10 Comic Book Inventions That Could Actually Change The World

By Chris Quicksilver /

8. Fortress Robots

As even a casual comics fan knows, Superman has a €˜Fortress of Solitude€™ in the Arctic. Rather than impose his Kryptonian culture and values on us Humans, he simply staked out a small part of the world where nobody else lived and built a shrine to his biological parents and their dead world. Like a bigger, druggier version of Batman€™s trophy room, The Fortress is often portrayed as a cathedral of absurdity, with endangered alien species held in bubble-like enclosures, confiscated weapons of galactic mass destruction (kept under constant guard, of course) and other interstellar curios as well. However, my favourite thing about Superman€™s fortress was always the robots. Superman€™s super-robots run the fortress whenever he is away and do all the cooking, cleaning, ironing and feeding of the many-tentacled purple space gorillas €“ so he doesn€™t have to. The robots have been depicted in many different ways over the years, sometimes they look exactly like Supes himself (and can even substitute for him on minor missions) and other times they resemble flying golden vacuum cleaners that are obsessed with order and duty. Maybe the best design though (and the one I€™d most want in my house) is the Frank Quitely version of the robots used in Grant Morrison€™s pitch-perfect All Star Superman series. Quitely rendered them with such utter Humanity and quiet dignity that I found myself wishing I could have a couple for around the house. €œRobot 7 €“ Do the washing up, please.€ €œRobot 5 €“ Its Wednesday, can you get to the comics shop and pick up my books?€ €œRobot 3 €“ Finish the rest of this article for me, I€™m going back to bed." €œRobot 9 €“ A ham, cheese and jalapeno toastie, please.€ Paradise.