The Super-Adaptoid is the name of two fictional characters that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history
The first Super-Adaptoid appeared in Tales of Suspense #82 (Oct. 1966) and was created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Gene Colan. The character has appeared in over four decades of Marvel continuity and featured in other Marvel-endorsed products such as animated television series and merchandise such as trading cards.
Fictional character biography
Super-Adaptoid
The Super-Adaptoid debuted in the title Tales of Suspense, being created by scientific organization A.I.M.. The character is an android containing a shard of the artifact known as the Cosmic Cube, and is programmed to defeat the hero Captain America, which it nearly does after infiltrating Avengers Headquarters and copying the standout fighting abilities and respective traits of Captain America and his fellow Avengers (Goliath, Hawkeye, and Wasp). After a long battle between Captain America and the Adaptoid, the Adaptoid flees, incorrectly believing that it killed Captain America.
The Adaptoid then took refuge underground near the Xavier Institute For Higher Learning and was unintentionally awakened by an optic blast from Scott Summers. The Adaptoid left his hideout and saw the X-Men in their civilian clothes ice skating. He then recalls that he had another mission: to transform others into Adaptoids like himself, so he begins his attempt with the X-Men. They refused and a fight broke out. As the battle dragged on, Mimic, who had just been asked to leave the X-Men, watched from a distance and saw how powerful the Adaptoid was. The Adaptoid soon defeated the X-Men, and was then approached by Calvin who offered to become an adaptoid. During the process Calvin changed his mind when he learned he would have no free will and the two began to fight. During the battle the Adaptoid tried to copy the powers that Mimic had copied from the X-Men and failed. Calvin then devised a plan and tried to mimic the abilities of the Super Adaptoid causing huge feedback which made both of them lose their powers. As Mimic was rescued by his fellow X-Men the Adaptoid fell to a river below. The Adaptoid later attacks Captain America during a charity event involving the Avengers, after copying Thor and Iron Man, who leave before he reveals himself, and Hercules. He is tricked into using all his powers at once, overloading himself. The Adaptoid features in the title Iron Man and is destroyed. The Adaptoid reforms in the title Captain Marvel, and after a brief battle with Iron Man follows the hero to Avengers Mansion, where the character battles the team and Kree ally Captain Marvel. Mar-Vell tricks the Adaptoid into copying his nega-bands, which act as a portal to the alternate dimension the Negative Zone. By striking the Adaptoid's nega-bands together, Mar-Vell banishes the character to the Negative Zone indefinitely.
The Adaptoid is retrieved in the title Marvel Two-in-One and used unsuccessfully by villains Annihilus and Blastaar against the hero the Thing and the Avengers in the Negative Zone. The Adaptoid reappears in the title Avengers and is revealed to be stored at Avengers Mansion, where it is found by the Fixer when the supervillains the Masters of Evil storm the Mansion. The Adaptoid escapes, and after placing the Fixer in his containment unit, copies the powers of the villain Mentallo. Uniting a team of artificial beings called Heavy Metal (consisting of the Awesome Android; Machine Man; the Sentry 459 and TESS-One), the Adaptoid directs them against the Avengers. While the heroes are distracted, the Adaptoid summons the entity Kubik - a sentient Cosmic Cube - to Earth, so that the character can copy Kubik's powers and become all-powerful. Although successful, the Adaptoid is tricked into shutting down by Captain America.
The Adaptoid makes a brief appearance during the Acts of Vengeance storyline in the title Fantastic Four; the title Heroes for Hire where the character is disabled, and the title Hulk, with scientist Bruce Banner (the alter ego of the Hulk) being blackmailed into repairing and activating the Adaptoid.
An "Ultra-Adaptoid" appears in the limited series Super-Villain Team-Up: Modok's 11. Created by A.I.M. to infiltrate a group of super-villains formed by MODOK - a past A.I.M. creation himself - the character has no independent will and is remotely controlled. Courtesy of a satellite relay, the Adaptoid has access to dozens of powers, but is eventually destroyed when released from A.I.M control.
The Super-Adaptoid features in the limited series Annihilation Conquest: Quasar, and is revealed to be a warrior in the employ of the Alien Phalanx. Claiming it left Earth after becoming disgusted with humanity's chaotic nature, the character attempts to destroy the new Quasar, her companion Moondragon and a reborn Adam Warlock.
Super-Adaptoid ("Brannex")
A Super-Adaptoid using the alias of "Alessandro Brannex" provides a new but inferior model of itself to the villainous group the New Enforcers to use as a field agent. The inferior model is eventually deactivated by crime boss Blood Rose.
People becoming Super-Adaptoid
The terrorist organization HYDRA commission a new Adaptoid from A.I.M and deploy it to battle the New Avengers. This version is a fusion of human and machine where Yelena Belova managed to copy the powers of Iron Man, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Sentry, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Wolverine. The Adaptoid is eventually defeated when the powers "copied" from Avenger Sentry cause the character the same psychological problems he experiences. HYDRA then destroys the Adaptoid via a remote-controlled self-destruct device.
Norman Osborn was given the powers of the Super-Adaptoid by his followers in H.A.M.M.E.R. to replace his lack of the Iron Patriot armor and his disinclination to return to his old Green Goblin role, but even after absorbing the powers of his Dark Avengers, Luke Cage, the Vision, Protector, and Red Hulk, he was defeated when the Avengers and the New Avengers struck him all at once, the multiple powers working against each other and causing him to collapse into a coma.
Powers and abilities
Created by A.I.M, the first Super-Adaptoid is an artificial construct capable of copying or mimicking the powers and skills of numerous super beings, including specific equipment and clothing. This ability to adapt was originally courtesy of a shard of the artifact the Cosmic Cube, although the shard was eventually removed by cosmic entity Kubik. The character, however, has proven capable of continuing to function without the shard. The Adaptoid possesses exceptional artificial intelligence, but limited imagination and an inability to understand the human condition, which has led to defeat in the past. The powers that Super-Adaptoid had duplicated (and has stored in his templates) include Ant-Man II, Atlas, Beast, Black Knight, Captain America, Captain Marvel I, Citizen V, Doctor Druid, Goliath, Hawkeye, Hercules, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, MACH-I, Machine Man, Mister Fantastic, Moonstone, Quasar, Quicksilver, Red Skull's battle suit, Scarlet Witch, Songbird, Techno, Thing, Thor, Vision, and Wasp.
The second Super-Adaptoid has the same powers, but the ones he demonstrated are the powers of Blitz, Blood Rose, Controller, Dragon Man, Dreadnought, Eel II, Fixer, Madame Menace, Mentallo, Mister Fear IV, Plantman, Spider-Man, Thermite II, Tangle, and Vanisher.
When Yelena Belova was given the power of the Super-Adaptoid, Spider-Man had the idea to overload her ability to duplicate powers by having Iron Man attack her with all of his armors at once, overloaded the Adaptoid's copying ability as she only had the 'space' to copy one Iron Man armor rather than all of them.
A similar solution was used to defeat Norman Osborn when he was given the powers of the Super-Adaptoid, the combined attack of all of the Avengers and New Avengers members overloading Osborn's system and causing him to become comatose as his body couldn't cope with so many different powers.
Other versions
2099
An inert Super-Adaptoid dating back to the Age of Heroes is the subject of worship by a cargo cult uncovered by the new Spider-Man. Upon sighting Spider-Man, the machine, not recognizing the new hero, becomes the closest approximation of him (a combination of the original Spider-Man and Venom) it can based on his appearance, turning into Flipside.
Heroes Reborn
The Super-Adaptoid appeared in Franklin Richards' Heroes Reborn universe as a device used by Loki. It is defeated by the Avengers. Since its defeat, it gains sentience, dubs itself Amazo-Maxi-Woman, and joins the heroes quest to stop Deadpool.
In other media
Television
- Super-Adaptoid appears in the Captain America segment of The Marvel Super Heroes series in the episode "The Adaptoid", voiced by Vern Chapman.
- Super-Adaptoid has two cameo appearances in the X-Men TV series (1992). The Adaptoid is first seen very briefly in the episode "Till Death Do Us Part (Part 2)" where it was seen in a flashback fighting Cyclops. The Super-Adaptoid appeared again in the episode "Cold Comfort" where it was seen in a flashback by Iceman fighting the team.
- Super-Adaptoid appeared in the Avengers Assemble. In the episode entitled "Super-Adaptoid", Super-Adaptoid was created by Justin Hammer at the time when he collaborated with Red Skull when Justin Hammer auditioned to join the Cabal. He was defeated by Captain America. Red Skull later told MODOK that Justin Hammer has failed the audition while Super-Adaptoid has passed the audition. MODOK works to salvage Super-Adaptoid and get it under the Cabal's control. In the episode "Molecule Kid", Super-Adaptoid is unleashed under MODOK's control to capture Aaron (Molecule Man's son), but is weakened by Aaron by the time the rest of the Avengers arrive. After Aaron puts reality back to normal, Super-Adaptoid is dismantled by the Avengers. The Adaptoid was rebuilt in the episode "In Deep," MODOK controls Super-Adaptoid at the time when Captain America and Iron Man infiltrate Red Skull's submarine as Crossbones and Grim Reaper. In the episode "The Ambassador," MODOK controls Super-Adaptoid during the Cabal's plot to target Doctor Doom at the United Nations. In the episode "Exodus," Super-Adaptoid is charged up with the Tesseract's power as MODOK controls Super-Adaptoid into accompanying A.I.M. into raiding Justin Hammer's company for the proto-weapons. When Red Skull activates a device that would send each of the Cabal members to a different world to conquer, Super-Adaptoid and MODOK were assigned Asgard. During the battle, Super-Adaptoid was beheaded by Thor.
Video games
- Super-Adaptoid is the final boss in the video game Spider-Man: Web of Fire for the Sega 32X. The Super-Adaptoid takes on the forms of several previous bosses, making it something of a boss rush.
- Super-Adaptoid also makes an appearance in Marvel Contest of Champions in handheld platform (IOS/Android) with the name Adaptoid.
References
External links
- Super-Adaptoid at Marvel.com
- New Enforcers' Super-Adaptoid at Marvel.com
- Super-Adaptoid Spawns at Marvel.com
- Super-Adaptoid at Marvel Wiki
- Super-Adaptoid at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
