Steel Massimo (original)

"You...you have much strength...you just don’t realize it...you can be even stronger...than I was...take...the armor...be strong..."

- The original Steel Massimo's final words to the new Steel Massimo before his death

The original Steel Massimo (鋼鉄のマッシモ) is a minor character in Mega Man X: Command Mission. Despite his brief appearance, Massimo played a heavy part in the story of the new Steel Massimo that joins the player's party, passing his armor and name down to the cowardly Reploid and urging him to find the strength hidden inside of him and carry on the Steel Massimo name.

History
Steel Massimo is a well-renowned warrior, as even Spider had heard of Massimo's contributions to the fight against the Rebellion Army. At some point a cowardly Reploid, who is now known as the current Steel Massimo, sought out original Steel Massimo in an attempt to become stronger and overcome his fears, and the two spent an unknown amount of time together. Eventually the two joined the Resistance and began fighting the Rebellion Army, though the original Massimo was captured by Silver Horn and tortured to the brink of death for refusing to join them. Sometime during this, he passed on his armor and name to the new Massimo, who later finds mentor chained to the ceiling, missing his limbs and bottom half of his body and barely alive. The original Massimo encourages the new Massimo to find his inner strength and overcome his fears and carry on the Steel Massimo name before dying. The new Steel Massimo eventually grants his mentor's wish during his time with X and the others, confidently carrying the name and becoming a hero.

Trivia

 * Whereas the Massimo that joins X and the party is a humanoid Reploid, the original Steel Massimo had a beast-like design, sporting a tail, and his head completely filled his animal-snout shaped helmet.
 * It is believed that the original Steel Massimo wielded a sword as opposed to a bladed polearm. This idea comes from a poster seen in the Sky Room, "Viva La Resistance!", which shows a pair of characters in a pseudo-silhouette wearing the Steel Massimo armor, with one figure holding a polearm and the other with a sword similar to Zero's Z Rapier. This is also hinted at by one of Massimo's concept art pieces, which depicts the original Steel Massimo wearing the armor (he is less upright of posture and has a tail) and holding a sword.