunset Bain, as well as mercenary Arno Stark, the amoral Iron Man of 2020. In Paradise X: Heralds #1 , Iron Man 2020 claimed to the Earth X Machine Man that he had killed Machine Man 2020.
[edit] Earth X
Machine Man was also one of the main characters of the Earth X trilogy. Transformed by a monolith into a transparent version himself, Aaron was forced to become the new Watcher by a blind Uatu, the previous Watcher, who had not viewed any event on the planet for 20 years. Tricking Uatu, who had attempted to force Machine Man to reject his humanity, Machine Man managed to use his access to Watcher technology and data to help humanity defeat the coming Celestials, by revealing to Earth's superhero community the true origins of mankind. After defeating the Celestials, Machine Man used his newfound position to contact parallel Earths to help them eradicate the Celestial menace.
[edit] Queen's Vengeance
When Morgan le Fay restructured reality in volume three of Avengers #1-3, nearly all Avengers, past and present, were transformed into the Queen's Vengeance, a sort of medieval-themed Avengers. Machine Man became Sir MacHinery, an obvious play on the word machinery. He can be seen on the cover of issue #2, behind Hercules.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Machine Man is powered by solar energy. He can also draw power from several different external energy sources, if needed. Machine Man has telescoping arms & legs. His fingers contain a different variety of weapons, projecting heat, cold or electricity. He has the ability of flight through the means of anti-gravity disks.
In Nextwave, he has become a living Swiss Army knife of sorts, containing various tools and weapons for a multitude of situations, both useful and esoteric. When asked if he could impregnate a human woman from several feet away, Aaron simply stated "I am full of very useful devices."
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Television
In the Spider-Man Unlimited animated TV series, Machine Man is an old robot that once served the High Evolutionary. Spider-Man saved him from disassembly in the 5th episode ("Heart of Steel"), and he joined forces with Spider-Man and the Human Rebels in their struggle against the High Evolutionary's regime. This robot is one of a group of Machine Men, who switches sides after not wanting to be scrapped following serious damage in a battle. He is known as X-51, and the design of these machine men is somewhat reminiscent of the original Machine Man, especially in terms of colour and abilities. However, they are substantially bulkier than Machine Man's human sized physique, drawing inspiration from the design of the Sentinels from X-Men.
[edit] Music
The song "Public Menace, Freak, Human Fly" by Powerman 5000 has the lyrics
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- "I know a machine man, he's X-51.
- Harder than steel,
- His fists, they're like machine guns."
There is another song by Powerman 5000 which is titled "Son Of X-51".
[edit] Bibliography
- 2001: A Space Odyssey #8-10 (1978)
- Machine Man Volume 1 #1-19 (1978-1981)
- Machine Man Volume 2 #1-4 (1984, mini-series; later reprinted as Machine Man 2020 #1 and 2 in 1994)
- Machine Man TPB (1988, reprinting Volume 2 #1-4) (ISBN 0-07135-458-6)
- Cable/Machine Man ’98 #1 (1998 annual)
- Machine Man/Bastion ’98 #1 (1998 annual)
- X-51 #0-12
- Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #1-12 (2006-2007)
