Oh, boo, Aaron!

This was to establish Machine Man is a smartie that read a lot, but Kissinger sucked. Does this comic? From 1988, Avengers #290, "The World According to the Adaptoid!" Plot by Mark Gruenwald, plot and script by Ralph Macchio, breakdowns by John Buscema, finishes by Tom Palmer.

I know I read a friend's copy of this back in '88, but just grabbed most of this storyline from the quarter bin: the Super-Adaptoid gathers up a team of robots, so it can storm the Avengers' new HQ Hydrobase, and summon the original Cosmic Cube from space. Once Kubik arrives, S-A adapts its power, gaining near-omnipotence. While Kubik seemed to want to see where it was going with this, the Adaptoid teleports it away. The Avengers are trapped in force cubes, along with Machine Man: he had been stringing S-A along to see what his game was, but admits he may have waited too long to make his move.

Kubik recognizes fighting the Super-Adaptoid directly would destroy the planet, so while the Adaptoid starts making duplicates to replace all of humanity, Kubik goes for help to an old friend that wouldn't recognize him: Steve Rogers, currently in his black uniform as the Captain! (I liked that beat: Kubik rolling up like "I know you don't recognize me, but we've been through some stuff.") Cap agrees, and in short order is before the Super-Adaptoid: tough to sneak up on a telepathic robot. Cap explains, he wasn't sneaking, he was going to face it, since this was probably just part of his original A.I.M. programming: killing Captain America was like its first job, that it had never completed. While Cap fights an adaptoid trying to copy and replace him, Doctor Druid tries to get into the Super-Adaptoid's head: not with his powers, but his words. What was its plan for after it took over the world? And could it create something new? S-A doesn't have good answers for either, and worse, Cap beats his replacement. The Super-Adaptoid shrinks to fight Cap himself, and gets got with a logic trap Cap hadda have swiped from Star Trek: could it adapt the ability to die? Sure--gkk!

Kubik frees the other Avengers, then removes the sliver of Cosmic Cube energy from the Super-Adaptoid, insuring it would never, ever, return. It would return in 1998's Incredible Hulk #469.