Cliff Steele

"*Moment of truth, Chief, because this is what you've been planning for* our *entire lives! So what's it gonna be!? [...] Will he yank out that very special brain of his and become the tin man!? And Chief, if that's your best option, then you better go smell some roses, chug on a Bud Light, fuck a watermelon, eat a double-double, and take a big ol' shit, because all of that is* GONE*... Oh, and, be sure to hug Dorothy now. Hug her* hard *because hugging your daughter after your Franken-surgery is gonna rip your heart out because you can't fucking* feel *her!!!*"
—Cliff Steele to Niles Caulder[src]
**Clifford "Cliff" Steele** (born May 23, 1956) is a former race car driver who got into a car accident engineered by Dr. Niles Caulder. While Cliff's body was decimated beyond repair, Caulder was able to salvage his brain and placed it into a robotic body.

## Biography

### Early life

Cliff Steele was born in May 23, 1956 to Mr. and Mrs. Steele.

Years later, Cliff was married to Kate, with whom he had a daughter named Clara.

### Career as a race car driver

At one point, Cliff was a famous race car driver. Once a loving father and husband, his fame and success went to his head and he began to neglect his family and involved himself in multiple affairs, including one with his daughter’s nanny, Giselle. During one of these races in 1988, he found out his wife Kate was having an affair with his best friend Bump as a form of revenge for Cliff's infidelity. Distracted by this revelation, he nearly crashed into another car, sent out of control by the Chief to mutilate Cliff and make him immortal, but managed to dodge it at the last minute, thus gaining the lead and winning the race.

After the race was over, Cliff assaulted Bump with his trophy and once again had sex with Giselle. However, Cliff felt guilty for his treatment of his family and wanted to reconnect with them. He called Kate, leaving a voicemail in which he promised to be better for them, which spurred Kate to answer his call. Kate decided to give him another chance and allowed Cliff to pick up both her and her daughter that same night. While driving, Cliff was distracted by his family and was unable to see a truck that was parked sideways in the road, once again by Caulder in a second, and this time successful, attempt at destroying Cliff's human body as part of his experiments. The car plowed under the truck's trailer, decapitating Kate and destroying Cliff's entire body, save for his brain, which was recovered by Dr. Niles Caulder.

### Florida, 1984

Cliff’s pregnant girlfriend makes Cliff disinvite his own father to their wedding. It doesn't go well and it's apparent that he didn't have a great relationship with his father.

### Revived by Dr. Caulder

In 1995, Cliff's body was completed and he was awakened by Niles in his home. He met Rita Farr and Larry Trainor, who tried to help him adjust to his new body and home. Cliff believed the accident that destroyed his body was the car landing on him in his final race. After Larry helped him walk, however, listening to a recording of his voice reawakened the repressed memories of what really happened. This realization drove him into hiding in his room for years. Larry brought him a set of remote control cars to play with, which he at first ignored, but by 2019, he'd assembled them and possibly implemented some additions of his own.

### Living at Doom Manor

On one occasion, Cliff was interrupted by Crazy Jane's return to Doom Manor, who, while Hammerhead was surfaced, obnoxiously made a scene, threatening to come into Cliff's room and break his cars. Later, Jane was personally introduced to Cliff while painting outside. Jane mentioned that Hammerhead had told her about her altercation with Cliff. Cliff, however, apologized to Jane, explaining that he had been a "little on edge" with the approach of his deceased daughter's nearing birthday. Jane spent the rest day painting until the Hangman's Daughter took over and conversed with Cliff in the rain. Soon after, Dr. Caulder went on a trip, leading Jane to convince the group to head into town in Larry's bus. While in town, Jane took Larry to a toy shop, so that he could find a gift for his daughter. Shortly after, they took a seat on a bench, and Cliff admired Jane's smoking, wishing he could have one himself. Hammerhead soon surfaced after Cliff moped about his daughter, claiming that she was still alive, prompting some police officers to approach. She began to get aggressive, but they were interrupted by Rita, who had become a blob that was moving across town. Cliff hurried over, pulling up a piece of road, and stopping her in her tracks. Once the Chief returned, seeing the damage, he scolded the group.

 File:Robotman.png   In rebuttal, Cliff expressed his anger that he'd been lied to about his daughter. The Chief explained that they had brought enemies to the town, and so they made plans to leave. However, Cliff refused, and made his way into town on foot, while the rest took the bus away. They changed their minds, though, and joined Cliff. Arriving in the middle of town, Dr. Caulder stayed on the bus, while the rest joined Cliff in observing an unusual albino donkey. The donkey suddenly farted a large amount of gas, which spelled out "The Mind Is The Limit" in the sky, before a portal opened up in the ground, compliments of Mr. Nobody.

### Back to Normal

After months of being tiny, Cliff and the others had to get used to their new life as Niles and Larry searched for ways to make them grow again. Cliff spent his time using chunks of cheese to lure a rat that lived in the mansion,a rat he then proceeded to hit as soon as it got close to the cheese. While working on his toy car, Dorothy approached him and expressed her desire to drive with Cliff, who reluctantly accepted, during the ride

 File:Tiny Robotman.png   Cliff began to have memories of his accident which worried Dorothy while releasing one of her Imaginary friends, which frightened Cliff and made him hurt her feelings in front of Niles, who implored him to take his anger out on him and not his daughter, but Cliff had no remorse now that he knew that The Chief was responsible for his accident.

At one point while Niles eats a breakfast that Dorothy made, Cliff purposely interrupts it as he still very angry with Niles. Niles, for his part chooses to tell him that he needs to work on himself. Thus, he and Jane decide to leave and head on a road trip to Florida to see Cliff's daughter, Clara. In Florida, Cliff goes to his daughter's home and tells her who he is and also discovers that she's pregnant. But this doesn't go particularly well, with Cliff overwhelming Clara. She closes the door on him, but he refuses to leave, resulting in the police coming after she called them. Thus, Cliff realizes he's been selfish and eventually, he and Jane leave. Eventually, Niles after failing to repair Danny and begins working on a Robotman 2.0 for Cliff. Trying to feel more human, Cliff settles into a night of altered consciousness thanks to the Niles-supplied ecstasy flowing through the liquid where his human brain’s suspended. Some time passes and Cliff discovers Chief's plans for Robotman 2.0 which Chief explains would include a sense of touch, but they will take time to work out. Cliff eventually tells Vic about the Chief's plans to give him a sense of touch and they go to Detroit to talk to Vic's dad. While hanging out with Vic, Cliff imagines himself and Vic working as superhero duo and stopping crime. Eventually, he snaps out of it, when he witnesses an actual crime in progress, but his arm freezes as he tries to stop it and he accidentally severs the bad guy's finger which Cliff then keeps.

### Family bond

When Dorothy goes off to space, Cliff and the Chief use a spaceship to find her. The two of them then arrive at where Dorothy is currently located, the Chief tasks Cliff with getting Dorothy back. Cliff finds Dorothy making a grave and he sits with her. Dorothy reveals that she's making a grave for Manny, as he was the last thing she had left of her mother. Cliff then tells her about his daughter and says that she's not alone in her pain. They bond and head back to the spaceship together.

 File:Dorothy and Cliff bond on the Moon.png
After rescuing Dorothy and while they're still in space, Cliff tells Chief that he's down to be there for Dorothy as family and that they're ready to go home, but Chief says that they aren't going home and jettisons Cliff back to earth. Cliff then returns to Earth, crashes through a billboard and decides to walk to Doom Manor.

Cliff makes it home and finds Clara there waiting for him and mentions that she got Niles' confession tape in the mail, the two of them bond, Cliff realizing that Clara is marrying a woman. Seeing his daughter struggling with the fear of failing at marriage given his own bad record with them, Cliff reassures her with an awkward but ultimately well-meaning advice and before she leaves, Clara invites Cliff to her wedding.

## Personality

Cliff is an complex person, just like the rest of his "family", although he is kind, loyal, open minded, accepting and has a strong paternal nature to not only is own daughter but to Jane, Cyborg and later Dorothy. Despite his good personality traits he is what is described as an adrenaline junkie, originally aspiring to the thrill seeking career of a race car driver, but his fast rise to success went to his head and his compulsion evolved into sex, alcohol and drugs destroying his once happy marriage. Even as a robot, when he was fighting Von Fuchs he lost control of himself and slaughtered dozens and instantly regret it afterwards.

After his "accident" and death of his wife, cliff experienced severe survivors guilt that subsequently heightened his underlying anger issues, which leaves him fragile, prone to bursts of rage and to speak almost in constant profanity.

Cliff is though very self aware to his faults and even though no matter how miserable he is in his robotic body, he see it makes him a better person, even refusing Mr Nobody's offer to change his history and regain his humanity.

## Powers and abilities

### Powers

* **Cybernetic enhancements**: After his accident, Cliff was left with only his brain functioning, prompting Niles Caulder to build him a brand new body, the outer shell formed by multiple layers of special flexible ceramic metal.
	+ **Enhanced strength:** Due to his robotic physiology, Cliff is capable of lifting much more than an average human, which was demonstrated when he lifted up a piece of street in order to create a barrier against Rita Farr. He was able to overpower and tackle Cyborg through a solid wood wall. He has also shown to be able to throw and tear apart human bodies with ease and send a far larger animal than himself flying across the air, such as the rats when he was shrunk.
	+ **Enhanced durability**: Cliff’s robot body is highly durable, described by the chief as an "Indestructible Man" and dose indeed seem to be resistant if not impervious to concussive force, so much so that he fell to earth from space and the only injury he received was his legs temporary malfunctioning hours later. Cliff's vulnerability is limited though to edged superior metals e.g. Cyborgs robotic finger projected by an explosion and Silver Tongue's words.
	+ **Superhuman stamina**: Due to his robot body, Cliff has no need for food or sleep and he does not tire.
	+ **Psychic immunity:** Cliff's robot body gives him at least some degree of immunity to mind control as he was able to resist Karen's ability to make others feel affection for her. He was also immune to Flex Mentallo's ability to make the rest of the team orgasm.
	+ **Immortality**: Cliff's robot body makes him immune to ageing and means he will live indefinitely.
	+ **Disease Immunity**: Cliff's robot body makes him immune to all diseases and toxins.
	+ **Oxygen independence:** Cliff’s Robot body allows him to be able to breath in space.

### Abilities

* **Driving:** Being a former race car driver, Cliff possesses finely honed driving capabilities.
* **Dancing:** Prior to his accident, Cliff watched the movie *Flashdance* a total of 87 times, and as a result is familiar with a variety of dances.

* **Hand-to-hand Combat:** Cliff has shown to possess moderate fighting skills, using his enhanced strength and highly durable robot body to his advantage. He was able to easily overpower Heinrich Von Fuchs' clones and tear them apart.

### Weaknesses

* **Loss of senses:** Without an organic body, Cliff lost three of the human body's five senses: taste, smell, and touch.
* **Reduced speed:** Cliff is slower than an average human since his metal body weighs a substantial amount.
* **Trauma:** Cliff's experiences have left him very emotionally fragile and he still struggles greatly with the emotional toll of his accident, as well as losing his body and being unable to experience most of the typical human senses.
* **Malnutrition:** While being only a brain in a robot body makes Cliff effectively immortal, his brain still requires nutrition to stay alive. His body is fitted with a nutrient tank to keep him alive. Any disruption of that tank can cause him to go hallucinate, or worse, like having a stroke.

## Appearances

### *Season 2*

* "Fun Size Patrol"
* "Tyme Patrol"
* "Pain Patrol"
* "Sex Patrol"
* "Finger Patrol"
* "Space Patrol"
* "Dumb Patrol"
* "Wax Patrol"

## Gallery

### Promotional images

Human Cliff Promo.jpgCliff Promo.jpgSeason 1 character poster - Robotman.pngRobotman posterCliff Tyme Patrol.pngDoomPatrolS2DIGITALTeaPatrolRobotMan.jpgSeason 2 Character poster
## Behind the scenes

* In the DC comics, Cliff Steele is a member of the Doom Patrol known as "Robotman".
* In each episode of Doom Patrol, Cliff says: “What the Fuck?” as he is often confused and surprised by the strange situations the Doom Patrol find themselves in.

## References

it:Cliff Steele (Terra-21)