Miracle Machine

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The Miracle Machine is a ficticious device in the DC Comics universe. The machine first appeared in Adventure Comics #367, April 1968.

It was created by the Controllers at some point no later than the 20th century, and given as a gift to the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century for their work in defeating a renegade Controller. It has the power to convert thoughts into reality.

The Miracle Machine has only been seen in the timeline(s) prior to the events of Zero Hour, both before and after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It did not appear in the post-Zero Hour reboot version, nor has it appeared to date in the current reboot version.

[edit] 20th century

In the first chronological appearance of the Miracle Machine, Superman inadvertently used it to create a duplicate of himself as Clark Kent (DC Comics Presents #50, October 1982).

[edit] 30th century

Brainiac 5 first discovered its use, and used it to repel an invasion of the earth by the Dark Circle. Then he used it to create a new headquarters for the legion. After this, he cautioned against using it, as a stray thought could cause catastrophe. The Legion locked it inside an Inertron block, vowing only to use it for the direst of emergencies (Adventure Comics #367, April 1968).

Later, a thief vowed to steal the machine, he was so good that he openly informed the Legion that he would do so prior to the attempt. Such was his skill that the Legion proved unable to capture him. Facing the possibility of the Machine being stolen, they broke it out and used it to capture the thief (Superboy #213, December 1975).

Later, it was used by an insane Brainiac 5 in a scheme to destroy the universe. As he couldn't imagine so grandiose a death, he used the Machine to create a being which could, Omega. In order to stop his creation, he then had Matter-Eater Lad consume the Machine, which drove him mad (Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #250-251, April-May 1979).

Later, after Matter-Eater Lad was cured, it was speculated that he still contained residue from the Machine, which might explain his way of somehow always coming out of situations without much trouble from that point on, including his later career as a Senator. This led Prince Evillo to kidnap him to try and force him to use this power to create a monstrosity based on the most fearsome thing Matter-Eater Lad could imagine. This he did, after a fashion, though not quite what Evillo had hoped for - his "monstrosity" was based on a really bad date he once had (Legion of Super-Heroes (v4) #49, early November 1993).