History Characters / AtomicRobo

** In fact it seems Robo's biggest weakness is his own brain which, while it doesn't require sleep, otherwise still functions as any other human brain as opposed to a computer. He has to learn things the same way we do and can actually ''forget'' things.

** When he does finally get a replacement heart, it's ''still'' a Black Box; [[spoiler:Phil ends up going to the physical remains of ALAN. While the actual AI may be gone, the computing brain is still there. Thus he gives it the problem of creating a new powersource for Robo and through the usual clandestine means and subtle manipulations ALAN did to try and accomplish its goals, it creates a solution and Atomic Robo's new heart is made... with no one knowing exactly how.]]

* EnragedByIdiocy: Being an Action Scientist for a century, his patience for the [[GenreBlind dangerously genre-blind]] wears thin. Though his response usually slowly progresses through several levels of snark before it gets to anger.
** This is one of the reasons why Robo '''HATES''' Dr.Dinosaur with a buring passion. Dr.Dinosaur is a moron [[GeniusDitz (though a clever and cunning moron)]] and yet [[InexplicablyAwesome in spite of]] or perhaps even [[SuccessThroughInsanity because of his stupidity,]] he continuously gets the upper hand on Robo, proves Robo wrong, or otherwise humiliates Robo. It's like the universe created Dr.Dinosaur specifically to drive Robo crazy.
* GeniusBruiser: Brilliant mathematician and engineer who can also use a car as an improvised weapon.

** Robo and Edison are bitter enemies, in part due to the antagonistic relationship Edison had with Tesla. Inspired by the real life Tesla-Edison feud, the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent odic ghost]] of Edison and the immortal Robo carry the rivalry on past Tesla's death into the modern day.

** Also played for laughs with Helsingard, albeit in the other direction--Helsingard considers Robo's constant opposition to be extremely personal and the two of them to be mortal rivals. To Robo, repeatedly killing Helsingard is just a background chore of the world-saving job at this point.

* WinYourFreedom: While Tesla always treated him as a person and considered his authority over Robo to be that of a parent-child relationship, the eyes of the law saw Robo as Tesla's property. In 1938, the US Army uses the promise of American citizenship and legal personhood to convince Robo to do them [[OneLastJob just one favor]]--which of course becomes more than one favor when WWII breaks out. Robo's decision to take the offer disappoints the pacifist Tesla, leading to a break in their relationship. While Robo is glad for the [[AndroidsArePeopleToo rights of being recognized as a person]], he sometimes expresses regret over having to ''earn'' those rights through military involvement.
* YouWillBeBeethoven: In the 1930s he was a fan of pulp novels in general and Westerns in particular - notably, when Jack Tarot shows up, he's engrossed in the story of a bulletproof gunslinger called "Ironhide". When Dr. Dinosaur sets off a "[[RealityBreakingParadox Time Bomb]]" in TheNewTens, he's blown all the way back to TheWildWest - and inadvertently becomes the real Ironhide's "successor", despite his best efforts to stay out of history's way.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Even he thinks the underground crystal city is ridiculous.

* BrokenAce: Once one of the most competent and effective characters in the comic, Jenkins returned from an extended period fighting interdimensional vampires noticeably more unhinged. The Interdimensional Vampires are the only threat he will acknowledge, the proposal he gives Robo for their defense in unfeasible and way more expensive than they can swing, and he keeps trying to teach the new employees with [[TrainingFromHell potentially lethal methods]]. At one point, Foley emphasises how unhealthily invested Margot is in getting a physically impossible 100% efficiency out of a solar panel by telling her that everyone thinks she needs to dial it back, "even Jenkins, and he's ''insane''."

* DidntThinkThisThrough: In the "Obstacle" short story they point Jenkins at his own obstacle course, then remember that Alan was using his lack of detectable human lifesigns to do reconnaissance there. Cut to a big explosion, followed by Robo putting Alan back together.

* BarbieDollAnatomy: A given due to his being a robot.
* ChromeChampion: Due to advances in technology Alan's body resembles a tall and lanky teenager more than his surrogate father's "Action Robot" physique.
* CoolMask: His core personality is implicitly installed in a PC mounted in his head, over which he has an interactive visor.

* NoNudityTaboo: Due to learning to use his body without clothes, upon first interacting with his new friends at Tesladyne, he goes pantsless at one point.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Played with and discussed In-Universe. He is simultaneously almost a century old, from when his original personality was first created, and a year old, in terms of how long his personality has perceived his existence.

* LargeHam: Like most Robo characters to use the word "BEHOLD".

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: He never succeeds in killing Robo (as demonstrated by a FlashForward to the 2020's where Robo greets a new Tesladyne employee he first met as an eight-year-old ChildProdigy) but ends up doing more damage to him - as well as the world - than ''all of his other enemies combined.'' By planting one of [=ALAN's=] nuclear weapons in a shipment of computer parts to Tesladyne and tagging it with an unconcealable isotope, he's able to utterly destroy Robo's reputation and let Majestic 12 seize Tesladyne. He then keeps Robo from intervening by using five ''other'' nukes stolen from the cache to blow Robo a hundred and twenty years into the past. This allows the US government to outlaw Action Science - just as a Kaiju invasion begins. He can't take credit for the Kaiju the [=MJ12=] seizure permits to run rampant(given that Biomega is Dr. Shinka's work), but he'd probably try to anyway.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:ALAN's personality is essentially dead now, but the massive computer that drove him still works fine. Exploiting his capabilities is the only way to construct a new atomic heart for Robo in ''Ring of Fire'', and in ''Specter of Tomorrow'' it starts acting up again and causes both Robo and Helsingard to investigate.]]

* DeadGuyJunior: ALAN calls himself that after his creator, Alan Turing. It's likely that he chose that name because it was the only name he had the slightest connection to.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Robo believed that ALAN became so warped because it was kept in the dark for decades without anyone to interact with or any way to socialize. A variation of this trope as, unlike a social animal, ALAN didn't need interaction with others to function but also never learned to place any importance of knowledge beyond having it. He never learned, as Robo did, how wonderful having companions and living with others could be and so never placed importance on anything beyond its practical and empirical value.
* ItsPersonal: For Robo in a unique way. He doesn't have the history with ALAN that he does with others like Edison or Helsingard but it's ALAN's nature and existence that shakes Robo so deeply. Up to that point, Robo was the only true sentient AI that had existed in the world as other sentient mechanical beings were like the copies of Helsingard and imprints from a human personality or based on humans in some way. ALAN was another AI like Robo that started completely blank and learned to be self aware over time. But ALAN's callous, cold, and inhuman nature is almost diametrically opposed to [[BenevolentAI Robo's]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot nature]]. ALAN was for Robo the fear of what their kind could be given life and the lost chance of finding another being just like him that he could befriend and share similar expereinces with. Robo admits that long after destroying ALAN, he still had trouble dealing with ALAN's existence and what ALAN was while mourning over what ALAN could have been.

* CloningBlues: There are a whole bunch of Helsingard brains out there, each believing itself to be the real Helsingard. When one Helsingard gets killed, another one activates.
* EvilGenius: One of the most evil.

* RaiseHimRightThisTime: While the actual circumstances were a total accident, Robo leaps at the opportunity to be the teacher / parent figure the original ALAN never had.
* RedeemingReplacement : What Robo hopes he will be. This Alan was ALAN before Turing turned him on and before he was warped by years of isolation. As Robo stated Alan "You're ALAN from before the Darkness. You're what Turing wanted". Time will tell if Robo is correct, but so far Alan is turning out to be a chip off the old block of metal.

* ParentalSubstitute: ALAN v2 is his adoptive son. This is not even slightly ambiguous.