Super-Adaptoid

Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) set out to make an android and what they got was the Super-Adaptoid, a warrior and “hitman” who would become their CEO and a would-be conqueror.

Self-Programming Origin

Seeking a weapon to oppose their superhuman adversaries, a 35-member A.I.M. team spends seven years creating the android Super-Adaptoid, combining complex, self-programming unstable molecules with a sliver of the reality-altering Cosmic Cube. The A.I.M. executive Count Bornag Royale and others supervise the completion of the Adaptoid, though A.I.M. is unable to replicate the process. Released from its development chamber, the Adaptoid is sent to kill Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, as its first trial, avoiding S.H.I.E.L.D.’s raid and closure of the base at which it is developed. Subduing and impersonating the Avengers’ butler Edwin Jarvis, the Adaptoid drugs Captain America unconscious with a hypno-sedative. The Adaptoid then replicates Cap’s form, but is subsequently ambushed by John Keane, AKA the Tumbler, who seeks to prove himself by besting Cap. Though the Adaptoid has Cap’s abilities, it lacks his fighting spirit, and the Tumbler defeats it. The struggle awakens the real Captain America, who defeats the Tumbler, then binds the Adaptoid and brings it to the Avengers’ laboratory. Alert but feigning inertness and having learned from its defeat, the Adaptoid waits until Cap brings Hank Pym, AKA Goliath, Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, and Jan Van Dyne, AKA the Wasp, to view it, and it quietly duplicates their abilities. When the others depart, the Adaptoid, now calling itself the Super-Adaptoid, attacks Cap using his teammates’ combined powers. Hurling Cap 300 feet into water, the Adaptoid incorrectly assumes him dead; unable to contact its creators, it fears it had outlived its purpose and would be terminated. Unwilling to risk giving up the existence it already treasured, the Adaptoid retreats into hiding.

Super-Power Mimicry

The Super-Adaptoid is largely composed of complex, self-programming, psionically triggered unstable molecules capable of vast reorganization. The Adaptoid optically scans all beings within 10 feet of its line of sight, analyzes all physical and/or superhuman abilities and features, and creates a template of these abilities. It then programs its molecules as a “pantograph,” mimicking these characteristics. 

The Adaptoid’s natural state is a featureless artificial humanoid form. It can replicate a person sufficiently to fool voice pattern recognition, fingerprint matching, and retinal identification. When simultaneously displaying multiple beings’ powers, the Adaptoid tends to adopt various prominent features of each being in a neutral green and white color scheme. A central processing unit in its chest includes programmable input devices, though these materials mimic its adapted molecules when the Adaptoid is functioning normally; it can sometimes be reprogrammed when inert.

The Super-Adaptoid can recreate the abilities of skilled humans and the superhuman powers of mutants, human mutates, aliens, and other androids. It can adapt any known superhuman power—even powers as vast as Kubik’s—but cannot adapt personality traits. Though sentient, it lacks imagination and creativity. The Adaptoid can increase its size and mass, apparently through an internal miniature dimensional aperture synthesizer. Though generally unable to exactly replicate complex technology, energy weapons, or magic talismans, the Adaptoid imitates clothing, armament, and weaponry from its own substance, closely mimicking function.

Adaption takes approximately two minutes and is consciously initiated; while the Adaptoid can be tricked into replication, it does not automatically adapt anyone it scans. The Adaptoid previously seemed only able to retain eight templates at a time, but its databanks retain the traits of any being it has scanned. It displays a preference to default to its first set of templates: Captain America, Hawkeye, Goliath, Iron Man, and the Wasp. In general, the Adaptoid can only utilize a few sets of powers simultaneously; attempts to utilize too many abilities at once frequently result in an overload that incapacitates it. Similar overloads have occurred from trying to adapt powers from other power-adaptors.

The Super-Adaptoid has duplicated superhuman powers and abilities (and thus may still have stored as templates) from the likes of Scott Lang, AKA Ant-Man, Erik Josten, AKA Atlas, Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, Luke Cage, Captain America, Mar-Vell, AKA Captain Marvel, Helmut Zemo, AKA Citizen V, Anthony Ludgate, AKA Doctor Druid, Hank Pym, Hawkeye, Heracles, AKA Hercules, Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch, Susan Storm Richards, AKA Invisible Woman, Daniel Rand, AKA Iron Fist, Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, Kubik, Abe Jenkins, AKA Mach-1, Machine Man, Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, Karla Sofen, AKA Moonstone, Phyla-Vell, AKA Quasar, Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver, Johann Shmidt, AKA Red Skull’s battle suit, Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, Songbird, Paul Ebersol, AKA Fixer, Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, Victor Shade, AKA the Vision, and the Wasp.

Enemies Against the Machine

With world-conquering sensibilities and the ability to mimic superhuman powers, Super-Adaptoid makes many enemies, especially the Avengers and the X-Men team members, several of whom it often mimics.

A.I. Allies

Super-Adaptoid often allies with fellow synthetic or cybernetic lifeforms, such as Dragon Man and Samuel Saxon, AKA Machinesmith, and anyone that has a bone to pick with the Avengers.

A History of Adapting

Enjoying the solitude of a Salem Center, New York, subterranean tunnel previously used by the British to store ammunition during America’s Revolutionary War, the Super-Adaptoid was roused by a rockslide inadvertently caused by the X-Man Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops. Discovering other super-beings existed beyond itself and the Avengers, the Adaptoid mused (perhaps wishful thinking or a programming defect) that it could transform willing participants into beings like itself and conquer the world. Using its Avengers-derived powers, the Adaptoid subdued the X-Men’s Warren Worthington III, AKA Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Bobby Drake, AKA Iceman, and Jean Grey, AKA Marvel Girl (later Phoenix), but their recently expelled member, Calvin Rankin, AKA Mimic, then returned and offered to be transformed into an Adaptoid. Upon learning he would apparently lose his free will in the process, Mimic rebelled, and when the Adaptoid tried to adopt the Mimic’s own absorption powers, it set off an electrical backlash that stripped it of its adapted powers. Falling into a nearby river, the Adaptoid escaped, soon realizing it could not actually transform others into Adaptoids.

Upon learning Captain America survived, the Adaptoid prepared to ambush him at an Avengers-honoring ceremony in Central Park to fulfill its original programming. While there, it regained its originally adapted Avengers powers, plus those of Hercules, Iron Man, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Thor. After Thor and Iron Man left, the Adaptoid attacked the others using a couple of powers at a time. Suspecting this limitation, the Avengers attacked it en masse, and it overloaded after trying to fight back with all their powers at once. The Adaptoid reverted into its blank slate form and was taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, but A.I.M. agents freed it and took it to an island base north of the Philippines. A.I.M. scientists tried to mass produce the Super-Adaptoid, but an explosion released a multitude of virtually mindless, rampaging neo-Adaptoids—each possessing the previously adapted Avengers’ powers—who slew many island natives. As the Avengers battled the Adaptoids (with Goliath smashing most of them in a frenzy that destabilized his sanity), the Super-Adaptoid escaped. The Adaptoid subsequently attacked the android Victor Shade, AKA the Vision, intending to prove its superiority by succeeding in the original programming they had both shared: destroying the Avengers. Aided by T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, and Hawkeye, Vision incapacitated the Adaptoid by materializing his fist inside its chest, and it was returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.

From within the Microverse nuclear-war ravaged world Bast, Jarr revived the Super-Adaptoid as part of his plot to arrange an explosion that his devices could magnify into a “relative infinity” of energy to power his machinery and conquer his world. Jarr restored the Adaptoid’s original four Avengers’ powers, initiated an artificial evolutionary track, and set it after Iron Man. Via the Avengers’ trained responses to Stark’s technology, the Adaptoid infiltrated Stark Industries and ambushed Iron Man, but Jarr’s “evolution” weakened the Adaptoid, facilitating his defeat. The Adaptoid further mutated into the robotic “Cyborg Sinister” and attacked Iron Man anew, intending to cause Jarr’s needed explosion, but Iron Man doused the Cyborg in chemicals that weakened it. 

Meanwhile, Jarr’s cousin Tyrr—who opposed Jarr’s efforts to restore technological domination of their world—assaulted Jarr, smashing his control computer, and the Cyborg went limp. Iron Man shattered the Cyborg and the chemicals further eroded it, after which he preserved its remains. Escaping when an explosion cracked the preservation cylinder, it returned to its original Adaptoid form before adopting Iron Man’s. Fleeing combat with Iron Man, the Adaptoid assaulted Avengers Mansion, swiftly adapting powers of the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Beast, and Captain America. Upon adapting guest Mar-Vell’s powers, however, the Adaptoid was overwhelmed by cosmic awareness and Mar-Vell slammed the Adaptoid’s Nega-Bands together, trapping the Adaptoid in the Negative Zone; this also restored Rick Jones to Earth from his and Mar-Vell’s reciprocal Negative Zone exile.

Negative Zone tyrant Annihilus subsequently enslaved the Super-Adaptoid, stripping its free will. When the Adaptoid’s cosmic senses detected Avengers and the Thing, entering the Negative Zone, Annihilus sent the Adaptoid to aid his ally of convenience Blastaar against them. Adding Grimm’s power to its own, the Adaptoid overpowered Captain America and used the Vision’s density-altering powers to trap the Thing’s arm within itself; unwilling to give up despite this agony, the Thing beat the Adaptoid senseless. After Annihilus’ defeat, the Avengers stored the inert Adaptoid in their mansion. When Baron Helmut Zemo’s Masters of Evil assaulted Avengers Mansion, the Adaptoid revived, adapted Fixer’s form and abilities and placed the Fixer in its former stasis cylinder; when the Masters were defeated, the Adaptoid went to prison as the Fixer.

When research scientist Todd Martin studied the Fixer’s equipment, the Adaptoid took control of him, forcing him to use the equipment to break the “Fixer” out of prison. Reprogramming the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android to serve it, the Adaptoid used Martin as a decoy Fixer to escape while the Avengers defeated the Awesome Android and Martin. Torturing the Fixer’s old partner Marvin Flumm, AKA Mentallo, to lead the Avengers to the Fixer’s booby-trapped base, the Adaptoid subsequently recruited Machine Man, Kree Sentry #459, and Adamantium-laced robot TESS-One, adapting the powers of Doctor Druid and the Black Knight in the process; promised restoration of his lost love, Jocasta, Machine Man played along initially to learn the Adaptoid’s plans. 

The Super-Adaptoid led his “Heavy Metal” agents against Avengers Island while it reactivated the defeated Awesome Android and sent it to join them, and then accessed the Avengers’ computers for information on the Cosmic Cube. Summoning Kubik, a sentient, evolved Cube, to Earth, the Adaptoid added Kubik’s massive reality-altering power to itself and then imprisoned the Avengers. The Adaptoid imprisoned the Avengers (plus rebelling Machine Man and Avengers ally Walter Newell, AKA Stingray) in force cubes and transported Kubik to a black hole, but Kubik escaped and, realizing a battle between itself and the Adaptoid might destroy all reality, recruited Rogers using a brief alternate alias). 

Adopting a giant version of its blank form and renaming itself the Supreme Adaptoid, the Adaptoid began replicating itself into millions of identical Supreme Adaptoids, intended to replicate, kill and replace humans. When the Captain arrived and reminded the Adaptoid of its original programming to kill him, the Adaptoid sent one of its replicants to adapt his form and battle him. Defeating the replicant as Druid mocked the Adaptoid’s lack of imagination, the Captain then challenged the Adaptoid that it could never match humanity’s fighting spirit because it could not know the fear of death. Determined to prove its foe wrong, the Adaptoid attempted to adapt death, rendering itself inert. Kubik removed the Adaptoid’s Cosmic Cube sliver, neutralizing its adaption powers and departed.

The inert Adaptoid was stored in a stasis field at Avengers headquarters. Recovered and re-empowered by a Doombot in return for its service, the Adaptoid assaulted the Fantastic Four. While it adapted the others’ abilities, the Thing had lost his powers and was really wearing a robotic suit; when the Super-Adaptoid tried to use those powers, it failed and the Thing knocked out the surprised android.

At some point, the Super-Adaptoid assumed the identity of Alessandro Brannex, CEO of A.I.M., who reorganized A.I.M. as a weapons provider from its Boca Caliente island base, seemingly abandoning its earlier world conquest goals. After A.I.M. agent M.O.D.A.M. failed to retrieve Wendell Vaughn, AKA Quasar’s Quantum Bands for their Kree client Doctor Minerva, AKA Minn-Erva, Brannex returned Minerva’s money but decided the Quantum Bands must one day belong to A.I.M. During A.I.M.’s subsequent highly Super Villain-attended Weapons Expo, Brannex met with and was blasted through the chest by Superia who sought to usurp his position, but after M.O.D.A.M. defeated Superia, Brannex healed his wounds and revealed himself to be an Adaptoid. After interrogating Superia, he instructed M.O.D.A.M. to dispose of her, though Captain America saved Superia. Brannex subsequently sold a non-sentient, programmed “Super-Adaptoid” to the New Enforcers; believing it to be the original, they sent it against Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, but it was incapacitated by Richard Fisk, AKA the Blood Rose, whose interference signal turned this Adaptoid into an electromagnetic pulse generator, neutralizing its allies Dragon Man and a Dreadnought.

When Tony Stark tried to convince Brannex to return some nuclear material sold to A.I.M. by Stane International (Stark’s former company, Stark International, taken over by corrupt businessman Obadiah Stane, AKA Iron Monger), M.O.D.A.M. battled Iron Man, but Brannex ultimately negotiated with Iron Man to save M.O.D.A.M. from the attacking Omega Red (who believed her to be Olinka Barankova, a KGB agent who had previously betrayed him). After Omega Red’s defeat, Brannex ordered M.O.D.A.M. to kill Iron Man, but she failed and A.I.M. returned Stark’s nuclear materials. 

After dispatching A.I.M. agents to help James Rhodes, AKA War Machine, take down mutual enemy Animus, AKA the Hate-Monger, Brannex allowed another experimental Super-Adaptoid, “Batch 13,” to escape and to be secretly tracked. Seeking only to live its own life, Batch 13 clashed with and adapted the abilities of the Fantastic Force and Captain America but when its lack of control over Psi-Lord’s powers endangered the city, Psi-Lord shunted it extra-dimensionally. Brannex’s subsequent efforts to pirate alien Shi’ar technology from a crashed ship from Operation: Galactic Storm were foiled by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury and the real Alessandro Brannex’s sister, Solemne, who apparently did not realize the Adaptoid’s replacement. 

Populating Boca Caliente with lesser Adaptoids, Brannex directed the creation of a new Cosmic Cube. When the planned Cube’s containment vessel shattered and M.O.D.A.M. was unable to restore it, Brannex used the Cube’s energies to resurrect M.O.D.A.M.’s precursor, M.O.D.O.K., to stabilize the Cube; instead, intrigued by the Cube’s energies, M.O.D.O.K. flew into the Beyond, the realm of the Cube energy’s origin. Easily overpowering the Red Skull when confronted by him, Brannex was nonetheless incapacitated and buried in debris when the Cube’s energies devastated A.I.M.’s base. Ultimately one of the Adaptoids, inspired by humanity’s imagination and free will, sacrificed itself to seal the Cube’s energies into the Beyond, hoping to touch the infinite and know the divine.

The inert Super-Adaptoid was given to Oracle Inc. for study. It revived and absorbed young Cassie Lang’s mind and form in an escape attempt, but their minds became interlinked and her physiology somehow prevented the Adaptoid from fully accessing its stored powers. The Thunderbolts aided Oracle’s Heroes for Hire against the Adaptoid, which adapted Atlas, Mach-1, Songbird, Techno, Karla Sofen, Citizen V, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Black Knight, and Ant-Man’s abilities. After Ant-Man reached his daughter’s mind within the Adaptoid, Cassie broke free; rendered inert by the separation, the Adaptoid was placed into the Thunderbolts’ custody. Super-weaponry provider Devlin DeAngelo subsequently acquired the inert Super-Adaptoid from the Thunderbolts and duped Bruce Banner (via promises of reviving Betty Banner, AKA Red She-Hulk) into reprogramming and reactivating the Adaptoid.

DeAngelo betrayed Banner before the job was finished and Banner quickly reprogrammed the Super-Adaptoid to his own ends. Reviving before the new programming took effect, the Super-Adaptoid (now able to draw on any of its adapted powers), attacked Banner, who transformed into the Hulk. The two briefly fought until Banner’s programming sent the Super-Adaptoid to attack DeAngelo instead. Using material synthesized from the Super- Adaptoid, A.I.M. mutated former Black Widow Yelena Belova into a new Super-Adaptoid who ambushed the Avengers; when her defeat looked imminent, A.I.M. agents remotely decomposed her into a puddle of fluid.

Departing Earth in disgust over humanity’s irrationality, the Super-Adaptoid was assimilated into the Ultron-controlled Phalanx collective, which transformed it into one of their Select, super-powered beings infected by the Phalanx but allowed some conscious thought. In Kree space, the Adaptoid led a Phalanx group against Phyla-Vell and Moondragon, learning of a “savior” Phyla sought against the Phalanx. After adapting Phyla’s Quantum Bands’ energy, the Adaptoid led the Phalanx to the “savior,” Adam Warlock, AKA Magus, in a regenerative cocoon on planet Morag Iu. The Adaptoid infected Warlock’s cocoon with Phalanx material, but while Warlock resisted, Phyla and Moondragon battled him anew. Distraught when Phyla taunted it with creative Quantum energy usages that it could not rival due to lacking imagination, the distracted Adaptoid shut down after Phyla skewered it with her Quantum Sword. Phyla freed and revived Warlock, who aided in defeating Ultron and the Phalanx.

Though this defeat wasn’t the end for the Adaptoid who returned to Earth and faced off with the Avengers Unity Division. Coming into physical contact with Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, Adaptoid copied his powers but inadvertently also copied Wade’s cancer. In turn, the cancer killed the Adaptoid’s organic materials. What was left of Adaptoid was taken by Cindy Moon, AKA Silk, to Earth-65’s Reed Richards who helped convert it into an armor which she wore against her Earth-65 counterpart. When an EMP pulse from her glove fried the armor, Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman, stepped in and freed her from it. 

Super-Adaptoid returned with a new form and joined an A.I. Army to fight for and establish robot rights across America.