UDOUDO
Real Name: Udo (surname unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-148611) human, advanced technology-user
Occupation: Dream researcher
Group Membership: Kleinmann Dream Institute
Affiliations: Gnome (Horst Kleinmann), Mistress Midnight (Vivienne), Gian (surname unrevealed)
Enemies: Nightmask (Keith Remsen) Adam Remsen, Lenore Remsen, Theodora "Teddy" Remsen
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Kleinmann Dream Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, Earth-148611
First Appearance: (Very likely behind-the-scenes) Nightmask#1 (November, 1986);
(confirmed, seen, and identified) Nightmask#2 (December, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Udo was highly experienced and skilled in the design of advanced technology facilitating psychological entry into realms of dream, as well as cybernetic and exoskeleton enhancement.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'10"-6'2" (he was at least four inches taller than Gian in one picture)History:
(Nightmask#2) - An employee of Horst Kleinmann working out of the Kleinmann
Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, Udo was in charge of the development and maintenance of the technology.
Gian implanted some of Udo's micro-circuitry into her, allowing them to both track and to some degree control Vivienne's activities, and Kleinmann provided dream therapy and hypnotic suggestions.
(Nightmask#1 (fb) - BTS) <July 22-24, 1986> - Kleinmann managed to escape the dying bomber's dreams, though his equipment was destroyed in the strain of recovering him.
(Nightmask#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kleinmann was badly injured, leaving him scarred and bedridden.
(Nightmask#1 - BTS) - Kleinmann's
agents -- likely Udo & Gian -- predicted that when he recovered and
learned of this that he would insist they rebuild.
(Nightmask#2) <August 17, 1986> - One of Kleinmann's agent advised him that each day inquiries grew and that they were losing valued patients, but Kleinmann interrupted that these patients were ego-ridden fools insistent on him personally treating them. Little caring if he lost them, he insisted that his status was to remain "unknown," and he noted that only the status of his machines was important.
At Kleinmann's insistence, Udo reported that all damaged equipment had been repaired or replaced, but some installation and fine tuning was needed; he predicted three weeks, two if they were lucky. However, Gian then interjected that it was not the machines that needed luck, but rather Kleinmann himself: Reminding Kleinmann that he was not a young man, he noted that even with all of their skill and resources, it would be months before he was ready.
Kleinmann interrupted, insisting it would be weeks, and that like his wealthy and powerful clients paid him, he paid Gian and Udo. Nonetheless, he ordered that until he was ready, he had an agent <Vivienne> who could act in his stead. Acknowledging her abilities, Gian argued that she was too unstable, but Kleinmann noted that she was in their debt and that she was right for the task.
(Nightmask#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kleinmann sent Gian and Udo to enlist Mistress Midnight (Vivienne)'s aid. They traveled to the Riviera.
(Nightmask#2) - The two located Mistress Midnight as she fed on a victim. Recognizing them, she was amused that Kleinmann had sent the most trusted of his staff as errand boys. Nonetheless, she noted that she was intrigued and that it would not even be necessary to blackmail her.
(Nightmask#4 (fb) - BTS) - Via Udo's technology (including an exoskeleton) and Gian's surgery, combined with Kleinmann's own will, Kleinmann was back on his feet in weeks (they estimated that standard medical care would have taken months or perhaps even years to accomplish this).
(Nightmask#4 (fb) - BTS) - Lucian Ballad's sources noted the vast expenditures to restore the equipment in Kleinmann's lab, although they could not uncover information on Kleinmann himself.
(Nightmask#4) - Frustrated with his scarred body and his appearance in his exoskeleton as well as his limited control and lack of dexterity, Kleinmann shattered a mirror and shouted that it should not be like this. Udo told him that what they and he had accomplished was a miracle, and the fact that he was on his feet was a monument to the resources of his Kleinmann Institute. Considering himself a creature of nightmare, Kleinmann fully blamed and eagerly looked forward to his planned vengeance of Keith Remsen.
Later, while apart from Kleinmann, Gian asked Udo if it bothered him that they served a madman. Udo noted that he had worked for two different governments and many private sector projects, and that none of them had paid as well as Kleinmann. Udo continued that, more importantly, none had allowed him to carry his experiments in bio-technology so far as at the Kleinmann Institute. He suggested that the same was true of Gian's micro-surgery, and that he should consider that true madness consisted of small-minded restrictions and limits of vision that impeded achievement.
Gian countered that men had died upon Kleinmann's orders and whims, and that while Udo was a technician and cool by nature, he (Gian) was a surgeon and had sworn an oath to preserve life. However, Udo argued that countless lives would be preserved through their discoveries and that, in the end, that is what the world would remember: The benefits, not that there were occasional sacrifices along the way.
Although not disagreeing with this, Gian noted that for
Kleinmann there was no end, as he had moved from the parents to their
son and that while Mistress Midnight was not truly an assassin, like the
bomber, in her own way, she was more dangerous.
As Gian and Udo entered Kleinmann's private laboratory, he greeted them, noting that they had been forced from their warm beds quite early but that satellite relay conditions were perfect and they would be able to see the fruits of their labors during Vivienne's visit there.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1 (fb) - BTS) - Vivienne's cybernetic implants transmitted Teddy's psychic signature to Kleinmann's laboratory.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1 (fb) - BTS) - The next time Teddy went to sleep, Kleinmann's machines plunged her psyche into Kleinmann's artificial dream from which he prevented her awakening.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1 - BTS) - At the Ballad Dream Clinic in Georgetown, Virginia (see comments), Keith entered Teddy's dreams and confronted the Gnome as Nightmask.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1) - The struggle required Gian and Udo (see comments) to hold Kleinmann down while Gian delivered an "adrenalin shot"
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1 - BTS) - After Nightmask opened the chest containing Teddy's essence, Teddy awakened in the real world, and she pulled Keith back to the real word. At the same time, Nightmask changed the direction of the portal through which the Gnome tried to escape, sending and dispersing Kleinmann's mind into humanity's collective unconsciousness.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1) - Udo and Gian observed as Kleinmann's body awakened, and he began endlessly ranting of fairy tales, myth legends, etc.
Disturbed, Udo and Gian fled the room.
Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin and Ernie Colon.
Nightmask was one of the New Universe series that didn't fit
the mold, with advanced technology, pre-White Event psychic abilities, etc.
See the New Universe primer.
The next issue blurb for Nightmask#4 was titled "Kingdom of the Gnome." However, a new writer, Cary Bates wrote the next issue, and the Gnome was not seen again until Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1, which was written to fill in the story between #4 and #5. It even had Udo and Gian in it...although the two characters were reversed in terms of names...the bald guy/medicine specialist was now Udo, and Gian had hair and a mustache in contrast to Nightmask#2 and #4 where the opposite was true.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Udo should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Nightmask#1 (November, 1986) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Tony Salmons (penciler), Bret Blevins (inker), Michael Higgins (editor)
Nightmask#2 (December, 1986) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Ernie Colon (artist), Michael Higgins (editor)
Nightmask#4 (February, 1987) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Ron Wagner (penciler), Tony DeZuniga (inker), Michael Higgins (editor)
Untold
Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask#1 (May, 2006) - Fred Van Lente
(writer), Arnold Pander (penciler), Kris Justice (inker), Nathan Cosby (assistant editor), Mark Paniccia (editor)
First posted: 11/02/2022
Last updated: 11/02/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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