Writer – Jack Kirby
Artist – Jack Kirby
Inker – Mike Royer
Colours – Petra Goldberg
Letters – Mike Royer

The fourth issue of Machine Man finds the robotic hero still incapacitated by the vertigo rod embedded in his head.  With the help of Dr. Spalding, they eventually get it removed and just in time as Ten-For is headed downtown to cause all kinds of mayhem or worse.  Good thing for X-51, Ten-For has taken out the army regiment led by Colonel Kragg, the very same part of the army that has been after Machine Man for a while now.  The possible loss of life is never acceptable but X-51 can breathe a sigh of relief now, if only for a moment.  After catching up with Ten-For and battling around the town, Ten-For has now summoned his fleet and that is not a good thing for if one being like Ten-For can cause this amount of trouble, imagine what an entire fleet of Ten-Fors can do.  One of the best things about this book is the exploration of X-51’s humanity, something Jack Kirby has always been good at doing in the various books he has created over the years.  This issue sees him with a crisis of conscience which he soon overcomes, but it is with moments like this that readers grow closer to the hero and Kirby does an excellent job introducing them.  One can only hope that as the book moves forward there are more like this and perhaps with others that X-51 is able to share them with.  The action scenes are excellent and quite exciting as well and readers get to see Machine Man use his familiar boot springs as well as his new teleportation power, not seen before this book.   For the moment, it looks like Ten-For could be the archnemesis that Machine Man has needed since he came into being but time will tell if Ten-For has staying power or if X-51 will make short work of the villain by the time this story arc ends.  Altogether, this was an incredibly fun book and it is one that not only ends with a cliffhanger but leaves the reader wanting more.

4 out of 5