Human Robot/M-11

[Somebody]

Kept meaning to bring this up...

In Agents of Atlas v2 #10, we see examples of the M-1, M-3, M-5, M-8 and M-12 series (along with the Jade Claw's M-21), all of which are different from M-11 in significant ways. We're explicitly told that "our" M-11 is the only M-11 ever constructed, after he killed Cyrus Virro, his creator (who wasn't the main Menacer-series designer, he only worked on M-11) and walked into the sea, they gave up and moved onto M-12.

As anyone who remembers the big Agents of ATLAS 1-6! (miniseries) thread will know, I never liked the idea of trying to keep the Menace #11 story in the MU Human Robot listing as a "(prototype)", given that he killed the same creator (now named) in both versions in entirely irreconcilable ways and for entirely different reasons (choked one-handed in one version as he tries to escape because the robot's been programmed by his evil agent, and serenely and deliberately electrocuted in the other to impart sentience to M-11), and suggested moving it across to the WI? 9 Human Robot. I'm repeating that suggestion now, since there's no way Fury's idea can be canon, so that we get:

VIRRO, DR. CYRUS
ATLAS 6 (21:3 - 22:5)-FB

HUMAN ROBOT/M-11
[ATLAS 6 (21:3 - 22:5)-FB]
[ATLAS 6 (20:4)-FB]
{[ATLAS 1-FB]}
[...]

VIRRO, PROF. CYRUS | 50s-Avengers-verse
MENACE 11

HUMAN ROBOT II | 50s-Avengers-verse
{MENACE 11}
WI? 9
AVF 4
AVF 5

[Col_Fury]

Yup. Now that we have Agents of ATLAS v2 #10, I agree with you.

Good call!

[DonCampbell]

There's another bit of information that maybe should be considered, and that's the location where the Human Robot was first activated. According to the Pre-FF #1 Pages website, Menace #11 shows that the Human Robot was built and activated in New York City, and it later fell into a nearby river. However, from what I recall of What If? #9, Jimmy Woo was in San Francisco when Namora brought him the Human Robot which she had just recovered from the ocean. So, unless Namora found the Human Robot submerged somewhere near New York and then transported him to San Francisco Bay, this would be a significant difference between the two origins, right? Would this be enough for us to conclude that the Human Robot in What If? #9 was actually a DIFFERENT character than the one from Menace #11, and that NEITHER of them was the MU version? Or is it something that can be glossed over?

One thing: While I'm pretty sure of what I remember about that What If? story, I haven't been able to review that issue recently (since I haven't been able to find my copy...yet). So, if anyone out there has a copy at hand, please do check to confirm that my memory is accurate. Unless, of course, I'm wrong, in which case I would like to know that as well.

Don Campbell

[Somebody]

This is why the MCP doesn't trust stuff from other websites.

The Menace #11 story was reprinted in the (first) AoAtlas HC. At no point is a location specified or shown, and nor did it show the Robot falling into a river (it's a simple twist story with second-person narration that ends with the Robot, unable to distinguish singulars and plurals, going to kill all the men in rooms it can find after the greedy business manager orders it to kill "the Professor", its' inventor, by saying "Kill the man in the room". Everything after that comes from WI? 9.)

[DonCampbell]

The Menace #11 story was reprinted in the (first) AoAtlas HC. At no point is a location specified or shown, and nor did it show the Robot falling into a river (it's a simple twist story with second-person narration that ends with the Robot, unable to distinguish singulars and plurals, going to kill all the men in rooms it can find after the greedy business manager orders it to kill "the Professor", its' inventor, by saying "Kill the man in the room". Everything after that comes from WI? 9.)

OK, that's good to know. Anyway, I found my copy of What If? #9 and I was right about the Human Robot being found in San Francisco Bay. In the story, Jimmy Woo takes the 3-D Man to a pier on the waterfront (with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background) and reveals that "It's somewhere down there" and has been for "all these years." Namora then arrives and quickly leads the 3-D Man to where she found the Human Robot during her search for Namor. Once brought to the surface, the Human Robot reactivates itself and tries to kill them but Venus stops it until Marvel Boy arrives and reprograms it.

Right after that, Uatu the Watcher addresses the "dear reader" and provides mini-origins for five of the heroes. The four-panel origin for the Human Robot shows how a scientist created it, how his blond-haired business manager sabotaged it by programming it to kill its creator, and how the lack of a regulator caused it to kill both men. The final panel shows how the robot sought out more victims but when it dived off the pier to get at its next victim, a man in a rowboat, it was short-circuited by the water. So, if Menace #11 doesn't specify a location, then What If? #9 could certainly be an accurate account of what happened to the robot after it killed its first two victims. The only glitch that I can see is that its next intended victim, the man in the rowboat, is NOT a "man in a room" so why would it try to kill him?

Also, the Watcher himself identifies the Venus in this story as the Graeco-Roman goddess known as both Venus and Aphrodite who "renounced all her godly attributes save the power of love itself to dwell among the mortals who seemed so much to need what she alone could bestow." Of course, that could just mean that it was the real Venus (and not the fake) who responded to Jimmy Woo's message in the 50s-Avengers-verse. After all, it has already been shown that this timeline is different from Earth-616 in several ways, including the 3-D Man being part of the team and the different circumstances under which President Eisenhower was kidnapped by the Yellow Claw and rescued by Jimmy and his "Avengers."

BTW, does the AoA origin for M-11 specify a location for where it was created? I guess it doesn't really matter anymore but I'm still curious.

Don Campbell

[JephYork]

Maybe the man fled the room and jumped on a rowboat.

-Jeph!

[Enda80]

Also, the Watcher himself identifies the Venus in this story as the Graeco-Roman goddess known as both Venus and Aphrodite who "renounced all her godly attributes save the power of love itself to dwell among the mortals who seemed so much to need what she alone could bestow." Of course, that could just mean that it was the real Venus (and not the fake) who responded to Jimmy Woo's message in the 50s-Avengers-verse.

Don Campbell

I posted in chat a thread where I wondered how many times the Watcher's introductory recaps of events on Earth-616 preceding his accounts of alternate Earths have ended up contradicted by later retcons (e.g. Bucky not turning out as dead at Zemo's hands, the clone surviving to assume the identity of Ben Reilly). Unless the writers of those What If issues carefully worded the Watcher's statements to make them suitably vague, then later retcons have seriously damaged his credibility.

[JephYork]

And thank you for repeating yourself here.

-Jeph!