Machine Man: The Living Robot #11

[angelophile]

We continue the run of Machine Man with a new supporting cast being introduced by new creative team of Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko.

Full disclosure: This part of the Machine Man run was reprinted as a backup strip in the UK Transformers comic and even as a kid I thought it felt incredibly dated, in its depictions of women in particular, and when compiling this posts I was surprised to see it was from 1979, having assumed the issues came far earlier.

So you have been warned.

But also I can't resist posting the pages of the ultimate square, Aaron Stack, getting a job in an insurance firm, as we really need more superheroes with incredibly mundane day jobs.




Last issue, when he wasn't getting shouted at at Senator Brickman, Aaron decided he wanted to discover what it meant to be human, and what is more human than mindless drudgery in a soulless office, so Peter Spalding takes him to meet a friend who may have a position where a soulless machine will fit right in and not draw any attention - at Delmar Insurance.

However, they arrive just as Byron Benjamin's apartment is being burgled by a mysterious high tech villain going by the name of Binary Bug (not that he introduces himself).









Meanwhile, the Binary Bug raids a number of rich citizens around the city.

But why have action when we can have... insurance sales and casual misogyny?

Again, sorry.







As we seen, Binary Bug's identity is revealed as Rambo (no relation), the investigator fired from Delmar, who Aaron has replaced and who has a binary chip on his shoulder.

Aaron investigates and finds the connection and, after shaking down a fence, tracks down Rambo's penthouse.



Turns out even violent mob bosses need insurance.

Trailing Rambo to Khan's blimp headquarters, Machine Man intervenes before the Binary Bug can attack the kingpin (not The Kingpin, just a kingpin).





What a senseless waste of human life.

Also, yes, it turns out Khan was behind the attack that buried Aaron and chums last issue, because why using an existing criminal organisation with a grudge from two issues ago when you can invent a new one, I guess?

Anyway, Aaron has a job at the fifth largest insurance company in the country now, so onward and upward, I guess?

I'm sure it'll work out fine.

Although...








I'll probably start skipping issues now and jump to the bigger events of the remaining parts of this run now, because frankly it's not my favourite, but there is some wackiness others may enjoy.

Comments

[thanekos]

" Aaron Stack, insurance investigator " is funny when you think about real-world cases of AI/automation being used in insurance claims processing.

(Though here it's just " insurance company investigator is a great way to get the protagonist involved in plots ").

[angelophile]

It's a decent plot hook that sadly doesn't really get made use of in future issues and instead there's a lot of office hijinks with sleezy Eddie and 'what is this emotion I am feeling when I look at Pamela photocopying' etc

[blues32]

...what's he talking out of?

[angelophile]

His internal devices?

[tcampbell1000]

Gotta say, I don't see the portrayal of Maggie Jones as that dated by 1970s standards. TV shows of the era were on about the same level. You can maybe see a little of Steve Ditko's prudish morality peeking through, as he clearly thinks it's funny to make a sexually liberated woman the butt of the joke, but in another couple of issues he's doing something similar to a would-be playboy, so there's that.

What weirds me out about Maggie, though, is that I can't stop thinking of her as "grown-up Betty Brant"--like Betty, she's interested in dating co-workers, and while her hair and figure and character are different, it's still easy to imagine Ditko's Betty evolving into Maggie in about ten years. Maybe that's on me, but Ditko's art is just so stylized I can't help it.