ROVER
Real Name: Inapplicable
Identity/Class: Robot
Occupation: Warrior;
formerly
a car
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None (though his former owners would
probably disagree)
Enemies: Omega Flight (Delphine
Courtney, Diamond Lil/Lilian Crawley, Flashback/Gardner
Monroe, Wild Child/Kyle Gibney)
Known Relatives: Madison Jeffries (creator)
Aliases: GNU-556 (license plate number; see
comments))
Base of Operations: West
Edmonton Mall, Canada
First Appearance: Alpha Flight I#28 (November,
1985)
Powers/Abilities: Rover started out as an ordinary
red station wagon, until Madison Jeffries' transmutative powers turned
the vehicle into a massive, imposing robot warrior durable enough to
easily withstand an all-out blow from Diamond Lil. It possessed
sufficient strength to effortlessly knock out the superhumanly tough Lil
and was quick enough to keep up with Wild Child's enhanced
reflexes.
Height: 8'2" (by approximation)
Weight: 4042 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: None
History:
(Alpha Flight I#28 - BTS) - The station wagon that would
become Rover started out as one of the many hundreds of cars parked on
the giant lot outside the West Edmonton Mall. Inside, Alpha Flight was
engaged in a fight against Omega Flight that ended with the villains
making a run for it across the lot.
(Alpha Flight I#28) - Former Gamma
Flight member Madison Jeffries spotted the members of Omega Flight
as they momentarily halted their escape to argue among themselves about
who was to blame for their most recent defeat. Randomly picking a car
near them, Jeffries chose a red station wagon, license plate GNU-556.
Omega Flight was startled by the loud, tearing noises of shifting metal
as they watched how the car slowly turned into a giant robot. Omega's
android leader Delphine Courtney (disguised
as Guardian/James MacDonald Hudson) immediately realized this
creation was Jeffries' handiwork. Fearing his powers, she had actively
tried to keep the former Gamma Flight member out of the loop when she
recruited members of Beta
Flight and Gamma Flight in order to form Omega Flight.
Jeffries--ticked off at the fact Delphine Courtney was responsible for
the death of his friend James MacDonald Hudson--sicced the killer robot
he dubbed "Rover" on them.
Terrified by both Rover and Jeffries,
Courtney ordered Omega Flight members Diamond Lil and Flashback to
protect her. The cowardly Flashback allowed Lil to take on Rover, but
the superstrong, nigh-invulnerable woman was no match for the aggressive
automaton. Rover took her best punch in stride before knocking her
unconscious by casually swatting her aside. It then lumbered towards
Courtney, while strangling the feral Wild Child. Just as she desperately
tried to fire an electromagnetic bolt, Courtney discovered Shaman
(Michael Twoyoungmen) had managed to jam her circuits during their
recent fight, leaving her defenseless. Rover was about to grab her with
its giant metal claws, but in a fit of genuine panic, Courtney grabbed
one of Flashback's future selves and held him in front of the incoming
claw.
Rover accidentally killed the future Flashback with
its claw--this caused all other temporal copies of the villain to
instantly disappear, while Flashack himself broke down after realizing
he just witnessed his own death. Madison Jeffries held off Rover so he
could deal with the android Delphine Courtney himself. He used his
powers to turn her inside out, effectively ending her existence. He then
told Diamond Lil, Wild Child and Flashback they were accomplices to
James Hudson's murder and had to take the fall. As Jeffries headed
inside the West Edmonton Mall to check on Alpha Flight, he ordered Rover
to guard Omega Flight until the cops got there. (see
comments).
Comments: Created by John Byrne
In regards to Rover's license plate alias: The GNU-556
plate appears in many of John Byrne's comics for Marvel and DC (e.g.
Fantastic Four I#291, Action Comics#597). Byrne explained: "It is
a tribute--albeit a misremembered one--to the British musical comedy
team Flanders
and Swann. In the preamble to one of their songs, Michael Flanders
told of how he was inspired to write it by the license plate of a car
that was parked in front of his house for many months. I remembered this
as GNU-556, but I think now it may have been 556-GNU, or perhaps even a
whole different set of numbers."
Rover was Byrne's final original Alpha
Flight creation before he and Hulk
writer Bill Mantlo swapped titles. Rover seemed a continuation of
Byrne's ongoing homage to Transformers
and/or Go-Bots,
especially when you consider he toyed around with the idea back in #26
when he introduced the Macro
System.
But where the Macros were just play-acting, Rover didn't kid around. "Red Rover, Red Rover, can I come over...?" Sure, just so long as it is to mangle and strangle Omega Flight. For a seemingly mindless automaton, Rover had a real nasty temper and one heck of a violent streak. It always surprised me how easily the murder of the future Gardner Monroe was glossed over. It's a tad hypocritical of Madison Jeffries to label the members of Omega Flight accessories to a murder they had no explicit prior knowledge about... Heck, strictly speaking Hudson's death was more like an accident... But Jeffries wants them to do hard time anyway. Makes you wonder how many years he should be put behind bars for creating a killing machine that (accidentally) took a life while he just watched. That's at least enough to get slapped with negligence. And don't get me started on the civil suit raised by the owners of the automobile against Madison for turning their car into a lumbering dealer of death.
It was never explained how Omega Flight escaped after Madison Jeffries left Rover behind to guard over them. Did the police arrive as Jeffries promised and if so, what became of Rover? Though it would be fun to think of Rover still being around, earning its keep as a ferociously strict West Edmonton Mall parking attendant, it's more than likely its existence ended shortly after Jeffries was teleported away along with Alpha Flight.
... Also, am I the only one who thinks Rover looks like a mechanized, cranky Deadpool?
New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Rover has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Alpha Flight I#28 p4, pan4 (main image - Rover; Madison Jeffries [left])
Alpha Flight I#28 p6, pan3 (Rover [side view] approaches Wild Child and
"Guardian"/Delphine Courtney)
Alpha Flight I#28 p7, pan1 (Rover attacks
"Guardian"/Delphine Courtney and one of Flashback's future selves)
Appearances:
Alpha Flight I#28 (November, 1985) - John Byrne (writer and pencils),
Keith Williams (inker), Denny O'Neil (editor)
First Posted: 12/24/2013
Last updated: 05/09/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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