ORPHAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial sentient technology (unknown race)

Occupation: Turning dreams into reality

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Aborigines, Dreamguard (Willie Walkaway), Force Works (Century, Iron Man (Stark), Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman (Carpenter), U.S. Agent)
    formerly: Alf Robbins, Shane Mundy, twenty generations of Dreamguards

Enemies: Alf Robbins, Shane Mundy
    formerly: Force Works, Officer Graham, Officer Barry Jardine, residents of Kagoona Crossing, Deputy Willie Walkaway

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Gowanga Gorge (Dreaming Country) in Southwestern Queensland, Australia

First Appearance: Force Works#9 (BTS; March, 1995);
    Force Works#10 (seen; April, 1995)

Powers/Abilities: It was built to be controlled by the minds of others. It could turn dreams and nightmares of those who merged with it into reality. Orphan spoke telepathically with certain people (seemingly only the Dreamguards) who possessed the "dream-sight", but it is unknown what the "dream-sight" was. Because its innocent mind didn't know the difference between right and wrong it could easily be used for evil deeds. It was physically immobile since it crash-landed on Earth.

(Force Works#9 (fb) - BTS) - Orphan's dreamguard tried to scare off Mundy and Robbins with a monster created through Orphan, but Mundy shot the dreamguard. Robbins and Mundy went to sleep inside Orphan. In the night Orphan merged with Mundy who immediately used Orphan to his own advantage. Robbins fled from Orphan when he saw something terrible coming from his partner.

(Force Works#9 - BTS) - Robbins ran to Kagoona Crossing followed by monsters created by Orphan from Mundy's dreams. Fuelled by Robbins delirium tremens the monsters attacked Kagoona Crossing until Iron Man injected Robbins with pure adrenaline. Meanwhile all Kagoona Crossing residents asleep at the time fell into a coma seemingly being trapped in their dreams by Orphan's powers. Later Mundy used Orphan to create a giant, red-glowing skeleton from his dreams and attacked Force Works with it when they entered the Dreaming Country.

(Force Works#10) - Orphan talked to Walkaway on the dreamscape about its origins while Force Works were drawn into their personal nightmares. Walkaway and Force Works were able to break out of their dreams and went to Orphan. Once again Mundy dreamt about monsters and they became real through Orphan's powers and attacked the heroes. U.S. Agent and Spider-Woman entered Orphan and found Mundy inside. Spider-Woman used her psi-web on Mundy which enabled Orphan to send a feedback of dream energy back to Mundy to kill him. Orphan was free again from Mundy's bad influence and Walkaway stayed with the alien as its new Dreamguard.

Comments: Created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Jim Calafiore & Rey Garcia.

All the bad things Orphan did where under Shane Mundy's influence. Orphan was abused by him and was therefore not a villain in this story.

Orphan's existence on Earth-616 and its obvious connection to Australian mythology doesn't rule out the real mythological characters behind Dreamtime entirely. Orphan lived in a specific area and Aborigines lived in tribes all over Australia. There were many other places for real aboriginal gods to get some recognition. Follow the link to meet a character who could've been a real aboriginal god.

Profile by Markus Raymond

CLARIFICATIONS:
Orphan has no known connection to:

• Orphan, X-Statix member Guy Smith @ X-Force I#30
• Orphan Maker, aka. Peter the agent of Nanny @ X-Factor I#30
• or to any orphan character

Shane Mundy has no known conncetion to:

• to any character with a similar name

Alf Robbins has no known conncetion to:

• Robbins, Cody, childhood friend of Rogue @ Uncanny X-Men#185
• Robbins, "Sagebrush", Morbius ally @ Vampire Tales#7
• Robbins, Mrs., mother of the Hood @ Hood#1
• Robbins, Parker, aka. the Hood @ Hood#1
• Robbins, Strudevant E., aka. Bobster @ Web of Spider-Man#83
• or to any other character with a similar name

Shane Mundy

(Force Works#9 (fb) ) - The psychopathic Mundy fled with his partner Robbins after a successful bank robbery. Mundy thought that it was okay to flee through the tribal country down by Gowanga Gorge. There they met an old Aborigine who tried to scare them off with a monstrous illusion, but Mundy killed him with his shotgun. Mundy and Robbins went to sleep inside Orphan. Mundy merged with the alien and his nightmares became reality.

(Force Works#9 - BTS) - Mundy's monsters followed Robbins to Kagoona Crossing. Later Mundy attacked Force Works with a red-glowing, giant skeleton created through his connection to Orphan when they entered the Dreaming Country.

(Force Works#10) - Shane Mundy started another attack on Force Works and Walkaway when they approached Orphan. He sent out all the monsters Force Works had met before. Spider-Woman and U.S. Agent entered Orphan and found Mundy lying on the floor. They touched him and Spider-Woman's psi-web enabled Orphan to kill Mundy. The monsters created from Mundy's mind disappeared and his corpse was brought to the outside by U.S. Agent and Spider-Woman.

--Force Works#9 (Force Works#9 (fb), 9-10

Alf Robbins

(Force Works#9 (fb) ) - The alcoholic Robbins fled with his partner Mundy after a successful bank robbery. They came near the tribal country down by Gowanga Gorge and met an old Aborigine who tried to scare them off. After the old man was shot by Mundy, he and Robbins went to sleep inside Orphan. Robbins woke up in the night and saw a strange light coming from Mundy. He tried to wake him up and ran away when he saw something terrible coming from Mundy.

(Force Works#9) - Robbins ran to Kagoona Crossing followed by monsters fuelled by his delirium tremens (caused by alcoholic poisoning). The monsters attacked Kagoona Crossing while Robbins cowardly hid in a small lane, but the monsters feeding on energy and beer followed him. Force Works found him and Iron Man injected pure adrenaline into Robbins and the monsters disappeared. Tied up with Spider-Woman's psi-web he told Force Works and the police what had happened before he came to Kagoona Crossing. Force Works took Robbins with them into the Dreaming Country and he screamed in fear when Mundy's monstrous nightmare attacked them.

(Force Works#10) - Alf Robbins was frightened to death and Walkaway found his corpse next to the wrecked Works Wagon.

--Force Works#9 (Force Works#9 (fb), 9-10

images:
Orphan body shot: Force Works#10, p12, pan1
Orphan's arrival on Earth: Force Works#10, p2, pan4
Shane Mundy body shot: Force Works#10, p15, pan3
Alf Robbins head shot: Force Works#9, p11, pan2

Appearances:
Force Works#9-10 (March-April, 1995) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writer), Jim Calafiore (pencils), Rey Garcia (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)

Last updated: 05/05/05