THE ETHICALS

Membership: Akra, Kora, three unidentified males (see comments)

Purpose: To explore the ethics which underlie all transactional behavior

Affiliations: Machine Man (X-51/Aaron Stack), Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), Overmind (Grom)

Enemies: Stranger

Base of Operations: Currently mobile in outer space;
   formerly Stranger's laboratory world;
   formerly an apartment building in New York City

First Appearance: Machine Man I#12 (December, 1979)

Powers/Abilities: The Ethicals possess the ability to manipulate cosmic energy, allowing them to levitate, travel through space, create force fields and paralyzing rays, become immaterial, and dissipate energy-based attacks. They also possess some degree of precognition, having seen the future of humanity.

History:
(Machine Man I#12) - The five unidentified humans who would become the Ethicals were formerly neighboring residents in an apartment building. One night, when Machine Man was frustrated with the intolerance of humanity, the enraged robot released an electrical discharge, and one of the bolts struck the building. The wave of energy passed into the apartment where one of the tenants was working in his home-made chemistry lab, and his chemicals had an unknown effect upon the energies Machine Man released. As the bolt continued on to the neighboring apartments, the five humans who were struck by it were evolved into superhuman entities, and they set out to find Machine Man, whom they considered to be their "father."

   The Ethicals caught up to Machine Man just as he was about to kill a criminal for shooting a man. The Ethicals told him that taking a life would be unethical, and refused to allow him to commit murder. Machine Man was confused by the Ethicals and attacked them, but they proved to be immune to his powers. The Ethicals informed Machine Man that for him to think of taking a life would be to squander his power, and that his abilities would be better used to help uplift humanity to a greater place, a future Utopia which the Ethicals had foreseen. The Ethicals now decided that they would have to judge whether Machine Man should live or die -- the two females thought Machine Man would be a detriment to the world's future, so they voted for Machine Man to be dismantled; but two of the males voted that Machine Man must survive, for it wasn't in their providence to kill, so it was left to the third male to cast the deciding vote.

   However, the son of the man shot by the criminal Machine Man had threatened to kill spoke up in Machine Man's defense -- the boy testified as to how Machine Man had saved his father's life, and noted that if Machine Man were truly undeserving of life, he wouldn't help people who hated him. The Ethicals were impressed with this defense, and asked the child what he wanted done with the criminal; the boy responded that the criminal didn't deserve to die either, as there must be a way to help people without hurting them. Machine Man was touched by the child's compassion, and came to comprehend the lesson the Ethicals had wanted to teach him. With their work done, the quintessential quintet set off into space to find a new home for themselves.





(Quasar#14 (fb) - BTS) - The Ethicals were later found and captured by the Stranger, who placed them in his laboratory world. He employed the Ethicals to design for him a universal code of ethics for all sentient beings in return for their release.

(Quasar#14) - The Ethicals encountered Quasar during his visit to the laboratory world. He offered to set them free from their cell, but they did not consider that to be ethical.

(Quasar#15) - The Ethicals subsequently escaped the Stranger's laboratory world during a mass break-out by several of the planet's inmates.

(X-Men Forever I#1) - Along with other cosmic entities, four of the Ethicals (see comments) appeared in a hologram created by Prosh -- all these entities were identified as keeping an eye upon humanity to see how it developed.

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko.

Only the two female Ethicals were identified -- in main image, Kora (third from left), and Akra (far right); in the second image, Kora is the older gray-haired woman on the left, and Akra is the red-headed woman laying face-down.

And some of the other cosmic entities with the four Ethicals in that hologram included the Living Tribunal, Oblivion, and Uatu the Watcher...why the fifth Ethical wasn't present is unrevealed.-- Ron Fredricks

New images and X-Men Forever addition by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Prime Eternal





CLARIFICATIONS:
The Ethicals should not be confused with:

Akra should not be confused with:

Kora should not be confused with:


images: (without ads)
Machine Man I#12, p10, pan3 (main image - the Ethicals)
Machine Man I#12, p7, pan7 (following Machine Man's electrical discharge, five humans about to evolve into the Ethicals)
Machine Man I#12, p11, pan4 (unidentified male Ethical diverts Machine Man's electrical blast)
Machine Man I#12, p11, pan5 (Akra deflects Machine Man's electrical blast; unidentified male Ethical (background))
Quasar#14, p8, pan3 (the Ethicals encounter Quasar)
X-Men Forever I#1, p19, pan1 (Prosh-created hologram with four Ethicals )


Appearances:
Machine Man I#12 (December, 1979) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Steve Ditko (pencils/inks), Bob Sharen (colors), Irv Watanabe (letters)
Quasar#14-15 (September-October, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley (pencils), Dan Panosian (inks), Len Kaminski (editor)
X-Men Forever I#1 (January, 2001) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Kevin Maguire (pencils), Amdrew Pepoy (inks), Paul Mounts (colors), Richard Starkings (letters), Pete Franco (editor)


First Posted: 09/06/2004
Last updated: 09/06/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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