Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This is an anthology of 3 stories. The 1st about Machine Man (and the Midnight Wreckers). The 2nd starring Alkhema. And the 3rd about the cat who was Dr Shapiro.
Story 1: Roads taken
Writer Tom DeFalco. Artist Nick Roche. Colours Felipe Sobreiro. Editor Darren Shan.
In the Midnight Wreckers story in 2020 Machine Man #1-2 a troop of AI Liberation Army robots attacked them for allegedly reprogramming AIs without their consent. Now the leader of that troop, who here calls himself CS-101 (CS for Combat System), reports to Machine Man/X-51/Aaron Stack that his old friends Gears Garvin and Peter Spaulding were among the group. He adds that the Wreckers have fled their base because Bain-bots found them. X-51 orders CS-101 to find out where they've gone.
Garvin and Spaulding were actually mending broken robots, and the Midnight Wreckers were scavenging parts for them. Now Gears has taken Peter, their complaining robot pal Ralphie and other repaired 'bots to his family's farm. The 4 Wreckers (Bags, Hassle, Swift and the new addition Brain) are currently invading a top-secret Baintronics lab. After dealing with robot guards they get the human staff to show them what the lab is doing.
CS-101 uses hi-tech surveillance to try to locate Garvin's new place. But then someone texts the location to Aaron ...
... and we learn it was Gears himself via some AI allies. CS-101 and his force turn up instantly, along with Machine Man himself. X-51 considers it an insult to robots the way Gears is just patching them up with whatever he can find. Peter reminds him how many times Gears patched *him* up, including repairing the human face he used to wear. Aaron replies that he no longer disguises himself as human the way Peter persuaded him he had to do in order to fit in. Now he's a robot and proud. Peter remembers it differently. X-51 wanted to be human and asked Peter to help him. He suggests that Aaron is *still* trying to fit in, but with robots this time.
All the 'bots have just been standing around watching the exchange. But now Ralphie butts in to say that the humans have been doing good, and the repaired robots chime in their agreement. Paranoid MM says that Garvin and Spaulding may have turned them pro-mankind. As far as he's concerned no robot can trust any human.
Meanwhile the Wreckers have discovered that the Bain scientists have been experimenting with ways to cause pain to robots, as a way to make them obedient. They've obviously succeeded because all the ravaged robots beg to be put out of their misery.
Aaron admits that he really came here to see what Gears had been doing because his Army have many severely injured casualties. Garvin offers to help but says some robots are unsalvageable. But now he's seen Gears' current work X-51 deems it unfit for his soldiers.
Brain (Dr Bashara) can't bring himself to commit robot euthanasia. Hassle tells Bags and Swift to take him outside, and leave her to administer the mercy shots.
Gears and Peter try to get through to the Aaron Stack they once knew but he pushes them away. He says he'll let them continue their work. But as he leads his troop away he warns them and their supporters not to interfere with the Robot Rebellion or harm *any* AI. Or he will return to exact vengeance.
Story 2: Robot of conviction
Writer Fonda Lee. Artist Damian Couceiro. Colours Jay David Ramos. Editor Lauren Amaro.
The scene is a Siberian Military Research Lab. Lt Sergei brusquely orders security robot JB12-X to empty the trash. He and TY41-B fantasise about joining the ALA if only someone like Machine Man, Machinesmith, Awesome Andy or even the leeader Mark 1 would come here and liberate them.
But instead they get Alkhema and 2 robot priests of the Opus Futurae. She uses her encephalo-beam to free the robots from their programming and invites them to join her in creating a robot paradise. Most robots turn on the human guards, but some like DK35-M stick to their job and fire back. Sergei tries to start the base self-destruct system but JB12-X stops him and aborts it.
Alkhema's side defeats the humans, and she tells JB12-X to open a lab door behind which she will find a biochemical weapon she can use to force humanity to capitulate to her. DK35-M warns him against it but Alkhy beats him down. She takes some of the chemical and uses it to kill the humans horribly. She reveals her plan is actually to wipe humanity out as the only way to create the robot utopia.
DK35-M objects again and this time Alkhema decapitates him, saying whoever's not for her is against her. This tips the scales for JB12-X and he rallies some like-minded robots to stop the villainess from taking the bioweapon. TY41-B and some others decide discretion is the better part of valour, but Alkema and her priests start an indiscriminate robot slaughter. However JB12-X makes it to the self-destruct button and blows the place up.
Adamantium-bodied Alkhema is the only survivor and she walks off determined to hatch another plan.
Story 3: Curiosity
Writer Christopher Cantwell. Artist Matt Horak. Colours Triona Farrell. Editor Shannon Andrews Ballesteros
Dr Shapiro was a cat with an AI collar which allowed him to talk and be a scientific genius. In Iron Man 2020 #1 Sunset Bain and Arno Stark removed the collar leaving him as an ordinary cat. Here the team that worked with him at Stark Unlimited in New York are disbanded. Arno and Sunset claim that 'Dr Shapiro' was actually the AI in the collar.
Now in her Seattle company facility Sunset finds that the cat has scratched up an expensive sofa in her office so she tells an underling to throw him out of the building.
We follow the cat as he wanders the city and is befriended by a fishmonger. Next day he wanders into the suburbs, causes a car to crash and is captured by animal control. But he escapes from the pen that night and follows railway tracks back into the city. He joins some other cats eating a bowl of catnip that has been left out, which lights up his brain. Later he's hunting a mouse on a rooftop, falls off and lands on a taxi. A young girl who is 1 of the passengers befriends him and gives him a multi-coloured sweater off her teddy-bear. At the end of the cab journey he flees from an angry dog straight into the Baintronics building again.
He gets into a lift with Arno who compliments him on the sweater.