Non-Hero
MACHINE MAN, THE LIVING ROBOT — Issue No. 5, May 1978
Book: Machine Man, the Living Robot
Issue No.: 5
Published: May 23, 1978
Title: “Non-Hero”
Cover Price: 35¢
Format: Original paper copy
This issue continues the story from the previous issue, with bad robot Ten-For making plans for his alien robot buddies to take over the earth and good robot Machine Man standing in the way of that alien robot invasion. Machine Man’s resistance takes the form of a big and public brawl with Ten-For. The fight attracts the attention of the military, and the military is already out to get Machine Man — kind of like the Hulk, Machine Man is hounded by a military that hates him because they don’t understand him.
Machine Man is rightly offended when the military tries to detain him instead of thanking him for protecting the earth from Ten-For, so he says “later, jerks, you guy can deal with the alien robot invasion on your own” and makes his escape. He ends up at a swinging costume party where most of the partygoers assume he is just a dude in a rad robot costume. But one of the partygoers, Tracy Warner, knows who Machine Man is. When Tracy finds out Machine Man is sulking at a party instead of saving the world from an alien robot invasion, she gives him a “great power, great responsibility” speech. Also Machine Man’s friend Dr. Peter Spalding convinces the army to grant Machine Man amnesty since he is probably earth’s best hope against the alien robots. And that alien robot invasion appears imminent, as, somewhere out in space, Ten-For’s robot buddies finalize their plans to attack earth.
The story is fine, but the fan mail page might be the best part of this issue. That’s where writer/artist Jack “King” Kirby publishes a short essay titled “Would You Like a Machine to Fight Your Battles?” At first he seems to be using theoretical “machine men” of the future to argue in favor of gun control — if everybody has their own super-powered android, won’t that make disputes more dangerous, and law enforcement more difficult? But the essay ends with a vision of sentient androids who are made slaves by selfish, lazy humans, and with Kirby pondering if those poor machine people will simply “disconnect (their) life functions” and choose suicide over servitude. Needless to say, Kirby’s concern about people misusing technology and abusing sentient beings was prescient.
Next time — Daredevil supporting character Paladin gets his own issue of Marvel Premiere!