Plastic Men
MAN-SLAYER(S)
Real Name: Inapplicable
Identity/Class: Plastoid (Robot)
Occupation: Mad Thinker operatives, slayers of men
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Avengers (Black Panther/T'Challa, Captain America/Sam Wilson, Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Thor/Odinson, Vision), Hyperion (simulacrum), Impossible City, Yuna Yang, many unidentified mutants;
formerly Masters of Evil (Dreadknight/Bram Velsing, Exterminatrix/Oubliette Midas, Madcap, Mad Thinker, Mister Hyde/Dr. Calvin Zabo), Quasimodo Mark X
Enemies: Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), soldiers of Cape Canaveral;
formerly Avengers (Black Panther/T'Challa, Captain America/Sam Wilson, Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Thor/Odinson, Vision), Carol Danvers, Edwin Jarvis, "Bruiser" Sweeny
Known Relatives: Mad Thinker (creator), Plastic-Men (less powerful Plastoids)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Impossible City in Earth's orbit;
formerly USA (perhaps mobile)
First Appearance: Captain Marvel I#12 (April, 1969)
Powers/Abilities: Man-Slayer was a biochemical and electronical being whose skin was made of a special plastic. He was three times as tall as a normal human and he possessed enhanced strength. The skin tissue was almost impenetrable to normal projectiles. Its plastic cells were self-healing. It communicated by a sort of telepathy. His bio-plastic brain could receive mental commands by the Mad Thinker at very long distances (more than 2,000 kilometers). Man-Slayer had no eyes, he saw through a biological radar. He needed a continuous flow of energy transmitted to his body from an external energy transmitter, but also had an internal, rather limited, power supply. He possessed a Repulsor Ray that he could shoot from hands.
History:
(Captain Marvel I#12) - The Man-Slayer was created by the
Mad Thinker. His first mission was to destroy the Moon Rocket which had to take
off from Cape Canaveral, where Mar-Vell worked under the identity of Dr. Lawson.
Remotely driven by the Mad Thinker,
Man-Slayer reached the base, and announced his sole purpose: slay men! He broke
into the base perimeter, ripping the heavy barbed wire with extreme ease. The
projectiles of the soldiers could do nothing to stop or distract him from reaching
the launch platform. Only Captain Mar-Vell managed to stop him with a flying
blow. Man-Slayer's unemotional but brute strength and great speed were even
greater than Captain Mar-Vell's fighting ability, but the hero's presence made it
realize that it should have been a greater goal to kill a living legend, a symbol
of life and hope and than destroy the Rocket.
Meanwhile, the Black Widow, who
had sneaked into the Mad Thinker's base, destroyed the device that transmitted
energy to Man-Slayer, just when the Plastoid was succeeding in slaying Captain
Mar-Vell. Man-Slayer lost his life force almost immediately and remained frozen,
unable to finish his final blow. Mar-Vell left Cape Canaveral.
(Captain
Marvel I#13) - Man-Slayer, still near the launch platform, revived himself,
using his internal power supply, but, unable to hear the Mad Thinker's mental commands
became confused and uncertain on what action to perform. He remained near the Moon
Rocket, surrounded by the scared soldiers of Cape Canaveral, interrogating himself
about his purposes, until Captain Mar-Vell arrived again on the scene attacking
him. Initially disoriented, the robot didn't react, but then its
self-preservation program drove him to retaliate. Mar-Vell, shot by the soldiers,
because he was wanted by the FBI, fled to Yon-Rogg<(a>'s Kree Starship.
Man-Slayer, meanwhile, retrieved his original purpose: destroy the Moon Rocket,
and took Carol Danvers hostage. Mar-Vell teleported again to Cape Canaveral and
used a Lasonic Disintegrator against the Plastoid, snapping his energy supply
cable. For the second time, the Plastoid stood motionless, defeated.
(Captain Marvel I#14) - Still lifeless, the Man-Slayer stood near the Moon Rocket while Captain Mar-Vell and Iron Man fought each other.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Avengers IX#11 (fb) - BTS) - Mad Thinker hid a Pym Particle-reduced cohort of Man-Slayer android in the corned beef sandwich of Jarvis' assistant Sweeny.
(Avengers IX#11) - Sweeny threw up in the Impossible City's kitchen and the Man-Slayers grow to their true size as soon as the Mad Thinker transmitted an activation command from his secret bunker. Man-Slayer Cohort Delta was online was online and ready to take on the Avengers. The Impossible City informed the Avengers about the androids while Jarvis and Sweeny ran away from them. The Avengers (Black Panther, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Thor and Vision) saved Jarvis and Sweeny from the Man-Slayers, but couldn't stop the robots that just merged into one giant Man-Slayer. Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Thor and Vision pushed the giant Man-Slayer out of the Impossible City's atmospheric envelope where the city used a ship-to-ship particle beam to disassemble it. Thor suggested to collect the Man-Slayers, which the Impossible City planned to reprogram to use as extra bodies and its staff. Meanwhile the Impossible City tracked down the source of the signal used to activate the Man-Slayers for Jarvis and then teleported him and Sweeny to Mad Thinker's hideout where they beat him up. Mad Thinker ended up imprisoned in the Ravencroft Institute, but he was actually glad that his Man-Slayers had infiltrated the Avengers' headquarter because now he was aware where the Ashen Combine was kept.
(Avengers IX#12 (fb) - BTS) - The Impossible City's plan to reprogram the Man-Slayers and use them as its staff succeeded.
(Avengers IX#12) - Yuna Yang was impressed that the plan had worked and the Impossible City was glad that it now had extra bodies it could use to distribute supplies to the mutants that had just been saved by the Avengers from Orchis.
(Avengers IX#18) - The Impossible City sent a Man-Slayer along with the munitions the Avengers planned to use to intercept Hyperion. The detonating munition distracted Hyperion long enough for the Impossible City to open a portal to Reality-901, but Hyperion noticed that something was wrong. The Man-Slayer that had been sent along with the munition spoke as an extension of the Impossible City on behalf of the Avengers to Hyperion. It tried to reason with the suicidal Hyperion and introduced him to an Earth that needed a hero like him because all its heroes had been killed by the Ashen Combine.
(Avengers IX#25) - The Impossible City teleported Captain America (Wilson) to safety after he got injured during the Avengers' battle with Doctor Doom. Inside the Impossible City three Man-Slayers took care of Wilson. One of them was under the City's direct control to better treat Wilson's injuries. Quasimodo Mark X took control over the Impossible City and all the Man-Slayer, except for the one that had been inhabited by the Impossible City consciousness. When Mad Thinker's Masters of Evil arrived in the Impossible City they were served drinks by a Man-Slayer.
Wilson and the Impossible City's Man-Slayer secretly observed them from the shadows. Man-Slayer (Impossible City) was unable to re-establish communication with Earth and also couldn't access the Man-Slayer's close-combat protocols because it needed too much processing power to remain functional. It could still change the shape of the Man-Slayer and Wilson suggested to turn the Man-Slayer into a flying armor for him. Captain America (Wilson) used his new armor to take on Madcap, whom he decapitated with his shield. Cap took Madcap's head with him and moved on to face the next Master of Evil.
(Avengers IX#26) - The Man-Slayers worked for Mad Thinker with Dreadknight to find a way to release the Ashen Combine and use them as weapons of mass destruction.
Captain America in the Impossible City's Man-Slayer armor tried to stop the release of the Ashen Combine and took out Dreadknight. Mister Hyde proofed a bit too powerful for him to deal with, but Black Panther came to his aid.
(Avengers IX#27) - Black Panther helped Captain America and his Man-Slayer armor defeat Mister Hyde after Cap used Madcap's head to drive Hyde insane. Shortly after they were attacked by Exterminatrix and the Man-Slayer cohort serving her. Cap used Man-Slayers as shield against Exterminatrix's bullets and when he was finally overpowered she was too distracted to realize that Black Panther was right behind her. The Man-Slayers went inert after she was knocked out by Black Panther.
(Avengers IX#28) - With the Man-Slayers either inert or downed, Captain America connected the Man-Slayer controlled by the Impossible City to one of the inert Man-Slayers. The Impossible City took control of the Man-Slayer, tracked down Dreadknight and took over his armor to puppeteer Dreadknight to reboot the Impossible City and regain control over it with Dreadknight's authority while Captain America and Black Panther fought against Mad Thinker, who had created a Super-Adaptoid armor with the powers of all his Masters of Evil, to keep him distracted. The plan worked and the Mad Thinker was quickly defeated by the returning Avengers. Captain America retained the armor made from a Man-Slayer for the time being.
Comments: Created by Arnold Drake, Dick Ayers & Syd Shores.
Man-Slayer had 5 fingers per hand in Captain Marvel I#12 and 4 fingers per hand in Captain Marvel I#12. Another difference was the energy cables connected to his head. In Captain Marvel I#13 they inputted to and outputted from the head, in Captain Marvel I#12 the cables outputted from the energy reserve supplier on its back, device not present in the previous issue. Man-Slayer was made of a special plastic, so it is possible that some parts of his body could-reassemble, such as the energy cables and some fingers of his hands. His cells, in fact, were self-regenerating.
Profile by Spidermay. Update by Markus Raymond (2024-2025).
CLARIFICATIONS:
Man-Slayer has no known connections to
The Plastic Men were a version of Plastoids less-powerful than
the Man-Slayer.
The Plastic Men were the guardians that the Mad Thinker used
in his laboratory in the Caribbeans.
They were taller than an average man. They had an artificial
intelligence that led them to act independently, the ability to speak and they
obeyed the vocal commands of the Mad Thinker. They had enhanced speed and
some of them used a Nerve Gun, a gun shooting a gas affecting the central nervous system
of a human being.
(Captain Marvel I#12) - At guard outside of the Mad Thinker's hideout, they were easily tricked by the Black Widow, who succeeded in reaching the criminal. Once called by the Mad Thinker, two Plastic Men overwhelmed the spy, but Natasha managed to throw a micro-bomb to the transmitter which sent energy to Man-Slayer. They wanted to kill her but the Mad Thinker had them stun her with a Nerve Gun.
--Captain Marvel I#12
The Lasonic Disintegrator was a Kree weapon, a pistol which emitted energy blasts. It was probably part of the standard weaponry present on Kree Starships. A blast at minimum intensity seriously stunned Iron Man, but a fell of the weapon and a couple of change of its settings jammed its detonator. It was a powerful but unreliable weapon.
(Captain Marvel I#13) - Mar-Vell picked up the pistol while fighting with Yon-Rogg on the Kree Starship but he didn't use it against his enemy. Instead he took the Disintegrator to use it moments later against the Man-Slayer. The first shot only damaged the arm of the Plastoid but the second ray broke the robot's energy cable, rendering him lifeless.
(Captain Marvel I#14) - A short time later, when Mar-Vell had to fight Iron-Man he used again the Disintegrator against the Avenger. The blast felled Iron Man but when Mar-Vell tried to alter the weapon's power setting, it jammed and the weapon became useless.
--Captain Marvel I#13 (13, 14
Images:
Captain Marvel I#12, p9, pan5 (main image)
Captain Marvel I#12, p17, pan5 (head shot)
Captain Marvel I#13, p18, pan4 (Man-Slayer back view, Carol Danvers and Mar-Vell)
Avengers IX#11, p12, pan1 (multiple Man-Slayers)
Avengers IX#11, p15, pan3 (merged, giant Man-Slayer)
Avengers IX#25, p20 (Captain America's armor)
Captain Marvel I#12, p13, pan6 (Plastic Men)
Captain Marvel I#12, p19, pan5 (Nerve Gun)
Captain Marvel I#13, p18, pan2 (Lasonic Disintegrater)
Appearances:
Captain Marvel I#12 (April, 1969) - Arnold Drake (writer), Dick Ayers (pencils), Syd Shores (inks), Jean Izzo (letterer), Stan Lee (Editor)
Captain Marvel I#13-14 (May-June, 1969) - Gary Friedrich (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Artie Simek (letterer), Stan Lee (Editor)
Avengers IX#11 (May, 2024) - Jed MacKay (writer), Ivan Fiorelli (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers IX#12 (June, 2024) - Jed MacKay (writer), Francesco Mortarino (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers IX#18 (November, 2024) - Jed MacKay (writer), Valerio Schiti (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers IX#25 (June, 2025) - Jed MacKay (writer), Valerio Schiti (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
Avengers IX#26-28 (July-September, 2025) - Jed MacKay (writer), Andrea Broccardo (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
First Posted: 04/07/2007
Last updated: 10/21/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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