Clark Buchan (Humanoid, alternate future)

CLARK BUCHAN

Real Name: Clark Buchan

Identity/Class: Artificial (Humanoid) human (unspecified alternate future era) (see comments)

Occupation: Law-enforcer

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Ferris, Mr. Sinclair

Enemies: Humanoid ambassador, Humanoids

Known Relatives: Mr. and Mrs. John Buchan (adoptive parents (presumably deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: His office in a government building (possibly New York City) (see comments)

First Appearance: Journey into Unknown Worlds I#42/4 (February, 1956)

Powers/Abilities: Although believing himself to be a normal human being, Clark Buchan was actually an artificially-created Humanoid. He appeared to have the strength-level of an average human male of his size, age, and build, and he displayed no paranormal abilities.

The bigoted Buchan harbored a great deal of dislike and prejudice for Humanoids, whom he feared were ending mankind's dominance; he later had a change of heart when he mistakenly believed his parents had been Humanoids.

Height: 5' 11" (by approximation)
Weight: 170 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

History: (Journey into Unknown Worlds I#42/4 (fb)) - At some point in the future, mankind had learned to produce Humanoids--"perfect living humans, their abilities for specific jobs implanted by their man-made genes". Artificially-created and "born" in manufacturing vats, the infant Humanoids were scientifically cared for in a nursery until they matured further. At some point in their development, the Humanoids were assigned to take over all of the menial labor and routine tasks which humans once performed, thus freeing mankind to have lives of pleasure and ease.

(Journey into Unknown Worlds I#42/4 (fb) - BTS) - One of the first Humanoid babies was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Buchan, and the adoption was logged in a record book; the Buchans named the baby Clark and raised him as their own. Clark Buchan grew up in a loving home, which left him with fond memories of his parents to cherish; but they never revealed to Clark the nature of his origin, so he had no reason to believe that he wasn't a true human. At some later point, Clark Buchan entered the field of law-enforcement and attained the rank of captain.

(Journey into Unknown Worlds I#42/4 (fb)) - In the beginning, the first generation of the pseudo-human Humanoids were not marked, and they moved freely in society without recognition, for they were in every way indistinguishable from true humans. But eventually a mood of paranoia, mistrust, and suspicion began to creep into the public sentiment, for no one knew who was a Humanoid and who was a true human. As more Humanoids were manufactured to fit the increasing demand for workers, true humans demanded for a law to be passed to mark all later-created Humanoids with a distinguishing tattoo.

With Humanoids to do all the mundane tasks, mankind began stagnating in its development, for the Humanoids were taking over all of their responsibilities. Some true humans began to demand their jobs back because they were concerned that their working skills were degenerating, and encroaching fears were spreading amongst mankind that humans would soon become the puppets of the Humanoids.

(Journey into Unknown Worlds I#42/4) - A meeting was held in the great halls of government, and Captain Clark Buchan addressed the council. He warned that the future of mankind's growth was threatened by the Humanoids, so Buchan was appointed to lead a crusade to end the threat. Buchan later met with a Humanoid ambassador, who pled for his people and insisted that the Humanoids didn't want to take anything away from humans, but only wanted peaceful coexistence between the two races; Buchan thought of his own parents, and he considered this "creature"--born without parents--to be a disgrace to the memory of those two he loved so dearly, so he refused to listen to the ambassador any further and ordered a guard to escort the Humanoid out of the building.

The first step in Buchan's campaign to return mankind to its former eminence was to destroy the Humanoid manufacturing vats. As he and his men wrecked the machinery in the production plant, Buchan learned that the records of the earliest-created Humanoids were missing--apparently they had been spirited away by the Humanoids, and Buchan needed those records to trace down the earlier Humanoids who weren't marked.

Outnumbered and wanting no violence, the fugitive Humanoids feared the growing anti-Humanoid hysteria of mankind, so they fled to the abandoned subway tunnels of the city to seek refuge. In the safety of the subterranean darkness, the Humanoids began to build their own manufacturing vats to reproduce their kind, so that in time they would equal the number of true humans and they could then meet on equal terms to talk peace.

But Captain Buchan relentlessly pursued the Humanoids, and he reported to Mr. Sinclair that he had tracked them down to the subway tunnels. After he and Ferris went below and retrieved the missing records, hypnotic specialists were sent down with a device that would dull the Humanoids' intelligence so they could once again be used for routine tasks.

Back in his office, Buchan ordered Ferris to hand him the record volume of the earliest Humanoids who were not marked. Buchan was carefully checking every name in the file, when to his horror, he saw his own parents' names listed! Buchan was left with the (mistaken) impression that his parents had been Humanoids, and that they must have adopted him--a human baby. Remembering his kind and loving mother and father, Buchan had a change of heart and realized that he could no longer persecute the Humanoids, so he left his office and walked into the night until he came to the subway entrance. As he descended the steps, Clark Buchan decided he would join with the Humanoids--his parents' people--and share their fate.

Later at the government building, Ferris asked Mr. Sinclair where Captain Buchan was, but Sinclair didn't know because Buchan seemed to have disappeared. Ferris was concerned because he had made a mistake--the record volume he had given Buchan was not a list of the names of the first Humanoids, it was actually a file of true human married couples who had adopted the first Humanoid babies. Mr. Sinclair told Ferris perhaps it was for the best that Captain Buchan wasn't present, because it had been decided to call off the mass hypnosis of the Humanoids and make peace with them, for mankind had lost the knack for working, and they still needed the Humanoids to help them.

Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Jim Mooney (artist)

And this story--The Man-Hunters--which could have easily filled an entire issue, was crammed into just 5 pages.

No specific years were mentioned as to what future time-period this story took place, and I'm guessing it was New York City since that metropolis has an extensive network of subway tunnels.

Since they were indistinguishable from humans, my guess is that the Humanoids were some form of genetically-engineered "test-tube babies," and the production vats acted as artificial wombs in which the Humanoid embryos gestated. (And just a stray thought: Since the Humanoids were (for all intents) humans, and since the technology for artificial reproduction had already been developed, maybe Clark Buchan's world was the same reality that eventually became the world of the Femizons.)

The ironic secret of Clark Buchan's true nature as a Humanoid was never overtly revealed in the story--it was left to the reader to draw that conclusion by picking up the details.

The record journal listed Mr. and Mrs. Buchan as adopting one of the first Humanoid babies, so judging by Clark Buchan's physical appearance, I'd estimate the first generation of Humanoids was produced 30-40 years prior to the main events of this story--I guess it never occurred to Buchan that his parents would have been too old to have been Humanoids.

Some aspects of this story remind me of the later movies The Creation of the Humanoids and Blade Runner.

Profile by Ron Fredericks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Clark Buchan has no known connections to:

any other characters with similar names

The Humanoids have no known connections to:

Humanoids, creations of the Leader, Hulk foes @ Tales to Astonish I#62/2
Humanoids, robotic servants of Prof. Phillip Prometheus @ Micronauts I#5
any other characters with similar names

Ferris has no known connections to:

Cal Ferris, cowardly man who battled extradimensional creatures @ World of Mystery I#4/1
Dr. Ferris, 1950s doctor @ Journey into Mystery I#8
Timothy Ferris, of Earth-148611 (New Universe), member of the Troubleshooters @ Spitfire and the Troubleshooters#1
any other characters with similar names

Mr. Sinclair has no known connections to:

Alan Sinclair (Sinner), American Eagle foe @ Marvel Comics Presents I#147/4
Christopher Sinclair, vampire, servant of Baron Blood @ Union Jack I#1
Magda Sinclair (Magdelena), Punisher foe @ Over the Edge#5
Mariano Sinclair, Wonder Man foe @ Wonder Man Annual#2/1
Morgan Sinclair, Punisher ally @ Punisher II#64
Orlando Sinclair (Hitmaker), Wonder Man ally @ Wonder Man Annual#2/1
Rhane Sinclair (Wolfsbane), New Mutants member @ Marvel Graphic Novel#4
any other characters with similar names

Humanoids

Artificially created in manufacturing vats in a government-controlled plant, they were "born" as infants and raised in a nursery (although some of the first Humanoid babies (including Clark Buchan) were adopted by true human married couples). Once they had matured further, the Humanoids were assigned to work on all the routine tasks that humans had previously done, thus freeing mankind to lead lives of leisure. The first Humanoids were indistinguishable from true humans and had no identifying marks. True humans later passed a law that decreed all later generations of Humanoids had to be tattooed with an "H" on their right forearms, and they were denied the right to vote.

As the mood of true humans towards them became fearful, the Humanoids sent an ambassador to Captain Clark Buchan to plead for a peaceful coexistence between their respective races. When this attempt to negotiate peace failed, the Humanoids sought refuge in the city's abandoned subway tunnels. They began to set up their own Humanoid manufacturing vats to increase their numbers, hoping to meet with humans on equal terms to talk peace (Possibly they were sterile and unable to reproduce by natural means?). They were eventually found by Captain Buchan and his men.