DERANGERS 

Membership: Breakdown (Esme Fernando), Laura Dean, Freakout (Arthur Amadeus van Krijg), Goblyn, Janus (Willem Vincent)

Purpose: Warrior/pawns of Bedlam (William Nowlan);
    intended as forebears of a new race under his control

Aliases:None

Affiliations: Alpha Flight (Box/Madison Jeffries, Sasquatch/Walter (Wanda) Langkowski, Vindicator/Heather Hudson), Manikin/Whitman Knapp, Purple Girl/Kara Killgrave, Wolverine (James Howlett/Logan)
    formerly mentally controlled by Bedlam (William Nowlan)

Enemies: Bedlam (William Nowlan);
    formerly Alpha Flight

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly Bedlam's Arctic Circle base;
    formerly the New Life Clinic, Vancouver, Canada

First Appearance: (Behind-the-scenes; only their former containment cylinders are shown) Alpha Flight I#49 (August, 1987)
    (seen, identified) Alpha Flight I#53 (December, 1987)

History:
(Alpha Flight I#53 (fb) - BTS / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update#5: Scramble entry) - With his ultimate intention to create a superior species, Dr. Lionel Jeffries (aka the insane, body-transforming Scramble) secretly used corpses’ body parts to restore others, and, under the guise of psychiatric treatment, imprisoned patients with superhuman potential. Among those he gathered thusly at his New Life Clinic in Vancouver were: Autistic portal generating Laura Dean who exchanged bodies with her monstrous twin Goblyn; the explosive-powered mental breakdown victim Esme Fernando; drug-induced brain-damaged berserker Arthur Amadeus van Krijg, who was unable to feel pain; and psychopathic artist Willem Vincent, able to split into two separate bodies. 

(Alpha Flight I#49 (fb) - BTS / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates) - Esme and the other three were kept in stasis tanks at the New Life Clinic.

(Alpha Flight I#49 (fb) - BTS / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates) - Alpha Flight member Aurora stumbled across the four holding cells while suffering a psychological episode in her Jean-Marie Beaubier persona.

(Alpha Flight I#49 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#53 (fb) / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update#5: Scramble entry) - During the battle between Alpha Flight and Scramble (now calling himself Omega), the power to the New Life Clinic was cut, plunging the complex into darkness and allowing the four captives to escape. 

(Alpha Flight I#52 - BTS) - The mental-powered sociopath Bedlam (William Nowlan) was revived by Gary Cody, whom he then slew. 

(Alpha Flight I#53 (fb) / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates) - Learning of the existence of Scramble's former captives, Bedlam decided that they fit his own distorted version of a super-team (like what had been intended by Guardian/James Hudson, who had originally arranged Bedlam's empowerment). Ultimately, he intended the group to be the forebears of a new race under his control.

(Alpha Flight I#53 (fb) / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates) - Tracking down the escapees, Bedlam took mental control of and transported them to his newly created Arctic Circle base. He forged them into a fighting team and then bound them in his base. At some point, Fernando, van Krijg, and Vincent were codenamed Breakdown, Freakout, and Janus, respectively.

(Alpha Flight I#53 (fb) - BTS) - Bedlam captured Alpha Flight members Vindicator and Sasquatch (with Box/Madison Jeffries having escaped by transforming and retreating into an inert piece of machinery), along with Alpha trainees Purple Girl and Manikin; and transported them to his Arctic Circle base where they were imprisoned across from the still bound Dean, Fernando, van Krijg, and Vincent. 

(Alpha Flight I#53) - Bedlam briefly linked the minds of his prisoners allowing each to see the origins/recent histories of the others. He then released the two groups from their imprisonment and -- naming his first group the Derangers and transforming all except Dean into costume-- forced them to fight, with the winning team to serve as the core to the new master race; Vindicator considered how her husband would have tried to recruit all of the Derangers into Alpha Flight.

    Freakout battled Sasquatch. Unable to stop tearing into Freakout due to Bedlam's control and fearing he/she (Walter Langkowski was utilizing Snowbird/Narya's body) might kill Freakout, Sasquatch reverted to her powerless form, "Wanda Langkowski."

    Purple Girl tried to reach out to the seemingly helpless Laura Dean, only for her to trade places with Goblyn who attacked the Purple Girl and was immune to her powers.

    Janus' dual forms fought Manikin, holding his own against Knapp and his three alternate forms. When one of Janus' forms began strangling Knapp, Purple Girl took mental control of that Janus and forced him to relent, while Manikin's "ape-man" form punched back Goblyn, getting her off Purple Girl's trail.

    Breakdown's explosive power nearly shattered Vindicator's force shields. When Breakdown prepared to attack anew, Vindicator blasted her with a plasma-burst before she could explode, which kept her in her harmless steady state long enough for Purple Girl to take mental control of her.

    When Bedlam directly assaulted on the heroes, binding Wanda with tendrils formed from the floors, Freakout leapt to Wanda's defense, battering Bedlam furiously. Unable to mentally control Freakout, Bedlam telekinetically summoned numerous wooden spikes that pierced Freakout's chest, killing him. 

    As the others united against him, Bedlam bound Goblyn in tendrils, apparently slew Breakdown with a telekinetic blast through her torso, forced Janus' two selves to strangle each other, and immobilized all of his other thinking foes.

    With her body immobilized, Heather Hudson commanded her Vindicator armor to attack and ultimately slay Bedlam. 

    No longer restrained by Bedlam, Goblyn  leapt through a window and fled into the wilderness.

(Alpha Flight I#54) - Whitman Knapp (Manikin), a medical intern, examined the bodies of Bedlam, Breakdown, Freakout, and Janus, finding them dead ("near as he could tell") and already cold.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio.

    Laura Dean (later known as Pathway) and Goblyn are more major characters with numerous appearances, and they will eventually get their own profiles.

    Certainly Freakout would be expected to perish from his injuries, but I don't think it's hard to imagine that Breakdown's energy form may not have died from a blast that might have slain her corporeal form; and people typically pass out when choked, and you'd think Janus' selves would have passed out from suffocation at that same time, so it doesn't seem that likely that they would have died...

    Thanks to Loki for supplying the Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe pages!

    According to Wikipedia, The Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe is a series of role-playing game supplements published by TSR beginning in 1988 for the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Derangers have no known connections to:

• other deranged characters

images: (without ads)
Alpha Flight I#53, pg. 8, panel 5 (Alpha Flight and Derangers bound);
        pg. 11, panel 9 (group shot);
        pg. 12, panel 1 (Alpha Flight vs. Derangers);
        pg. 19, panel 1 (Freakout punching Bedlam);
            panel 8 (Derangers attacking Bedlam; Breakdown blasted);

Appearances:
Alpha Flight I#49 (August, 1987) - Bill Mantlo (writer), June Brigman (penciler), Whilce Portacio (inker), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#52 (November, 1987) - Bill Mantlo (writer), June Brigman (penciler), Whilce Portacio (inker), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#53 (December, 1987) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Lee (penciler), Whilce Portacio (inker), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#54 (January, 1988) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Hugh Haynes (penciler), Whilce Portacio (inker), Carl Potts (editor)
Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates (aka Volume 5) - designed by Scott Bennie, David Martin, Chris Mortika, David Rogers, and William Tracy
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update#5: Scramble entry (February, 2011) - Stuart Vandal (writer),

First posted: 02/19/2018
Last updated: 03/08/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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