Origin At the age of fourteen, Samuel Saxon discovered one of Doctor Doom 's robots abandoned in a subway tunnel, and took it piece by piece to his father's garage, where for months he studied its components until mastering its operating principles and building his own robot from scratch. Following his disapproving mother's death in an alleged laboratory accident, he used the insurance money to - over a few years - entertain himself by building a series of increasingly advanced robots and androids. When his funds ran low, he sent his android Demi-Men, led by an android duplicate of Magneto , to steal money while posing as mutant terrorists in cooperation with Mesmero . However, they were defeated by the X-Men , who did not learn that their main opponent had been an android until years later, when Magneto himself discovered the deception. Creation Machinesmith was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan . He first appeared as Samuel "Starr" Saxon in Daredevil #49 , masqueraded as Mister Fear in Daredevil #54 , and appeared as Machinesmith for the first time in Marvel Two-in-One #47 . Major Story Arcs Daredevil Still a novice at crime, the young Saxon was taken under the wing of the aged Tinkerer , another underworld genius. With the Tinkerer's assistance, Saxon obtained a contract from imprisoned gangster Biggie Benson to target Daredevil with a robot assassin, the Plastoid . Although, unaware of his subject's identity of Matt Murdock, Saxon used person-specific "aromagraphs" to enable the Plastoid to track its target. The Plastoid confronted Murdock at his apartment and defeated him in a brief battle, only for its limited programming to force retreat when interrupted by passerby Willie Lincoln , a friend of Murdock's. Returning soon afterward, the Plastoid again fought Murdock, now in costume as Daredevil, in a battle that raged from Murdock's gym to the streets of Hell's Kitchen. When its memory banks were damaged, it ceased fighting and, with Daredevil in pursuit, returned to Saxon, who was enthusiastically contemplating a career in providing criminals with robot assassins so they could wipe each other out. When the pair arrived, Saxon, flustered by the hero's presence, erroneously reprogrammed the Plastoid to kill Benson himself, which it did in Benson's prison cell despite Daredevil's efforts at protection. Saxon, furious at Daredevil's interference, traced his creation's earlier activities to Murdock's apartment and, his luck taking a better turn, discovered Murdock and Daredevil were the same man. Craving revenge, he abducted Murdock's girlfriend Karen Page and held her in Murdock's apartment, then awaited the hero's arrival. Although reveling in his new active criminal role as he postured before Page, Saxon was taken by surprise by the Black Panther , seeking Daredevil on an unrelated matter. When Daredevil arrived soon afterward, Saxon fled both heroes but was captured, only to mock Daredevil's inability to prove any culpability on Saxon's part. The taunting victory only increased Saxon's desire for action, and, offhandedly murdering the imprisoned Zoltan Drago, a.k.a. Mister Fear , he usurped Drago's costumed identity. Claiming to be a reformed Drago, he offered thousands of dollars to charity if Daredevil would respond to his public challenge. Daredevil obliged, but Saxon's improved technology took him by surprise, and Saxon dealt him a demoralizing public defeat. Caught up in his own charade, the thrill-seeking Saxon, still as Mister Fear, embarked on a crime spree but was soon confronted by a newly determined Daredevil, who, atop Saxon's flying platform, unmasked his enemy in a struggle that ending with Saxon's fall to his death, leaving the Mister Fear identity to be stolen by others after him. Machinesmith However, several of Saxon's robots, standing by in case they were needed and programmed to protect his existence at any cost, retrieved him and, unable to treat his injuries, downloaded his consciousness into a p…
| Creators | Gene Colan, Stan Lee |
|---|---|
| Teams | Americommand, Ant-Man Security Solutions, Masters of Evil, Skeleton Crew, The A.I. Army |