M.A.C.H. 1

John Probe, M.A.C.H. 1, is an agent with the British Secret Service.

When we first meet Probe, we are told that is his employing organization. Later there is a brief reference to D.I.6 (aka MI6) was the controlling agency. Which ever it is, the man in charge of the M.A.C.H. program is a man we know only as Sharpe. We learn very little about this authoritative handler except that to him the job is everything. He has no interest in Probe as a human, only as the means to get the mission accomplished. Any concern he may show, and it is rare indeed, comes from his interest in the technology and the tool that he considers Probe to be.

Truth be told about the relationship between Probe and Sharpe is they really dislike each other. A lot. It seems as much as Sharpe wants his weapon to be preserved, the life of Probe is something he would offer in a heartbeat. At the same time, Probe often seems determined to succeed more to annoy Sharpe than anything else.

Already a successful and quite accomplished operative for that intelligence organization, Probe was chosen largely because he was in the peak of physical condition and the most likely person to survive the procedure.

Thousands of electro-needles penetrate every inch of his body daily, sending high voltages of electricity into him, the charge amounts increasing each time until after six months the power amounts reached optimum levels. At that time the brain surgery took place and after a sixteen hour operation, the surgeons "print computer circuits directly onto his skull. The computer circuits will assist Probe on missions by feeding information into his brain."

This resulted in his becoming the first "Man to be Activated by Compu-puncture Hyperpower". Being the first meant having the designation 'M.A.C.H. 1'.

This hyperpower, for which he receives monthly booster treatments, greatly enhances his physical prowess. He can call up the strength of 50 men (tipping over a 16-ton vehicle requires 60% of his prowess). He can run at speeds exceeding 70 mph and can swim faster than 40 knots. His body and his mind now has too much energy, making it near impossible to sleep. The computer 'voice' in his head makes relaxing a difficult activity as well as it seems ever ready to inform Probe that his activities are 'illogical' and unnecessary.

Odd Line:

"No one can defeat a Mach Man!"

As I started reading this fun but over-the-top series, two other series came immediately to mind.

The first one, The Six Million Dollar Man, is obvious. In the case of John Probe, the scientists did not fix a broken man but took an extremely healthy individual and just made him a whole lot better but the concept of scientifically enhancing a normal man to make him superhuman was similar. I guess I could go back thirty years more and cite Captain America and the Super Soldier program but I think Steve Austin was really the target. The SMDM had just come out a couple years before on television and the urge to capitalize would have been tremendous.

The second is Dredger, another British comic spy. In this case the man was not "improved" in any way but he was an extraordinary agent who did whatever it took to get the job done. Probe and Dredger have much in common in this way. Plus the same man, Pat Mills, is credited with creating Dredger and it just feels like he decided to take a Dredger-like person and bump up his powers to be an Austin-like person.

Anyways, to me it worked because these mostly short adventures are actually a lot of fun and I enjoyed reading each one to come up with the synopsis and was sorta dismayed when I had read the last one and knew there were no more.

Good spy-fi? Not in the least. Over-the-top adventure with a side dish of I-hate-my-boss-and-he-hates-me thrown in. Spy-fi-ish style adventures handled in a sci-fi-ish way. No good in the least. But fun.