AVRO-X
Real Name: Colin Richard
Identity/Class: Human technology user; Canadian citizen
Occupation: Major of the Canadian Armed Forces
Group Membership: Canadian Armed Forces
Affiliations: Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Megiddans (including Yar, various unidentified extraterrestrials), Colonel Okada, James Rhodes, Saberbat;
indirectly James MacDonald Hudson (inventor of his armor)
Enemies: Blizzard (Donnie Gill), Controller (Basil Sandhurst), Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom), Michael Korvac, Punishers, Stilt-Man (Wilbur Day), Ultimos, Unicorn (Milos Masaryk)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Megiddo on a ditant planet;
formerly somewhere in Manitoba, Canada;
formerly Doomstadt, Latveria
First Appearance: Marvel Fanfare I#44 (June, 1989)
Powers/Abilities: He went through all the training a Major for the Canadian Armed Forces needed.
With his armor he possessed the ability of flight and enhanced durability. The armor's weaponry included rockets, cannons and other things not further explained.
Height: Unrevealed (6' in armor; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (350 lbs. in armor; by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
(Marvel Fanfare I#44) - He was present at the first International Symposium on Robotics in Doomstadt, Latveria. He met Iron Man and introduced Okada and Saberbat to him. Then he started his demonstration, but his armor was already infected with Doom's computer virus which was carried by Iron Man. He crashed into Saberbat and had to be caught by Iron Man before hitting the ground. He explained to Iron Man that he lost control when his gyros and the fly-by-wire program flipped out, but he wasn't the only one having such troubles. Later the virus was destroyed and Avro-X's armor worked again.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Iron Man VI#11 (fb) - BTS) - Stilt-Man used an interference beam to transport Avro-X and many others to Meggido. Avro-X, unaware that Stilt-Man was behind his abduction from Earth, accepted the former super-villain as the leader of the colony and loyally followed his orders.
(Iron Man VI#10 (fb) - BTS) - Avro-X was on Meggido for one year. He helped in the defense of the colony from Ultimos and became part of the border patrol.
(Iron Man VI#7) - A border patrol, including Avro-X, found Iron Man trespassing on the perimeter of the Megiddo colony and took him in.
(Iron Man VI#10) - At night Avro-X spent time at the campfire with his friends from the border patrol when Iron Man approached him. Avro-X revealed that Yar was not the leader of the colony and that the true leader would soon call for Iron Man.
After Iron Man visited the colony's leader Stilt-Man he joined Avro-X and some extraterrestrial in a Baseball game.
The colony was later attacked by an Ultimo. Avro-X and Iron Man flew into battle. Avro-X assumed that the Ultimos might've originated on this planet and Stilt-Man suggested scaring it off like always. Avro-X suggested to Iron Man to use some of the energy he was pulled from the ruins or his Uni-Beam. After they helplessly watched the Ultimo devour Yar and a few others, Avro-X revealed that this was a regular occurrence. Iron Man then used his Uni-Beam to blast the Ultimo through the chest and destroy it. Avro-X and Stilt-Man were both surprised that Iron Man managed to destroy an Ultimo robot, a feat they had never managed before.
(Iron Man VI#11) - Avro-X attended the funeral of Yar and the other victims of the Ultimo attack. Avro-X revealed that many colonists were killed by Ultimos since he arrived and that they didn't have the resources to find the source and attack the Ultimos because they had barely enough food to survive. Iron Man wanted to go through the wrecked robot later, but Avro-X told him that it would be melted down. Avro-X left to raise a glass for the fallen.
That night Avro-X attacked Iron Man when he tried to investigate the fallen robot. Iron Man accused Avro-X of hiding something, but eventually realized that he was just blindly following Stilt-Man's orders. Iron Man showed Avro-X that remote control circuits from Earth were used to control the robot, which was enough proof for Avro-X to believe Iron Man that Stilt-Man was behind it. They confronted Stilt-Man, who revealed that the colony was his experiment to proof that he could be a leader. Avro-X was shocked to learn that Stilt-Man had come to this planet voluntarily and had everyone transported to this world using an interference beam. Stilt-Man reprogrammed the Ultimos and used them to keep the colony small to ensure that he would never lose leadership. The colonists carried Stilt-Man away and Avro-X asked Iron Man to allow them to judge Stilt-Man for his crimes. He was sure that they wouldn't kill him. The Living Tribunal appeared and told Iron Man to hurry and stop Michael Korvac from reaching Taa II. Iron Man asked the Living Tribunal in return to transport all colonists back home. The Living Tribunal obliged, but Avro-X, who offered Iron Man to aid him against Korvac, was teleported to Taa II alongside Iron Man.
(Iron Man VI#12) - Iron Man and Avro-X intruded Taa II and were welcomed by lasers and other security systems while they made their way through the massive ship of Galactus. They encountered a Punisher robot, which duplicated itself after Avro-X attacked it from behind. Iron Man ripped through both Punishers, saving Avro-X from one of them. The second Punisher activated its self-destruct sequence, but Iron Man and Avro-X escaped with their lives when they jumped to safety. They encountered more safety measures while Iron Man tried his best to keep Avro-X calm by chatting with him about Canada. They split up when Michael Korvac and his crew arrived on Taa II as well.
Avro-X found the master controls and destroyed them to shut down the security systems while Iron Man confronted Korvac and his team at the ship dock. Avro-X came to Iron Man's aid, but Blizzard froze Avro-X's legs and Korvac then incinerated him with a massive energy blast.
Comments: Created by Ken Steacy.
The armor Avro-X wore was similar to the suit Giles McHeath wore as
Scourge in Marvel Fanfare I#28 which was also drawn by Ken Steacy. In this story it was established that a prototype was originally designed by James McDonald Hudson for a company called Am-Can. It is possible that Richard's armor is the prototype or that it is part of a series built by Am-Can for the Canadian Armed Forces.
Avro was a British aerospace
(mainly) company which ceased to exist as an independent entity well before Avro-X's
armor would have been designed. They were most famous in Canada for the Avro
Arrow fighter of the 1950s, which is probably where Steacy's inspiration to use
the name for a Canadian character came from.
I am mainly suggesting that BAE Systems (the current
incarnation of the company which originally bought Avro, and thus the current
owner of the Avro name) might be another possible contender for the developer of
Avro-X's armor, unless it is unequivocally the same model as Scourge's and thus
a product of Am-Can.-
-LV
They look pretty similar to me--Snood.
Profile by Markus Raymond
CLARIFICATIONS:
Avro-X has no known connection to:
images:
Iron Man VI#10, p15, pan3 (main)
Marvel Fanfare I#44, p18, pan5 (Avro-X head shot)
Marvel Fanfare I#44, p20, pan2 (Avro-X body shot)
Iron Man VI#12, p15, pan4 (death)
font size="2">Appearances:
Marvel Fanfare I#44 (June, 1989) - Ken Steacy (writer/artist), Al Milgrom (editor)
Iron Man VI#7 (May, 2021) - Christopher Cantwell (writer), Cafu (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Iron Man VI#10 (September, 2021) - Christopher Cantwell (writer), Cafu (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Iron Man VI#11-12 (October-November, 2021) - Christopher Cantwell (writer), Angel Unzueta (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 07/31/2005
Last updated: 04/18/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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