History

No later than the year 270 AD, aliens secretly started abducting Earthlings to serve as pawns in space warfare. This practice backfired spectacularly when they abducted Queen Zenobia. Suffice it to say, Zenobia made many enemies in space. These enemies started sending "Spanker" robots to punish Zenobia's homeworld - Earth. Each of the first three Spankers caused mass migrations and warfare throughout Europe and Asia. But each one eventually ran out of power, or was deactivated by ingenious Earthlings.

Spanker 4 is (as one might imagine) the fourth of his series. He arrived on Earth sometime after 1991, once superhumans had started appearing. By 2004 he was traveling the Earth, fomenting rebellions. All this time, the aliens already on and around Earth kept Spanker 4 under relative control.

But in 2005, the aliens were distracted with a succession of reality shifts. Spanker 4 took that opportunity to obtain the Engines of Reality: jewel-shaped cosmic artifacts. With these, he changed Earth's recent history (with yet another reality shift), took control of a fortress in Central Asia, then confronted Wyatt Ferguson and the Powernaut of that era. In response, the Powernaut arranged for Wyatt to bodily merge the three of them. Wyatt neutralized Spanker 4's control over the Engines, and the Powernaut effectively controlled the merged body until the aliens could remove the Engines. The Wyatt-Powernaut-Spanker then traveled to a hospital in India. There the Powernaut unmerged, and Wyatt shat the Spanker out.

After the "Powernaut Rapture" of 2011, Spanker 4 reconstituted - on the new Earth of the Powernauts! By 2013, he was consumed by an urge to merge with a human form again. He traveled to Power City-Oregon, home of his nemesis the Powernaut. That particular Powernaut wasn't there, though. Many others were, but they were hostile. Only two humans were at all receptive: Paulie Poderr, and Dufus. Spanker 4 chose Dufus. They are now merged.

Personality

Despite being robots, the Spankers have all acted very much like conquering, rapacious human males. Each one was more intelligent and devious than its predecessor, though. Spanker 4 is the most developed of the series, but still rapacious.

Powers and Abilities

All the Spanker robots have had great strength and invulnerability, plus the abilities to morph, grow, and draw power from diverse sources. As the Spanker series developed, each robot became better at seeking power sources - and at exploiting humans for its own ends. At his height, Spanker 4 influenced world politics and wielded godlike cosmic power. Merged with Dufus, he has reverted to basic power. But he may yet obtain a power uplift - and maybe even his original personality.

Appearance

Typically, a twelve-foot-tall silver robot with four black dots on his chest. Currently about eight feet tall, still silver but with yellow Power School trim.

Publications

• Earliest Appearance and First Published: "Spanker 4 and Earth's Secret History", from the Freedom Engineering Research Group Newsletter (FergLetter), June 2005
• Most Recent Publication and Latest Appearance: Powernaut 2013 (Power School)

Author's Notes

Spanker 4 was a dream concept; this puts him in the company of Pentahedrons, Pizza Fu, the Powernaut, and Psychovant. He became central to the 2005 storyline, also alongside the Powernaut. So naturally, Spanker 4 was a major guest-villain for the Powernaut 2005 cartoon series of last year. Now it seems Spanker 4 is nominated for awards - the 2015 RACCies, Favorite Villain! Also, Best Running Gag, which I did not see coming... Well, we'll see about both these things. But he's just earned that highly-coveted Wiki page!

(signed) Scott Eiler, 25 April 2016.

Footnote: It is my pleasure to provide an update, to reflect the events of Power School 2013. (signed) Scott Eiler, 13 November 2017.