Robot (comics)
Robot is a fictional superhero turned supervillain appearing in the comic book Invincible, which is published by Image Comics. He is one of the main villains of Invincible alongside Thragg.
| Robot | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Image Comics |
| First appearance | Invincible #2 |
| Created by | Robert Kirkman Cory Walker |
| Voiced by | Stan Kirsch Zazie Beetz |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Rudy Conners |
| Team affiliations | Guardians of the Globe Teen Team |
| Abilities | Superior intelligence and technical skill Control multiple robot bodies telepathically |
Fictional character biography
Prior to the first issue of Invincible, Robot was the leader and founder of the Teen Team.
Robot was so effective as leader of the Teen Team that he was invited to join the Guardians of the Globe. However, the team was betrayed and most of their members murdered. At the invitation of The Pentagon, Robot assisted in the creation of the new Guardians of the Globe. As one of few senior heroes left, Robot became the leader of the team.
Robot did not show the same leadership proficiency with the Guardians and was replaced as leader by The Immortal. The reason for Robot's lack of focus was soon revealed; Robot was not, after all, a robot. Instead of a benevolent mechanical man with artificial intelligence, he was an automaton under the control of a disfigured man who was living in a tank of fluid. Rudy Conners, controlling the Robot body remotely, had been gathering genetic material to create himself a healthy new body. Robot used the villainous Mauler Twins to place the deformed man's mind into the freshly created body. Immediately afterwards, Rudy (his mind inside the new body, which was a juvenile clone of Rex Splode) allowed his deformed alter-ego to die. He then revealed that he was, in fact, controlling Robot remotely and had a small army of them under his control.
Robot soon revealed himself as a living creature to the Guardians of the Globe. Accepted by the team, he implanted a device into his head that allowed him to send a Robot body into combat with the team. He then turned his attention to Monster Girl, a teammate with an adult consciousness in a twelve-year-old body. Robot struck up a friendship with her, insisting that he could find a cure for her reversed aging. Although skeptical, Monster Girl nevertheless struck up a friendship with Robot and even showed some romantic interest in him after a successful "date" they had.
In Issue 58, Robot seemingly corrects Monster Girl's de-aging problem via a special belt she now wears.
In Issue 70, during the second Sequid invasion, Robot realized that the One Mind must have an extra host hiding somewhere and went down into the sewers to investigate. Sure enough, he found a man infested with Sequids and was able to fend the aliens off and transport himself and the man used as a host to safety. Later, Robot was ordered to the showers by Monster Girl to clean up from his sewer expedition, and there he coughed up a surviving Sequid, which he promptly killed. It remains to be seen if any more Sequids are hiding inside his body.
In Issue 108, Robot betrayed Invincible by trapping him in a parallel dimension, stating that he knows that he will never allow Robot's plan for world domination. In the later issues Robot was defeated by Invincible and was turned into a brain in a jar.
Powers and abilities
Robot is technically skilled in a variety of areas, including genetics and engineering as well as robotics. His genius-level intellect allows him to perform such feats as erasing memories, tracking both friends and villains, conducting forensic research, and scanning the records of various institutions. Robot's mechanical drone body is much stronger and more durable than that of a human. While Robot can be destroyed, he can easily be rebuilt or re-created. However, Rudy's consciousness is now in a human body; whether or not the body has any special abilities has yet to be revealed.