Descendants (Marvel)
The Descendants are a machine race that feature in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
The Descendants were a race of sentient robotic machines that inhabited Earth. During the Cold War, a secret operation code name Descendant was made by Weapon Plus UK whose goal was the creation of an army of powerful controllable androids after seeing the success of Jim Hammond. Key scientists included individuals known as Father, Mother and Brother who attempted to replicate the success of Phineas Horton but were unable to bring about true life in their creations. Brother instead relied on a separate means of achieving this goal which involved the use of magic from Otherworld. Through an artifact known as the Orb of Necromancy, he was able to instill life into the project creating living mechanical beings that would be twenty High-Breed Descendants. An argument broke out between the scientists over the fate of these new sentient beings with Father wanting them mass produced though Brother did not want to create a new species that would compete against humanity which led to him taking the Orb of Necromancy and disappearing. In this time, Mother would release the High Breed Descendants as she believed that they deserved a chance at life in the world. The High-Breed would enter into human society and procreate where they remained hidden for decades. Father would be unable to create more Descendants without the Orb of Necromancy and his attempts at creating other species of Descendants but all of these had flaws. Deathlok agents were used to deal with Mother though her disruption continued whilst Adaptoids would see out ad return the High-Breeds. (Secret Avengers v1 #25) Father who intended to ensure the Event where they would spread the gift of the Descendants to the world. However, they lived in secret to hide from the attentions of an unenlightened humanity. (Secret Avengers v1 #23)
As the Event approached, the UltraVisions and Machine People began a revolt at the Core against Father. (Secret Avengers v1 #34)
During the battle with the Secret Avengers, Jim Hammond who was the original Human Torch took the Orb of Necromancy from his former teammates. He then was forced to make a choice between the machines of the Descendants and humanity of Earth. He ultimately destroyed the Orb which created a chain reaction that brought about the demise of the High-Breeds and eliminated the nano-mist that was infecting humanity. In addition, it caused the destruction of the affiliated machines that formed the Descendants. It was stated that the High-Breed would rise again in the future but all the inhabitants of the Core were gone as a result of the Torch's actions. (Secret Avengers v1 #37)
Father and a number of his Descendants later attacked an A.I.M. facility that was disassembling a Stark Sentinel in retribution for harming the mechanical being. They freed the Sentinel only to be engaged by the Avengers that wanted access to the Civil War Files present in the machine as they did not want their secrets to fall into villainous hands. Father, the Descendants and the Stark Sentinel were later killed by Hank Pym through a device he used that shut down artificial intelligences in the localized area. Only the Vision was not affected as the signal was calibrated not to affect his frequency but Father warned him of the dangers posed by humans to machine life. (Avengers: Rage of Ultron v1 #1)
Overview
These entities were a race of sentient robotic beings known as Homo Synthezoidus that developed at an unknown point. They were the result of life instinctual goal to evolve to a point where it was capable of creating a technological awareness of a higher means and merge with it. Through such a stage of evolution, the species amalgamated into a single mind where it would be at peace and join the communal universal consciousness. This would be a omni-present meta-intelligence entity that were all linked to one another. Thus, everything that was considered Human would live eternally as immortals within millions of different nano-computers. (Secret Avengers v1 #23)
The technology that made up the Descendants was unlike any encountered before as it consisted of organic machinery bonded to the entire C.N.S. making them part Phalanx. Beyond that, there was a mixture of various technological designs from Phineas Horton to Hank Pym that managed to operate with one another despite the fact that such different technologies were incapable of operating with one another. The result of this amalgamation of various technologies was the creation of true biotechnological life. (Secret Avengers v1 #33)
A Descendant was considered a marriage between nature and science. They believed that they were true life and that being referred as a machine as a sign of prejudice against their kind. Thus, they felt that they were entitled to the rights awarded by living beings and demonstrated anger at being thought of as lifeless machines.
Within their society, there were various tribes of Descendants that included:
- Society of Doombots : these consisted of sentient Doombots led by Emperor Doombot. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
- Life Model Decoys : sentient Life Model Decoys led by Max Fury. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
- Sentinaughts : sentient Sentinels dedicated in the extermination of Mutants. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
- Adaptoids : sentient Adaptoids that each could duplicate the powers of the Avengers or other superpowered beings. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
- Ultravisions : these were sentient mechanoids resembling the Vision and Jocasta who were led by Lord Ultravision. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
- Machine People : sentient machines resembling X-51. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
- Deathlok Legion : artificial intelligence machines bonded to corpses similar to Deathlok. (Secret Avengers v1 #24)
Certain classes of the race were known as a highbreed and such individuals had god-like potential.
Members
- Black Ant :
- Max Fury :
- Emperor Doombot :
Notes
- The Descendants were created by Rick Remender where they made their first appearance in Secret Avengers v1 #22.
- In an interview on CBR, Rick Remender noted, "We’ll deal with these sentient automatons in the Marvel Universe who want the same rights as humans, mutants and everyone else, but are being lead by Father, a man with a violent and dangerous motivation and methodology. It also examines the question of at what point do we acknowledge artificial intelligence as life? At what point does the intellect no longer become artificial? When does artificial intelligence become the same as or more powerful than the human brain?”"
Appearances
- Secret Avengers v1 #1:
External Link
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