Wonder-Man

[[Image:wonderman.jpg|left]][[Image:Superman 163.jpg|right|thumb|Superman No. 163, featuring Wonder-Man. Art by Curt Swan and George Klein.]]'''Wonder-Man'''. A mysterious new super-hero, his true identity unknown, who appears in August 1963 seemingly intent on replacing [[Superman]] as the champion of [[Metropolis]]. Originally, Wonder-Man had been the strongest of the [[:Category:Superman Robots|Superman Robots]], whom the Man of Steel named [[Ajax]] and appointed the guardian of the [[Fortress of Solitude]]. On one occassion, while Superman had to prevent a severe earthquake in Canada, the Man of Tomorrow ordered Ajax to deal with a meteor shower that was about to endanger Earth. While dealing with this outer space threat, Ajax assisted a stranded alien spacecraft that was secretly controlled by members of the [[Superman Revenge Squad]], who used their ship's technology to cause a meteor fragment to collide with Ajax and damage his robotic systems. As part of a plot by the Revenger leader [[Attal]], Ajax's robotic consciousness was transferred into an incredibly lifelike chemically-made android body (complete with super-powers that were identical to Superman's) that had a different appearance than his previous Superman-like robot form, and was renamed Wonder-Man. Although the Revengers attempted to maneuver Wonder-Man into killing Superman and replacing him as Earth's mightiest champion (even going so far as to equip him with a chunk of green [[kryptonite]], to which Wonder-Man himself was immune), Wonder-Man discovered the aliens' true intentions and pretended to go along with their plan in order to help his former master. In the process, Wonder-Man became thrilled at the fact that he was able to think and feel exactly like a living human being, even going so far as to express affection for [[Lois Lane]]. During a battle between Superman and Wonder-Man for control of the Fortress of Solitude, Wonder-Man pretended to leave the Metropolis Marvel to die from kryptonite radiation exposure as a plan to flush out the Revengers. Doing away with the kryptonite, Wonder-Man teamed up with Superman and the two champions made short work of the Revengers by hurling them and their craft into deep space. However, Wonder-Man later died as a result of a failsafe mechanism that the Revengers implanted into his android body, which was designed to cause him to expire not long after he murdered Superman so that he would not turn against them. Wonder-Man was buried on Earth, his gravesite marked by a large tombstone that read "Wonder-Man, formerly called Ajax. He was born a robot ... but he died a man." (S No. 163/1, Aug. 1963: "Wonder-Man, the New Hero of Metropolis!").