M.A.C.H. 1

M.A.C.H. 1 was a series that appeared in the first Prog of the British science fiction comic 2000 AD and ran nearly continuously to Prog 80. John Probe was a British Secret Service agent who volunteered for a special procedure where his physical strength, speed and agility would be enhanced using 'compu-puncture' (M.A.C.H. stands for "Man Activated by Compu-puncture Hyperpower"), a computerised form of acupuncture. His metabolism was controlled by a computer implanted on his skull, which also fed tactical information such as th amount of strength or the exact throwing angle for a given task.

Initially, M.A.C.H. 1 thematically resembled the Six Million Dollar Man, but as the strip continued the tone became darker.

First engaging in missions against Communists, terrorists and organised crime, Probe discovered his superior, Sharpe, had engineered the compu-puncture so as to erase Probe's pre-augmented memory and to kill him if he did not receive frequent treatment. As a result Probe was forced to work for Sharpe.

M.A.C.H. 1 later came across M.A.C.H. Zero, a prototype who without the computer implant had been driven mad, and Tanya Maski, a East European M.A.C.H. agent created after Sharpe had sold compu-punture to the Soviets. Sharpe also created a robotic M.A.C.H. 2 with which to kill Probe. Eventually, M.A.C.H. 1 killed Sharpe and then sacrificed himself to enable aliens, provoked into attacking Earth by Sharpe, to return home.

M.A.C.H. 1 was later reprinted in Eagle and also in anthology format.

A spoof, entitled B.L.A.I.R. 1, a satire on Tony Blair, appeared in the late 1990s, and gained considerable media attention at the time.

External Links

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/mach1.htm