The "True" Origin of Mechanon

[Lord Liaden]

Between Ultron and Mechanon it wouldn't be hard - they're very close to being the same character anyway. Mechanon could easily be the result of a transdimensional broadcast by Ultron which "infected" some advanced technology on Champions Earth. On that world there's no adamantium so Mechanon isn't as invulnerable as Ultron; but there's also no Henry Pym for it to be obsessed over, either.

 

A connection to the current version of Brainiac would be very difficult, though. He isn't mechanical in his origin, and his motivation is much more that of the typical would-be conqueror. The pre-Crisis Brainiac would be more doable, but its history is still very different from that of Ultron.

 

Of course these three could simply discover a way to communicate with each other, realize that they have similar goals, and decide to cooperate, teaming up to conquer one of their worlds at a time.

[Insaniac99]

actually with my limited Knowledge of the actual comic universe, I can come up with somehting, and apart from the TV shows I know almost nothing. so I'll be baseing it on that version of teh characters...

 

Braniac, whos mission is to gather information, then destroy the world also rebuilds himself all the time, but one time when he transmits the data, it taeks a interdimensional trip, and loses some data along the way, it finds its way into Pym's new invention, but it lost the information gathering stage of the info, and is left with only the destroy the world phase. After countless defeats, Ultron decides that if he can not destroy this world, he will send himself to another world, figuring that whichever one suceeds can transmit how they managed it back to the other so that they can suceed too. however, there is no adamantium to build himself out of, so after the first version is destroyed, he is made out of weaker materials.

[Rage]

Originally posted by Monolith

I think I posted this in another thread a short time back. I have Mechanon created by Dr. Destroyer. Mechanon is a test case to see how sophisticated a robot mind can become. Dr. Destroyer's goal, assuming all other plans for immortality fail, is for Mechanon to evolve to the point where Dr. Destroyer can transfer his own brainwaves into Mechanon's systems.

 

Periodically Dr. Destroyer captures a Mechanon and checks to see how the evolution is progressing. In my own campaign this just happen recently. The players found a dismantled Mechanon in what was believed to be an ARGENT lab. The computers showed the Mechanon was now at 87% brainwave evolution. So Dr. Destroyer needs 13% more before he can safely transfer his mind into Mechanon's body.

 

Dr. Destroyer's final option, should Mechanon prove inefficient in evolving to fit Dr. Destroyer's needs, is for him to transfer his mind into Sennacherib. In my game Sennacherib was at one time Ultivac. Dr. Destroyer found the nearly innoperable computer and repaired him. Transferring into Sennacherib is the least preferred choice for Dr. Destroyer (but better than death) because Dr. Destroyer has no desire to give up a body and be forced to live an existance in an immobile computer.

 

I have Mechanon as a crazed Doctor Destroyer from the future! and ermm... Steve Long as a crazed Doctor Destroyer from the past.

[CrosshairCollie]

I'm still debating, though there are a LOT of really good ideas on this thread. Many kudos.

 

I've pondered having Mechanon be a wayward government model, and pull the Sentinels bit from X-Men ... giving it far too broadly-defined programming to preserve peace. AND, since we're constantly killing ourselves anyway, the only way to have Peace On Earth is to kill everything living.

 

My second idea was to have Mechanon be created by a Black Ops kind of group hidden in PRIMUS. Fearing government cutbacks and getting closed down, they created a genocidal robot to ensure that they'd always have high-ranking, well-connected, string-pulling government jobs. They even make the new Mechanon bodies ... and have a failsafe built in so he doesn't hurt them (but only them!). Of course, if he ever overrides that ...

 

But I tend to play my governments too clean for that kind of stunt.

[nexus]

How about a connection between Mechanon and Bender? They both want to kill all humans.

[Insaniac99]

Originally posted by nexus

How about a connection between Mechanon and Bender? They both want to kill all humans.

 

simple in the ~2k year to where bender is located, after mechanon finnaly defeated, they discovered that his desire to kill everyone was a truely great motivation to work on construction, because they could always have the possibility of making somehting to help acomplish their goal. so they stole that part of the programming to install on theri robots, whose programming later had either glitches or a self evolution,or possibly even software upgrades that removed the program, so that most of them got over the desire, but Bender, who is lazy, never and never tried to better himself, is left with the programming.

[Chuckg]

Originally posted by nexus

How about a connection between Mechanon and Bender? They both want to kill all humans.

 

Somehow, the image of Mechanon screaming "Bite my shiney metal a**!" doesn't quite gel.

 

Neither does the idea of Mechanon going around calling everybody 'meatbag'. (HK-47, of course.)

[nexus]

Originally posted by Chuckg

Somehow, the image of Mechanon screaming "Bite my shiney metal a**!" doesn't quite gel.

 

I don't know. I kind of like it. You have to admit, it would be surprising.

[Chuckg]

If Mechanon ever screamed that in my game, the /very first thing/ I'd do would be to go looking for Foxbat. With a club.

[The Weapon]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Mechanon is a scout unit sent to assess the capabilities of Earth's superheroes to resist invasion. The main fleet is years at least and probably decades away and couldn't afford to send more than a small payload on a "superfast" ship. Due to the Empire's political instability and diplomatic agreements about "spheres of influence", "repecting neutrality" etc. they have to keep the invasion secret until it's a fete accompli.

 

So a production unit was sent that could create a robot that is conceivably Earth-tech based and automatically transmits undetectable signals to the Missionfleet Earth. This robot then self-replicates and develops resources to attack Superheroes. It is programmed to believe that it's trying to destroy all life on Earth, but in fact it automatically rejects schemes that would not bring it into conflict with powerful Superheroes. This makes Earth's destruction a less than 1% probability and that's a risk the Empire is prepared to take. Note that Mechanon will still want to destroy all life on Earth even if he finds out that's not what he's made for. It's in the programming. The provisional plan for Earth's conquest includes turning up during a Mechanon attack and using his destruction as a way to get the supers to trust them, prior to the knife in the back.

 

The Empire is far too large for the heroes to defeat, but has multiple enemies, internal and external, gross corruption and often incompetent and usually temporary Emporers.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Wow, threads are popping out of their graves all around here lately.

 

That's a very clever notion, Wanderer. In the official Champions Universe, I could see this being a plan hatched by the Hzeel in preparation for their own planned invasion of Earth. They've certainly been scouting the planet long enough.

[bubba smith]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

mechanon best robot spy is the one least atributed to him, the world king of the ring turnaments most unwanted the STEEL NINJA

appearently a mechanical athlete its really an agent mechanon uses to assasinate possible athlete supers by disgusing their deaths or diabling injuries as accident of sport

susano you created steel ninja for ninja herro how does this one work?

[Theron]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

I've not really thought about an origin for him in current CU continuity. Back in the days of the BBB and Classic Enemies, it was something along the lines of Mechanon was the Guardians' (not the Champions) security robot, infected with an alien computer virus during the Firewing Invasion (a major plot point in my campaign that basically ushered in the new age of superheroes). The virus "mutated," and the result was Mechanon's destructive programming.

 

Or something like that.

[Balabanto]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

The best Mechanon teamup I ever ran was in 4th edition with The Despoiler. It was a match made in heaven. The final battle was HORRIBLE.

 

Their front was a company called Speder Oil, which, when the letters were rearranged, spelled out "Despoiler." They nearly kicked themselves in the head when they realized that the Despoiler and Mechanon were working together.

 

As for the secret origin of Mechanon, I don't know what Dave will let me do with existing Hero System stuff, so I might have to rewrite Mechanon and/or write him out, or publish a Legacies sheet for him, which would be interesting.

 

However, if I HAD to have a secret Origin for Mechanon, it would be that in the 1950's, the Russian government launched a satellite probe called the N1 MK, and it passed through an unusual belt of radiation on it's way back to Earth. Crashing in the jungles of Southeast Asia, American and Russian superheroes raced against time to recover the probe. A battle ensued, and a hero's power struck the probe during the battle. The probe achieved awareness, and snuck away during the battle. Viewing itself as superior to humans due to the conflict that surrounded it, it decided to name itself after it's casing, which it saw as MK NI. This did not inspire much fear, so it varied it to Mechanon, and began to plot against the world.

 

I like this a lot, because it's cult classic, has that "What you didn't pay attention to comes back to haunt you" feeling, and doesn't feel so realistic that it makes me scream "Isn't this supposed to be a comic book?"

[phookz]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Im sorry guys but is it just me or does Ultivac sound like one of those multi-purpose vacuum cleaners we see sometimes on those infommercials?

 

It is not you; I think that name is terrible.

[bubba smith]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

it DOES sound like a vacum cleaner at that

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

As I mentioned when that post first came up, "Ultivac" was (within the Champions Universe) a world-threatening sapient "super computer" created in the 1960's. As such its name is intended to evoke a sense of Silver Age comics style, like "Brainiac," and IMO it fits well with that era.

 

Many comic character names are rather silly when you look at them out of context; it's only their years of associations that give them weight.

[phookz]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

As I mentioned when that post first came up, "Ultivac" was (within the Champions Universe) a world-threatening sapient "super computer" created in the 1960's. As such its name is intended to evoke a sense of Silver Age comics style, like "Brainiac," and IMO it fits well with that era.

 

Many comic character names are rather silly when you look at them out of context; it's only their years of associations that give them weight.

 

Yeah, I read your original post, and no offense intended, but it sounds like a high powered vacuum cleaner from the 1960's.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Yeah' date=' I read your original post, and no offense intended, but it sounds like a high powered vacuum cleaner from the 1960's.[/quote']

 

Oh, I agree. And in those days, all you'd have to do is expose that vacuum cleaner to radiation to turn it into a supervillain.

[ghost-angel]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Mechanon is a Qliphothic manifestation from the mind of a rogue mage trying to use magic to create a modern golem using a mechanical body.

[phookz]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Oh' date=' I agree. And in those days, all you'd have to do is expose that vacuum cleaner to radiation to turn it into a supervillain. [/quote']

 

Hmm, maybe that is the True origin of Mechanon, after all!

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

If you open up Mechanon's head in my campaign, you'll find two white mice, one with an oversized cranium sitting in a control chair.

 

"Curses Pinky, we've been discovered."

 

"Oh Brain, it's just like American Idol- NARF!"

 

"We're going to a horrid place of imprisonment and ignominy, Pinky."

 

"EXactly!"

 

Actually, I hadn't decided yet

 

Repped!

 

It isn't just you.

 

I know the name is a little cheesy, but it is pure silver-age style, like "Brainiac." Fits perfectly with the era of its creation.

 

It is not you; I think that name is terrible.

 

Actually, the first general-purpose electronic computer was ENIAC. Another famous computer of the day (developed by the people who created ENIAC) was UNIVAC, so, especially by the late '50s and early '60s, any computer on TV or in the comics had a name that recalled that -iac or -ac ending (UNIBLAB, from the Jetsons, was an exception to this rule).

 

Since Brainiac appeared in 1958 at the dawn (or at least sometime before lunch) of the Silver Age, it's logical that "Ultivac" was given a similar-sounding name.

[Dr Archeville]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Mechanon is the 'son' of one of the more (in)famous cyberkinetics (Cybermind, Technyik, Teknique) -- or some new cyberkinetic -- though neither side knows it. Not long after their powers first manifested, and after a particularly bad day, all the dark parts of their psyche lashed out to the nearest computer system while they slept and created a proto-Mechanon. This entity soon traveled through the computer networks and took over some factory to create a body for itself. Mechanon could be just a grossly exaggerated manifestation of someone's road rage!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Steve Long has mentioned that he has what he considers a very cool origin in mind for Mechanon. I look forward to seeing it in The Book Of The Machine next year.

[OddHat]

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon

 

Hmm.

 

I've used a character similar to Mechanon several times, drawing on various sources (including GURPS Creatures of the Night and Stellar Games Magic).

 

There is a place and time beyond man. A place and time beyond organic life. A place and time past the point where that which man created claimed him.

 

A gray time.

 

This place and time must never be visited.

 

The Time Traveler visited this place and time.

 

Soon after his return to his own era, he noticed a peculiar itching. His tears turned silver. His thoughts darkened. He grew cold. His madness ticked and tocked. When the consulting detective, the African explorer, and the Vampiress finally brought him down, his bones were metal, and his internal organs had been replaced by clockwork.

 

The hands of time kept moving.

 

In the 1930s, a shining metal man tried to kill New York. The Man of Bronze stopped him, barely, and only at a terrible cost.

 

In the 1950s, an Atomic powered metal giant declared that mankind had been found wanting. Only the combined efforts of the Amazon, the Man of Tomorrow, and the World's Greatest Detective destroyed the creature. Hidden within the creature's shell, the three heroes found still-functioning human organs.

 

Today, Mechanon rises again, seeking the extermination of the organics. The gray time is coming.