Machine Man #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMachine Man #2 is the second chapter of Jack Kirby's ambitious solo series for Aaron Stack (X-51), a character Kirby invented — against explicit editorial instructions — inside the pages of 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 and then successfully spun off into the mainstream Marvel Universe. Titled 'House of Nightmares,' the issue deepens the series' central dramatic engine: a sentient android hunted by his own government, trying to prove he deserves a place among humanity rather than a place on a dissection table. As only the second issue of Kirby's nine-issue run on the title, it locks in the book's sustained tone of science-fiction alienation and social parable that distinguished the series from the super-hero mainstream of 1978.
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The series was a direct outgrowth of Marvel's mid-1970s strategy of acquiring science-fiction film licenses, which brought Jack Kirby back to the company to adapt Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Despite being told not to create ongoing characters — because Marvel feared losing IP ownership to MGM — Kirby introduced Mister Machine in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (July 1977), and the character was subsequently renamed Machine Man, reportedly to avoid a naming conflict with an Ideal Toys product called Mr. Machine. The solo series launched in early 1978 with Kirby as writer, penciller, and series editor, inked by his long-time collaborator Mike Royer; issue #2 carries the same creative team, with Petra Goldberg on colors and Frank Giacoia sharing cover inks with Kirby.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Issue title is 'House of Nightmares'; it was released February 21, 1978 with a cover date of May 1978.
- Written and pencilled entirely by Jack Kirby, inked by Mike Royer, colored by Petra Goldberg; cover inked by Mike Esposito.
- The story continues Aaron Stack / Machine Man's arc as a military fugitive, deepening his relationship with psychiatrist Peter Spaulding and antagonist Colonel Kragg.
- The issue introduces two minor supporting characters — Nurse Mary and a character named Harry — according to the Marvel Database character manifest.
- The issue includes a one-page editorial column by Kirby titled 'A Persecuted Machine,' a direct authorial address to readers that reinforces the series' themes of prejudice against artificial life.
- Machine Man's solo series was a direct spinoff of Kirby's 2001: A Space Odyssey monthly, making it one of the few Bronze Age Marvel titles to originate outside the superhero genre proper.
- Kirby wrote and drew the first nine issues of this series before departing to work on storyboards for the Fantastic Four animated series; issue #2 sits in the middle of that unbroken Kirby run.
- The 2001: A Space Odyssey comics that originated the character have never been fully reprinted in collected form due to ongoing copyright complexities involving MGM/Warner Bros. and the Kubrick estate.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints [Marvel Hostess Ads] #26 (1978)
Reprinted in Titans #33 (1981), Machine Man by Kirby & Ditko: The Complete Collection #[nn] (2016), Machine Man le robot vivant #[nn] (2017), Kirby Returns! King-Size #[nn] (2019)
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