Victor Mancha

Superherobox|

caption=Cover to "Runaways" vol. 2 #22.
Cover Art by Jo Chen.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Victor Mancha
real_name=Victor Mancha
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Runaways" vol. 2 #1 (April, 2005)
creators=Brian K. Vaughan
Adrian Alphona
alliance_color=background: #ffc0c0
alliances= Runaways
aliases=
powers=Superhuman strength and speed.
High intelligence.
Photographic memory.
Electromagnetic manipulation.
Technopathy.|

Victor Mancha is a Marvel Comics superhero in the comic book series "Runaways". He was created by author Brian K. Vaughan and artist Adrian Alphona, and made his first appearance in "Runaways" vol. 2 #1.

Victor is a cyborg created by Avengers foe Ultron, originally programmed to be a sleeper agent within the Avengers and destroy the team from the inside. Victor possesses various powers, including: electromagnetic manipulation, a photographic memory, a high level of intelligence, an automatic self-repair function and technopathy. Due to his prophesied betrayal, Victor was kept under close surveillance when he first joined the team, but has since been accepted as a full-fledged member. He is the team's only Latino member and one of two members who can pilot the Leapfrog, the Runaways' mode of transportation. Victor's assortment of humorous nicknames is a sort of running gag in the series' second volume, with such handles as "Static Cling Lad," "Mr. Roboto", "Victron", and "Man of La Mancha."

Fictional character biography

Life As A Teenage Robot

Victor Mancha is the son of Mexican single mother Marianella Mancha, supposed widow of a US Armed Forces member who was killed in action. He is a superhero aficionado, and discovers his own electromagnetic superpowers when he is captured by the Runaways. The group tells Victor he is prophesied to destroy every hero on Earth as Avengers turncoat Victorious and that his father is reportedly the "greatest evil in all the universe." After the Runaways and Victor sift through possibilities like Magneto and Electro, Dr. Doom calls Victor's cell phone claiming parentage. This is soon revealed to be a front for Ultron, who proceeds to tell Victor that he is a cyborg programmed to destroy the Avengers in order to get revenge on Hank Pym, Ultron's estranged creator. Ultron kills Marianella and overrides Victor's circuits, forcing him to attack the Runaways. With help from Excelsior, the Runaways and Victor defeat Ultron and take Victor in. Over the next few months, Victor proves himself to the team, particularly to Chase Stein, in battle to make up for his alternate future self. He falls out of grace for a short while after Nico Minoru discovers that the second Pride has tapped into Victor's circuits and was using him to spy on the team.After the Runaways' fight with the second Pride, Victor begins a physical relationship with Nico; he confesses to have initiated it because he harbors romantic feelings for her, but Nico claims to have participated as a way to escape her survivor's guilt regarding the death of Gertrude Yorkes. However, Victor still attempts a rescue when he discovers Chase has Nico hostage, but is easily shut down when Chase asks him a rhetorical question designed to overload Victor's circuits. Victor recovers with help from Molly Hayes (vicariously by Alex Wilder) and saves Nico from becoming an innocent sacrifice to the Gibborim. At this point, the pair begin a romantic relationship, but their moment of bliss is interrupted when the team is forced to run from Iron Man and the pro-registration forces of Marvel's Civil War. ["Runaways (vol.2)" #24]

"Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways"

During a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation to capture the Runaways, Victor uses his powers to shield the Leapfrog from a barrage of missiles. The second wave of missiles are coated with teflon, so they are unaffected by Victor's magnetic powers and hit him. He suffers grievous damage and the team returns with him to the Hostel. Victor then experiences intense seizures when the Vision arrives with the Young Avengers.

Although the Runaways are initially mistrustful of the Young Avengers, Stature is able to pull the Vision away from Victor. The Vision explains that he and Victor were experiencing a form of feedback caused by their shared programming because both of them were created by Ultron. ["Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways" #4]

Relationships

Molly Hayes

Victor is often paired with Molly when the team separates to buy supplies because Molly is the only individual member of the team strong enough, in theory, to take Victor down should he go rogue. The pair have respect for each other, but often bicker over small things, such as board games and cereal. Molly admits that she isn't really scared of Victor, but does realize the responsibility she carries. Victor sometimes uses Molly to find out what the other team members think of him, presumably to actively try to change what the team fears. Molly and Victor eventually grow close as Molly's sibling-like relationship with Chase grows weaker.

Nico Minoru

Victor first met Nico when she and the Runaways kidnapped him to discover his true parentage; she kicked Victor in the face with a stilleto heel to knock him out. After their initial encounter, Victor and Nico grew closer and she grew to trust and accept him as part of the team. Unbeknownst to Victor, Nico secretly swore to Chase that if Victor ever betrayed the team, she would have no reservations about killing him. Throughout the second volume, both Victor and Nico started harboring romantic feelings for each other, but neither expressed them until after Gert's death, when they began a physical relationship. Nico refused to admit romantic feelings for Victor for fear of being seen by the team as "cheap," despite Victor expressing romantic feelings. However, even after a rejection and many awkward moments between the two, Victor stood up to defend Nico from Chase without question and acted just as quickly to save Nico from the Gibborim. By the end of Brian K. Vaughan's stint on the title, Victor and Nico become an official couple; his relationship with Nico mirrors that of mutant sorceress Scarlet Witch and android Vision. Nico and Victor's relationship ended during their time-traveling trip to 1907 where Victor falls for a girl named Lillie Spieler.

Chase Stein

Victor's alternate future self, Victorious, managed to fatally wound an alternate version of Gert before she came to the past and warned the Runaways of the looming threat; the future Gert died in Chase's arms. Her death made locating Victor personal for Chase, as he sought to prevent his current girlfriend's murder. He disagreed vehemently with Nico about letting Victor stay with the team, even after Nico stated she was prepared to kill Victor if necessary. As such, Chase has tried to distance himself from Victor, despite the cyborg's attempts to prove himself. Chase did admit to Victor that he envies Victor more than hates him, primarily because Victor is the son Chase believes his parents wanted. Chase also stands up for Victor when Nico believes that he is spying for the New Pride telling everyone that Victor's "No Alex" (ironically, Gert, in a paranoid mood, attacks Victor with a monkey wrench. Normally, she is the one that stands up for Victor and Chase distrusts him). By the end of Brian K. Vaughan's stint on "Runaways", Chase and Victor had switched roles: Victor stood by the team without hesitation while a grief-ridden Chase carried out his own agenda without regards to the team's safety. Victor even questioned Nico when she admitted Chase back into the group as Chase questioned Victor's membership earlier, yet Nico's response remained the same: if Chase went rogue again, she would not hesitate to kill.

Xavin

On Xavin's homeworld, androids and cyborgs exist only as servants to the Skrulls. Upon his first encounter with Victor, Xavin condescendingly tells Victor this, angering the cyborg into attacking. The two rarely get along due to Xavin's prejudice towards androids and his difficulty in accepting Victor as an equal. Xavin and Victor are polar opposites in motivating factors; while they both want to prove themselves to the team, Xavin fights to prove he is a seasoned warrior (feeding his ego) while Victor fights to make up for his alternate future self (seeking atonement). While they can be civil, Xavin and Victor have not yet reconciled their differences.

Powers and abilities

Victor Mancha is a cyborg, created from the DNA of Marianella Mancha and the technology of Ultron. Victor was constructed using advanced nanite technology that will evolve and mature with Victor into adulthood so that his robotic innards will transform into artificial human organs, indistinguishable from real ones. Ultron created Victor with several computer-related abilities, including a high level of intelligence, vast amounts of hard drive memory (which Victor refers to as photographic memory), and the ability to communicate with other machines directly. Victor also possesses some level of superhuman strength, incredible speed, a powerful jumping ability, and an automated self-repair function.

In combat, Victor primarily employs his electromagnetic abilities; he is capable of directing high voltage electrical energy from his hands and manipulating magnetic fields to reshape and bend metallic objects. Much like Magneto, Victor can use Earth's natural magnetic lines of force to levitate and fly.

Despite his array of powers, Victor has four known weaknesses, many of which stem from his mechanical roots. At his current age, Victor's nanites have not yet fully transformed into human organs, so his entire body will set off metal detectors, potentially drawing him unwanted attention. Second, Victor's mainframe can be hacked and controlled remotely; "Hunter" (of the second Pride) and Ultron are the only two that have successfully hacked Victor thus far. Victor discovered his third weakness during the Runaways' first encounter with the Young Avengers, when he and the Vision both short-circuited upon getting too close to each other. The Runaways and Young Avengers eventually discovered that when any two of Ultron's creations come within a close vicinity, both create a devastating feedback, harming both machines.

While decoding The Abstract, Chase discovered Victor's last and most potent weakness: three questions designed specifically to overload Victor's circuits and lock him into a never ending loop of meaningless binary, which Nico refers to as "the blue screen of death." Chase used the first phrase against Victor after the cyborg discovered Nico in chains: "Could God make a sandwich so big that even He couldn't finish it?" The only way for Victor to recover from his shutdown mode is by hearing the question's answer from someone else. Once Victor's mainframe becomes functional again, he cannot be affected by that specific phrase ever again. The two other phrases are unrevealed as of yet, and are known only to Chase and Nico.

References