BOX I

 

BOX I

Real Name: Roger Bochs

First Appearance: Alpha Flight (Vol. 1) #11, June 1984

Powers: Roger Bochs was an engineer and mechanic who was missing both of his legs from the lower-thigh down, whether by illness or accident is unknown. Though physically impaired, he possessed a brilliant intelligence and started up his own company, Bochs Enterprises, which dealt in engineering and robotics. This helped him to make a small fortune. It was during this time that the wheelchair-bound Roger created what is known as the Box robot and, later with the help of James MacDonald Hudson, the cybernetic remote that controlled it.

The original Box robot was made primarily of steel, had vast strength (it could press up to 40 tons) and was highly resistant to damage. It was mentally controlled from outside by a person wearing a psycho-cybernetic helmet. The helmet transformed psions from the wearer's mind into electrical impulses which it then broadcast to Box. The wearer needed only to will Box to perform an action in order to cause Box to do it. Moreover, the helmet allowed its wearer to perceive mentally the sensory data registered by Box: The wearer "saw" and "heard" what Box perceived.

His helmet was later stolen by James Hudson's enemy Jerome Jaxon, who used the Box Mark I to become Box II. The Mark I was destroyed in combat with Guardian, and the feedback in turn destroyed Jaxon's brain. Bochs went to work redesigning his technology to create a new Box, with the help of Madison Jeffries. The Box Mark II had few combat-based differences from the Mark I: It was slightly stronger (up to Class 85), it had powerful jets in the soles of its feet enable the robot to fly. Box also contained many different devices, among which were ones enabling it to tap into computers and receive or jam radio signals. Box contained special tracking equipment, and it could see in all areas of the electromagnetic spectrum. Other devices could also be installed within Box if the need arose.

The primary difference was that the Mark II was forged out of "living metal", a uniquely constructed alloy somehow capable of physically interfacing with organic beings. By touching the suit, Bochs could "phase in" with the metal, mingling his molecules with the structure of the suit itself and placing his mind directly inside the suit's control circuitry, literally becoming the robot. The living metal could also be programmed to recognize individual genetic codes, allowing Bochs to ensure that only he could "phase in" or "phase out" in order to control the suit. Walter Langkowski's spirit briefly inhabited the Box Mark II, making him Box III, but it soon departed the robot and allowed Box I and his partner Mr. Jeffries to operate in the field with Alpha Flight.

At one point, Bochs combined with Lionel Jeffries and the two of them became Omega. Morphed into a solid mass of flesh, Omega combined Scramble's organic-transmutation abilities with Bochs' imagination and creativity, but Jeffries was the dominant mind and soon "killed" Roger's consciousness while retaining his skills.