OVERRIDER

Real Name: Richard Rennsalaer

Identity/Class: Human mutant

Occupation: Former intelligence agent

Group Membership: Former agent of SHIELD and Roxxon

Affiliations: Utilized Tess-One; Former partner of Angar the Screamer, Assault and Battery, Ivory, Mad Dog, and Smokescream

Enemies: Captain America, Nick Fury, Nuklo, SHIELD II, and Wolverine

Known Relatives: Son (unnamed)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile; Danbury, Connecticut;

First Appearance: Captain America Annual#8 (1986)

Powers: Rennsalaer could control electrical systems, enabling him to mentally operate machinery, as well as control computers and robots. He was limited by the fact that he must be within close proximity to a target for his powers to work. In addition, he lost control of his targets when he slept or lost consciousness.

As Overrider, he used a small hovercraft device to travel. He wore a helmet and a bulletproof uniform.

He once used the robot Tess-One as his agent.

History: (Nick Fury, agent of Shield III#33(fb)) - Richard Rennsalaer was a mutant whose powers surfaced at an unknown age. He served as an agent of the organization SHIELD I (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division) for an unknown period of time. He had a son, who questioned him about information regarding nuclear weapons and the arms race. After he explained this information to him, his son began to become more withdrawn. Eventually his son was admitted to the Volman Center for Disturbed Children in West Virginia, where he was diagnosed with Nuclear Psychosis, an overwhelming dread that the world would end at any moment, resulting in total withdrawal from reality.

(Captain America Annual#8) - Rennsalaer came to believe that the only way he could regain his son was to somehow eliminate the threat of nuclear war. He decided that he could use his power to do so, by taking control of the USA's nuclear arsenal and launching it into the ocean. Rennsalaer realized that the short-range nature of his power would make it difficult to break into America's Nuclear Command Center; to enable him to do so, he used his SHIELD training to locate a powerful ally, and then broke into a nearly forgotten underground vault and activated and took control of the robot Tess-One (Total Elimination of Super-Soldiers).

Tess received some damage in conflict with Wolverine, while returning to its original programming when Rennsalaer slept. In order to make it more durable, he and Tess broke into Adametco, where he had the robot coated with adamantium. Both Wolverine and Captain America (who had been alerted to the theft of Tess) managed to track them to Adametco, but both escaped unscathed.

Rennsalaer and Tess subsequently broke into the Nuclear Command Center and proceeded with his original plan. Captain America and Wolverine again tracked and engaged them. Rennsalaer succeeded in taking control of everything electronic in the entire facility and began to initiate the launch of the missiles. However, Cap and Wolverine succeeded in overcoming Tess, and then Cap took the Overrider out with his shield. Wolverine contemplated skewering him as he fell to the ground, but he instead let him fall to the ground.

(Nick Fury, agent of Shield III#34-35) - After recovering, Rennsalaer was next seen acting as a mercenary. He was recruited by Angar the Screamer (at the time known only as the Voice) to assist in a Roxxon contract to steal the SHIELD II (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate) Helicarrier. Working with a group of mercenaries, they succeeded in stealing the Helicarrier. As a self-defense mechanism, the Helicarrier was set to detonate within 24 hours of being taken by outside forces if it did not receive the proper code. Despite his ability to control electronics, Rennsalaer was unable to stop the countdown to the explosion, as all of the computer circuitry within the Helicarrier was shielded against psionic energy. When Nick Fury and his group of new SHIELD Super-Agents stormed the Helicarrier, Rennsalaer ambushed them. However, Fury's expert fighting skills enabled him to quickly overpower and defeat Overrider. Fury and his allies defeated all of the mercenaries, and he deactivated the self-destruct code, retaking the Helicarrier for SHIELD.

(New Avengers#16-19 - BTS) - Overrider lost his powers on M-Day and the energies removed from him were combined with a number of other mutant energies to empower the powerful being Michael.