Menace #11

I, the Robot

A brilliant professor has juts completed his latest invention, a robot that follows commands that are broadcast to it through a special frequency. The scientists business manager is pressuring the genius to sell the invention by the end of the month, telling him that it could easily earn them five million dollars, however the scientist declines as he will not release his invention to the world until he is sure it is operating perfectly.

Left to his work, the scientist activates his robot and orders it to pick up a chair through the special command microphone. The robot follows the orders perfectly, almost too perfectly, as after it picks up one chair it picks up another, and another. The scientist is upset that his creation is still not complete as it continues to follow it's instructed orders over and over. Seeing that there is room for improvement the scientist orders the robot back to its slab. The scientist then leaves to create an important regulator component that he believes will correct the error.

Later that night, the scientist's business manager breaks into the lab intent on taking the robot and selling it himself. Inspecting the robots inner workings the greedy business manager then takes the special command microphone and flees the lab. Later when the scientist returns to his lab with the completed regulator he begins to try to install it when suddenly the robot is ordered to kill the man in the room. The robot obeys the command and strangles his creator to death before he has time to install the device.

With the scientist dead, the business manager enters the room to collect the robot, but suddenly the robot attacks and strangles him to death as well. With both men dead, the robot walks out into the world to full fill the last order his was given: Kill the man in the room. It goes out to seek men in rooms to kill.

Recurring Characters

• The Human Robot

• Cyrus Virro

Continuity Notes

• An expanded and somewhat contradictory origin for the Human Robot is provided in Agents of Atlas #6. In that story it is revealed that the creation of the Human Robot was commissioned by the Atlas Foundation by the terrorist known as Yellow Claw as part of a complex plot to recruit FBI agent Jimmy Woo into his organization. The differences in origins between this story and that in Agents of Atlas is unexplained but can probably be chalked up to the same “based on real events” affect that Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special, All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes, and Marvel Boy: The Uranian use to explain Timely/Atlas era stories that contradict with modern continuity.