PLUGPLUG
Real Name: Michael Silverman Rafani
Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (Ultraverse) human mutate/ultra
Occupation: Adventurer
Group Membership: Freex
Affiliations: had a relationship with
Angela (Sweetface);
allies with: Academy of the New Elite, Contrary, Firearm (Alec Swan),
Night Man, Old Man, Prime, Captain Jacob Rome, Ruby, Rush;
Prometheus (created wetware
that mutated them);
Entity from the Moon (distant
antagonist
Enemies: Aladdin, Bloodhounds, Contrary, Fire People, Guardian of the Cave, J. D. Hunt, Lost Angel, Mangle, Master of the Hunt, Monsters of the Fire People, Night Patrol, NuWare Wolves, Rafferty, Savior of the Fire People, Wrath
Base of Operations: Mobile across
California, especially San Francisco;
Known Relatives: Jalal Rafani (father, deceased), Natalie Silverman (mother, deceased)
Aliases: Aladdin ID Code: U-108
Base of Operations: Mobile across California, especially San Francisco;
First Appearance: Freex#1 (July, 1993)
Powers/Abilities: Michael can dissolve into electronic form and interface directly with all electrical and electronic systems. He apparently also possesses some electromagnetic power that enables him to pull together assorted electrical implements and animate them. He can take control of complex devices, but sometimes has difficulty learning to master them immediately. His powers may significantly increase with age, beyond that at his initial power level at age 16.
Michael is extremely intelligent, though very shy and awkward. He does tend to gain more confidence the more time he spends around others and has asserted himself sufficiently to become leader of the Freex
Height (human form): 5'7" Weight (human form): 170#
History:
(Freex#5 (fb) - BTS) - Michael was one of a number of infants in
a hospital injected by the woman known as Wetware Mary with
nanotechnology derived from the Fire People, intended to create a
race of super warriors.
(Freex#11 (fb)) - Michael is the son of a chemical engineer and a patents lawyer, who taught him that he would only get their love of he earned it through achievements. He excelled academically, though not socially, at an early age. Fascinated by computers from fourth grade, he was an electronics whiz right from the start.
(Freex#2 (fb)) - One night while working late in the computer lab, he had the misfortune of being present when a group of punks broke in to steal some computers. They grabbed his head and began smashing his face into the monitor, until his powers surfaced from the stress and he entered the world of "cyberspace."
(Freex#11 (fb)) - From the datastream, Michael
learned that someone was hunting and capturing kids with freakish
powers. Seeing his own address amongst the list, he returned to
his house via his own computer, only to hear several loud pops
and then see men standing over his parents and setting the house
on fire. His parents dead, Michael fled back into cyberspace. His
house burned down, and both of his parents were killed. Foul play
was considered, with Michael as a potential suspect, though there
was no known motive.
Shortly thereafter, computer technicians at
Aladdin discovered Michael's presence, as he was poking through
computer files in search of other wetware-induced "freaks"
like himself.
(Freex#8 (fb)/ 1(fb)) - Calling himself Plug, Michael contacted Lewis (Anything), telling him there were others like him.
(Ultraverse Presents#0/6) - Michael sent Lewis (and another freak he had found, Ray, aka Boom Boy), a message which they followed to locate and recruit Valerie (Pressure), pulling her away from a confrontation in a Laundromat.
(Freex#1 (fb)) - Michael contacted a fourth member, Angela (Sweetface), and instructed her on how she might find others like her.
(Freex#1) - In a composite electronics form, Michael confronted the others after they had found Angela. He explained that it was he who had brought them all there.
(Freex#2) - Michael's composite form freaked out Valerie, who blasted and shattered it. As the others tried to calm her down and ended up in a struggle with the cops, Michael convinced Ray to put him back together, and he was able to return to his human form. When Lewis and Angela returned, Michael explained himself, but they all had to flee when the police arrived.
(Freex#3) - Michael was shot while fleeing the police, and as he lay bleeding to death he was able to tell Angela to put him in contact with a neon sign, so that he could convert into electromagnetic form. Following a computer data trail, Michael used other neon lights to direct the other Freex to meet him. He led them to a Biotex lab, where another ultra, Rush, had led Valerie into a conflict that had caused an explosion. Michael inhabited a robot unit at Biotex and joined the other Freex in opposing Rush, and then fleeing the Master of the Hunt and the Bloodhounds, who attacked them all. Ultimately, they escaped and convinced Val to tell Rush to hit the highway.
(Prime I#8/2) - Unable to sleep, the Freex discussed what they saw when they closed their eyes. For Angela, Lewis, Michael, and Val, it was how when they're powers surfaced their lives were changed; for Ray, when he closed his eyes, he saw little colored dots.
(Freex#4) - Michael was worried about whether he'd be able to return to normal, or if he would still be bleeding to death, and he nearly succumbed to the call of the Lost Angel. The Master of the Hunt and his Bloodhounds found and attacked the Freex again. They captured Michael, and then followed the trail of the others to the home of the modern day hippie Ruby, whom the Master shot.
(Freex#5) - Michael escaped his robot form and fled through an electrical outlet, returning to an intact human form outside. He returned to the others to find that they had managed to fight off the Master, and they fled into the night.
(Break-Thru#1) - Michael and the Freex observed the energies being released by the Entity from the Moon, and their effects on Val.
(Freex#6) - The Freex were duped into an alliance with Mangle, having no idea about his true nature. Michael and Angela were suspicious of Mangle, but Lewis trusted him and convinced the others to agree to join with him. Mangle led them on an assault on J. D. Hunt's estate. While the Freex took down Hunt's robot guards, Mangle attempted to assault Hunt's son, Guy, until he was stopped by the Night Man. The Freex mistakenly fought the Night Man, and then fled again with Mangle, continuing the pursuit of Guy.
(Night Man#3) - The Freex followed Mangle's
lead in pursuit of JD Hunt, but Michael managed to tap into a
radio transmission of the Night Man, warning of Mangle's evil.
When they stopped for gas, Michael entered a telephone line and
told Night Man where they were headed. Upon finding Hunt, the
Freex were attacked by JD Hunt's NuWare Wolves. Night Man arrived
and fought the other Freex loyal to Mangle and stopped the
villain from assaulting Guy Hunt.
The Freex fled during the final confrontation.
(Break-Thru#2) - As the ultras on the Moon joined their minds and energies against the Entity, the minds of all ultras, including the Freex were joined with the group effort. Afterwards, the energies ceased, and the Freex regained their senses, though they refused an offer for further aid from the Night Man.
(Wrath#4+5 - BTS) - Aladdin told Wrath that the Freex were a danger to society (with Michael being the worst threat of all) and sent him to bring them in. Michael was absent when Wrath attacked the group. The combined power of the Freex defeated Wrath, and they then left him bound in his own manacles to prevent him from coming after them again.
(Freex#7) - Lewis tried to get the group to head back to reunite with Ruby, but was hurt when both Angela and Michael disagreed with him. Michael continued his data search, encountering a nasty anti-virus program in the process. The others split up, separately tangling with the police and the Night Patrol. Upon regrouping, the rest of the group then sided with Michael in his plan to try to learn their origins. The despondent Michael was drawn into the realm of the Lost Angel.
(Freex#8) - The rest of the Freex managed to follow Lewis and save him from the Lost Angel. Lewis agreed that Michael's idead on learning their origins (and maybe returning to normal) were good, and he stepped down, allowing Michael to be in charge. After this they were confronted by the Old Man.
(Freex#9) - The Old Man easily defeated the Freex, incapacitating the others and taking Michael hostage, and told them that they needed a leader to train them. He then led them to escape another attack by the Night Patrol. Michael decided that they would refuse the Old Man and keep searching for their origins on their own. After the Old Man was gone, they realized that Ray was missing (abducted by Contrary and taken aboard her ship).
(Freex#10, 11) - Michael exhausted himself
fruitlessly searching cyberspace for info on what might have
happened to Ray. Lewis came up with the idea that the flying
object that took Ray might have come from Mt. Shasta, and he led
the group there to find him. As they approached, Michael tried to
"hack" into their systems, but wound up overloading his
mind due to the alien datastreams. His mind split in half, and he
was left a drooling idiot, spouting machine language. The others
carried him to Mt. Shasta, where the whole group was captured by
Contrary who sought to force them all to join her.
Michael eventually regained his mind and broke
the Freex free, but as they battled Contary's young wards in the
Academy, Ray announced that he had decided to stay with Contrary
to gain an education. Cayman, one of the Academy, decided to join
the Freex.
BTS - The Freex were again joined by the Old Man.
(Prime I#13/2) - Prime traveled to the Midwest in an effort to confront the monsters of the Fire People that had crawled up from their underground city. The Freex were also investigating this--under the direction of the Old Man--and they ran into Prime while searching the China Lake Naval base.
(GS Freex#1) - After the standard fight of mistaken identities/motives, Prime joined the Freex and the Old Man in an investigation of the tunnels of the Fire People. In the depths of the realm of the Fire People, they found a number of statues with the appearance of the a number of unidentified superhumans, but also of what appeared to be the Freex themselves.
(Freex#12//Ultraforce I#1/2) - The Freex, Old Man, and Prime were attacked by several of the Monsters of the Fire People, but Michael located a group of headpieces that the Freex put on, allowing them to control the Monsters. Prime returned to the surface as the rest of the Freex continued their journey, encountering the Guardian of the Cave.
(Freex#13) - An image of Prometheus appeared and proclaimed the Freex to be the Someday Champions he had sought to create. However, upon realizing that they were surface dwellers, he sent the Guardian after them again. They used their headgear to stop the Guardian, but unwittingly awakened the Savior of the Fire People. Michael and Angela grew closer, sharing a kiss in private, much to Lewis' chagrin. Returning to the surface, they were once again targeted by the Night Patrol
(Freex#14) - Contrary helped the Freex defeat the Night Patrol--Michael attacked them by overloading their communications equipment. However, Ray, who had come along with the rest of the Academy, recognized that Contrary had been the one to give the Night Patrol the enhanced weaponry in the first place. The Freex went back down to the realm of the Fire People, where they found the Savior breaking out of his containment. Ray forced the door to the Savior shut again, and he then elected to stay behind to hold the door in case the Savior threatened to break out again.
(Firearm I#15) - Rafferty told Firearm that he was going to kill one of the Freex, then beat him senseless and sabotaged his gun. The dazed Firearm stumbled after him and instead collapsed amidst the Freex.
(Freex#15) - Arriving in San Francisco back on the surface, the Freex and the Old Man joined forces with Firearm in an effort to stop Rafferty, the killer of Ultras. The Freex fought the Night Patrol again, but Michael saw Rafferty aiming at Cayman and leapt in his arrow's path, taking the arrow in his own chest, and dying.
(Freex#16) - The Freex attended the funeral for Michael, along with the Academy members, Contrary, the Night Man, and Ruby. Later, the Freex headed back down to the land of the Fire People, but were pulled through a time warp. In mid-trip, Angela remembered Michael mentioning that he had left half of his mind in cyberspace after interfacing with Contrary's computers.
(Freex#17 - BTS) - The Freex returned through the time portal back towards Los Angeles. However, upon returning they had gained a new member, AJ, whom they all remembered as if he'd been with them all along (in place of Michael).
Comments: Created by Gerard Jones and Ben Herrera.
After the events of Black September (or BS for short), the Freex basically disappeared from sight (except Cayman). So, if we ever make it back to the Ultraverse (not likely), and if anyone were to remember the Freex, he could be downloaded from cyberspace and returned to existence...or maybe a copy of him could have been saved by a computer during the brief merging of realities during Black September.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Plug has no known connection to:
Appearances:
Ultraverse Presents#0/6
Freex#1-3 (July-September, 1993) - Gerard Jones (writer), Ben Herrera (pencils), Mike Christian (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#4 (October, 1993) - Gerard Jones (writer), David Williams (pencils), Mike Christian (inks), Hank Kanalz & Steve Gerber (editors)
Freex#5 (November, 1993) - Gerard Jones (writer), Ben Herrera (pencils), Larry Welch (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#6 (December, 1993) - Gerard Jones & Steve Englehart (writers), Ben Herrera (pencils), Reuben Rodriguez & Mike Christian (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Break-Thru#1 (December, 1993) – Gerard Jones, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, James D. Hudnall, Tom Mason, George Pérez & James Robinson & Len Strazewski (writers), Gerard Jones (script), George Pérez (pencils), John Lowe (inks), Chris Ulm & Hank Kanalz (editors)
Break-Thru#2 (January, 1994) – Gerard Jones (script), Gerard Jones, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, James D. Hudnall, Tom Mason, George Pérez, James Robinson & Len Strazewski (plot), George Pérez (pencils), Al Vey (inks), Hank Kanalz & Chris Ulm (editors)
Prime I#8 (January, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Walter Simonson (artist), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#7-8 (January-February, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Ben Herrera (pencils), Mike Christian (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#9 (March, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Martin Egeland (pencils), Tim Roddick (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#10-11 (April-May, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Ben Herrera (pencils), Mike Christian (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Wrath#4-5 (April-May, 1994) - David Ammerman & Mike W. Barr (writers), David Ammerman (pencils), Rodney Gates (inks), Dan Danko (editor)
Freex#12 (June, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Prime I#13 (July, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jonathan Holdredge (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Giant-Size Freex#1 (July, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Ultraforce I#1 (August, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), George Perez (pencils), Al Vey (inks), Chris Ulm & Hank Kanalz (editors)
Freex#13-14 (September-October, 1994) - Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Firearm I#15 (December, 1994) - James Robinson (writer), Mike Edsey (pencils), Mike Christian (inks)
Freex#15 (January, 1995) - Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jon Holdrege & Reed (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#16 (January, 1995) - Gerard Jones (writer), Klebs de Moura e. Silva (pencils), Rick Magyar, Reuben Rodriguez & Mike Christian (inks), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Freex#17 (February, 1995) - Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Phil Crain (editor)
First Posted: 11/05/2003
Last updated: 04/30/2006
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!