Mahkizmo the Nuclear Man

Background

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About Machus

Machus is a weird place. On the surface it looks, like some vaguely swords-and-sorcery (or at least swords-and-sandals) version of the Roman Empire. One that has just been taken over by mighty-thewed yet smart barbarians, who have made the Roman ways theirs, only with a Conanesque warlike culture.

Much of their culture seems to be about individual glory, raiding for women and other riches and status symbols, and body-building.

Although the tech level seems low at first glance, they actually have advanced machines. Yet they don’t use it much, presumably for cultural reasons. Their primary weapons are swords (against other men) and whips (against women), but when on a raid they also carry blasters .

Mahkizmo once had himself teleported to the field of battle. And he was presumably warned about said battle by either some form of telecom from the raiding party, or a surveillance (satellite ?) system. Furthermore :

• Their arenas are flooded with invisible will-dampening rays to keep prisoners submissive.
• They could build fairly dangerous androids.
• And they had access to time-travel tech.

Everybody speaks English, of course.

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Powers and Abilities

Mahkizmo seems to be an extraordinarily successful example of augmentation through radiation. As such, he has massive superhuman strength and durability. He’s also a highly trained and experienced fighter, specialising in hand-to-hand combat.

He seems to be slightly under Thundra’s level. Though he’s stronger and more robust, he’s not as fast, technically proficient, or determined.

Still, he could fight the She-Hulk toe-to-toe for extended periods. Especially if he could open the fight with an all-out sucker punch, before She-Hulk was ready.

On the other hand, Makhizmo isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. This may be a side effect of the radiation treatment.

Beyond the strength enhancement, the special radiation still suffuses Mahkizmo. He can release it explosively around him, bowling over even superhumanly strong opponents. Or he can use it to enhance a punch, making it able to demolish a large building. He calls this his “nuclear punch”.

He only does so once or twice per combat, though. In DC Heroes RPG terms it costs Hero Points . The energy charge will eventually rebuild itself, but his charge at any given time is limited.

Will-sapping ray

The Men of Machus use a will-sapping ray technology. It makes opponents sluggish, and removes their fighting spirit and resolve. Mahkizmo carries an hidden emitter (presumably in his belt buckle, for phallic imagery). With his opponents affected by the (invisible and inaudible) ray he win crushing victories against powerhouses such as the Thing and Thundra.

Opponents under the effects of the ray will :

• Fight defensively (if at all).
• Become much less apt to endure pain and stress.
• Lose their killer instinct.
• Generally become passive and disoriented.

Strong minds can resist this, especially if they are aware of the effect. But even these will still find it difficult to carry the fight forward.

Howbeit, fighting will-sapped opponents has made the men of Machus complacent. Even Mahkizmo is not used to severe challenges and opposition.

History

Mahkizmo is the greatest champion of Machus (Earth-74101). He’s the equivalent of Thundra of Femizonia – again, see Thundra’s profile for explanations.

He appeared as Machus’s reality started to invade and influence Femizonia’s. This is the situation that resulted in Thundra being sent on a mission into the past. Thundra’s history-altering foray was theorised to put an end to the influence of the Machus XXIII^rd century over the Femizonia XXIII^rd century.

Machus scientists detected the danger. Mahkizmo launched a counter-mission, coming to the XX^th century of Earth-616 in the late 1970s to intercept Thundra there.

Though at that point Thundra had already accomplished the bulk of her mission, Mahkizmo sought to kidnap and enslave her. It is possible that the men of Machus hadn’t quite realised what Femizonia was trying to do in the past. Or perhaps they assumed that it wouldn’t work.

Invading 1974

Mahkizmo attacked the Baxter building – apparently a natural destination for time travellers. He ravaged large chunks of it while he yelled for Thundra to show herself, easily beating up the Fantastic Four. When Thundra engaged him, they both disappeared.

During this mission, Mahkizmo had been using his masculine wiles – a will-sapping ray to greatly but imperceptibly weaken all his opponents. He then used a time travel trick that would automatically take him and Thundra to Machus as soon as she touched him. Once on Machus, he further bathed Thundra with will-sapping radiation, eventually enslaving her.

The FF came to Machus (with Medusa temporarily replacing the Invisible Woman). But they were again ambushed by Mahkizmo, who resorted to the will-sapping ray and hostage-taking to defeat them. They were made prisoners, and Medusa was taken to Mahkizmo’s quarters.

As it turned out, Mahkizmo was much less durable when fully relaxed. Medusa discovered this when she was forced to give him a massage. Furthermore Medusa’s Inhuman physiology made her immune to Machus’s will-sapping fields. She knocked Mahkizmo out with a jug of wine to the head and fled. But Medusa did not free the FF. Instead, she executed on a plan previously discussed with Thundra.

The nuclear option

Meanwhile, Thundra and the FF, who weren’t compliant enough even with the omnipresent will-sapping tech, were thrown into an arena. They fought monsters to assuage Mahkizmo’s anger over the Medusa incident. Despite the will-sapping, the prisoners fought heroically. But it was obvious that they would eventually falter.

Thankfully, Medusa came back with armies from Thundra’s world. That diversion enabled the FF to destroy the will-sapping ray. The latter suddenly turned the tables on Mahkizmo and the men of Machus, who were not used to fighting able opponents.

Mahkizmo engaged Thundra and the Thing, readying his nuclear punch. But his opponents were faster and better at teamwork. They stunned him, thus preventing him from throwing his punch. Since the energy channelled into his body had nowhere to go, Mahkizmo appeared to disintegrate.

Eve… Renzi… fission ! 

Subsequent events are confusing. Our understanding is :

• Femizonia and Machus inexplicably appeared to fuse into a single timeline . From there, a balance of power was supposedly achieved between genders.
• Later on, this was clearly stated to have been a trick by the Femizons, using unrevealed means. Their goal was likely to be free of further interference by Earth-616  time travellers, by giving them the impression that a conclusion agreeable to Earth-616 standards had been reached.
• An unaltered, women-dominated Femizonia is clearly seen later. It is manifestly free from Machus influence.
• An altered version of Machus is then seen. Its reality has been greatly influenced by Femizonia’s. However, this reality is brittle, and the locals are dimly aware that their world was retconned .

Our No-Prize Hypothesis  is that Thundra’s mission to the past was a huge success. It reversed the relative weight of Femizonia and Machus. Femizonia carried on free of Machus influence, and started leaking its reality over Machus’. Just like Machus’s reality had been splattering Femizonia’s before Thundra intervened.

Thus, there never were merged realities. There was a Femizonia reality (Earth-715) which was threatened by Machus’ reality before Thundra’s mission. And there was a Machus reality (Earth-74101), which was half-overwritten by Femizonia’s reality after the battle with the Fantastic Four, Thundra and the Femizons.

So far, so good ?

Return of Mahkizmo

The disintegrated Mahkizmo existed for a while as a semi-aware molecular cloud. The reality overwrites on Earth-74101 condensed that cloud. Eventually it could enter the body of a random male barbarian warrior, permanently possessing him. The possession eventually turned this body into a duplicated of Mahkizmo’s, complete with radiation enhancements, scars and training.

Mahkizmo decided to roll back the Femizonia influence on Machus’ reality. He convinced a male scientist to help him. His general plan was to return to the past to fix things.

Howbeit, Mahkizmo’s brain was addled after his disintegration and reintegration. The final plan was to travel to the past (specifically the early 1990s of Earth-616) and detonate a radiation bomb that would kill all women. That would teach them a lesson !

The blatant problems with this plan were ignored. Perhaps Mahkizmo thought that the late XX^th century already had human parthenogenesis tech, allowing it to go without sexual reproduction. History books on Femizonia are known to have been altered for propaganda purposes, so the same is likely true on Mahkizmo’s world.

What’s tall and green and leggy ?

Mahkizmo jumped into the past. He nearly landed on top of the She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), resulting in an immediate brawl.

Coincidentally, the minor Olympian god Eros was on the prowl. He mistakenly shot Mahkizmo with a magic arrow that made him fall in love with Walters. The super-barbarian took the gammazon back to Machus to woo her.

She-Hulk’s actual boyfriend, Wyatt Wingfoot, enlisted his buddy the Thing (Ben Grimm). The pair quickly determined that she was on Machus and D-jumped there. Wyatt and Ben were surprised by Earth-74101. When they mentioned to a man they had been expecting a male-dominated society, this broke the brittle retcon. An awareness that their reality had been tampered with quickly spread through the locals.

The fragile equilibrium unravelled as men now remembered the old Machus reality, and wanted to reassert it. The Thing and She-Hulk teamed up and took Mahkizmo out. Eros took his arrow out of Mahkizmo, breaking the love spell.

She-Hulk explained the basics of unmodified human reproduction to Mahkizmo. The Earth-616ers then left as a new battle of the sexes engulfed Machus.

Mahk the naff

Under unclear circumstances, Mahkizmo was later seen on Earth-616 as part of random assemblages of FF villains. He had no speaking part. What he was doing there was never explained.

Likewise, the state of the Machus timeline is undocumented.

Description

See illustrations.

Personality

Mahkizmo does the mighty barbarian warrior-king thing to the hilt. Though he has access to consequent scientific resources, he’s essentially a swords-and-fur-loinclothes genre character.

He’s a ruthless conqueror and a brute. He approaches every situation through raw strength, devious cheating, and turgid proclamations of willpower. Though he’s not particularly smart, he excels at bombastic and articulate declarations of intent.

Mahkizmo, like his native culture, is obsessed with achieving the highest level of hairy-chested virility. He will loudly denounce anything that doesn’t match this over-the-top gender typecasting as “effeminate”, which means “bad”. He will deride every single male not meeting his super-narrow standards. Mahkizmo would thunderously call Conan a waifish weakling.

The classic Mahkizmo can be imagined as a strange cross between an evil King Conan and a 1970s Green Beret villain in a Blaxploitation movie. Just add tons of comments about how women are weak and servile and men who are not Mahkizmo are helpless, hairless children and not Real Men™.

Other traits

Mahkizmo was brain-addled to some extend after reintegrating. His current state is unknown – he may have fully recovered from the ordeal, or he may not.

Mahkizmo is yuuuge on humiliation as a demonstration of power. He will go to great lengths to humiliate opponents – without getting humiliated himself.

Whereas Thundra has genuine reservations about the values and hangups of Femizonia, Mahkizmo will happily double down on every bit of Machus creed.

Quotes

“Where is she, whelp ? Answer me now, and maybe I’ll spare your miserable hide ! Resist me — and I’ll tear you limb from limb ! Where is the she-witch, Thundra ? Thundra — who calls herself a Femizon !”

“Silence. It’s clear you don’t yet understand the extent of my power. You think you can defeat me — that you can mock me and insult my manhood — and you’re WRONG ! Among the men of my world, I am the strongest —! I, and only I, have been chosen to wield the ultimate energy — a power the likes of which your feeble, feminine world has never seen — power which gives me my name ! Mahkizmo – THE NUCLEAR MAN !” (proceeds to obliterate a building with a punch)

“You arrogant child ! Haven’t you realized yet — you’re as helpless against me as a weaning babe ! If you were a woman, I could understand your brainless stupidity. But you’re a man – and that makes you simply a fool !”

(Punching out Reed Richards) “Hairless babe, you and your kind are too frail to oppose me — as you’ve learned much too late. I am the inheritor of this world and time — I am Mahkizmo, born and bred in Machus, come to claim the woman, Thundra — and with her, my racial DESTINY !”

“Bah ! Is this the world I battled so hard to create ? A world where women stand as equals with men who should rightly be their lords and masters ? Bah I say ! And again, bah !”

DC Universe History

In the DC Universe Mahkizmo was empowered by Ares to destroy Wonder Woman and conquer the Amazons. His assault upon Wonder Woman came when she was in the company of the JLA. But, surprised by how formidable and savage Mahkizmo was, they were thrashed and unable to prevent the ageless Amazon from being abducted.

Superman was killed in the battle and Batman was crippled. And so a replacement League had to be drafted.

Mary Marvel took the interim JLA through Mount Eternity to Olympus where they emerged in the midst of a mass assault. By threatening to crush the unconscious Kyle Raynor’s skull like an egg, Mahkizmo was able to force the JLA to surrender. He took Mary Marvel to his boudoir while the others were forced to fight in the arena.

Mary charmed the brutal barbarian using the grace of Selena and beauty of Aurora and was able to kick his sexist ass while his powers were reduced.

She then freed Wonder Woman and the JLA. They went to town on Ares’ and Mahkizmo’s followers imprisoning them all in Tartarus. On their way back to Earth, the JLA passed through Hades and freed Superman to rejoin the living.

Other possibilities

There are rumors of Makhizmo being freed from the underworld by a satanic force to fight the angelic Supergirl but cannot be confirmed. He was last seen breaking out of the Slab after having been infected by the Joker virus which seems to have permanently reduced his abilities due to uncontrollable jocularity.

Alternatively, if dropping the Machus timeline, Mahkizmo would make a pretty additional member for Darkseid’s Elite. Perhaps he runs a large number of women-only Hunger Dog slaves in a special sector of Apokolips.

Or perhaps he could be a direct descendant of Hercules. He’s the chief a lost colony of Spartan warriors (not that one) who decide to conquer the modern world since they see it as weak and ripe for conquest by Real Warriors™ ?

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Jobe, Frank Murdock, Peter Pisspanen, Darci. Most of the DCU History by Jay Myers.

Writeup completed on the 29^th of June, 2010.