Magnus, Robot Fighter

Magnus, Robot Fighter

Roko-on-Twitter's pessimistic view of the future got me started. I don't know that he's wrong, he's pronosticating after all, but I don't like the picture he paints. We may end up going to war against the machines, and in that case a man like Magnus would be good guy to have around. But just who is this Magnus guy anyway? TVtropes explains:

A Silver Age comic book hero created by writer and artist Russ Manning, originally published by Gold Key Comics in the 1960s. He was revived by Jim Shooter for Valiant Comics in the 1990s, and has appeared sporadically under other publishers' banners since then.

The original full title was Magnus Robot Fighter: 4000 A.D. In the far future, man has grown lazy and decadent, and is dependent on a huge labor force of robots for his wants and needs. The robots are programmed never to harm humans, but an increasing number of rogues are showing signs of rebellion. One robot, named 1A, still loyal to humanity but sufficiently "rogue" to be able to think outside the box, sees that a Robot War is coming and wants to prevent it. He adopts an orphaned child named Magnus and raises him in a secret undersea base, where he educates him and trains him to be the greatest martial artist the world has ever seen—good enough to defeat a standard metal robot with his bare hands, without resorting to any technology at all. 1A then sends Magnus out into the world—specifically, to the continent-spanning city of NorthAm—to both prevent a robot overthrow of humanity, and to encourage humans to stand on their own two feet again without depending on machines for everything.

A third side in the conflict is the "gophs" (contracted from "gopher") the humans who live in the squalid slums beneath the "milespires" where the upper classes of humanity live. The human/robot conflict is literally over their heads for the most part, but they will obviously suffer along with everyone else if a robot war comes.

With the way machines are being built now and the way technology is constantly changing, I no longer doubt that Magnus would be able to defeat robots with his bare hands. It won't be because he is stronger than steel, it will be because the machines will be optimized for low cost of production, i.e. the weakest and cheapest means of building them. This is going to result in weak points where a correctly placed blow of just moderate force will turn them into junkyard scrap. I mean, we already see this with cars and electronics. Apple's response to your smartphone charging cable breaking is to sell you a new phone. Denting the front bumper on a new car often results in the insurance company writing it off as a complete loss.

Roko link via Hand Waving Freak Outery

Previous appearance of Magnus.