Commander Adam Malkovich

''"You will report your full name and rank immediately... Or I will take my whole damned fleet and get the hell out of here." -Adam Malkovich

Adam Malkovich was the celebrated military genius that served as the only Commanding Officer to Samus Aran during her time in the Galactic Federation. The only information available about Adam is from Samus’s own words and depictions of him. He is described as being gruff, harsh, a perfect military mind, relentless in criticism, but not a machine obsessed with duty. The way he is described suggests that Samus had begrudging respect and admiration for him that has since grown. We first learn of Adam from Samus's soliloquies in Metroid Fusion.

Malkovich would call Samus “lady” during missions and he managed to make it sound dignified where it would seem sarcastic from anybody else. When giving her orders he would end with “Any objections, lady?” The question was rhetorical as he knew she wouldn’t disagree. It was just a phrase to denote their trust.

It is known that Adam sacrificed his own life to save Samus at some point after her time under him as a member of the Federation Police and after she arrived on Zebes for the third time (the events of Metroid Zero Mission).

Interestingly, he is two characters in one. In the beginning of Metroid Fusion, Samus mentions that Adam was the only CO she ever had previously (which supports the theory that his death spurred her to take her leave from the Galactic Federation) but is given a new CO during Metroid Fusion in the form of a shipboard computer. The computer reminds her of her former CO so she decides (with noted irony) to name it Adam.

At the end of Metroid Fusion, when the ship's computer Adam informs Samus that the Galactic Federation will soon be landing aboard the Biologic Space Laboratories research station to try and capture the SA-X to use it for military purposes, Samus questions the orders and accidentally calls the computer Adam. This leads to a conversation where Samus realizes that somehow (the computer says, "any objections lady?" after giving her an order to crash the station), the computer is the real Adam Malkovich. With the computer's identity established, it decides to help Samus and agrees with her about the X threat. The two of them conspire a means to destroy the research station, and catch the planet SR388 in the ensuing vaporization field, and hopefully destroy the X threat for good.

It comes to light later in the game that it is a common practice to upload the minds of great leaders and scientists into computer form, and this is evidently what happened with Adam Malkovich and Samus's new gunship.

Malkovich has a small role in a few chapters of Metroid (manga), as a commanding officer who arrives after Samus' first mission in the Galactic Federation Police. He allows Samus to investigate Zebes for Chozo survivors before the Federation attacks. He also pilots the Federation Army Special Ops Battleship Vixin IV.