MIKE RUGGER
Real Name: Mike Rugger
Identity/Class: Human mutate (pre-modern
era)
Occupation: Astronaut
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: His own stupidity
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile throughout an unidentified American city; temporarily traveled in deep space at faster-than-light speeds
First Appearance: Amazing Adult Fantasy#12/5 (May, 1962)
Powers/Abilities: Due to his flight in a spaceship capable of traveling at faster-than-light speeds, the speeds of Mike Rugger's metabolism and perceptions were increased to such a degree that he found himself living out of sync with the world -- while from his perspective he was unchanged, the rest of the world (still living at "normal" speed) appeared to be motionless.
History: (Amazing Adult Fantasy#12) - A privately owned spacecraft development company had created the X-1000, a spaceship that could travel faster than the speed of light. The company held testing for a number of applicants to see who would be the ideal pilot for the ship. Among the applicants was Mike Rugger, who wanted to fly the X-1000 only for the fame and fortune it would bring him. Rugger had paid a bribe to get the answers to the written part of the exam (which he passed with flying colors, of course), but he was unable to pass the other demanding requirements for the physical tests. He received the lowest rating of all, and was eliminated as a candidate from the program.
Weeks later -- after an applicant was selected and the flight was scheduled -- Rugger, still determined to pilot the ship, hid in the company's locker room and knocked the winning applicant out as he was getting dressed, then took his place -- wearing the astronaut's spacesuit and helmet, the ground crew never realized that Rugger had taken the real astronaut's place.
The X-1000 successfully launched, then headed for deep space at hyper-light speed. Rugger was panic-stricken because he had thought the controls would all be automatic, and didn't know how to control the ship. As the ship travelled billions of miles in mere minutes, Rugger pressed a "RETURN" button on the control panel, which returned the X-1000 to Earth. Ejecting back down to Earth in a parachuted escape pod, Rugger found himself in a city of "living statues" -- people who were alive (their bodies were still warm), but they stood completely motionless.
Further exploring the city, Rugger climbed into a car and tried to start it, but it wouldn't start. Turning on a radio, he found that the device only emitted a dull hum. Later, seeing a motionless police officer firing his gun, Rugger noticed that the bullet emerged from the gun at an impossibly slow rate -- it just crawled from the barrel. Mike Rugger then realized that because he flew in the X-1000 and traveled faster than the speed of light, he had entered another dimension of time and was actually living at a faster time-rate -- nothing on Earth was standing still, it only seemed that way to his perspective. Living at a rate faster than light, Mike Rugger realized that he would be an old man before a minute of "real" time had gone by.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Living at a time-rate where he would suffer from hyperageing, Mike Rugger probably met the same fate as Adam Clayton, but unlike Clayton (who could turn his power ON and OFF), he probably met it a lot quicker (relatively speaking).
And a big THANK YOU to Dennis Giansante for scanning this story for me!
Profile by John Kaminski
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mike Rugger has no known connections to:
The denizens of an unidentified American city, their daily lives continued on unchanged, but to Mike Rugger (whose body and perceptions were accelerated to superfast speed) they appeared to be motionless.
--Amazing Adult Fantasy#12/5
images: (without ads)
Amazing Adult Fantasy#12, p20, pan1 (main image)
Last updated: 08/22/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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