Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
It’s the AIM creation that’s super at adapting…adaptoiding…: Super-Adaptoid
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Appearances in Heroclix: Avengers 60th, Captain America, Mutations and Monsters
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #82 (October 1966)
Team Affiliations: A.I.M., Heavy Metal, Phalanx
Powers/Abilities: Ability to mimic superhuman abilities
Created by: Jack Kirby – Gene Colan – Stan Lee
The original Super-Adaptoid is simply an android containing a shard of the Cosmic Cube. This Adaptoid infiltrates Avengers headquarters by impersonating various people in order to attack and defeat Captain America. It battles the Avengers while copying the powers of several of them. It ultimately leaves when it believes Captain America is dead.
Super-Adaptoid then finds an underground cavern near the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. One of Scott Summers’ optic blasts accidentally awakens the robot, causing it to return to the surface. Once it sees the X-Men in their civilian clothes, it remembers that a secondary mission is to transform others into Adaptoids. It attempts to begin this mission with the X-Men, defeating them in battle. Mimic approaches him and volunteers to become an Adaptoid. However, as the process begins and Mimic learns that he will lose his free will, he resists. The battle ends when Mimic tries to copy the Adaptoid’s powers, causing a feedback loop that causes them both to lose their copied powers. Super-Adaptoid falls into a river while Mimic is rescued by the recovered X-Men.
Super-Adaptoid returns and attacks Captain America during a charity event, after copying the powers of Thor, Iron Man and Hercules. Adaptoid overloads his systems when he tries to use all his copied powers at once. He is later recovered and reactivated, transforming into a new powerful form and attacking Stark Industries. In the ensuing battle with Iron Man, the Adaptoid is seemingly destroyed.
The Adaptoid returns, reformed through unknown means, and has another confrontation with Iron Man. This skirmish ends quickly with the Adaptoid following Iron Man back to Avengers Mansion. There is encounters Captain Marvel and copies the power of the nega-bands. Mar-Vell strikes the bands of the Adaptoid together and sends the automaton to the Negative Zone.
Annihilus and Blastaar unsuccessfully try to use the Adaptoid to defeat the Thing and the Avengers in the Negative Zone. After this, the deactivated Super-Adaptoid is taken into custody and stored in Avengers Mansion. When a group of supervillains attacks the Mansion, Adaptoid is activated and poses as the Fixer to escape. Copying Mentallo’s powers, it unites a number of artificial intelligence beings such as the Awesome Android, Machine Man, Sentry-459 and TESS-One into a team that battles the Avengers.
With the heroes distracted, the Adaptoid summons Kubik to Earth and copies the powers of the sentient Cosmic Cube. This allows it to become the Supreme Adaptoid and finally achieve its goal of self-replication. This victory is short lived, however, and Captain America tricks the Adaptoid into deactivating. Once inert, Kubik removes the Cosmic Cube shard from the android. Super Adaptoid later returns and has confrontations with the Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts and Hulk.
Some time later, Super-Adaptoid seems to have evolved somewhat. It now has a cover identity of Alessandro Brannex and acts as AIM’s CEO with MODAM as “his” enforcer. He attempts to make AIM a more public friendly company and prove this change to Captain America. He eventually helps resurrect MODOK and runs afoul of both Superia and Red Skull.
The Super-Adaptoid appears in space as part of the Phalanx race when it is under Ultron’s control. He later returns to Earth and acts as part of the A.I. Army.