Adaptoids (Marvel)

The Sinister Adaptoid in Amazing Spider-Man v6 #6.

The Adaptoids are robots that feature in Marvel Comics.

History

The Adaptoids were a series of bipedal robots that were created by Advanced Idea Mechanics. (Tales of Suspense v1 #82) Some Adaptoids came to join the ranks of the mechanical life forms known as the Descendants. (Secret Avengers v1 #24) Later on, an Adaptoid was selected to receive a sliver of the Cosmic Cube to empower it thus creating the Super-Adaptoid. (Avengers v1 #289)

A badly injured Count Bornag Royal managed to flee to an A.I.M. facility where he activated the Adaptoid which was on the loose. The unit came to take the form of Edwin Jarvis and infiltrated Avengers Mansion where the machine weakened Captain America in order to take his form. (Tales of Suspense v1 #82) The unit was captured where it was studied by the Avengers with the Adaptoid recording all their abilities. Taking their collective powers turning the machine into the Super-Adaptoid. (Tales of Suspense v1 #84)

Whilst resting in an underground laboratory, the Super-Adaptoid was roused from its slumber by an earthquake. It believed that AIM had endowed it with the power to transform others into beings like itself if they were willing participants. Thus, it resolved to conquer the world by first finding test subjects for the transformation process. It would encounter Iceman and realized that others beside itself and the Avengers had powers. When the Iceman fled, the Super-Adaptoid followed him to Xavier's X-Mansion. This led to a battle against the X-Men who consisted of Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl, Cyclops, and Beast, knocking them out with one of Hawkeye's gas arrows. At the time, the X-Men's foe the Mimic had returned before the Super-Adaptoid could absorb the X-Men's powers, and offered to willingly be transformed into an Adaptoid. Cyclops managed to awaken and convinced Mimic to stop the process. The Mimic and Super-Adaptoid then began fighting one another. When the Super-Adaptoid tried to absorb the Mimic's own absorption powers, it set off an electrical backlash, and the Super-Adaptoid lost all the powers which it had absorbed. It would fall into a nearby river where it survived and managed to escape. (X-Men v1 #29)

In S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, the Super-Adaptoid was in its blank state when it was transport by armored vehicle towards S.H.I.E.L.D. Holding Facility #7. The transport was bombed by A.I.M., who recovered the Super-Adaptoid and transported it to an island base. (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II v1 #1) A.I.M. scientists at that base located on a small island north of the Phillipines where they worked on the Super-Adaptoid in an attempt to mass-duplicate its abilities. They succeeded but an explosion resulted in the duplicate Adaptoids spilling out onto the island. (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II v1 #2) These mindless Adaptoids, all possessing the appearance and powers of the Super-Adaptoid when it possessed the Avengers abilities. They went on a rampage and began killing many of the island's natives. When the Avengers approached, the Adaptoids flew to attack their Quinjet. Meanwhile, the Super-Adaptoid attempted to escape the lab itself, battling the AIM agents fighting to contain it. (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II v1 #3) Hank Pym managed to defeat the army of Adaptoids, while the original Super-Adaptoid slipped off the island in the confusion and swam away. (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II v1 #4)

At some point in time, the Super-Adaptoid assumed the identity of Alessandro Brannex. (Captain America v1 #441) As A.I.M.’s newly appointed chairman of the board, Alessandro Brannex reorganized AIM as a weapons provider and invited many of the world's super-criminals to the company's first International Weapons Exposition on the Caribbean island of Boca Caliente. Brannex introduced the newly developed M.O.D.A.M., when the Kree Doctor Minerva offered to pay A.I.M. to retrieve Quasar's quantum bands. Alessandro came to accept the contract and sent M.O.D.A.M. after the hero. When Quasar failed, Brannex returned the money but decided that the quantum bands must one day belong to A.I.M. (Quasar v1 #9) Making A.I.M.'s appearance more public-friendly, Brannex organized it as a legal corporation. When Captain America asked to visit their headquarters on Boca Caliente, Brannex met him personally and showed him around the public areas, though he would not let him look around further. (Captain America v1 #387)

Some months ago, the Super-Adaptoid escaped imprisonment in the Avengers sub-basement in New York City by imitating the mechanical wizardry of the Fixer. The original was made to take his place whereupon the Adaptoid operated as the supervillain criminal. He was then met by Mentallo who was not aware of the switch whereupon the Super-Adaptoid copied his telepathic powers and fell prey to the machine. It was then the robot began assembling a group of mechanical entities to attack the Avengers headquarters on Hydro-Base. This attack was ultimately made as a distraction whilst the Super-Adaptoid made a transgalactic summons to the Cosmic Cube Kubik. The Super-Adaptoid then came to absorb the attributes of the nascent Kubik thus gaining his reality manipulation powers. The Adaptoid then proceeded to imprison the Avengers and trapped Kubik within a black hole in the Andromeda galaxy. Declaring himself the Supreme Adaptoid, he intended to use his powers to create an entire race of Adaptoids that would replace their human originals and end the reign of mankind on Earth. (Avengers v1 #290)

Later on, M.O.D.O.K. hired a group of villains to aid him on a task. Among those he sent invitations to was the Chameleon who decided to secretly inform Monica Rappaccini. She ordered her A.I.M. faction to develop the Ultra-Adaptoid which was outfitted with numerous superpowers whereupon it took the identity of the Chameleon as it infiltrated M.O.D.O.K.'s 11. (Super-Villain Team-Up MODOK's 11 v1 #2)

A month ago, A.I.M. embarked on an ambitious plot to explore the Multiverse. This saw them stealing genetic samples from the Avengers which were used in the basis for the creation of a new group of Adaptoids. These Explorer-class models were deployed to fight the Avengers of an alternate universe and take them back to A.I.M. Island. During the battle, two Adaptoids were destroyed. After one of the Adaptoids showed a rogue behavior by killing Ant-Man, the A.I.M. operative with them on the scene ordered the Adaptoids to abandon the fight and return to the Island. While in their holding area, the Adaptoids showed self-sentience and changed their appearance. (Avengers v5 #26)

The Ultra Living Brain whilst operating in the shadows became obsessed with the question "Who is Spider-Man?" leading to it attempting to find an answer. As part of its solution, it kidnapped the members of the Sinister Six and had their powers copied by an Adaptoid. This resulted in the creation of the Sinister-Adaptoid who was deployed against Spider-Man. Spider-Man led the Sinister-Adaptoid away from his friends and ran from it, gaining the asisistance of Doctor Octopus' tentacles at one point. He ultimately found and released the captured Sinister Six, and they united against the Sinister-Adaptoid. The Sinister Six's conflicting personalities, however, made it impossible for them to cooperate. Luckily for them, the Sinister-Adaptoid had an exact replica of their minds, prompting it to enter into conflict with itself and self-destruct. (Amazing Spider-Man v6 #6)

Overview

In appearance, the Adaptoids in their initial state had blank featureless artificial human forms. (Tales of Suspense v1 #82)

They operated as a kind of thinking pantograph where they were capable of making themselves into exact copies of another person by literally tracing from the living original. (Tales of Suspense v1 #82) This was achieved by the photographic ability built into its eyes that kept a permanent record of its targets. An Adaptoid was capable of copying the powers of multiple people thus becoming a Super-Adaptoid making them a veritable one-man team. (Tales of Suspense v1 #84) Deep inside the Adaptoid's torso was its 'brain' that consisted of a central processing unit alongside a read/writable master pre-programming disc. (Incredible Hulk v1 #469)

Adaptoids were shown to be stored in case similar to those used by S.H.I.E.L.D. L.M.D.s. (Tales of Suspense v1 #82)

There were variations of Adaptoids that included Explorer class. (Avengers v5 #26) The Super-Adaptoid was the work of years of bio-chemical research. (X-Men v1 #29)

Members

• Super-Adaptoid :
• Ultra-Adaptoid : an Adaptoid model developed by A.I.M. under the orders of Monica Rappaccini where it was given numerous superpowers and made to take the identity of the Chameleon to infiltrate M.O.D.O.K.s 11. (Super-Villain Team-Up MODOK's 11 v1 #2)
• Sinister-Adaptoid : an Adaptoid created by the Ultra Living Brain whose powers were based on the Sinister Six and was deployed against Spider-Man but the clashing nature of the villain personalities caused it to come into conflict with itself leading to it self-destructing in the process. (Amazing Spider-Man v6 #6)
• Batch-13 : an Adaptoid constructed by AIM on AIM Island, under the direction of Alessandro Brannex. In an unexpected development, Batch-13 attained awareness prematurely, and broke out of its containment vessel, heading for New York City. Whilst there, it battled Captain America who was suffering from the loss of his Super-Soldier Serum where it nearly killed him until the Fantastic Force arrived. The Adaptoid came to copy their powers but was unable to do so to Psi-Lord's psychic armor causing a breakdown that would have destroyed the city but Huntara managed to open a portal where the machine was knocked into another dimension to contain the blast. (Fantastic Force v1 #4)
• Urn :

Notes

• Adaptoids were created by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, and Jack Kirby where they made their first appearance in Tales of Suspense v1 #82 (October, 1966).

In other media

Television

• In Marvel's Future Avengers, Adaptoids appeared in the setting of the anime television series. They were shown as being creations of A.I.M. developed by M.O.D.O.K. who had been abducting the 'Afflicted' created by the Terrigen Mists and having the Adaptoids replicate their powers. The Avengers tracked down their hide-out with their first team being captured by the Adaptoid but a second group of rescuers came to overwhelmed the robot with power thus causing it to overload. However, M.O.D.O.K. revealed he had multiple Adaptoids created that were sent to capture them but these were destroyed by Black Bolt when the Inhumans arrived to take the Afflicted to the safety of Attilan.

Video games

• In Marvel Contest of Champions, the Adaptoids appeared in the setting of the mobile video game. They were shown as antagonists that wandered the Battlerealm that was ruled by the Maestro. The Adaptoids were natural outgrowths of the Battlerealm itself with the Collector able to control them through the ISO-Sphere, using them as obstacles for the Summoners in his Contest of Champions. Among the variations of Adaptoids found in the Battlerealm were the Super-Adaptoids, normal Adaptoids that evolved through prolonged exposure to the ISO-8, and the Symbioids, born from the fusion between normal Adaptoids and the Venom symbiote.
• In Marvel Realm of Champions, the Adaptoids appeared in the setting of the mobile video game sequel. The wandering machines were shown as among the antagonists that inhabited the Battlerealm.
• In Marvel's Avengers, the Adaptoids were antagonists that appeared in the setting of the action role-playing brawler video game. They were A.I.M.s most advanced AI combat Synthoids that were designed to utilise the powers replicated from their Inhuman research. Base models used a standard optic beam weapon and were skilled in both ranged as well as melee combat. Adaptoids were capable of self-repair and had to be eliminated otherwise they recovered from their injuries. In the Kree timeline, A.I.M. was shown to had created the Super-Adaptoid who was able to mimic multiple powered combatants and was stationed to protect Project Omega.

Appearances

• Strange Tales v1: (1966)
• Iron Man v1:
• Avengers v1:
• Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II v1:
• Fantastic Force v1:
• Avengers v5:
• Amazing Spider-Man v6:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.