1980 - Anatomy of a Cover - Marvel Team-Up #99 by Frank Miller

Machine Man by Ron Frenz

1988: The Dreadful Druid part III:The Doctor is Insurrection Bound

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

The best-laid plans of mice and men... don't mean squat if Marvel editorial changes it mind again. In late 1987, Avengers editor Mark Gruenwald wanted writer Roger Stern to alter his ongoing storylines. When Stern refused, he was fired and replaced with Ralph Macchio who did editorial's bidding. Druid turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. 

" The FIX is on!"

Working from Stern's original plot Macchio was tasked to turn the book towards the status quo preferred by Gruenwald and, more specifically, Marvel's new editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco who was far more conservative than his predecessor Jim Shooter. In Tom's mind, the readers didn't want drastic, permanent changes or new, bold directions, they merely preferred the "illusion of change".

That's why he he reportedly hated Steve Englehart's new Fantastic Four and that's also why he and Gruenwald decided Captain America had to return as Avengers chairman. To do so, Stern was to start writing the current chairperson, Monica Rambeau, as incapable. Stern refused to defame a character he'd created back in 1982 and had shepherded along for years.

That's why the unenviable character assassination job fell to Ralph Macchio, who used to write Marvel Two-in-One with Gruenwald before turning mostly to fulltime editing. Still, he did a more than passable job as he proved with Avengers I#286, appropriately titled "the fix is on". Read the opening captions, it's immediately clear Druid is not to be trusted. He's shamelessly using his astral form to eavesdrop on his teammates for... unknown reasons.

"Doctor Druid! You summoned us?! Why?" 

Why indeed... We're barely ten pages in and Macchio starts asserting Doctor Druid as a far more capable leader than Captain Marvel who at the time Druid sounded the alarm wasn't even on Hydrobase. Instead, she was visiting with FBI agent Derek Freeman, her semi-boyfriend, to see if he knew why the government was after Captain America who'd all but disappeared following the team's return from Olympus. 

Great, I'm chairwoman of the Avengers and I can't even get a line on one of my own people." 

And so it begins...Macchio would take every chance he got to either make Monica doubt herself or for others, specifically Druid, to make her look foolish or incompetent. In this case, she's told by her lover about the disappearance of the Fixer's gear. And shortly after that, the Fixer himself was freed from prison by what appeared to be the Fixer. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, during her chat with Freeman, Monica receives Druid's summons and flies off to see what's going on. And boy, is she pissed off at him...

"You're up to something, Doctor..." 

It seems obvious that John Buscema had finished drawing Avengers I#286 before Stern was fired. Had he stayed on, a few dialogue changes would have told a very different story. Take a moment and study the art without reading the copy. Judging from the expressions on the faces of Monica and Druid, you can almost tell Macchio tried his darndest to hammer home how suddenly there was doubt, strife and borderline insurrection in the ranks.

Now, on to the story at hand... Druid had summoned the team because a call came in on Captain America's special emergency hotline. This was a service Cap had set up for concerned citizens to report matters that might require his attention. With Cap unavailable, Druid decided the call merited the Avengers' attention and he proves to be right: thanks to a watchful neighborhood kid called Bobby, the team arrived in Ohio on time to catch the Fixer in the act of trying to acquire the Awesome Android.

When Captain Marvel manages to get herself gassed by the Fixer, it's up to Druid to lead the team to victory... Which he does.

"It's worth a try, doc!" 

In the aftermath, Druid is seen helping the weakened Captain Marvel to her feet, while Monica is cursing him in a thought bubble for purposefully making her look weak. Avengers I#286 ends with the revelation that the Fixer was actually an unwitting accomplice and... Namor's lover Marrina has disappeared during the fight when she tried to stop a truck driven by the actual Fixer. 

Avengers I#287 opens with Namor chasing after Marrina and rescuing her, though the Fixer and his mysterious truck get away. Meanwhile, the Avengers have to deal with the Awesome Android again when it revives. Once again, Dr. Druid's mental powers helped save the day while Captain Marvel was made to look weak and inconsequential. 

"Please, my dear woman. You cannot do it. Still too weak".

Urgh... Talk about laying it on too thick. We get it, Ralph... Monica is a weakling who needs an older, more experienced member to back her up. Preferably a man. Even by 1987, the sexist and even racial undertones used to undermine Captain Marvel's credibility are baffling. It's no wonder Roger Stern refused to write her like this. You could argue Stern was so taken with Captain Marvel he made her a bit too wonderful and competent at times... But this is a complete 180. And we're not done. Soon after the Awesome Android is down, Druid proves yet again crucial to the story thanks to his telepathy.

"Still feel weak. But I'm leader of the Avengers, right? Better assert myself."

Urgh times two... Now Macchio has Monica reminding herself she's in charge. Still, it's once again Druid who is essential in tracking down Mentallo to one of Fixer's bases. Along the way, they encounter heavy opposition from the building's automated defenses. Yet, despite almost getting killed by giant turbines, the team manages to free and locate Mentallo who tells the Avengers his old partner has become something quite alien. 

"Interesting, Captain Marvel's been standing on the sidelines and
Druid's been running the show since we got back to Hydrobase"

Ah, another page, another dig at Monica Rambeau. What's even worse: Macchio makes sure we realize Druid is so much better at everything, it's almost embarrassing. Here, his powers figure out that the containment tube has been tampered with. Once they open it, they find... of all people... the Fixer?

Yes, in a genuinely delightful nod to continuity, we learn the true identity of the Fixer that's just escaped from prison: it's the Super-Adaptoid. Created by AIM to fight its enemies, this superpower copying android was ultimately defeated and placed in suspended animation in a subbasement of the mansion. During the Masters of Evil recent invasion, the ever curious Fixer accidentally released the android and found himself replaced.

With a dangerous villain on the loose, you'd think the Avengers would spend every waking moment tracking down this potential menace to global world peace. Well, you'd be wrong. Avengers I#288 opens with the team moving house... literally. Avengers Mansion gets relocated to Hydrobase by airlifting the brownstone out of Manhattan. How? Well, simply by attaching some sturdy cables to a couple of Chinook helicopters and away we go... 

"Please stop questioning my every move."

It's getting painful and tired at this point: not only is Namor the one overseeing the move, on the ground Druid is busy berating Captain Marvel for not hiring a film crew to record the event. Too many cooks spoil the broth and Monica is fed up with Druid's constant "helpful" suggestions. Moments later, the Avengers get a clue about the Adaptoid when the Black Knight comes in with a clipping from a small Texas newspaper (!) about escaping flying robots. Correctly deducing the Adaptoid is apparently after other robotic lifeforms, Captain Marvel splits up the team and orders the Avengers to go and check on several likely candidates for recruitment. 

But Macchio can't leave well enough alone and has Captain Marvel feel overwhelmed by even this relatively simple task. 

"Sure wish Captain America would come back to us. 

I don't know if I'm cutting it with these folks."

For heaven's sake... Can it still be considered "foreshadowing" when it's this blatantly obvious where the story is heading? It's almost an insult to the reader's intelligence. But, getting back to the star of the show: Doctor Druid was paired up with the Black Knight to visit a midwestern airforce base where the adamantium clad robot Tess-One is held. One teensy-tiny problem: the Avengers lost their security clearance a while ago when the Vision tried to take over the world. That's why the two heroes soon find themselves surrounded by soldiers who aren't exactly cooperative.

But, to no one's surprise, Doctor Druid proves to be the solution to the problem... Even though morality takes a bit of a backseat. 

"You will lower your weapons and take us to the robot, Tess-One.
That is an order."

Shortly afterwards, Druid and Black Knight take off with Tess-One safely in the storage area of their Quinjet. Homeward bound, Macchio has Druid explain that the military mind is so used to receiving orders it leaves them more susceptible to telepathic commands. Even as a kid, yours truly felt this made perfect sense. On the way back, Druid slights Captain Marvel some more when the Black Knight mentions they weren't ordered to bring Tess-One back, only for the Doctor to point out that Monica lacked foresight in this matter. After all, they couldn't really have stayed on the base to see if if the Adaptoid would show up. 

And, as if on cue... he did, with help from his robotic recruits: Kree Sentry 459 and Machine Man. Though they attempted to fight the metal menaces off, Black Knight was quickly overcome and Druid's powers were of no particular use.

"Such parlor tricks, Doctor!"

And that's when Druid disappeared from the book for two issues. Left for dead after the fight, Captain Marvel rescued them behind the scenes and got them to a hospital. Meanwhile, the Adaptoid and his cybernetic compatriots launched a full scale attack on Hydrobase. The real purpose for the ensuing slugfest was to buy the Adaptoid enough time to access the Avengers' computers. It wanted information on the Cosmic Cube, which the Adaptoid planned to make his dream of offspring a reality. Though he was a bit surprised when the cube showed up as Kubik, its more evolved sentient form, it didn't stop the Adaptoid from copying its cosmic powers. 

Now more powerful than ever, it decided to replace everyone on Earth with a copy of itself. And that's when we catch up with Druid and Black Knight in Avengers I#290.

"I shall use the mental power which is mine 

to render this ship invisible that we may make a safe landing."

Erm, how exactly is mentalism the solution here, Doc? You can use mass hypnosis to fool living beings, but against androids it's pretty darn useless. It's what got you beat up by the Adaptoid in the first place, remember? Also, take a moment to read the clunky chunk of exposition Macchio puts in Druid's mouth when he has him explain to the Black Knight where they'd been and how they'd gotten this Quinjet. Dane knows, Doc... he was right there!

At any rate, they get attacked by androids who try to replace them. Because they're not actually alive, the Black Knight quickly chops them up with the ebony blade. This doesn't solve anything, because the loss of two of his "children" makes the Super-Adaptoid notice the heroes. He traps them inside invisible cubes along with the other Avengers who fill in Druid, the Black Knight and the readership.

At the same time, Kubik decides to contact Captain America, who once helped it when it was still a Cosmic Cube. Though Steve is now working as the Captain, after the US government stripped him of his title, he agrees to be teleported to Hydrobase to help out. Though he's quickly captured as well, Rogers cleverly questions the Supreme Adaptoid's self professed sentience. To prove a point, the Adaptoid frees Cap and lets him fight his intended replacement mano-a-mano. 

Meanwhile, Druid relies on brains over brawn...

"Supreme one, may I speak with you a moment?"

Now, while Ralph Macchio has caught considerable flack throughout this post for his portrayal of Druid and Captain Marvel, this is truly thought provoking material. By now, he shared a co-plotter/writer credit with his old writing partner Mark Gruenwald. Together, they had Druid hand the Adaptoid a cunning conundrum which served as a meditation on the age old philosophical question of free will. 

"You lack one essential... Imagination.
All you are capable of is the imitation of that which already is."

The question how a mechanical being can claim it is alive is a complex and engrossing one. It was even the central theme in The Measure of a Man, one of the most beloved episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation which aired over a year after this storyline concluded. The episode had the android Data fight a legal battle to prove he was more than a machine. It's hard not to see the parallels. Though Data was distinctly less violent than the Adaptoid...

"BAH!"

Anyhoo, that's enough praise... the fight moves from engaging philosophical dilemma to Marvel's take on Rumpelstiltskin or Mr. Mxyzptlk. In other words: they tricked the villain into defeating himself. Facing the Captain in final combat, Steve Rogers managed to best the Adaptoid by taunting him to adapt to the one thing Rogers felt a machine couldn't: death.

Never one to back down from a challenge, it ups and dies.

No. Really.

"To thine own self be true"

And with that, the Avengers' Heavy Metal storyline was over. Macchio and Gruenwald gave Kubik some interesting parting words. When you read it, tis not hard to spot this was Macchio commenting on Stern being driven out or "brought down by the arrogance of absolute power", followed by that famous Shakespeare quote about remaining true to who you are: which Stern did when he quit the book rather than compromise on his original vision for the team. 

You might even reason that the Adaptoid was the perfect analogy for DeFalco's newly instituted "no real change/creativity" policy. All it could do was repeat variations of what it already knew, stuck in a perpetual, self repeating loop that would ultimately prove self defeating. 

A year or so down the line, Steve Englehart would write a final Fantastic Four storyline in which he pretty much mocked Marvel's no-change rule by putting the actual FF in stasis and replacing them with clones who acted like it was still 1962, right down to insisting they had the exact same adventures.

Ralph Macchio would bow out after #290 and make room for new regular writer Walt Simonson. He would kick the deconstruction of the team into high gear and make Druid the centerpiece of the Avengers implosion of 88 as we'll see in part IV of The Dreadful Druid: The Doctor Is Out... Of His Mind.

1978 - Marvel House Ad

Featuring Spider-Woman, Machine Man, and Devil Dinosaur

1981: The Jocasta's On You Part IV: Jocasta of Arc

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the fourth and final part of our Jocasta retrospective, the metal madame strikes out on her own, only to find life outside of Avengers Mansion ain't what it cracked up to be. And boy, does she end up cracked a lot. 

After being treated like dirt by the Avengers for close to five years worth of comics, Jocasta left the team in September 1981's Avengers I#211. She didn't make any further appearances until over a year later when Tom DeFalco decided to include her in a Marvel Two-In-One two parter. In those days, the series was a vehicle for the Thing to have adventures with the guest star of the month, showcasing the most popular FF member with whatever B-lister most in need of a plug.

To be fair, though the bulk of the DeFalco era Marvel Two-In-Ones consisted of perfectly fine, well crafted tales, they exactly contain any major status quo shaking events... That is, unless no one cared about the character. Oh Jocasta, I got a bad feeling about this...

"I was always present in the background... like a trained pet... or a forgotten piece of furniture!"

It's striking to see it took DeFalco only four panels to hammer home Jocasta's plight. The Avengers took her for granted and that's why she left to make a life for herself in "the real world". However, she soon ran into trouble there as well, suffering from strange, debilitating dreams. Ashamed to return to the Avengers for help, Jocasta turned to the FF for aid to find allies in Thing and his girlfriend Alicia Masters.

However, the reason for her strange dreams soon became apparent: they were caused by a post-hypnotic command implanted in her mind by her creator/husband Ultron who had planned to have his bride rebuild him in the unlikely event he was ever destroyed. He left similar instructions in the mind of Iron Man, who helped remake the adamantium baddie back in Avengers I#202... And oddly enough, he had Jocasta short-circuited to make sure she wouldn't catch wise to what he was doing.

That confrontation ended with Ultron trapped in rapidly hardening adamantium, but the mind controlled Jocasta found a way to release her husband. Moments after regaining his freedom, Ultron thanked his "wife" the only way he knew how.

"Though you are my chosen mate, you were ever the pawn, ever the plaything!"

Ah yeah, that elongated arm coming to Jocasta's rescue belongs to Machine Man. He got involved in this caper when the Thing happened to be visiting with him when Alicia called Ben to report "a lady robot" had gone mad (Under Ultron's influence, Jocasta had freaked out during one of Alicia's exhibits before running off to free Ultron). Intrigued by the notion of a "lady robot", he used his own cybernetic senses to find her before Thing could.  

In the end, Thing arrived on the scene only to fall prey to Ultron's hypnotic powers. He sent the FF member against Jocasta and Machine Man who had gotten pretty banged up fighting Ultron. The two automatons decided to beat a hasty retreat, leaving behind the gloating Ultron and his accomplice.

In Marvel Two-In-One I#93, the impossible happened when Jocasta realized she wasn't alone in this world. Machine Man showed her he was just like her: a robot in a man's world, fighting to make a life for himself. It sparked the beginning of an unexpected romance between the two characters that some considered hastily contrived and completely out of left field...

"We'll beat him! I promise."

And while it's true that DeFalco didn't waste any time pairing off these two tin plated paramours, it does make a decent amount of sense. For most of her time with the Avengers, which is pretty much all her life, Jocasta was looking for someone to connect with. Machine Man experienced a very similar sense of alienation, even though he was part of everyday life as Aaron Stack. In the end, having the two connect felt ever so meaningful and well deserved.

"You don't have to be alone anymore!"

Alas, the budding robotic romance would prove to be short lived. Machine Man and Jocasta decided they needed to stop Ultron from carrying out his latest master plan against mankind. During the struggle, Jocasta once more faced the creature that created her to be his.

"I created you! You belong to me!"

But Jocasta once again denied her creator, proving she was more than her programming. She tried to prevent Ultron from killing her friends, only to catch the brunt of his power cannon. The metal lady didn't live to tell the tale. 

"Jocasta, you were always the misguided, optimistic fool... The witless pawn!"

Enraged, Machine Man and the newly freed Thing eventually took down Ultron, only to be left with the sad realization that even in victory there could be defeat.

"Goodbye, Jocastta. Your friends will miss you..."

Back in November of 1982, Tom DeFalco probably had no idea how true those words would turn out to be. After all, the defining part of Jocasta's shtick was the fact even her closest friends had trouble remembering she was around... on a good day. That makes the following scene from the Roger Stern penned Avengers I#231 all the more poignant. Cover dated May, 1983... The Avengers assembled to pay tribute to one of their own who never truly was.

Of all people, Vision decided to deliver the eulogy.

"The robot Jocasta was never officially an Avenger. In truth, we barely knew her."

... Yeah, and not for lack of trying either, Vizh. His words truly rang hollow, given the fact poor ol' 'Casta bent over backwards to get to know you and all the other Avengers the second she arrived at the mansion. It's also telling that the Avengers didn't decide to posthumously vote her in, like they did when Captain Marvel and Mantis seemingly passed beyond the veil. Still, to be remembered at all is preferable to being totally forgotten and artist Al Milgrom did a bang up job showing the individual Avengers' reactions to the departure of one of their own. 

But truth be told, Jocasta wasn't forgotten, not by Machine Man at least. In the latter days of Roger Stern's Avengers, a storyline popped up in which the Supreme Adaptoid went around recruiting sentient robots as part of his "Heavy Metal" team. He even got Machine Man to join after promising Stack to help rebuild Jocasta (which would mean the Avengers buried an empty coffin). 

"My hopes for your revival have risen again, my Jocasta."

Unfortunately for Stack, the Avengers would stop the Adaptoid well before he even had half a chance to rebuild Jocasta. However, right before the 80s came to a close she briefly returned back to life in Avengers Annual I#17, the closing chapter of the rather abysmal Evolutionary War crossover. The High Evolutionary had built a genetic bomb that upon detonation would evolve all of humanity, Figuring the Avengers might be a problem, he ordered Jocasta's reconstruction when he deduced her accurate cybernetic memory might contain all the data he needed to deal with his possible foes. Using the robot's remains, the Evolutionary's accomplices rebuilt Jocasta.

Turns out she still wasn't ready to help a villain, any villain.

"Thrablam!"

Now, I'm no counter intelligence expert... but if one needed to gather information from a possibly hostile source, you probably don't need to arm her to the teeth. In fact, since most of the knowledge you want is inside her head, why bother with the rest? Finding herself restored, Jocasta quickly defeated her captors and rushed to phone the Avengers about the current crisis.

Of course, technically there weren't any Avengers to contact. The team had disbanded following the recent Dr. Druid tragedy, so Jocasta's call was handled by the Hydrobase automated phone service. It decided the threat warranted a response and summoned a rag tag team of reservists: Falcon, Beast, Hulk, Hercules, Captain America... and Rita DeMarra, the female Yellowjacket who was drawn to Hydrobase just to shut off the alarm that kept going off in Hank Pym's old helmet. Together, they located Jocasta, learned of the Evolutionary's plans and decided to stop him. But not before the good Captain got in a nice lil' dig at her expense. 

"Yes, you did, ma'am... Before we could ask you to join us on special status"

So much for "Jocasta! Thank heavens you're still alive". First, they question her allegiance, then they doubt if she's even real, topped off by Cap's stern lecture on her leaving the Avengers before they could do her the tremendous favor of not allowing her to join. And the irony of it all is that the High Evolutionary brought on his downfall by reconstructing Jocasta. If she hadn't been around, his master plan would have gone unopposed. By the time they reached him, the Evolutionary decided to repay her in kind.

"OH!"

Talk about the shortest comeback in the business... The other Avengers fight on, with Hercules finally taking the Evolutionary down by "evolving beyond godhood" (don't ask). And guess what, Jocasta was still alive, thanks to Yellowjacket's aid. Instead of just laying there in pieces, Jocasta had plugged herself into the base's mainframe, cracked the computer's security code only to discover the genetic bomb was about to go off... She decided to stay behind and force it to self destruct.

So, here we go again... 

"You must leave now, hurry. And godspeed. Goodbye, Captain"

And with that send off, Jocasta died for the second time in one decade. The 80s weren't too kind to a character that basically needed a little love, just like the humans and synthezoids who denied her. After saving humanity, Jocasta was finally made an Avenger but, to add insult to injury, that didn't exactly mean a thing because the team was still disbanded. 

Jocasta was gone but not forgotten. In the years that followed, she reappeared in numerous forms: an alternate reality, golden Jocasta fought the Avengers as a member of the Gatherers, Some time later, Iron Man discovered that Jocasta's computer mind had survived as programming. He used her services as a major domo of sorts before at long last in the late 2000s Hank Pym rebuilt her... And then started dating her. Because hey, sleeping with the robot whose personality was a copy of your ex wife is healthy.

Then again, who could say no to this doll*?

*... Except for most everyone all the time during the 1970s and 80s, of course.

1984 - Machine Man poster

1984 – Machine Man miniseries

Machine Man 4 issue miniseries
Writer: Tom DeFalco (issue # co-plotted by Barry Windsor-Smith)
Artist(s): HerbTrimpe (breakdowns) and Barry Windsor-Smith (finished art)

Jack Kirby’s creation, Machine Man, first appeared in the movie tie-in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8. Machine Man earned his own series in early 1978, but it would be canceled after 19 issues. All you really need to know is that Machine Man is the only survivor of a secret US military robot project. Machine Man eluded the US military and did he best to become human, which were his creator’s final words who had died saving him.

This limited series takes place in a distopian, corporate future, where a group of technology raiders, known as the "Midnight Wreckers" recover the disassembled remains of Machine Man from a Baintronics dump. They reassemble him and reactivate Machine Man. He makes an immediate impact helping defeat the Baintronics agents sent to capture the Wreckers. Machine Man finds his older partner Gears Gavin alive and leading the raiders against Baintronics. Machine Man joins their cause and confronts Sunset Bain, who pits Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020 after him. Machine Man defeats Stark and forces Bain to capitulate. He discovers that Jocasta is still alive, but serving Bain.

The future in which this story takes place has not been set as the “true” Marvel Universe future and should be considered an alternate future. The plot is awkward and had little character development. It seemed like all Machine Man did was react to what was going on around him, rather than take on any kind of role where he would search out for a place in this new world. Machine Man’s quest to become human, or at least accepted as human, was completely ignored.

DeFalco didn’t really handle either of the relationship very well, such as the conflict between Bain and Machine Man or Machine Man and Jocasta. DeFalco also ignores the rest of the Marvel Universe in this future which might have served to liven up the story and add some depths to it. Unfortunately, the new supporting characters are stereotypes and quickly forgotten. This story seemed to have all the proper ingredients, but they just were mixed together and used to their potential.

The finished art by Barry Windsor-Smith is breathtaking and lavish and rises above Trimpe’s stiff breakdowns.