One of Jack Kirby's Odder creations (which is saying something given some of the competition) is X-51 aka Aaron Stack aka Mister Machine aka Machine Man.
Over the years since The King unleashed our living robot hero, he's been all over the Marvel universe, even became a Watcher at one point. I suppose that's almost appropriate given X-51's origins...
Jack only did nine issues of Machine Man...
...but in that short time he was both creating wildly and asking questions, exploring potential issues. Not just within the stories, but in the letters-free letters column, as well. A decade before Star Trek: The Next Generation was lauded for exploring potential social ramifications for self-aware machine intelligence, Kirby was already asking questions. For example, here's his essay from the first issue:
Here's the introductions to the next few essays:
This one seems particularly relevant as we advance machine systems capable of dealing death & destruction autonomously. Heck, we even have robotic suicide bombers now!
But we still haven't gotten to the odd bits. The parts they can't talk about when they retell Machine Man's origins. The true why of the blurb
X-51, you see, evolved beyond his mere machine nature. He did so back before Machine Man #1, in the same manner our species was induced to evolve.
Trapped, bound, facing dismantlement... it happened...
...he encountered The Monolith!
Next issue, after pulling a Nick Cage...
...he makes his escape, and while hunted has a second encounter with The Monolith:
Beyond his evolutionary advancements, this encounter with the boy leads him to thinking more like a 'superhero' and he soon changes his alias from Mr. Machine to Machine Man. (This might also have been to avoid licensing issues with MGM & Kubrick)
So, they can't usually mention any of that stuff, since the first three issues of "Machine Man" were actually the last three issues of 2001: A Space Odyssey:
Jack turned a basically impossible assignment - adapt 2001: A Space Odyssey into an ongoing series - into both a wild, semi-psychedelic, evolutionary ride and a fairly serious probe at issues of the coming 30 years. (The King always liked to think 3 decades into the future) And he created another enduring Superhero in the process.
King Kirby - Always Amazing.
X-51 covers & panels by Jack Kirby & Mike Royer for 2001: A Space Odyssey #s 8-10 (1977) and Machine Man #s 1-9 (1978)
