History:
(Fantastic Four I#76) - When the Silver Surfer journeyed into Sub-Atomica to evade Galactus, the Psycho-Man dispatched his Murder Machine to take him captive. In the course of doing so, it encountered Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch and the Thing of the Fantastic Four, who had come in search of the Silver Surfer. It assaulted the FF's Reducta-Craft, and hurled the Thing into a nearby planetoid, then proceeded to smash him about into rock faces. Finally, it stuck him into the ground just as a volcanic eruption burst from the planetoid's core.

   The Human Torch attacked the Murder Machine, but found that it was immune to his flames. He fired thermo-blasts, but the Murder Machine became intangible. Determined that they not give up, Mr. Fantastic stretched toward the Murder Machine, just as it vanished -- the Silver Surfer had witnessed their clash and disintegrated the Murder Machine with his Power Cosmic.

The Murder Machine was not named in Fantastic Four I#76, but was given his name on the cover of Marvel's Greatest Comics#58, a reprint of the original issue.

Actually, Mr. Fantastic referred to it as such in a story panel, but the Psycho-Man never called to it by a particular name.

And Ted Castle's Murder Machine appeared to be about 30 feet tall -- assuming it was the original model created by the Psycho-Man, maybe it somehow absorbed some size-increasing Pym Particles when it was transported from the Microverse.

-- Ron Fredricks

New images by Ron Fredricks.