Tripper

TRIPPER:

Created By : Frank Verpaelst
A.K.A: The Stoned Ranger
Real Name: Frank Wild

History:

What do you get when you cross an almost burnt out ex(?)-hippy, psi-powers, and a mystical twenty year journey to the orient? One dazed super-hero!

Frank Wild, aka Tripper, grew up in one of our most socially turbulent eras, the 60s. His life was relatively normal, until the raging hormones of puberty, and copious amounts of LSD, triggered latent paranormal abilities. Since Frank had always been considered "special" by his parents (hey, what else would you call a kid who at age 8, invites all his friends to his house, on his birthday, to discuss how the political climate Freud lived under affected his theories). Needless to say, Frank's metamorphosis went almost unnoticed. Almost.

On his sixteenth birthday (the topic of discussion that year being: What the world would be like today if Enstein had developed his theories under the influence of LSD), when one of Frank's abilities kicked in: Namely, creating illusions. Let's just say that the average 16 year old could not handle Frank's "special" vision of the world, and several of his buddies went home babbling incoherently. Though no drugs were passed around that evening, Frank ended up in juvy-detention under the charge of being a dope pusher. His father having had enough, decided it was time to ask the military for a transfer to Japan.

Once in Japan, Frank underwent numerous life changes, not the least of which was being introduced to his eventual sensei: Sam Bunny. Sam Bunny was an odd mix of ex-military (he served in the Korean war with Frank's dad), and eastern philosophy. Sam was given carte-blanche over Frank's upbrining from that point on, and though Sam was a good man, he was a hard-core drinker. Sam's drinking never affected the training Frank received, other than to give Frank yet another "special" view of asian philosophy, as this was Sam's favourite topic when he was sloshed. Over the next 15 years, Sam did his best to indoctrine young Frank in the ways of Zen buddism, Taoism and the martial art of Aikido. Frequently, Sam would also pass Frank on to some asian masters, to help Frank hone his "special" abilities. Evntually, Sam decided it was time to let the not so young aikido master roam this world of ours.

Being in his early thirties, no high-school diploma, no work experience, Frank knew exactly where he would blend in perfectly: University. There he studied the language, history, and religions of Japan, among other things. In his last semester, Frank, in his usual dazed fashion, managed to break up a major drug operation on campus. This he felt would bring karmic balance for his checkered past. It also ran him afoul with a major asian gang, as well as bringing him public notoriety (hey, it's not every day that asian drug gangs give themselves up to the police with stories of machine-gun wielding oversized-anime cartoon characters chasing them down). The press had a glut on this one, coming up with all sorts of theories as to how Frank managed all of this. Due to the psychedelic nature of the gangsters stories, the japanese press dubbed Frank "Tripper". All this hoopla brought "Tripper" to the attention of a United Nations attache, which eventually lead our hero to Unit-M.

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