Human Robot
First Appearance: Menace #11 (May 1954).
Appearances:
Menace #11, Weird Wonder Tales #5,
What
If v1 #9,
Avengers Forever #3-6.
Years Active: 1950s.
A scientist in
New York City created a vaguely-humanoid robot, which was capable of superhuman
strength. The business rival of the scientist, jealous over the scientist's
achievement, sabotaged the robot before its "regulator" was installed.
The robot was then programmed to kill its creator, which it did. However,
it then killed the saboteur, and went on a rampage in New York City. Ronald
Byrd points out that the Human Robot, in Menace #11, did not
fall into New York Harbor, short-circuiting itself, as Roy Thomas described
it, but instead...well, I'll let Ronald tell it:
The deal with the Human Robot story was that, well, when the
Human Robot's creator was first working on him, he told the robot "pick
up the chair" as a test of the Human Robot's responses. The Human Robot
(I didn't want to say "it" but didn't want to get us confused with another
"he" along with the scientist and his partner) picked up the chair, and
then picked up another chair, and another chair; the Human Robot did not
obey the order just once but repeatedly. Some time later, the scientist's
partner remotely orders the Human Robot to "kill the man in the room,"
i.e. the scientist. The Human Robot does so. Triumphant, the partner enters...and
the Human Robot "kills the man in the room." The story ends with the Human
Robot setting off into the night...looking for men in rooms. Creepy, huh?
In What If v1 #9 Roy Thomas slightly retconned this story so that
the Human Robot was fell into New York Harbor after he wandered off into
the night, short-circuiting itself. Namora
found the robot and brought it to the surface with the help of the 3-D
Man, and
Marvel
Boy (III) then installed a regulator into the robot and
used his Uranusian technology to give it the ability to think. The Human
Robot then went on to fight against the Yellow Claw with Marvel Boy and
the rest of the Avengers.
However, a recent revision of the timeline has erased that adventure,
and as far as is known the robot either lies, rusting, at the bottom of
New York Harbor or simply went off into the New York City night and was
never seen again.
