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    Victor Mancha

    Character » Victor Mancha appears in 194 issues.

    Victor is a cyborg created by the villain Ultron and a member of the Runaways. He was also part of Avengers A.I. team.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Victor Mancha last edited by SlamAdams on 07/03/22 07:22PM View full history

    Origin

    Victor Mancha was created by Ultron to infiltrate The Avengers and destroy them from within. His abilities were programmed by Ultron to manifest after his first encounter with super powered beings. This is because he was meant to be a superhero fan, and go on a trip to New York City shortly after graduating from high school. While there, he would meet The Avengers, who would most likely ask him to join them because he was so powerful. He would then proceed to work his way through their ranks for a few years, learning all of there strengths, weaknesses, and secrets. After which, he would kill them all.

    Creation

    Victor Mancha was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona and first appeared in Runaways (volume 2) Issue 1 (2005).

    Mayor Story Arcs

    The Runaways

    This would have happened, had Gertrude Yorkes (another member of The Runaways) not traveled back in time to warn her friends (The Runaways) about him. The future Gertrude died just after telling them this.

    After burying her, they sought out the location of Victor Mancha. They found his high school and confronted him there. They tried to talk to him, but his powers were activated by them and he attacked them accidentally. The Runaways knocked him out and took him to the Hostel (their secret underground base). After he awoke, he talked to them for a while, then took one of them hostage to make a phone call to his mother. He found out that Dr.Doom was his father, and had taken his mother hostage.

    He explained the situation to the Runaways, who agreed to help him. Together, the Runaways and Victor defeated Dr.Doom, but only to find it was a robot. Then Ultron walked in and explained that he had created him, and explained his purpose. Then Ultron took control of Victor and made him fight his friends. Excelsior showed up, and destroyed Ultron, while The Runaways made their escape. Afterward, the Runaways take the now-orphaned Victor back to their hideout to keep him from ending up in the custody of Social Services.

    Because of his superior intelligence and electromagnetic powers, Chase calls him the Calculator Kid and Nico, calls him Zapper. After observing the team in action for a month, Victor proves his worth by defeating Swarm using his electromagnetic abilities.

    The Runaways are friendly towards Victor, but they know that he is still a potential threat. He is often paired with Molly Hayes when the team separates to buy supplies, because Molly is the only individual member of the team strong enough to take him down should he go rogue. Chase was suspicious of Victor long after the other Runaways accepted him, but eventually he came to regard him as a brother. Judging by a comment made by Nico Minoru at the end of "True Believers," she is fully prepared to kill Victor if the need arises. In the story arc "Parental Guidance" it is revealed that Victor is being used by the new Pride to spy upon the Runaways. His teammates ultimately accept Victor's protestations that he was bugged and used as a spy against his will, and allowed him use his power to capture the new Pride members, clearing his name.

    After the death of fellow Runaway Gertrude Yokes, Victor finds himself in a physical relationship with Nico; she bids him to keep their first encounter a secret. During the "Dead Means Dead" story-arc Victor displays several of his less-used powers: he flies the Leapfrog without any prior training (albeit clumsily); dismantles and reconstructs a Glock-9; and fixes the Leapfrog using his powers. At the end of the arc Victor and Nico revisit their feelings for one another and almost kiss, but are interrupted by Chase's return.

    Versus the Young Avengers

    During a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation to capture the Runaways, Victor uses his powers to shield the Leap-Frog from a barrage of Teflon coated missiles. He is hit and suffers grievous damage and the team returns with him to the Hostel. Victor then experiences intense seizures when the Vision arrives with the Young Avengers.

    Although the Runaways are initially mistrustful of the Young Avengers, Stature is able to pull the Vision away from Victor. The Vision explains that he and Victor were experiencing a form of feedback caused by their shared programming due to the fact that both of them were created by Ultron. Since he is still broken down, Stature begins to watch over him, and they start to bond. However, in the end, Victor saves the day by touching the Vision again and knocking out Noh-Varr, who had the Vision's arm phase-shifted into his chest.

    Chase tied up Nico and stole her Staff of One, and was confronted by Victor. Chase revealed that the Abstract has three secret shutdown codes (questions) embedded in Victor's programming. The question Chase asked him was, "Could God make a sandwich so big, that even He couldn't finish it?" Because Victor was programmed by Ultron to be both "super-logical" and "super-religious", these functions cancel one another out and cause a feedback which temporarily shuts Victor down. These codes work only once, yet two codes remain, and the section of the Abstract that contains them is now in Nico's possession - Chase gave it to Nico because he fears Victor will still one day become Victorious.

    Still completely catatonic, where all he could do was endlessly repeat the computer simulated phrase of "010101010101...", Molly was forced to stay with him while the others fought the Gibborim and tried to stop Chase from killing himself. After trying desperately to wake him, Molly asks the ghost of Gert to tell her what to do, and strangely enough is given instructions on how to cure Victor. She tells him that "Yes, God could make a sandwich so big that even he couldn't finish it, and then he would finish it anyway." With that, Victor suddenly is awakened, with full power.

    He and Molly go through the portal, and Victor tries shocking the Gibborim, which has no effect. He then instructs Molly to throw him, and as he flies he grabs Nico from the Gibborim's grasp, effectively "killing" them. He and Nico Minoru then began an intimate relationship.

    Time-Travel

    The Runaways accidentally went back in time to 1907. Victor fell for a girl named Lillie, and his relationship with Nico ended. However, Lillie, when offered the chance to come to the future with them, refused, afraid of what it held. When the Runaways got back, they were unaware that a now elderly Lillie was still regretting her decision.

    Post-Age of Ultron

    After his villainous father took over, Victor found himself headhunted by Hank Pym to join a team of robotic Avengers, along with his older half-brother Vision and Doombot. Despite some initial hesitation, due to Ultron having programmed Victor to infiltrate and destroy the Avengers from within, Victor joined the team. On their first mission, a rogue A.I. named Dimitrios took control over several S.H.I.E.L.D. drones and used them to attack a hospital. After stopping the assault, Victor found the real reason why the drones were attacking the hospital: an amnesiac levitating woman named Alexis.

    Investigating the Vision, Death and a return to the Runaways

    After leaving the Avengers A.I. team, Victor was recruited by the Avengers to investigate the Vision's strange behavior. He soon came into contact with the Vision and found out that he had made himself a family. Victor acted as a friend, but meanwhile tried to gather as much information for the Avengers. When his secret was found out by Vision's son, the son seemingly destroyed Victor.

    Victor's remains where brought to former Runaways teammate, Chase Stein, whom started tinkering with Victor's head. Unbeknown to Chase, his tinkering managed to actually revive Victor's head. At first, Victor kept this a secret, but when Molly rejoined the team, she soon found out that Victor was actually alive. Victor again joined the Runaways and became closer friends with their revived teammate, Gert.

    Powers

    Victor is a cyborg designed by Ultron to have his biology adapt to that of a normal human. Victor has exhibited superhuman strength and agility as well as resistance to damage. The nanobots inside his body also allow him to repair himself quickly when damaged. He also possesses magnetic abilities allowing him to reshape and move metal objects around himself. For instance, he was able to reshape some bleachers into a giant hand, and was able to curl an I-beam around Gertrude Yorkes. He is also able to project (presumably electrical) energy offensively.

    Weaknesses

    Victor was designed with some fail-safes including a set of three paradoxical riddles that will incapacitate him. Each can only be used once. The first was used by Chase Stein to prevent Victor from stopping him when he wanted to bring back his girlfriend Gertrude Yorkes. The first riddle read: "Can God make a sandwich so big that even he cannot eat it?". The phrase that brought him out of his catatonic state was: "Yes, but then he would go ahead and eat it anyway".

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