The Steel Clan was Xanatos's first attempt to replace
the Manhattan clan with a more tractable clan of his own. A series of
robots the steel clan represented a vast improvment over the
gargoyles in the mind of the megalomaniac. The robots could fly, not
glide, they didn't spend the day as stone, they were stronger and
could be equiped with the latest weapons, and they had no mind of
their own, unquestionalably performing Xanatos's directives. He
tested them out by trying to have them destroy the originals. They
failed miserably, their lack of a mind enable the Manhattan Clan to
trick them into firing on one another, flying into each other and
buildings, and a couple were simple ripped apart by the gargoyles.
The technology did not got to waste however. Xanatos made himself a
battle-suit fashioned after them , giving him all the advantages of a
steel clan robot with the advantage of a tricky mind. Later that same
technology was used to help create Coldstone, a steel clan/magic
gagoyle cyborg. Still later the robots themselves made an appearence
as cannon fodder against Oberon who was trying to steal Xanatos' and
Fox's child Alexander. Vulnerable to cold iron, the robots were a
poweful, if ultimatly futlie, weapon.
As a thank you to Goliath and the Manhattan Clan, Xanatos also had
two special Steel Clan robots built. The two resembled the two "good"
souls trapped in the Coldstone cyborg along with a third evil
personality. After some tricky mechanizations by Own/Puck, they were
released into the two robots, apparently with no strings
attatched.