Warbot

Context

This robot only appeared in one 1978 The Defenders issue. The story was pretty bad, but writing up the Warbot is interesting.

Background

Advertisement

Powers and Abilities

Warbot is a humanoid combat robot of great size and strength. It shot “frigi-beams” from its eyes. It could ignore most assaults. It even reflected attack spells such as the Flames of the Faltine.

Warbot could keep fighting for a while even if visibly wrecked or decapitated (in DC Heroes RPG terms, Damage Capacity).

Warbot’s performance is very odd. It was crushingly powerful against the Defenders, subduing the Hulk with ease and taking out the Valkyrie and Clea without batting an eye. However, he was steamrolled by Ms. Marvel after he returned with his captives to the A.I.M. base.

Wait, what ?

This writeup makes a number of assumptions to make the inexplicable explicable:

• The robot makes an observation that striking the first blow means operating at peak efficiency. But it’s handily defeated when Ms. Marvel strikes him first. Perhaps it has specialised software that is extraordinary on the offensive but worse than useless when fighting defensively.
• This writeup further assumes that it has some form of energy that it expends to fight with extraordinary power. Which leaves Warbot a much more mundane opponent once it is gone.
  This is represented by a vast reserve of Hero Points . We’ll assume that Warbot went all-out on Hero Points use against the Defenders, boosting every attack and defense as high as necessary to quickly crush them. In this framework, at the conclusion of such a fight, Warbot would have no juice left.
• If Warbot does accumulate energy, waiting for it to accumulate its maximum potential output before sending it on a mission makes sense. It cannot accumulate energy past a certain threshold, so not deploying it at this point is a waste.
  This help explains why such a powerful robot was deployed in such a strangely-conceived operation, the general idea being that it’s better than nothing.
• Warbot could reflect spells, so perhaps it is magical in nature. Being a technological/mystical fusion would explain the strange power variations and why A.I.M. deployed it in a seemingly haphazard way. Perhaps it has taboos and geasan , such as always attacking first.

Advertisement

History

Warbot is an A.I.M. combat robot. It was made available in the late 1970s to a task force investigating a security breach. Said breach had led to the destruction of a base in New York City.

The A.I.M. investigators and their ally, mercenary Arthur Shaman, came up with a strange plan. It involved capturing the Hulk, and sending Warbot after the Hulk and his then-allies the Defenders. Warbot mopped the floor with Hulk, Valkyrie and Clea and captured them.

Soon after Warbot returned to the base, it was attacked by Ms. Marvel, Hellcat and Nighthawk. Ms. Marvel overwhelmed it and wrecked it, hurling its remains at the laboratory whence it came from and destroying both in an explosion.

Description

See illustrations.

Personality

Standard combat robot type.

Quotes

“Combat situation report : have located target-entity Hulk via gamma  radiation sensors. This unit and conveyance presently under assault by three humanoid entities, among them target entity Hulk.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe (Defenders vol. 1 #57).

Writeup completed on the 24^th of March, 2012.