FREAKOUT  

Real Name: Arthur Amadeus van Krijg

Identity/Class: Human mutate;
    Canadian citizen

Occupation: Warrior;
    former musician

Group Membership: Derangers (Breakdown/Esme Fernando, Laura Dean, Goblyn, Janus/Willem Vincent)

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);
    formerly treated by Lionel Jeffries (Scramble)

Enemies: Bedlam (William Nowlan), Scramble (Lionel Jeffries);
    formerly Alpha Flight

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None;
    seeking to distract him from combat, Wanda Langkowski called him, "big boy"

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

Powers/Abilities: Existing in a nearly constant berserker state, Freakout was a fierce warrior. His frenzied state also afforded him remarkable endurance. He tended to seek out and engage the largest or most powerful opponent.

    Unable to feel pain he would continue to fight until physically immobilized or incapacitated by an injury that would prevent his body from functioning. 

    He was similarly resistant to traumatic shock, such as from blood loss or concussion.

    He is lacking in reasoning and decision-making abilities; he could, however, feel some other emotions, such as sympathy (and likely mental and physical attraction).

    His hockey mask and costume further protected his body to some degree from impacts and other assaults.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6'6")
Weight: Unrevaled (approximately 240 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (they looked lighter, perhaps blue in his origin montage, but seemed dark, perhaps brown, in the image showing his mask close-up)
Hair: Black

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) - Arthur Amadeus van Krijg was a heavy metal rock musician with a long history of drug abuse.

(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) - Drug abuse eventually left van Krijg brain-damaged and virtually comatose/mindless. 

    He was hospitalized following his collapse.

(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 Scramble) secretly used corpses’ body parts to restore others, and, under the guise of psychiatric treatment, imprisoned patients with superhuman potential. 

(Alpha Flight I#53 (fb) - BTS / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates) - Dr. Jeffries had van Krijg transferred to his New Life Clinic in Vancouver where Jeffries reshaped van Krijg's body and altered his nervous system, leaving him in a nearly-constant berserker state unable to feel pain.

(Alpha Flight I#49 (fb) - BTS / Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates) - Van Krijg was kept in a stasis tank at the New Life Clinic alongside autistic, portal-generating Laura Dean who exchanged bodies with her monstrous twin Goblyn; the explosive-powered mental breakdown victim Esme Fernando; and psychopathic artist Willem Vincent, who could split into two separate bodies.

(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 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).

(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 Fernando, Dean, 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 -- forced them to fight, with the winning team to serve as the core to the new master race.

    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"; this, however, left Wanda at Freakout's mercy. 

    Confused, Freakout paused, and Bedlam fruitlessly commanded him to finish her off.

    However, when Bedlam directly attacked Wanda, Freakout leapt to Wanda's defense, brutally battering Bedlam. Bedlam's psychic commands proved useless against Bedlam's berserker state, and so Bedlam telekinetically summoned numerous wooden spikes that pierced Freakout's chest, killing him. 

(Alpha Flight I#53 - BTS) - Distracted by Freakout's attacks, Bedlam lost control of the others, allowing Alpha and their trainees as well as the remaining Derangers to unite against Bedlam.

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

    In Alpha Flight I#53, it was stated that "drug abuse damaged his mind, leaving him a berserker whose brain didn't register the pain of any damage inflicted to his body." The parts about Dr. Jeffries mutating him was added in the Gamer's Handbook.

    Breakdown received a real name in the Scramble entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update#5. Stuart Vandal, the profile writer, revealed the reasons for the name choices below, and discussed the choices of providing names or not here:

Freakout - heavy metal rocker Arthur Amadeus van Krijg is named for heavy metal rock legends Van Halen, specifically the eponymous members of the group. Alexander Arthur Van Halan's middle name became Freakout's first name, his nephew (and recent band bassist) Wolfgang suggested the Amadeus (after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), and Krijg is Dutch for "receive" while Halen is Dutch for "get," making them synonyms

    Further 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:
Freakout should be distinguished from:

•  Other "Freak" characters

images: (without ads)
Alpha Flight I#53, pg. 9, 2nd column, panel 1-5 (Freakout: singing; affected; Jeffries-treatment; escape; Bedlam capture);
        pg. 12, panel 2-3 (Sasquatch slashing at Freakout, distant and close);
        pg. 17, panel 5 (Freakout, mask close-up);
        pg. 19, panel 1 (Freakout punching Bedlam);
            panel 4-5 (Freakout skewered);
Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1989 Character Updates (aka Volume 5) - main image

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.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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