Machine Man #7
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMachine Man #7 serves as the first full appearance of Curtiss Jackson — the man who would eventually adopt the name Power Broker — introducing one of Marvel's more durable Bronze Age criminal antagonists directly into Aaron Stack's orbit. The story plants the seed for a villain whose later incarnation as a super-strength-for-hire entrepreneur would wind through decades of Captain America stories, lending weight to both John Walker's arc and the MCU adaptation in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Coming deep within Jack Kirby's final sustained Marvel run, the issue also spotlights The Corporation, a sprawling criminal syndicate that became a connective thread across multiple Bronze Age titles. The issue's central premise — a nation turning against its android protagonist — extends Kirby's recurring meditation on society's fear of the Other, a theme that gives the series more philosophical texture than its modest commercial profile might suggest.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Machine Man #7 was written, pencilled, and edited by Jack Kirby during the twilight of his second Marvel tenure, with inks by Mike Royer, colors by Petra Scotese, and lettering by Royer. Kirby had spun the character out of his 2001: A Space Odyssey adaptation series — Machine Man (then called Mister Machine) debuted in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 in 1977 — and transplanted him into the mainstream Marvel Universe once Marvel's license for the 2001 property expired. Jim Shooter served as editor-in-chief over the line. Kirby helmed the first nine issues of the solo title before departing Marvel at the close of 1978 to work in television animation, making issue #7 one of only two remaining issues in his run at the time of its July 1978 release date (October 1978 cover date).
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: October 1978; released July 25, 1978. Published by Marvel Comics as part of the Machine Man (Vol. 1) ongoing series.
- Story title: 'With a Nation Against Him!' — written, pencilled, and edited by Jack Kirby; inked and lettered by Mike Royer; colored by Petra Scotese.
- First full appearance of Curtiss Jackson (later Power Broker), depicted here as West Coast division head of the criminal syndicate the Corporation, whose scheme involves weaponizing and mass-producing Machine Man.
- Also introduces Paratron (a robot, dies this issue) and Hiram Girk, both Corporation operatives appearing for the first time.
- The Corporation's plot — forcing Aaron Stack to surrender himself in exchange for his friend and psychiatrist Peter Spaulding — continues into issue #8, making #7 the opening chapter of a two-part arc.
- Curtiss Jackson did not adopt the 'Power Broker' name until The Thing #35 (1986); his role here is solely as a Corporation executive.
- Jack Kirby wrote and drew only nine issues of the Machine Man solo title before leaving Marvel at the end of 1978; issue #7 is one of the penultimate entries in that Kirby run.
- A reimagined Power Broker — using Sharon Carter as the alias — appears in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), which significantly raised collector awareness of Jackson's first appearances in the Machine Man title.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Titans #38 (1982), Machine Man by Kirby & Ditko: The Complete Collection #[nn] (2016), Machine Man le robot vivant #[nn] (2017), Gli Eterni #26
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