For Your Consideration: Marvel’s Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko Complete Collection

Robert Greenberger

Robert Greenberger


by Robert Greenberger

Some of Jack Kirby’s more enduring creations seemed to happen by chance, not by some cosmic design. In the 1960s, he added a flying herald for Galactus and we were introduced to the Silver Surfer. In 1977, Kirby was writing and penciling a comic book spinning out of ideas first seen in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kirby had adapted the film as a treasury-sized 71-page epic and then tackled a monthly. In issue #8 of 2001, Kirby gave us Mister Machine, or Z2P45-9-X-51, a “living robot” that proved popular enough to gain his own title.

Dr. Abel Stack invented the robot at the Broadhurst Center for the Advancement of Mechanized Research in Central City, California. Designed for the military, the first fifty robots went mad, contravening their programming and becoming a danger to all. Stack treated #51 as a son and the sense of identity apparently was the missing x-factor.

Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko Complete Collection

Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko Complete Collection


X-51, now called Machine Man explored the notion of artificial intelligence, a concept dating back to the works of Isaac Asimov and Otto Binder. The series is now being collected in Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko Complete Collection. Largely, a self-contained epic, this includes Machine Man #1-19 and Incredible Hulk #235-237.

The ongoing series saw X-51, taking the name Aaron Stack, on the run from the military after his creator was killed. Following the tried and true formula (borrowed from the immensely popular TV series The Fugitive and also the template for CBS’ Incredible Hulk at the same time), Stack interacted with all sorts of people on his travels, giving Kirby lots of freedom to explore ideas. Stack used the meetings to better understand humanity as a whole. Things got better when he met psychiatrist Peter Spaulding, who took the robot under his wing.

Unlike Kirby’s desire to isolate The Eternals from the Marvel Universe proper, here he had no objections to integrating Machine Man so his cocreations, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, turn up. On the other hand, he also gave us a wacky assortment of opponents with names like Col. Krag and Curtiss Jackson.

Machine Man #5

Machine Man #5


If you read the nine Kirby issues, you can sense the sweep of the story and the desire for it to reach a natural conclusion, similar to his Fourth World Saga at DC Comics. The final issues show Ten-For, a sentient alien machine, come to Earth in order to conquer it. Machine Man is all that stands between humanity’s freedom and slavery. His success is tempered by the army’s continued attempts to capture and dismantle him.

Roger Stern brought Machine Man before congress in Hulk as the dangling plot threads were then resolved in a trio of Hulk issues. Machine Man and the jade-jawed giant duked it out at the home of Stack’s friend Dr. Peter Spaulding, leaving him severely damaged.

There was a nine month break after Kirby departed at the end of his Marvel contract. When Ditko arrived, he was partnered with writer Marv Wolfman. Stack was rebuilt by Dr. Broadhurst, and the designs were streamlined, making him less Kirby and more passable as a man. Stack even took a job as an insurance investigator in a purple suit. He even attracted the attentions of Maggie Jones although the flirtation never went anywhere.

Machine Man #10

Machine Man #10


Wolfman lasted until issue #14 and was then succeeded by Tom DeFalco, taking on his first series. Working with Editor Denny O’Neil, DeFalco was determined to honor Kirby while putting his own stamp on the robot. Ditko and DeFalco clicked and their lengthy conversations fueled many of the threads seen in their five issues together. DeFalco dumped Broadhurst in favor of “Gears” Garvin, who could be counted on for some humor and fresh oil. “Peter was a psychologist, a man of thoughts, words, and feelings, a man who could mentally aid MM in his quest for his own humanity. I introduced Gears because I thought he series needed a more down-to-earth kind of guy, a mechanic who could help repair MM and aid him on a more physical and visual level,’ DeFalco explained to Allen Harvey in Back Issue! #25.

DeFalco quickly built up his rogues’ gallery giving Machine Man Baron Brimstone, Madam Menace, and Jack O’Lantern, who of course was quickly appended to the Spider-Man line after the series was cancelled.

While you get a ton of stories here (and it’s a shame the first three appearances in 2001 are not included), the interesting thing is that you can read them as three very distinctive arcs from two legends at the time and two stars in the making.

Purchase

Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko Complete Collection

Classic covers from the Grand Comics Database.

 

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