Robot

Robot

Created by Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Real Name:  Jim Hawkins

Alias:  6 Year Old Robot, 16 Year Old Robot, 26 Year Old Robot

Current Occupation:  Hero

Parents:  Doctor John Grandly

Siblings:  None

Spouse:  None

Children:  None

Group Affiliation: Super Rock, Revengers

Place of Birth:  Grand Little, Minnesota

Current Place of Residence:  Unknown

First Appearance:  Super Comics # 23, September 1981

Biography:

Doctor John Grandly was a scientist whose expertise was robotics and artificial intelligence.  He had previously worked with inventor Ted Lawson.  In 1981, Grandly actually created a robot that looked like a six year old boy.  He was able to pass the robot off as a real boy.  He named him Jim Hawkins after the boy from his favorite book, Treasure Island.  Though the boy had some trouble initially adapting and learning, he soon began to feel like a real boy.

Two years later, Grandly upgraded Hawkins into a 16 year old model.  Unfortunately, Hawkin's new personality programming worked to well as Hawkins became rebellious, as teens are towards their parents, and exposed himself to the public for who he truly is.  This brought him to the attention of a music promoter who was putting together a rock band whose gimmick was that all band members were teen super heroes.  Hawkins toured for a year with the band, until their fame faded and the band broke up.

Eventually, Hawkins would get Grandly to implant him into an adult body around the age of 26.  Hawkins went off on his own, trying to live a normal life while committing acts of heroism from time to time.  Recently, Hawkins fought alongside Earth's other heroes to defeat the New Power Organization.  He hasn't been seen since, but it was clear when last seen that his new life of heroism was just beginning.

Comments:

This was a character with only a few appearances, but over a long period of time.

"The 6 Year Old Robot" was a feature in Super Comics for a year from September 1981 to August 1982.  It was not a super-hero feature, but rather a simple, cute story of a robot child trying to learn to be human.

In 1983, when I created Super-Rock, which was a spoof of the New Teen Titans, I needed characters to take the form of the Titans.  I could have created new characters, but instead I felt it would be more fun to use already existing characters that would fit the mold.  So my Cyborg choice was the 6 Year Old Robot.  But of course, I had to upgrade him into a teenager for the part.  After the title ended a year later, the character went back into obscurity.

He did of course appear in the Crisis Within.  But every character I had created up to that point did.

He returned in December 1988 in Super Spotlight # 76.  This one shot was basically to update the readers on what the character has been up to, making him now an adult adventurer.  The appearance was meant to be a pilot for a new series, but there wasn't enough interest.

So the character appeared recently in Crisis, along with every character I've ever created up to that point.  He was no longer coping with trying to be human.  He has come to terms with who he is and embraces both his learned humanity and his robotic abilities.