A.I.M.

Real Name: Advanced Idea Mechanics

AKA: THEM.
Headed By: The Scientist Supreme. Various people have held this post over the years; since becoming the Scientist Supreme means sacrificing one's name, the post is usually anonymous.
First Appearance: Strange Tales 135
What's Their Problem? Originally the scientific division of HYDRA, A.I.M. survived HYDRA's initial defeat but splintered into several factions. One of A.I.M.'s more temperamental experimental successes, Modok, took over a section of A.I.M. and severed all ties with the parent organization; other cadres spent their time either attacking Modok or working on esoteric technological weaponry. After years of following Modok's whims, the main body of A.I.M. revolted against his dictatorship and ousted him from the organization, eventually using the Serpent Squad to dispose of him. With all parts of the organization re-united, A.I.M. returned to technological advancement as a means for world conquest. Today A.I.M. remain at odds with HYDRA, with both following different ideological paths and attempting different terrorist tactics to control the same planet.

Abilities: A.I.M. only permits brilliant scientists and technicians to join its ranks, although no-one at the organization has enough smarts to avoid super-hero types until after their sinister plans have reached fruition. They are responsible for a number of inventions that have plagued the world, including various androids (most notably the Super-Adaptoid), the unbelievably powerful Cosmic Cube, and their own sometime leaders Modok and Modam. In addition, A.I.M. has at its disposal vast technical resources, which includes an elaborate network of underwater bases, vehicles capable of space flight, and the sort of off-the-wall weaponry only comic book writers can come up with. All members of A.I.M. are fanatics, with individual members often choosing suicide over capture.

Heroes It Keeps Running Into: It was Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. who first exposed A.I.M. as a subversive organization rather than the techno-think-tank the public at large assumed it to be. The technologically-minded Iron Man is another continual foe; A.I.M. scored a major victory against his alter ego, Tony Stark, when it infected Stark's dream project, a space station, with a virus that made human habitation of the station impossible. Quasar has trouble keeping his Quantum Bands on his wrists around A.I.M. operatives, who are fascinated by the alien technology and determined to attain them at all costs. And Captain America has squared off many times against A.I.M.'s prize invention, the Cosmic Cube, which is all too often wielded by his own arch-enemy, the Red Skull.
Most Despicable Act: A.I.M. annexed the Caribbean island of Boca Caliente by vaporizing half of it with a microwave beam transmission, and bombing the other half into submission (Iron Man 207). Of course, they little realized at the time they were setting themselves up for a major defeat; they were later betrayed from within by the vengeance-minded Clytemnestra Erwin, and almost completely wiped out when she fired through front-line A.I.M. troops attempting to kill Iron Man. This latter fiasco may be why A.I.M. in recent years has put some of its world domination goals on the back burner. Using Boca Caliente as its main base of operations, A.I.M. has been concentrating on producing high-tech weapons for fun and profit -- and selling them to the highest bidder without asking what the purchaser plans on using 'em for.