A Life Model Decoy (frequently known by the abbreviation LMD) is one type of android appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
A Life Model Decoy (or LMD for short) is a S.H.I.E.L.D.-designed robot that duplicates all outward aspects of a living person. The owner can see through, speak through, and control everything the Life Model Decoy does. Nick Fury's Life Model Decoys are probably the most common in the Marvel Universe.
It is designed to function as an exact body double for VIPs. Their design is such that they mimic the subject's outer appearance (i.e., fingerprints, hair, all details of the skin), speech patterns, scent, iris and retina patterns, body language, thought patterns (to fool telepaths), and any other biological indicators. Aside from any invasive procedure and vulnerability to strong EMP, they are indistinguishable from the original.
LMDs first appeared in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965) in which the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. created LMDs of agent Nick Fury to use as decoys for an attack by HYDRA.
Powers and abilities
As an android, a Life-Model Decoy possesses all of the various superhuman attributes:
Superhuman Strength – An LMD is super-strong and possesses strength beyond the human limit.Superhuman Speed – An LMD can run and move at speeds that are beyond human physical limits.Superhuman Durability – An LMD's construction makes them very durable.Superhuman Stamina – An LMD can exert itself well beyond a normal human's limit.Superhuman Agility – An LMD's agility, balance and coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond natural human physical limits.Quick Repair – Nanites working within the LMD allow for self-repair similar to an enhanced Healing Factor.There were some known Life Model Decoys that were modeled after different people. Here are the ones that were seen:
281 – 361 – 391 – 399 – 442 – 737 – Amber D’Alexis – The Life Model Decoy of the mother of Mikel Fury.Annie – A female Life Model Decoy created and programmed by Bruce Banner to assist Red Hulk between missions.Ant-Man III – A Life Model Decoy created by Father.Black Widow – Bucky – Chuck – A Life Model Decoy who was the driver for Red Hulk and Annie. He was destroyed by Black Fog.Deadpool – Someone had created a bunch of Deadpool Life Model Decoys that attacked Deadpool.Dum Dum Dugan – Glenn Talbot – A Life Model Decoy of the original Glenn Talbot, whose extensive programming led it to believe that not only was it alive, but that it was the real Glenn Talbot brought back from death. Surprisingly revealed to the readers to be an L.M.D. during the World War Hulks storyline when Red Hulk suddenly tore its head off its body.Iron Man – Joanie – A Life Model Decoy created by A.I.M. to infiltrate the youth culture in the 1970s. She later became an ally of Dimitrios.Maria Hill – Had a Life Model Decoy during her tenure as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.Nick Fury – Nick Fury had a lot of Life Model Decoys which were common in the Marvel Universe.Max Fury – An enhanced S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury that was stolen by Scorpio. It later took on the name of Max Fury when it was recruited into the Shadow Council.Nightshade – Sharon Carter – Steve Rogers – Thor – Thunderbolt Ross – A Life Model Decoy of General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross which replaced the General to cover up his transformations into Red Hulk.Tony Stark – He used a number of Life Model Decoys.Valentina Rychenko – In the "Heroes Reborn" universe, Captain America was brainwashed into quietly living in the suburbs, for his protection, and his wife and son were LMDs. Nick Fury used an LMD for Captain America during secret missions.
The protagonists from Project Livewire are descended from LMD technology and Mannite technology. It turns out that the main antagonist of the series are rogue Nick Fury LMDs as well.
In the The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Breakout, Part 2," a Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury is destroyed by Graviton while taking the place of the actual Nick Fury. In "Secret Invasion," the "Maria Hill" that the Skrulls executed was a Life Model Decoy (a scene taken directly from the comic book storyline of the same name).In the Iron Man: Armored Adventures episode "Extremis," a Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury was used to confront ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Mallen and ended up destroyed.The Life Model Decoys appear in the Ultimate Spider-Man episode "The Man-Wolf." Here, they are used to train Spider-Man and his team and are able to roughly duplicate the powers of whoever they are disguised as. In the episode "Game Over," Spider-Man's team fights standard Life Model Decoy in the first round (Spider-Man referring to that round as a game of "Whack-A-Dummy") and deadlier Life Model Decoy models in the second round. This training was to prepare Spider-Man's team to take on Arcade. When Captain America and Spider-Man arrive in Madripoor, they find the entrance to Arcade's lair where Wolverine is fighting Life Model Decoy ninjas. They discover that Arcade had stolen some of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Life Model Decoys when the heroes defeated their Life Model Decoy counterparts. Arcade then unleashes multiple Hulk Life Model Decoys which are defeated by Captain America and Wolverine. Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine leave to the next area when Arcade unleashes multiple Red Hulk Life Model Decoys on them.The Life Model Decoys appear in the Avengers Assemble episode "Avengers Disassembled." A bunch of Life Model Decoys made up the S.H.I.E.L.D. drop team that accompanied Captain America when it comes to assisting the Avengers and Spider-Man into fighting an Ultron-controlled Super-Adaptoid. Unfortunately for Captain America, Ultron hacked into the communications and told the drop team to deploy prematurely. Ultron takes the opportunity to convert the Life Model Decoys to serve him causing the Avengers and Spider-Man to destroy them. Ultron later used a Life Model Decoy to serve as a diversion by having it pose as Ultron so that Ultron can hack into J.A.R.V.I.S. and Stark Tower. In the episode "The Ultron Outbreak," the Life Model Decoy that Ultron corrupted has taken his Ultron nano-virus corruption to other parts of the world.The Life Model Decoys appear in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). In the episode "Ascension," Holden Radcliffe uploads the L.M.D. film from a S.H.I.E.L.D. project. He plans to work with Leo Fitz on it and place his AI, AIDA, in it. In the episode "The Ghost," AIDA's Life Model Decoy body appears portrayed by Mallory Jansen. Fitz has his encounter with her when visiting Holden Radcliffe. While getting answers from AIDA about what the Life Model Decoy will do, Fitz advises Radcliffe not to have the Life Model Decoys ready to show to S.H.I.E.L.D. yet. When Coulson and Fitz are trapped in an alternate dimension, AIDA uses the Darkhold to construct a portal to the other dimension, saving the two. In the episode "The Laws of Inferno Dynamics", AIDA helps the team to defeat Eli Morrow using the portal. She also kidnaps and replaces May with an LMD of her, killing Agent Nathanson who discovers her secret; it later turns out to be part of Radcliffe's plan to get the Darkhold to find the secret of immortality. The second third of the fourth season is subtitled "LMD." In the episode "Wake Up," Holden Radcliffe makes a Life Model Decoy of himself that gets arrested upon S.H.I.E.L.D. catching onto his plans. While Leo Fitz was the first to discover that the Radcliffe that they have is a Life Model Decoy upon shooting it, this is watched through Holden Radcliffe's tablet at the time when he meets with Senator Ellen Nadeer for protection from the Watchdogs. In the episode "Hot Potato Soup," Phil Coulson and Daisy Johnson figure out that May was replaced by a Life Model Decoy where Daisy uses her abilities to disable the Life Model Decoy. Radcliffe left the May Life Model Decoy behind where it was deactivated. The Life Model Decoy of Holden Radcliffe was destroyed. In the episode "The Man Behind the Shield," AIDA has made Life Model Decoys of Phil Coulson, Alphonso MacKenzie, and Jeffrey Mace which Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons secretly figured out. The Phil Coulson LMD fixes and reactivates the Melinda May LMD in order to further Holden Radcliffe and AIDA's plot. In the episode "Self Control," it was shown that AIDA had the Life Model Decoys of Phil Coulson, Leo Fitz, Alphonso MacKenzie, and Jeffrey Mace had smuggled in a bunch of Life Model Decoys of Daisy Johnson in order to replace Daisy while the real operatives were trapped in the Framework. Upon using sleeping gas, Daisy was able to destroy the Life Model Decoys of Jeffrey Mace and Al MacKenzie while Jemma had those that were trained by Melinda May subjected to the Sleeping Gas antidote where she advised them to get every other personnel onto the Zephyr. As Daisy and Jemma make their escape on the Zephyr, the Life Model Decoy of Melinda May sacrifices her life to blow up the explosives near her destroying herself and the Life Model Decoy of Phil Coulson.Life Model Decoys appeared in the Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. film.In The Avengers, Tony Stark tries to avoid a phone call from S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson by claiming in an answering machine/voice-mail fashion that the caller has reached Tony Stark's Life Model Decoy instead.In Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, the Helicarrier's computer tells Spider-Man during the Cairo, Egypt briefing that she had lied by stating that the real Nick Fury was a Life Model Decoy.Life Model Decoys of Nick Fury appear in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.In Disney Infinity 2.0, Nick Fury creates a Life Model Decoy of himself for his special ability.