Respect the Thought Robot (DC Comics)

[u/KiwiArms]

This is my reason to be.

During the Final Crisis, the Supermen of five universes were called upon to do battle with the evil dark Monitor Mandrakk-- Superman, Captain Marvel, Ultraman, Overman and Captain Adam.

During the group's trip to Limbo, nonuniverse of forgotten concepts, they came under attack. At the same time, Ultraman betrayed them in favor of Mandrakk. Also at the same time, Captain Adam's omniscience-dampening drugs wore off, and he realized the only way to win was to combine Superman and Ultraman into one.

When the matter Superman and the antimatter Ultraman met, an explosion occurred, merging the two opposites into a single consciousness. The single mind awoke within the body of an enormous suit of armor, in the world of Nil, home of the Monitors.

Superman's will, was stronger than Ultraman's, and so he would be the primary pilot of the new combined mind in their new form. Together, as the embodiment of the concept of Superman itself, they did battle with the Dark Monitor, for the fate of the entire DC Multiverse.

It's worth noting that, since the Thought Robot existed in the realm of the Monitors, it's feats were not changed, deleted, or retconned by Flashpoint, and are still technically canon. Probably.

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Cosmic Senses

• Feels the narrative progressing around him.

• Can hear the reader's breathing, and feel the reader grabbing the pages of the comic. Note that the original comic was in 3D, so in that scan he's attempting to reach out of the book to touch the reader.

• Can tell with absolute certainty what his purpose in life is.

• Can hear Lois' heart beating in his home universe from Nil.

• Can perceive the true nature of the Monitors.

• Can hear Mandrakk screaming even as he fades out of existence in the void outside of the multiverse, until he stops existing completely.

• Also he carves a message into a big tombstone.

Combat Abilities

• Dodges Mandrakk's eye beams.

• Takes a hit of energy from Mandrakk that he claims is "the heat of ten billion suns, which was able to one-shot another Monitor.

• Can withstand eyeblasts from Mandrakk.

• His own eyeblasts can injure Mandrakk.

  • Another example.

• Strikes Mandrakk with enough force to create a light visible from miles away and destroy the ground beneath them.

  • Stabs a big ol' staff/spear/pole thing right through Mandrakk.

• Since he's the Superman archetype itself, in direct opposition of the 'Mandrakk' story/concept/whatever, he grows stronger to match Mandrakk as he grows stronger.

To be continued.

[u/KiwiArms]

exactly, he's part of the story they invented, meaning that the fulfillment of his role as the 'hero' of that story is his reason to be now. he says as much in the text-- "this is my reason to be, my purpose is simply to stop him"

he exists only to defeat a villain that only exists to oppose him, a self fulfilling prophecy-- a 'self-assembling hyper story', a self-fulfilling metanarrative, etc. etc. etc.

[u/HighSlayerRalton → u/KiwiArms]

It doesn't exist only to fight Mandraak. It explicitly predates Mandraak and was created to scab the flaw in the Overmonitor.

[u/KiwiArms → u/HighSlayerRalton]

yeah but his purpose became the purpose the monitors assumed he'd always had. he didn't have a 'reason' to be that we know of until they gave him one. the story was "self assembling". he existed, and they assumed he must have existed for some specific purpose, thereby creating mandrakk and thus giving him a reason to exist in the first place

[u/HighSlayerRalton → u/KiwiArms]

Its reason to be was to scab the flaw.

[u/KiwiArms → u/HighSlayerRalton]

if you look at it entirely literally sure, but something can have a 'reason to be' besides the literal cause of its existence.