Following the midseason finale of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, the series is preparing to launch into a new phase of its story.
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Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD: LMD will shift focus to AIDA, the Life Model Decoy created by Dr. Holden Radcliffe.
Unbeknownst to her creator or his friends, AIDA has acquired a will of her own after reading the mystical tome called the Darkhold.
Using her newfound will and knowledge, AIDA was able to create a Life Model Decoy of her own that looks and acts exactly like Melinda May. AIDA has since kidnapped Agent May and replaced her at SHIELD with the LMD.
LMDs have a long history in the Marvel Comics Universe. We’ve already covered what exactly an LMD is. Now let’s look at some of the best known LMDS from the Marvel Comics Universe.
Machine Man
This first one is a little bit of a cheat. Machine man, also known as X-51 or Aaron Stack, was not originally built as an LMD.
Machine Man was created as part of a different government program that was experimenting with robotic soldiers. The first 50 robots built were considered failures, but X-51 was taken home and raised like a human child by his creator, Dr. Abel Stack.
Following Abel Stack’s death, Machine Man went out into the world and became a hero. He joined the Avengers and even fell in love with another sentient robot superhero, Jocasta.
Machine Man nearly died in when he got caught up in a battle between Cable and Bastion. He only survived by interfacing with a Life Model Decoy that was nearby, transferring his consciousness and absorbing the memories of the human the LMD was programmed to imitate.
Unfortunately, Machine Man fell victim to Sentinel programming in his new form, becoming a the Machine Sentinel. Aaron’s transformation caught the attention of the Celestials, and they invited him to hang out in space for a while.
Stack as returned to Earth since then. Currently, he’s a member of Domino’s new Mercs for Money team in Deadpool and the Mercs for Money.
Scorpio
Nick Fury and his brother, Jake Fury, were among the fist humans to discover the alien technology that would eventually be reverse engineered and used to created LMDs.
When the discovered the technology, a Life Model Decoy of Jake was instantaneously created. Per their own plans, Nick and Jake fury decided to keep the LMD around and let Jake go underground for a long term mission.
However, the LMD became erratic and eventually went mad, becoming the international terrorist known as Scorpio. He joined the Zodiac Cartel and has been a thorn in the side of Nick Fury, SHIELD, and the Avengers for years.
Max Fury
Nick Fury has used many, many Life Model Decoys of himself over the years. Max Fury is a special case.
Scorpio stole the enhanced LMD of Nick Fury and used his powerful weapon, the Scorpio Key, to reprogram. Suddenly the LMD had sentience and all of the memories of the actual Nick Fury.
The LMD actually believed that he was the real Nick Fury for a time. After being brought into SHIELD custody, the LMD escaped and began fighting terrorist organizations like Hydra, AIM and ULTIMATUM.
When finally forced to face the real Nick Fury, the LMD went mad with rage and decided that Nick must die. Escaping SHIELD custody once again, the LMD took on the name Max Fury and joined the secret society known as the Shadow Council.
Dum Dum Dugan
Dum Dum Dugan is one of Nick Fury’s oldest friends and was quick to accept Fury’s invitation to join SHIELD after the spy organization called the Great Wheel was fractured.
It was no more than a year later that a routine SHIELD mission took a turn for the worse and Dugan was fatally injured. Fury, however, was unwilling to allow his friend to perish entirely.
Fury had Dum Dum Dugan’s consciousness transferred into one of the most enhanced LMDs available at the time, and had a series of Dugan LMD copies commissioned in order to continue transferring Dugan’s consciousness if he should be near death again.
In this way, Dugan was granted a kind of makeshift immortality. Dugan only recently learned of the truth of his existence, which led to an existential crisis and Dugan wondering how he could know if he was really even him. The crisis was settled when members of Sunspot’s New Avengers team revealed to Dugan that his body was being kept in a state of suspended animation in a container that allowed his very own brainwaves to transmit directly into his LMD body.
Nick Fury
This one is a little bit short lived compared to the others, but it was a huge shocker when it was revealed in Original Sin.
For years, Nick Fury used the Infinity Formula to slow his aging process to a crawl, allowing him to keep the peace on Earth. What his allies and friends didn’t know was that he was also protecting the Earth from galactic threats…by any means necessary.
It all came to a head when Fury’s supply of Infinity Formula finally ran out. He realized his days were numbered. Fury had used many, many LMDs throughout his career. This time he used one more to summon a group of heroes for a murder investigation in space.
It was all a ruse, though. Fury himself had been the killer, and he was only sending the heroes on this wild goose chase as a test to find his successor. When the heroes finally figure out they were dealing with an LMD, and they eventually found the real Nick Fury on his satellite base, withered and old as time caught up with him.
In a life full of LMD use and abuse, it was only fitting that Fury plays one last game with them before having to pay his dues.
