EGGHEAD's ANDROID

Classification: Terrestrial technology

Creator: Egghead (Elihas Starr)

User/Possessors: Egghead

Aliases: "Andy Android" (see comments)

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#61/1 (November, 1964)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: Egghead's android was about 12-feet tall and had great strength. Egghead was able to control the android's weight, making it near weightless (to a point that it could float in the air), or increase its weight to maximum (where it was solid as a brick wall).

    By wearing a "beta-ray mental energy transmitter" headset, Egghead could take total control of the android and see everything that it saw, hear everything it heard, feel everything it felt, and could speak directly through the android, as well as direct its movements with his own thoughts.

History: (Tales to Astonish I#61/1) - Wishing to have revenge upon Giant-Man and the Wasp for his previous defeats, Egghead first tested his "living-cell beam" on a doll to make it move and react to his mental commands. The experiment was a success, so Egghead then stole an ordinary manikin from a clothing store and applied a "special compound" to it to give it almost limitless strength. He then exposed the figure to an "ultra-beta beam" which caused the compound to feed upon itself, increasing the size of the figure even further. Upon the android's completion, Egghead initiated his plan for revenge.

    Claiming to be a TV producer wanting to do a film series based on the adventures of Giant-Man and the Wasp, Egghead sent a message to the heroes and had them come to a warehouse building by the waterfront. Trapping the two inside the building, Egghead sent his android to battle them. As Giant-Man threw a punch at the android, Egghead altered its weight and it floated up to the ceiling. When it landed, Giant-Man grabbed it and once more threw a punch, but Egghead increased its weight to maximum, causing the hero to injure his hand as he struck the solid simulacrum.

    The android floated above Giant-Man again, then increased its weight, plummeting down upon the hero with the force of a pile driver. When the android once more floated above Giant-Man, the hero grabbed it by its ankles and spun it around like a propeller, making Egghead (still in direct control with the mental energy transmitter) extremely dizzy, forcing him to break contact with the android and release the trapped heroes from the building. Giant-Man then threw the android out of the building.

    With no brain and no will of its own, the android blindly walked off the edge of a pier and dropped into the water.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and George Bell.

    After its creation, Egghead dressed the android in a giant coverall suit -- I guess the Comics Code insisted on this, even though "Andy" was already created wearing shorts.

    Although Egghead only referred to it as an android, at one point in the story the Wasp disparagingly called it "Andy Android".

    In regards to that "special compound" that Egghead used on the store manikin to create "Andy," I have a theory: "Andy's" powers reminded me a little of the robot Flexo the Rubber Man (from Mystic Comics#2 (April, 1940)) -- maybe that "special compound" was based on the chemical compounds of Flexo...or (worse yet) maybe the "special compound" was actually made of the remains of Flexo...I know, kind of morbid, but it would explain the fate of a lost Golden-Age character.

    And unless he was eventually destroyed by the water, I guess "Andy Android" could still be walking around down there -- maybe he eventually ran into the Sorcerer's Synthetic Man (who met a similar fate).

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
Egghead's Android ("Andy Android") should not be confused wth:

• Android Andy, hero of Earth-238 @ Daredevils#7
• "Awesome Andy", android created by Mad Thinker @ Fantastic Four I#15
• "Egg-bots, also Egghead creations @ Avengers I#64
• any other androids or characters named "Andy"

Images:
Tales to Astonish I#61, p4, pan3 (main image)