Villains With Potential-Duke of Oil

And we have a winner! And what a winner he is...Let's run down the list, shall we? 1) Crazy-ass cyborg, 2) Texan accent, 3) codename that is also a pun, 4) ten gallon hat and 5) abiding interest in oil and corporate shenanigans.

It's almost like Mike W. Barr was trying to make some sort of political statement, hunh? Or maybe I'm missing something. Anyway, Earl J. Dukeston (yes, really) is one of those just plain downright weird villains that Barr tossed at the Outsiders back in the day, like the Nuclear Family.

What gives Earl Dukeston (God help me, I love that name) his potential to go beyond a one-note dig at corporations and Texas is the fact that it's really, REALLY hard not to get a good story out of an eight foot cyborg that sounds like Townes Van Zandt.

Especially if he becomes the first cyborg recognized as a corporate entity. Imagine this, Dukeston, while being held by S.T.A.R. Labs (eight-foot cyborgs don't go into g-pop, y'know?), becomes something of a jail-house lawyer and manages to get himself declared a victim of outside influences (electronic brain plus anybody with an engineering degree and a screwdriver equals not guilty by reason of tampering). Soon enough, he's free with all previous charges dropped (really just the one because technically, the Outsiders attacked him) and Earl Dukeston, former CEO of Dukeston Oil, decides to take back his company.

Granted it's not really his company because he's a brainwashed robot, but he thinks it's his. And he has the false records to prove it. Those same records prove that Dukeston was 'programmed' (i.e. brainwashed) by the Dukeston Board of Directors and that they are, in fact, culpable for his misdeeds! Also, they've been embezzling or eating kittens or something. Dukeston engages the services of prominent metahuman corporate attorney Josiah Power and subsequently regains control of Dukeston Oil, one of the most powerful oil companies in the US corporate sphere, which has contracts with, among others, Lexcorp, Waynetech, Alghul Industries, and any other fictional company you care to name.

And now the fun begins...y'see, Duke has some odd ideas since he's reached that plateau of self-acceptance (12 weeks sober thanks to Artificial Lifeforms Anonymous!). Ideas about improving the human condition. About helping his fellow sentient organisms. He starts small...setting up charities and foundations to graft prosthetic limbs (based on his own design, natch) onto wounded soldiers, disabled children and even injured animals. Then he moves into replacing damaged organs in the elderly or the sick. Then, finally, Duke unveils the Celebrity Modification Clinic, where anyone with the cash can get an upgrade! New skin, new bones, new organs...a whole new body. A body with an immortal positronic brain based on his own. And with the money from the clinic, he opens a few down-market versions of the service, because Duke is all about helping the needy.

Can you see where this is going? I bet you can. But the best part? The best part is that Duke genuinely thinks he's helping. He's on a mission from Robot-Jesus and he just wants everyone to be happy and healthy, just like him. And when the usual suspects (Batman, the Outsiders, Green Arrow, etc.) begin to investigate, well, Duke has his attorney on speed-dial...