Recorder (comics)

Recorder4172.jpg
RECORDER#417

Real Name: Recorder#417

Identity/Class: extra-dimensional (Earth-Hercules), extra-terrestrial (Rigellian) android

Occupation: recorder of significant events, specifically the exploits of Hercules of that timeline

Affiliations: Colonizers of Rigel (creators);Arimathes, Eternals of Titan, Mallox Fortnite, Hercules, Count Igwanis, ISAAC, Skyppi, Lucyn formerly Layana Sweetwater

Enemies: Assassins' Guild (especially Viperius), Galactus, the Kawa, Last Disciple of Thanos, Layana Sweetwater, Wilamean Space Pirates, Zeus;formerly Arimathes

Known Relatives: one of a series of robots

Aliases: Recorder

Base of Operations: mobile throughout the Andromeda Galaxy, @ 24th Century, Earth-Hercules

First Appearance: Hercules I#1 (September, 1982)

Powers/Abilities: The Recorder is composed on an unspecified ferrous alloy. Its information gathering instrumentation is located in its head component, analogous to eyes, ears, nose, etc. Its eyes take in data across the entire electromagnetic spectrum (radio to gamma rays), not just the visible spectrum. Its ears can register sounds from 0.3 to 150 deciBel. The sampling rate for average events is every 0.01 second; for relatively more interesting events it is every .001 second. The computer data-processing system fills the entire chest cavity and has 40 terabytes (trillions of bytes) of information storage capacity. It can dispense its information in three-dimensional, audio (and probably tactile, olfactory, and taste) -enhanced holograms

It is equipped with a vocoder permitting it to communicate verbally, and it is able to understand and speak over 11,000 languages spoken throughout the Milky Way galaxy and others explored by the Rigellians. It speaks be declaring the type of sentence it will be using: i.e. "Interrogative: What is the fairer sex?", or "Statement: I believe my fluid systems will imbibe a 'Borrillian Gear-Slipper.' 30-weight, please.", or "Stapment: Where ish the facilities? I beeleef I'm about to spling a leek!"

Unlike other Recorders,#417 has been allowed to maintain its memory of events, rather being bulk-erased after data transmission to the Rigellians. In addition, Recorder#417 does have more or a personality and even a weak understanding of humor, unlike the others, which are virtually devoid of personality\

While the Recorder suffers relatively limited dysfunction from the total amputation of one or more limbs, his gyroscope is more sensitive, and a sufficient impact can knock it out of alignment such that he suffers from severe dis-equilibrium, or vertigo.

History: The Recorders are a series of androids built by the Rigellian Colonizers for the purpose of information gathering and analysis. It is

(Hercules I#1) - In the 24th Century, after being banished into space by his father, Hercules encountered the Colonizers of Rigel. Interested in his exploits, the Rigellians sent Recorder#417 along with him so they could add his adventurers to their recorder tapes. The Recorder accompanied Hercules to Starharbor on the planet Petocco, where he proceeded to become intoxicated on Borrillian Gear-Slipper. While emptying his waste fluids, he missed Hercules unwittingly try to start a friendly fighting bout with a pacifist Pheragot. The Recorder returned in time to witness Hercules save Starharbor when a starship crash-landed into it.

(Hercules I#2) - The Recorder was present alongside Hercules when he lost his golden chariot to a rigged race against Clide and Alpo. He accompanied to Wilamean where he assisted in the rescue of Layana and encounter with Count Igwanis in which he earned the money to regain his chariot. In the course of the struggle the Recorder's right hand was blown off when he pointed out to Hercules that the kidnappers were firing on them. The Recorder was less than pleased with the Q-76 Baggage Handler hand that Hercules--still tight on funds--purchased to replace it for him.

Later, the Recorder was arrested for voyeurism (specifically he was called a Peeping Cyber) when he fulfilled his mission to record Hercules exploits by watching through a window as Hercules...wooed Layana. He noted that this romance was quite similar to the antler-dance ritual on Sirius-Four. The Recorder spent a short time in Fort Anteris Detention Center, consuming another inmate's whole stash of audio-tootski in the process. After determining that audio-tootski was a narco-euphoric producing cerebral dysfunction in humanoids, he told the inmate that he should not put that substance in his body.

(Hercules I#3) - The Recorder accompanied Hercules as he destroyed the planet-towing device of the alien Kawa, who worshipped Galactus and had been stealing planets from the Omacran system system on an annual basis. The Recorder's gyro's damaged during a spacefight, and both of his legs were blown off by the Kawa. His legs were replaced in Starstation Raga.

(Hercules I#4 (fb)) - The Recorder accompanied Hercules to Ciegrem-7 for a celebration for saving them from the Kawa, and then aboard Galactus' ship, where the Prince of Power succeeded in amusing Galactus to the point that he spared Ciegrem-7. The Recorder caused a distraction so that Galactus appeared unaware when Hercules dumped an ultra-concentrated drug into the World-Devourer's wine goblet. Galactus trapped the Recorder within a plastoid constuct to prevent further distraction. Herc freed the Recorder, who was then confiscated by the Rigellians until Hercules could pay back the massive debt he had accrued due to the repetitive damage, etc.

(Hercules I#4) - The Recorder was restored to its initial form by the Rigellians while it dispensed its recorded information to them. He was then deactivated until his next mission.

BTS - Hercules paid back his debt and was again given the Recorder to accompany him on his adventures.

(Hercules II#1) - In 2385, the Recorder was present as Hercules helped squelch a rebel uprising against the government of the Omacran system. The Recorder's analytical abilities revealed the rebel leader, commander Stard, was a Skrull. He witnessed the death of their old friend commander Malin, and later, in the Deniciere Spaceport, revealed that the beautiful woman that Hercules was trying to...woo, was also a Skrull; and an old, male one at that. The Recorder and Hercules were then joined by this skrull, who was named Skyppi.

(Hercules II#2) - On Deneciere, when Hercules leapt off of his chariot to dissuade their attackers, the Recorder and Skyppi were still on board when the chariot crashed into an apartment. The Recorder was lodged face-first through the wall behind the hung-over resident's medicine cabinet, and he recommended two hundred milligrams of approline-cyclimate when the man opened the door. Hercules freed him from the wall, but his gyro's were again damaged by the collision. Hercules took the Recorder to another space station and left him for repairs while Hercules encountered and defeated the Red Wolf. The Recorder was completely repaired by the time they left.

(Hercules II#3) - The Recorder, Hercules, and Skyppi stopped off on Titan to receive information from the Eternals, and ended up fighting and defeat Dhielus Shreck, the Last Disciple of Thanos. The Recorder worked with Titan's world computer, ISAAC, guiding Hercules to overload Shreck with photonic energy and destroy him.

(Hercules II#4) - The Recorder, Hercules, and Skyppi arrived on Mt. Olympus, where they were attacked by the seemingly mad god Zeus, who animated a semi-equine biped statue to occupy the Recorder and Skyppi while he dealt with his son. The Recorder distracted the statue, leading it after him by taunting it thusly: "Declaration: Hello, Mr. Animated Mineral Being? Come grind my circuits into metal shavings, if you can catch me!" Skyppi surprised the statue by duplicating of its form, and the Recorder then got on his hands and knees behind the statue, so that the statue tripped over him when Skyppi pushed it. The statue fell into a deep well. The Recorder watched as Hercules chose to reclaim his immortality (a gift and choice granted by Zeus as he passed on), and they then headed back to the Andromeda Galaxy, where Hercules might spawn a new race of gods.

(Marvel Tales#197/2 - BTS) - Hercules and Skyppi earned money to pay for major repairs for the Recorder, who had been damaged by uncertain means.

(Marvel Graphic Novel: Hercules: Full Circle) - The Recorder witnessed as Hercules foiled another plot of Clide and Alpo, and he was then captured and imprisoned by Hercules' son, Arimathes alongside Herc and Skyppi. After they were freed by Count Igwanis, the Recorder appealed to an air lift computer's logic so that it took them to the main plaza rather than face destruction at Hercules' hands. It then accompanied Hercules, Skyppi, Igwanis, Mallox Fortnite, and Lucynda Thrust in infiltrating Arimathes army so that Hercules could confront Arimathes in single combat and convince him that he had been lied to by his mother, Layana Sweetwater. The Recorder remained with Hercules as he became Arimathes' new advisor.

(Marvel Comics Presents#39/3) - While Hercules defeated some Wilamean space pirates, Skyppi tricked the Recorder into wearing a dress as a disguise so that he might appear to be some captured...booty. He was in the line of fire when Sweetwater sent the Assassins' Guild targeted Hercules.

(Marvel Comics Presents#40/3) - The Recorder took cover while the Guild fought Hercules and Arimathes. Hercules used his metal form as a shield and then as a club against Viperius. It was the Recorder who recognized when the cybernetic assassin activated its destruct mode, which Armiathes nearly sacrificed his life attempting to shield the others from the resultant explosion.

(Marvel Comics Presents#41/3) - The Recorder accompanied Hercules as he brought Arimathes to a med-center and then confronted Layana. As Hercules chided Layana for nearly killing her own son in her agenda against him, the Recorder came up from behind and disarmed her. He was most pleased with his success in this endeavor.

Comments: Created by Bob Layton.

The timespan between the first and second series has been listed as both 30 years and 41 years. Forty-one was the timespan first described, but it was by Malin, who was dying. Thirty years was described repeatedly in the Full Circle graphic novel by Arimathes, Hercules, and Layana.

The specifications on the Recorders are taken from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#9, and refers specifically to their design in the modern era. As the Recorder-417 was present in the 23rd century, it may be that it was even more advanced and capable than its predecessors. However, it also may be that the Rigellians, extremely advanced in the modern era, did not better themselves significantly in the following centuries.

Also keep in mind that OHotMU I#9's entry was written based on perceived advancements in technology based on the status quo for 1983, when the TRS 80 and Commodore 64 were state of the art!



I guess the Recorder is an it, but it's hard not to refer to him as...him. Well, maybe, not too hard. Look up and to the right!

CLARIFICATIONS: This Recorder should be differentiated from: —Thor I#132 --Thor Annual 2000/2 --Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet
 * RECORDER#211 - see ANALYZER
 * RECORDER#901-E - warned Rigellians of Axi-Tun attack --Starmasters#3
 * RECORDER# - reprogrammed by Kree --Force Works#1
 * RECORDER# - observed Sundragon's battle with the Dance--Cosmic Powers Unlimited#2/3
 * RECORDER# - observed near genocide of Rigellians by Thanos in seeking the firestone, followed Thor on quest to prevent Thanos from obtaining power from the Designate, sacrificed self to free Thor from energy prison of Thanos
 * RECORDER# - present with Intergalactic Council during events of Maximum Security

Last updated: 10/19/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™� and � 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing! Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

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RECORDER "RE-404"
Real Name: Recorder#??

Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial (Rigellian) android

Occupation: Recording significant events & helping Starstealth on their mission

Group Membership: Recorders

Affiliations: Starstealth-formerly: Colonizers of Rigel (creators)

Enemies: Avengers (Black Widow (Romanoff), Crystal, Giant Man (Pym), Hercules, Quicksilver), Rachel Carpenter, Amanda Chaney, Force Works (Century, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman (Carpenter), U.S. Agent), Mandarin, PLATO, Fisher Todd, War-Crimes Tribunal (Algol Hokk, Quo Modari, Rigellians, Skrulls, many others), Vault personnel

Known Relatives: One of a series of robots

Aliases: Recorder

Base of Operations: Skrull Tribunal Ship orbiting Earth formerly: The Vault;formerly: The Works in Ventura, California;formerly: Starstealth's spaceship;formerly: Hala (the Kree homeworld);formerly: Mobile throughout the universe;originally: Manufacturing satellite orbiting Rigel-3

First Appearance: Force Works#1 (July, 1994)

Powers/Abilities

 * The Recorder is composed of an unspecified ferrous alloy. Its information gathering instrumentation is located in its head component, analogous to eyes, ears, nose, etc. Its eyes take in data across the entire electromagnetic spectrum (radio to gamma rays), not just the visible spectrum. Its ears can register sounds from 0.3 to 150 decibel. The sampling rate for average events is every 0.01 second; for relatively more interesting events it is every .001 second. The computer data-processing system fills the entire chest cavity and has 40 terabytes (trillions of bytes) of information storage capacity.

It is equipped with a vocoder permitting it to communicate verbally, and it is able to understand and speak over 11,000 languages spoken throughout the Milky Way galaxy and others explored by the Rigellians. It spoke in declaring type of sentences like: i.e. "Qualification: Curse you!",or "Statement: Of all the computer cores in the world, you had to walk into mine.",or "Observation: To think I once found your heroism entertaining."

This Recorder additionally possessed implants that weren't Rigellian standard components in his sub-cortical matrices built in by some unknown corruptor. They seemed to be behavioral "inhibitors" and countermanded relays, placed in series along the primary command-ware.

Observation: The implants turned this Recorder into an evil, corruptive being that provoked dangerous events to see more action.

On Earth this Recorder also learned to use lower technologies to record events like video cameras and once he even used several automatic cameras to watch a few events simultaneously.

History:
(Force Works#14 (fb) - BTS) - After Hala's destruction the Recorder was found by Starstealth floating above their destroyed homeworld. Someone had reprogrammed the Recorder and filled it with information for Starstealth about the "true" architects behind Hala's destruction, Wonder Man and Vision, and the order to kill them.

(Force Works#1) - The Recorder headed with Starstealth to Earth. It questioned Wonder Man while Starstealth attacked him and revealed its involvement in the whole situation. It told Wonder Man about Starstealth's plan to cause a chain reaction that would destroy Earth by causing a core meltdown in the Vision and an ionic overload in Wonder Man, and that their knowledge to do this was based on the Recorder's information about the heroes. The Recorder tossed Wonder Man to the ground when he touched it and then followed Wonder Man into space to watch how he stopped Starstealth's plan. Suddenly some Scatter vessels hit the Starstealth's ship and the Recorder informed Wonder Man that it would explode in 12 seconds. Wonder Man brought the damaged ship far enough away from Earth based on Recorder's information, and the Recorder watched Wonder Man seemingly die in the ship's explosion. Afterwards the Recorder returned to Earth and informed Iron Man about Wonder Man's death.

(Force Works#14 (fb) - BTS) - Starstealth's mission had failed, and the Recorder decided to hide among Force Works to orchestrate dramas it could record.

(Force Works#2) - The Recorder returned to the Works and entered it without PLATO sensing him. The Recorder wished to monitor Force Works' adventures in the future.

(Force Works#3) - The Recorder met Century and PLATO on their way to Century's new quarter at the Works. Recorder was very interested in Century and once again didn't tell PLATO how it was able to cloak itself from PLATO. That evening Recorder cancelled an alert by the Chaos Computer without anybody's knowledge.

(Force Works#4) - The Recorder annoyed Scarlet Witch at her morning training shortly before the Chaos Computer again brought up the alert the Recorder had cancelled the day before.

(Force Works#5) - The Recorder once again cancelled an alert from the Chaos Computer. PLATO caught it, and the Recorder just erased the event from PLATO's memory bank.

(Force Works#5/2) - Fisher Todd showed Rachel Carpenter the VRoom Room and the Recorder activated an advanced Scatter simulation while they were in it, thus causing a dangerous situation for them which had to be cleared by Spider-Woman.

(Force Works#6, Marvel Comics Presents#169/2, 171/2) - The Recorder accompanied Force Works on a mission in China (the alert the Recorder had cancelled last issue). Recorder stayed on the Hex-Ship Pegasus and observed Force Works fighting the Avatars.

(War Machine#9) - Recorder stated the obvious to Force Works by telling them that all Avatars except their captive Lich got away. Recorder stayed on the Hex-Ship Pegasus and flew with Force Works to Mandarin's castle, but it shut down when they entered Mandarin's anti-technology field.

(Iron Man I#311) - The disabled Recorder was motionless in the Hex-Ship Pegasus while it crashed.

(Iron Man I#312) - After Mandarin's defeat the Hex-Ship Pegasus and the Recorder were brought to Hong Kong. The Recorder was running again and wanted to know everything that occurred while it was off-line.

(Force Works#8) - Recorder observed the strange behavior of the Works' residents on Christmas Eve. U.S. Agent gave a camera to the Recorder to record the party. Some guests were annoyed by the Recorder's taping while others were interested in the machine or babbled drunken nonsense. The Recorder taped Century talking about his memories. The tape was later given to Century and he watched it again and again.

(Force Works#11) - On another mission to Slorenia the Recorder stayed with Century on board of the Hex-Ship Pegasus. Angered by the fact that Century was doing its job it knocked Century out after awhile with a wrench. Then it sent out cameras to observe Force Works fights in Slorenia.

(Force Works#12) - The Recorder watched with joy the many dangerous situations the different Force Works members were in. Century gained consciousness again and attacked the Recorder who fought back until Century decapitated it. Force Works decided to put the Recorder into the Vault after the situation in Slorenia was cleared.

(Force Works#14 (fb) - BTS) - The Recorder was brought to the Vault. Sensing the Skrulls approaching Earth, the Recorder's original re-programming overtook it again and it planned to free Starstealth so that they could complete their mission.

(Force Works#13) - The Recorder took over the Vault's computer, disabled the Guardsmen, and opened the cells of the imprisoned Kree. Force Works arrived and Century found the Recorder in the Vault's computer core. The Recorder attacked him with the Vault's security system. Meanwhile, Iron Man found a way to stop the Recorder by short-circuiting it with an E.M. overload. Iron Man's plan worked and Force Works finally realized that the Kree had something to do with the Recorder's strange behavior.

(Force Works#14) - The Recorder was handed over to the Rigellians on the Skrull Tribunal Ship which came to Earth to arrest Starstealth. The Rigellians found customizations in the Recorder. Shocked by this abuse the Rigellian wanted to contact his people immediately. The Recorder went on-line again and killed the Rigellians. After that it took the ship under its control through the auxiliary computer annex on deck sixteen. It made his loyalty to the Kree official and teleported two escaped Starstealth members on board. They were defeated by Century and Scarlet Witch. They teleported to the Recorder's location and listened to its story. The Recorder mocked them when they threatened it, but then the Scarlet Witch used her powers to destroy it. The Recorder was rattled apart like it had aged five thousand years in only five seconds.

Comments

 * Created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Tom Tenney & Rey Garcia.

The Recorder had no gender and was therefore an "it". Hard to stay with the it because the Recorder looked like an "he".

I chose the designation RE-404 for this Recorder because it was a reprogrammed, malfunctioning Recorder unit. "RE" should stand for "reprogrammed" and "404" should stand for its malfunctioning because "404 Error - File Not Found" is the most common error on the Internet which is kind of appropriate for this Recorder because there seemed to be some files missing on its hard drive as well.

Who could have been the "someone" who customized the Recorder? Who knew everything about Hala's destruction? Who knew that it was easy to blame Wonder Man and Vision because they were the last on board with the nega-bomb that destroyed Hala? Who was responsible for all this Because I don't live on the moon (and this "someone" did) I know the answer: the Supreme Intelligence.

"Powers/Abilities" was partly taken from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#9 from the Recorder entry.

Profile by Markus Raymond

CLARIFICATIONS: Recorder "RE-404" should not be confused with:
 * Recorder#211, aka. Analyzer @ Thor I#132
 * Recorder#417, of Earth-Hercules 2300 @ Hercules I#1
 * Recorder#901-E, warned Rigellians of Axi-Tun attack @ Starmasters#3
 * Recorder# , observed Sundragon's battle with the Dance @ Cosmic Powers Unlimited#2/3
 * Recorder# , observed near genocide of Rigellians and followed Thor on his quest to stop Thanos @ Thor Annual 2000/2
 * Recorder# , present with Intergalactic Council during events of Maximum Security @ Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet
 * Recorder# , present when Thanos did his penance to the Rigellians @ Thanos#2
 * Rigel Type Zeta-9, Recorder acting as She-Hulk's bailiff when she was a Magistrati @ She-Hulk III#7
 * or to any other Recorder or characters with a similar name

images: Recorder "RE-404" body shot: Marvel Comics Presents#171, p15, pan1 Recorder "RE-404" head shot: Force Works#13, p11, pan4 Recorder "RE-404" destruction: Force Works#14, p20, pan3

Other appearances:
Force Works#2-4 (August-October, 1994) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writer), Tom Tenney (pencils), Rey Garcia (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor Force Works#5 (November, 1994) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Tod Smith (pencils), Kevin Yates (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor) Force Works#6 (December, 1994) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writer), Tom Tenney (pencils), Rey Garcia (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor Marvel Comics Presents#169 (December, 1994) - Dan Abnett (writer), Lawrence Brown (artist), Richard Ashford (editor) Marvel Comics Presents#171 (January, 1995) - Dan Abnett (writer), Brian Williamson (pencils), Michael Worley (inks), Richard Ashford (editor War Machine#9 (December, 1994) - Scott Benson & Len Kaminski (writer), Geoff Senior (pencils), Pam Eklund (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor Iron Man I#311 (December, 1994) - Len Kaminski (writer), Tom Morgan (pencils), Nel Yomtov (editor) Iron Man I#312 (January, 1995) - Len Kaminski (writer), Tom Morgan (pencils), Bob Wiacek & Sam DeLaRosa (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor Force Works#8 (February, 1995) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writer), Stu Johnson (pencils), Don Hudson (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor) Force Works#11-14 (May-August, 1995) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writer), Jim Calafiore (#10-12) & Dave Ross (#13-14) (pencils), Rey Garcia (#10-13) & Mark McKenna (#14) (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)

Last updated: 05/05/05

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™� and � 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

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