Machine Man #1 (1984)
Dec. 10th, 2024 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophile posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyAfter a couple of years in comic book limbo, Machine Man returned, but not in the way many may have expected.
Coming off the back of Blade Runner, the rebooted Machine Man #1 by Tom DeFalco, with art by Herb Trimpe Barry Windsor-Smith saw the introduction of a new take on the Marvel universe - the cyberpunk future of 2020.
I personally think Barry Windsor-Smith was the perfect fit for this assignment, with his hyper detailed art bringing the lived-in, but technologically advanced, world to life. And with it being a limited series, the additional page count gave the story and art space to breath.
It's no doubt a Blade Runner homage, but I have a fondness for the world and just how writers and artists in 1984 believed the future would look.
We start in the junk yard of Fire Island, NY, converted to a dumping ground during the Summer riots of 1999. The automated robotic systems of Baintronics (a name that may be familiar, as we shall see) have done their rounds, designated certain containers in their storage facility obsolete, and added them to their daily garbage run.
Enter a group of scavengers, the Midnight Wreckers...
After a tussle with Baintronics security the Wreckers skip out with the box's robotic contents.
Yes, readers of my Machine Man posts will recognise the CEO of Baintronics as Sunset Bain, AKA Madam Menace, previous foe of Machine Man.
Elsewhere, the Midnight Wreckers have been busy re-assembling the antique robot they found in the junk yard.
The revived and re-painted Aaron introduces himself to the crew and does a bit of exposition.
The Wreckers recognise the name Sunset Bain when Aaron mentions her as a former foe and reveal that she is head of Baintronics, a company that began mass producing robots in the late 1980s.
This led to a catastropic effect on the labour industry and widespread rioting and social unrest. After Baintronics was given the monopoly on robot production, they've become the most powerful corporate entity in the US. Meanwhile the government began to regulate robot sales, leading to a black market in recycled 'bots that the Midnight Wreckers capitalise on.
Unfortunately, that puts them directly in Baintronic's firing line and the recent theft of Machine Man's deactivated remains means Madam Menace has sent all her forces after them, led by the unsubtley named C-28 Death Dealer!
"My nipples explode with delight!"
After a pitched, Aaron manages to use his own body as an electrical conduit to overload the Death Dealer and he and the Midnight Wreckers make their escape.
All the threads from previous Machine Man stories start to come together in the year 2020.
Next issue - another unwelcome return and a new, but familiar, face.
Coming off the back of Blade Runner, the rebooted Machine Man #1 by Tom DeFalco, with art by Herb Trimpe Barry Windsor-Smith saw the introduction of a new take on the Marvel universe - the cyberpunk future of 2020.
I personally think Barry Windsor-Smith was the perfect fit for this assignment, with his hyper detailed art bringing the lived-in, but technologically advanced, world to life. And with it being a limited series, the additional page count gave the story and art space to breath.
It's no doubt a Blade Runner homage, but I have a fondness for the world and just how writers and artists in 1984 believed the future would look.
We start in the junk yard of Fire Island, NY, converted to a dumping ground during the Summer riots of 1999. The automated robotic systems of Baintronics (a name that may be familiar, as we shall see) have done their rounds, designated certain containers in their storage facility obsolete, and added them to their daily garbage run.
Enter a group of scavengers, the Midnight Wreckers...
After a tussle with Baintronics security the Wreckers skip out with the box's robotic contents.
Yes, readers of my Machine Man posts will recognise the CEO of Baintronics as Sunset Bain, AKA Madam Menace, previous foe of Machine Man.
Elsewhere, the Midnight Wreckers have been busy re-assembling the antique robot they found in the junk yard.
The revived and re-painted Aaron introduces himself to the crew and does a bit of exposition.
The Wreckers recognise the name Sunset Bain when Aaron mentions her as a former foe and reveal that she is head of Baintronics, a company that began mass producing robots in the late 1980s.
This led to a catastropic effect on the labour industry and widespread rioting and social unrest. After Baintronics was given the monopoly on robot production, they've become the most powerful corporate entity in the US. Meanwhile the government began to regulate robot sales, leading to a black market in recycled 'bots that the Midnight Wreckers capitalise on.
Unfortunately, that puts them directly in Baintronic's firing line and the recent theft of Machine Man's deactivated remains means Madam Menace has sent all her forces after them, led by the unsubtley named C-28 Death Dealer!
"My nipples explode with delight!"
After a pitched, Aaron manages to use his own body as an electrical conduit to overload the Death Dealer and he and the Midnight Wreckers make their escape.
All the threads from previous Machine Man stories start to come together in the year 2020.
Next issue - another unwelcome return and a new, but familiar, face.
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Date: 2024-12-10 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-12-11 09:46 am (UTC)The glam rock moonchild makeup, not so much.