MACRO SYSTEM

Membership: Unit One, Unit Two, Unit Three, Unit Four, Unit Five

Purpose: Weapons system

Affiliations: Captain Mansfield

Enemies: Alpha Flight (Aurora/Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, Box/Walter Langkowski, "Guardian"/Delphine Courtney, Puck/Eugene Judd, Shaman/Michael Twoyoungmen, Talisman/Elizabeth Twoyoungmen) (during testing only)

Aliases: Macro-Man (by Box), Ironsides, Bozo Brigade, Clunky (by "Guardian")

Base of Operations: Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Proving Ground, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

First Appearance: Alpha Flight I#26 (September, 1985)

Powers/Abilities: Actually five separate robots (all about human-sized), the Macro System was composed of Unit One (blue body, slightly larger), and Units Two, Three, Four, and Five (all identical). The five robots were individually controlled by separate human operators (see comments).

Along with possessing great strength, they were equipped with flight jets and a "macro beam" which they fired from their palms. Unit One could fire six tentacles from the palm of its right hand to ensnare opponents. All Units could reconfigure and combine in "Joint Venture/Fusion Mode" to form a single larger unit, with Unit One forming the main body and the other four Units forming the arms and legs.

Magnetic waves could disrupt the Macro System's circuitry.

History:
(Alpha Flight I#26 (fb) - BTS) - The Macro System was developed as a weapons system for the CAF Special Forces and put through tests against their weaponry. It had proven unstoppable against conventional resistance, so Captain Mansfield contacted Alpha Flight to give it a real "trial by fire" as one last major test before the government would commit to full-scale production.

(Alpha Flight I#26) - The Macro System operators were surprised when Alpha Flight showed up during their test, but they were confident they could take on the heroes. They attacked the team members individually with little success in the skirmish. Unit One caught Aurora with its tentacles, so "Guardian" cut her free with a blast; but the resultant feedback stunned Aurora and caused her to fall, which injured her.

   "Guardian" next blasted Unit One, but as its circuitry was being disrupted by the magnetic waves, Unit One ordered the other Units to converge and link-up to form a larger robot, which fired on the super-heroes. But working as a team, "Guardian" ordered Shaman and Talisman to conjure an illusion to distract the amalgamated robots, while Box flew in low and grabbed the combined "Macro-Man's" legs and threw it into some rocks.

Captain Mansfield then ordered all to terminate the testing sequence.

Comments: Created by John Byrne (writer/artist).

No further appearances were made of the Macro System, so it's possible the project was cancelled or put on indefinite hold.

The Macro System was probably a take-off on all the transforming robot toys (Shogun Warriors, Transformers, GoBots, etc.) that were popular at that time.

The five operators of the Macro System were never actually depicted, but based on the robots' speech-patterns, it seems likely that humans were controlling them remotely with some kind of cybernetic link; and if that's so, then perhaps Roger Bochs (formerly the robotic Box) had something to do with the development of the Macro System.-- Ron Fredricks

Image updates by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS: The Macro System has no known connections to:

Captain Mansfield has no known connections to:

Captain Mansfield

An officer in the Canadian Armed Forces Special Forces, he supervised the testing of the Macro System.

When the robots proved to be unstoppable against all conventional weaponry, Mansfield wanted to perform one last major test (a "trial by fire") before the Canadian government would commit to full-scale production of the weapons system, so he contacted the super-hero group Alpha Flight and requested their services.

The five robots linked-up as one larger robot, but after Alpha Flight defeated it, Mansfield ordered the heroes to terminate the testing sequence.

--Alpha Flight I#26

images: (without ads)
Alpha Flight I#26, p2, pan1 (main image - Unit One, surrounded by Units 2-5)
Alpha Flight I#26, p8, pan5 (reconfigured Units converging on Unit One)
Alpha Flight I#26, p8, pan6 (all Units combined)
Alpha Flight I#26, p5 pan2 (Unit One releasing tentacles)
Alpha Flight I#26, p12, pan3 (Captain Mansfield)

Appearances:
Alpha Flight I#26 (September, 1985) - John Byrne (writer/pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Andy Yanchus (colors), Rick Parker (colors), Denny O'Neil (editor)

First Posted: 10/01/2006
Last updated: 03/15/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Groups