ANDRONES

Membership: At least three unnamed protesters (possibly thirty-one, three confirmed); four unnamed Androne guards; a Gort Androne; Hawkeye; a (Lost in Space) Robot Androne; Quicksilver; a Robby the Robot Androne; a small child Androne; Tigra; two unnamed thug Andrones; unnamed old man Androne; unnamed farmer and wife Andrones; hundreds of unnamed others

Purpose: To serve Ultron-13

Affiliations: Ultron

Enemies: The Avengers (Hank Pym, Hawkeye, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Tigra, U. S. Agent, Wasp, Wonder Man)

Base of Operations: Hollywood, California

First Appearance: Avengers West Coast#65 (December, 1990)

History: (Avengers West Coast#66 (fb) - BTS) - Ultron-13 planned to send android "farm couples" out on missions to add a crystalline substance to the wheat crop that transformed humans exposed to it into robotic lifeforms he dubbed "Andrones".

(Avengers West Coast#65) - Somewhere north of San Luis Obispo, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne suffered a flat tire. They approached a nearby farmhouse in hopes of finding a car jack and came across a "farmer" and his "wife." Sensing something amiss, Janet whispered that if Pym had Rover, his flying ship, that she would hop inside in a heartbeat. Pym pulled Rover from his pocket and activated the Pym Particles, allowing it to grow to normal ship size. Before getting inside, Janet noticed the smell of something burning and looked at the "farmer" and his "wife." They began to puff up and suddenly exploded as Hank and Jan ducked for cover. After the explosion, Hank and Jan discovered that the couple were some sort of androids. The heroes departed, unaware they were being monitored by Ultron.

(Avengers West Coast#66) - Iron Man and U.S.Agent were called in to protect some environmental protesters from a helicopter that was spraying "Malathion" into the air. Iron Man used his repulsors to repel the spray and U.S.Agent told the crowd to move along. One protester took a swing at U.S.Agent, claiming that the government had been spraying at night. U.S.Agent then noticed a metallic rash on the man and when asked about it, the protester explained that he, along with the rest of the protesters, got that way by eating fruit from his own garden. U.S.Agent and Iron Man returned to Avengers Compound, where they compared notes with Pym and the Wasp at an emergency meeting, and the team examined the remains of the farmer and wife androids. The Avengers split up to search for suspicious activity concerning the androids and the food supply. Hawkeye, Tigra, and Quicksilver discovered an underground base, complete with a helicopter. The threesome was then attacked by four robotic guards, which they swiftly overcame, only to be subsequently ambushed and defeated by Ultron-13, who placed them in tubes. Ultron-13 then explained his Androne plot, before informing the three Avengers that in the thirty minutes since their capture, they too had been bathed in the crystalline gas.

(Avengers West Coast#67) - The Grim Reaper secretly watched in anger as Ultron-13 sprayed the crystalline gas onto Quicksilver, Tigra, and Hawkeye. As Ultron-13 ranted about his secret sprayings and how it would turn human organs into Gallium Arsenide, the Grim Reaper crept into Ultron's base. Meanwhile, over at Riverside, Iron Man spotted two thugs beating up a defenseless old man. When he landed to check out the situation, all three people revealed themselves to be Andrones and attacked Iron Man, one even using a lamppost as a club. Iron Man soon defeated the three Andrones and then flew them to a hospital. Back at Ultron's base, the Reaper attacked Ultron, but after a brief skirmish, the undead killer agreed to work for the psychotic robot.

Later, Hank Pym and Wanda Maximoff visited Dr. Falk at the UCLA computer lab, where Hank discovered that the robotic transformations were reversible using a certain type of light. Almost as soon as he discovered this, a robotic Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Tigra burst through the ceiling and attacked them, destroying the lab. Iron Man, U.S.Agent, Wonder Man, and the Wasp quickly arrived on the scene as well. During the battle, Pym explained to Iron Man about the light, and Iron Man quickly tried varying frequencies of light from his uni-beam against the robotic Avengers until he discovered that infrared did the trick. Iron Man continued using his uni-beam, together with the Scarlet Witch's hex powers, and succeeded in transforming the robotic Avengers back to normal, except for Hawkeye, who remained partially metallic. Back at Ultron's base, Ultron revealed to the Grim Reaper that his next target for the Gallium Arsenide spraying would be the Rose Parade.

 (Avengers West Coast#68) - The Avengers attacked Ultron-13's base and made short work of three of his four Androne guards. U.S.Agent was attacked by a small child Androne, only to be saved by Wonder Man. The fourth Androne guard set Ultron's base to self destruct and the Avengers grabbed up all of the Andrones and made their escape, just as the base exploded. Back at Avengers Compound, the still-partially-metallic Hawkeye rampaged, attacking Hank Pym, Wasp, and the Scarlet Witch. Hawkeye collapsed before he could escape and the three Avengers tied him up, just as the other Avengers West returned from their mission to Ultron's base. Before the Rose Parade, Wonder Man confronted the Grim Reaper, who revealed Ultron's intentions at the Parade. Making a deal with Wonder Man about killing one person a day to survive, the Grim Reaper aided him in attacking Ultron-13's dirigible base above the Rose Parade. The Grim Reaper then battled Ultron-13 as the dirigible began to falter in the air. As the dirigible's systems began to fail, the spray contacted the robot facsimiles on the Rybyr Robotics float below, causing facsimiles of Robby the Robot, Gort, and Robot from "Lost in Space" to spring to life. The three media-friendly robots went on a mild rampage until they too were stopped by the Avengers. As the battle between Ultron-13 and the Grim Reaper raged on, a still-partially-metallic Hawkeye crashed his sky cycle into the dirigible, slamming into the Grim Reaper. Hawkeye was soon sandwiched between Ultron's encephalo-beams and the Grim Reaper's scythe. Wonder Man jumped in the middle and pushed Hawkeye out of the way, causing Ultron and the Grim Reaper to collide with one another. The collision caused the Grim Reaper to drain the absorbed lifeforce from Ultron-13 and both Ultron and the Reaper collapsed to the ground. With the two villains defeated, Iron Man flew Hawkeye off to receive another dose of infrared light so that he could be completely returned to humanity.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Paul Ryan, and Danny Bulanadi.

Presumably any remaining Andrones were subsequently rounded up and returned to normal.

I've often felt that "his" plot, to turn everyone in L.A. into organic robots using that compound, was a little far-fetched. Even for a WCA adventure! I mean: in the real word, that compound would probably have killed most Angelenos, instead. Unless, of course, Ultron added something more to the mix. Like, say, nanobots programmed to use the compound as a catalyst for techno-organic conversion (a la the Phalanx). Just spit-balling, with this one!
--Carycomic

Profile by Proto-Man

Clarifications:

No known connection to

GORT, ROBBY, AND ROBOT ANDRONES

Unlike the regular Andrones, who were mutated humans, these three were robots accidentally given a short semblance of life when Ultron's dirigible sprung a leak during the Rose Parade, dousing them in his chemical.

Each of them had superhuman strength and durability, much like the rest of the Andrones.

--Avengers West Coast#68

 

 

 

images:

Avengers West Coast#67, p. 5, panel 4 (main Andrones pic/three of the Androne guards)
Avengers West Coast#68, p. 16, panel 1 (pic of Gort, Robby, & Robot)

Avengers West Coast#65-68 (December, 1990 - March, 1991) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writers), Paul Ryan (pencils), Dan Bulanadi (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)

Last updated: 02/06/11

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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