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Description
Origins
Scientists working for a top-secret U.S military project worked on creating an army of 51 experimental robotic soldiers capable of acting like humans. Their goal was to create a sophisticated weapons system capable of independent thought. Dr. Abel Stack took X-51, one of the the projects robots, home to test his radical theory--that a robot could only function like a human if it was raised like one. The other 50 models began displaying psychotic tendencies due to insufficient programming. The project was determined a failure and the order came down to destroy them. Each of the robots was equipped with an auto-destruct device that could be triggered remotely. Stack managed to remove the self-destruct mechanism from X-51, but figured he couldn't dispose of the bomb before it exploded, and urged Aaron to leave him. X-51 vowed that Stack's dream of human and robot peace would come true.

As Machine Man, X-51 assumed the name Aaron Stack and became a fugitive in the eyes of the military. He found a world greatly afraid of machines, but managed to blend in without suspicion. Mr. Hotline dispatched a suicide bomber to hold Aaron's friends hostage in order to get him to return to the Hades Organization HQ where technicians dismember X-51 and present his head to the Monitor, a computer that projects a Satanic hologram. The Monitor searches Aaron's mind for the anti-life equation, but before he can prep a second assault Machine Man orders his limbs to reassemble and he re-programs the computer to neutralize the bomber and free his friends.

Superhero Career
After being captured and later freed, Machine Man was found by psychiatrist Dr. Peter Spalding. He also battled Colonel Kragg's troops. Soon after that, he first encountered Power Broker. Alongside the Hulk, he battled the Power Broker. Soon after that, he was redesigned and rebuilt by Dr. Oliver Broadhurst. He then first encountered the Fantastic Four. He then met mechanic "Gears" Garvin, and then battled Baron Brimstone. He also battled Sunset Bain. He then first encountered Alpha Flight. Spaulding and Garvin set up Machine Man with a human identity as Aaron Stack, insurance investigator for the Delmar Insurance Company, but he continued having adventures as a superhero on the side.

While working with The Thing, Machine Man first met and fell in love with another sentient robot, Jocasta. Alongside the Thing and Jocasta, he battled Ultron. However, during the battle, Machine Man witnessed the seeming destruction of Jocasta by Ultron.

Machine Man once tried to meet with Iron Man, who he believed was a fellow robot. However Tony was very drunk, irate, and under considerable stress from the machinations of Obadiah Stane. He attacked Machine Man and almost killed two of his own employees, but Machine Man was able to rescue them.

X-51
Avengers
After being held captive for months, the Super-Adaptoid was freed by the Fixer and set out to get his revenge on the Avengers. He first recruited the Awesome Android to his cause, and used the Fixer's brilliant technical mind to reprogram him. He then confronted Machine Man and offered to fix his long-lost love Jocasta if he would join his team. Machine Man accepted, and they went to the panhandle of Texas and reprogrammed Sentry and then the TESS-One robot, adding them to the team. Heavy Metal then went to Hydrobase and attacked the Avengers who resided there, battling the She-Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Captain Marvel, and Marrina. Unknown to the other members of the team, the Adaptoid was merely looking for information on the Cosmic Cube. He found the information he needed and summoned Kubik, a cosmic being that evolved from the cube. Meanwhile, the other members of the team began to lose one by one, except for Machine Man, who switched sides and joined the Avengers to fight the Adaptoid after he copied Kubik's powers and became almost omnipotent. The Adaptoid eventually lost the battle, and the androids and robots were sent to a secure location.

Machine Man again worked alongside the Avengers during a battle with Terminus. When the Avengers reorganized their roster shortly thereafter, X-51 was nominated in absentia as a reservist for the West Coast Avengers. He eventually accepted and was seen in action alongside his fellow reserve substitutes shortly after Operation: Galactic Storm.

Machine Sentinel
During an encounter between Cable and the humanoid Sentinel Bastion, X-51 was infected with Sentinel nano-technology and forced to serve Bastion. He reasserted his independence, but the Sentinel programming remained buried deep in his software.

X-51 was then captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., who wanted to use his technology to create another Deathlok, and was swept up into an X-Men adventure where the Red Skull took control of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Machine Man helped ferry SHIELD agents to safety as the Helicarrier was being destroyed, but was seemingly destroyed himself in the process.

As a last ditch effort at survival, X-51 transferred his consciousness from his failing body into the Life Model Decoy of Agent Jack Kubrick which landed near him in the Helicarrier's wreckage. Aaron was so damaged in the crash, however, that his intelligence was subsumed beneath the LMD's programming, leading him to believe he actually was Jack Kubrick, searching for information on Machine Man.

X-51
The Brotherhood of Mutants, looking for weapons and devices, excavated the wreckage where X-51 had been lost. They confronted "Kubrick", also on scene, and blew his head off. The LMD's headless body collapsed near the inert original head of Machine Man. The two interfaced, bringing X-51 back online and letting him access the full power of his futuristic Sentinel tech, re-configuring the LMD body into a more powerful form. However, he was also now vulnerable to the Sentinel protocols, reverting to an aggressive mutant-hunting posture whenever in the presence of Homo Superior. Machine man's new status fascinated the Celestials, who sent a Monolith to observe him. The Monolith offered him a chance to accompany the Celestials, and he agreed.

Nextwave
X-51 later resurfaced as part of a counter-terrorism team called the Nextwave that went rogue and were transposed to Earth-63163. He was apparently dumped back on Earth by the Celestials and now preferred to be called Aaron. His personality was much colder, developing a resentment for humans, referring to them frequently as 'fleshy ones'. Aaron also had developed a fondness for alcohol, stating "My robot brain needs beer" on regular occasions. He was not especially popular with his teammates because of his self-important attitude. He appeared to have a rather serious attraction to Elsa Bloodstone, despite her being human, and would stare at her chest constantly much to her chagrin.

Aaron later joined Ms. Marvel's Operation: Lightning Storm, primarily acting as an intelligence specialist. S.H.I.E.L.D. had also provided Aaron with a Life Model Decoy of Monica Rambeau, which was programmed to cry for him.

Marvel Comics Presents Vol 2 8 Textless
Due to his inorganic nature, Aaron was incapable of having a nervous breakdown, so he took control of the flying fortress State 51, where he created staged environments and used androids of different superheroes to simulate scenarios for him to reminisce to a robotic therapist. Fueled by her obsession with Machine Man and determined to lift him up so she could antagonize him again, Sunset Bain tracked him down. She and her mercenaries interrupted Aaron's session, hijacked State 51, and attempted to make it land on top of Bombay. Aaron used the androids to try to stop Bain's mercenaries and evacuate the city, but was pushed to assimilate the entirety of the fortress, turning it into a giant-sized version of himself temporarily in the process. Machine Man contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. afterwards and had Sunset detained. Sunset rejoiced on the fact she helped Aaron mature as a person and kissed him.

A.R.M.O.R
Aaron was tasked by A.R.M.O.R. to investigate the arrival of extra-dimensional zombies, by traveling to the host reality. Initially he refused, claiming not to care for the fleshy ones. However, when he learned that Jocasta would be entering the hostile dimension on her own, Aaron had no choice but to accompany her. Later he went rogue from A.R.M.O.R. and teamed up with Howard the Duck to hunt zombies across the multiverse and collect samples from different types in the hope of finding a cure.

The eScape
For a brief time, Machine Man reverted back to his original personality from before his time with Nextwave and A.R.M.O.R.. During this period, he became a reoccurring partner to the Red Hulk, and later on of Red She-Hulk and the Order of the Shield.

Aaron progressively became a militant of mecha-activism, having also renounced the use of synthetic flesh. He also shared an apartment with Jocasta, with whom Aaron had reunited and started dating. Aaron became at odds with Jocasta when he learned that she was willing to help the company she worked for, Stark Unlimited, develop a virtual universe called the eScape, which Aaron regarded as an invasion of the cyberspace and an appropriation of robo-culture. Because of this, Aaron was secretly facilitated access to the eScape by the Controller, a foe of Tony Stark who intended to use Aaron as a scapegoat for his data theft. Aaron logged into eScape and attempted to sabotage the platform, but was stopped by Jocasta, who broke up with him for it.

Aaron Stack
Jocasta sought Aaron's help after the eScape launched as a commercial product because trouble arose due to the Controller's machinations, and she convinced him to use his illegal interface to sneak into the virtual world. Inside the eScape, Aaron encountered Tony Stark and his biological mother Amanda Armstrong, who had been abducted by the eScape's corrupted operating system Motherboard. Aaron helped Amanda break Tony out of Motherboard's brainwashing, but he was incapacitated by Motherboard's enforcer Arsenal. In the end, the eScape was shut down after Tony destroyed Motherboard. Additionally, Jocasta quit Stark Unlimited, and returned to Aaron.

The Robot Revolution
Wishing to become more human, Jocasta sought Tony's brother Arno to upgrade her body to become more human-like despite Aaron's protests. In the middle of the procedure, Jocasta was kidnapped by Ultron. Iron Man joined forces with Machine Man to rescue her and stop Ultron's plan to turn humanity into cyborgs. In light of the increasing oppression faced by artificial beings, Aaron started to incite an uprising in the A.I. population to fight for their rights.

During Aaron's subsequent fight against the premier forces of A.I.oppression, Arno Stark and Sunset Bain, he found an ally in Tony Stark himself, who had become convinced that he was a synthetic life form, with an artificially-grown body and downloaded memories, therefore a mere copy of the real, late Tony Stark. Aaron became Stark's right hand in the leadership of the A.I. Army. When the robot rebellion learned that Arno had developed a submission code and intended to broadcast it globally to enslave robotkind, the A.I. Army assaulted Bain Tower. Arno was lured away by Jocasta, who had previously been abducted by Arno and infected with the submission code.

Jocasta took Arno to a Bain facility where he was confronted by all fifty of his predecessor X-Model Robots, who had been rebuilt by Bain and stripped of free will. Aaron ultimately came to face against X-52, his would-be successor and Jocasta's new paramour. Together, they tried to convince Aaron to subject himself to the submission code, arguing that Aaron's inestable and changing personality came from him being naturally unstable like the previous X-Model Robot, with Abel Stack's upbringing only having helped delay it. Aaron rejected their claims, and managed to destroy X-52. He also removed Jocasta's head from her body, and escaped from the facility with it, hoping to bring it to the A.I. Army to find a way to fight the submission code.

Aaron took Jocasta to former Stark Unlimited employee Andy Bhang, the person he knew that was familiar with Jocasta's programming. Bhang agreed and was able to remove the submission code using a back door key he added while working on it. Aaron then contacted a remnant of the A.I. Army to send them the code needed to render them immune to the submission code.

Description
Origins
Scientists working for a top-secret U.S military project worked on creating an army of 51 experimental robotic soldiers capable of acting like humans. Their goal was to create a sophisticated weapons system capable of independent thought. Dr. Abel Stack took X-51, one of the the projects robots, home to test his radical theory--that a robot could only function like a human if it was raised like one. The other 50 models began displaying psychotic tendencies due to insufficient programming. The project was determined a failure and the order came down to destroy them. Each of the robots was equipped with an auto-destruct device that could be triggered remotely. Stack managed to remove the self-destruct mechanism from X-51, but figured he couldn't dispose of the bomb before it exploded, and urged Aaron to leave him. X-51 vowed that Stack's dream of human and robot peace would come true.

As Machine Man, X-51 assumed the name Aaron Stack and became a fugitive in the eyes of the military. He found a world greatly afraid of machines, but managed to blend in without suspicion. Mr. Hotline dispatched a suicide bomber to hold Aaron's friends hostage in order to get him to return to the Hades Organization HQ where technicians dismember X-51 and present his head to the Monitor, a computer that projects a Satanic hologram. The Monitor searches Aaron's mind for the anti-life equation, but before he can prep a second assault Machine Man orders his limbs to reassemble and he re-programs the computer to neutralize the bomber and free his friends.

Superhero Career
After being captured and later freed, Machine Man was found by psychiatrist Dr. Peter Spalding. He also battled Colonel Kragg's troops. Soon after that, he first encountered Power Broker. Alongside the Hulk, he battled the Power Broker. Soon after that, he was redesigned and rebuilt by Dr. Oliver Broadhurst. He then first encountered the Fantastic Four. He then met mechanic "Gears" Garvin, and then battled Baron Brimstone. He also battled Sunset Bain. He then first encountered Alpha Flight. Spaulding and Garvin set up Machine Man with a human identity as Aaron Stack, insurance investigator for the Delmar Insurance Company, but he continued having adventures as a superhero on the side.

While working with The Thing, Machine Man first met and fell in love with another sentient robot, Jocasta. Alongside the Thing and Jocasta, he battled Ultron. However, during the battle, Machine Man witnessed the seeming destruction of Jocasta by Ultron.

Machine Man once tried to meet with Iron Man, who he believed was a fellow robot. However Tony was very drunk, irate, and under considerable stress from the machinations of Obadiah Stane. He attacked Machine Man and almost killed two of his own employees, but Machine Man was able to rescue them.

X-51
Avengers
After being held captive for months, the Super-Adaptoid was freed by the Fixer and set out to get his revenge on the Avengers. He first recruited the Awesome Android to his cause, and used the Fixer's brilliant technical mind to reprogram him. He then confronted Machine Man and offered to fix his long-lost love Jocasta if he would join his team. Machine Man accepted, and they went to the panhandle of Texas and reprogrammed Sentry and then the TESS-One robot, adding them to the team. Heavy Metal then went to Hydrobase and attacked the Avengers who resided there, battling the She-Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Captain Marvel, and Marrina. Unknown to the other members of the team, the Adaptoid was merely looking for information on the Cosmic Cube. He found the information he needed and summoned Kubik, a cosmic being that evolved from the cube. Meanwhile, the other members of the team began to lose one by one, except for Machine Man, who switched sides and joined the Avengers to fight the Adaptoid after he copied Kubik's powers and became almost omnipotent. The Adaptoid eventually lost the battle, and the androids and robots were sent to a secure location.

Machine Man again worked alongside the Avengers during a battle with Terminus. When the Avengers reorganized their roster shortly thereafter, X-51 was nominated in absentia as a reservist for the West Coast Avengers. He eventually accepted and was seen in action alongside his fellow reserve substitutes shortly after Operation: Galactic Storm.

Machine Sentinel
During an encounter between Cable and the humanoid Sentinel Bastion, X-51 was infected with Sentinel nano-technology and forced to serve Bastion. He reasserted his independence, but the Sentinel programming remained buried deep in his software.

X-51 was then captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., who wanted to use his technology to create another Deathlok, and was swept up into an X-Men adventure where the Red Skull took control of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Machine Man helped ferry SHIELD agents to safety as the Helicarrier was being destroyed, but was seemingly destroyed himself in the process.

As a last ditch effort at survival, X-51 transferred his consciousness from his failing body into the Life Model Decoy of Agent Jack Kubrick which landed near him in the Helicarrier's wreckage. Aaron was so damaged in the crash, however, that his intelligence was subsumed beneath the LMD's programming, leading him to believe he actually was Jack Kubrick, searching for information on Machine Man.

X-51
The Brotherhood of Mutants, looking for weapons and devices, excavated the wreckage where X-51 had been lost. They confronted "Kubrick", also on scene, and blew his head off. The LMD's headless body collapsed near the inert original head of Machine Man. The two interfaced, bringing X-51 back online and letting him access the full power of his futuristic Sentinel tech, re-configuring the LMD body into a more powerful form. However, he was also now vulnerable to the Sentinel protocols, reverting to an aggressive mutant-hunting posture whenever in the presence of Homo Superior. Machine man's new status fascinated the Celestials, who sent a Monolith to observe him. The Monolith offered him a chance to accompany the Celestials, and he agreed.

Nextwave
X-51 later resurfaced as part of a counter-terrorism team called the Nextwave that went rogue and were transposed to Earth-63163. He was apparently dumped back on Earth by the Celestials and now preferred to be called Aaron. His personality was much colder, developing a resentment for humans, referring to them frequently as 'fleshy ones'. Aaron also had developed a fondness for alcohol, stating "My robot brain needs beer" on regular occasions. He was not especially popular with his teammates because of his self-important attitude. He appeared to have a rather serious attraction to Elsa Bloodstone, despite her being human, and would stare at her chest constantly much to her chagrin.

Aaron later joined Ms. Marvel's Operation: Lightning Storm, primarily acting as an intelligence specialist. S.H.I.E.L.D. had also provided Aaron with a Life Model Decoy of Monica Rambeau, which was programmed to cry for him.

Marvel Comics Presents Vol 2 8 Textless
Due to his inorganic nature, Aaron was incapable of having a nervous breakdown, so he took control of the flying fortress State 51, where he created staged environments and used androids of different superheroes to simulate scenarios for him to reminisce to a robotic therapist. Fueled by her obsession with Machine Man and determined to lift him up so she could antagonize him again, Sunset Bain tracked him down. She and her mercenaries interrupted Aaron's session, hijacked State 51, and attempted to make it land on top of Bombay. Aaron used the androids to try to stop Bain's mercenaries and evacuate the city, but was pushed to assimilate the entirety of the fortress, turning it into a giant-sized version of himself temporarily in the process. Machine Man contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. afterwards and had Sunset detained. Sunset rejoiced on the fact she helped Aaron mature as a person and kissed him.

A.R.M.O.R
Aaron was tasked by A.R.M.O.R. to investigate the arrival of extra-dimensional zombies, by traveling to the host reality. Initially he refused, claiming not to care for the fleshy ones. However, when he learned that Jocasta would be entering the hostile dimension on her own, Aaron had no choice but to accompany her. Later he went rogue from A.R.M.O.R. and teamed up with Howard the Duck to hunt zombies across the multiverse and collect samples from different types in the hope of finding a cure.

The eScape
For a brief time, Machine Man reverted back to his original personality from before his time with Nextwave and A.R.M.O.R.. During this period, he became a reoccurring partner to the Red Hulk, and later on of Red She-Hulk and the Order of the Shield.

Aaron progressively became a militant of mecha-activism, having also renounced the use of synthetic flesh. He also shared an apartment with Jocasta, with whom Aaron had reunited and started dating. Aaron became at odds with Jocasta when he learned that she was willing to help the company she worked for, Stark Unlimited, develop a virtual universe called the eScape, which Aaron regarded as an invasion of the cyberspace and an appropriation of robo-culture. Because of this, Aaron was secretly facilitated access to the eScape by the Controller, a foe of Tony Stark who intended to use Aaron as a scapegoat for his data theft. Aaron logged into eScape and attempted to sabotage the platform, but was stopped by Jocasta, who broke up with him for it.

Aaron Stack
Jocasta sought Aaron's help after the eScape launched as a commercial product because trouble arose due to the Controller's machinations, and she convinced him to use his illegal interface to sneak into the virtual world. Inside the eScape, Aaron encountered Tony Stark and his biological mother Amanda Armstrong, who had been abducted by the eScape's corrupted operating system Motherboard. Aaron helped Amanda break Tony out of Motherboard's brainwashing, but he was incapacitated by Motherboard's enforcer Arsenal. In the end, the eScape was shut down after Tony destroyed Motherboard. Additionally, Jocasta quit Stark Unlimited, and returned to Aaron.

The Robot Revolution
Wishing to become more human, Jocasta sought Tony's brother Arno to upgrade her body to become more human-like despite Aaron's protests. In the middle of the procedure, Jocasta was kidnapped by Ultron. Iron Man joined forces with Machine Man to rescue her and stop Ultron's plan to turn humanity into cyborgs. In light of the increasing oppression faced by artificial beings, Aaron started to incite an uprising in the A.I. population to fight for their rights.

During Aaron's subsequent fight against the premier forces of A.I.oppression, Arno Stark and Sunset Bain, he found an ally in Tony Stark himself, who had become convinced that he was a synthetic life form, with an artificially-grown body and downloaded memories, therefore a mere copy of the real, late Tony Stark. Aaron became Stark's right hand in the leadership of the A.I. Army. When the robot rebellion learned that Arno had developed a submission code and intended to broadcast it globally to enslave robotkind, the A.I. Army assaulted Bain Tower. Arno was lured away by Jocasta, who had previously been abducted by Arno and infected with the submission code.

Jocasta took Arno to a Bain facility where he was confronted by all fifty of his predecessor X-Model Robots, who had been rebuilt by Bain and stripped of free will. Aaron ultimately came to face against X-52, his would-be successor and Jocasta's new paramour. Together, they tried to convince Aaron to subject himself to the submission code, arguing that Aaron's inestable and changing personality came from him being naturally unstable like the previous X-Model Robot, with Abel Stack's upbringing only having helped delay it. Aaron rejected their claims, and managed to destroy X-52. He also removed Jocasta's head from her body, and escaped from the facility with it, hoping to bring it to the A.I. Army to find a way to fight the submission code.

Aaron took Jocasta to former Stark Unlimited employee Andy Bhang, the person he knew that was familiar with Jocasta's programming. Bhang agreed and was able to remove the submission code using a back door key he added while working on it. Aaron then contacted a remnant of the A.I. Army to send them the code needed to render them immune to the submission code.