Barnard "Barney" Collier

 Barnard "Barney" Collier

Created by Bruce Gellar


Real Name:  Barnard Collier


Alias:  Barney Davis


Current Occupation:  Unknown; former government agent and head of his own firm


Parents:  Unknown; mother was living during the original run of the series


Siblings:  Larry Collier (deceased)


Spouse:  Unknown; Grant Colier's mother is deceased, but it's unclear if she was ever married to Barnard Collier


Children:  Grant Collier


Group Affiliation:  Impossible Missions Force


Place of Birth:  Unknown, though it seems implied he grew up in the ghetto of a major American city


Current Place of Residence:  Unknown


First Appearance:  Mission Impossible "Pilot", September 17, 1966


Biography:

Barnard "Barney" Collier's main role as an IMF agent was that of an electronics and forgery expert. He also had an extensive knowledge of building infrastructure such as wiring and plumbing standards, including building standards in foreign countries. Generally, Collier was brought in on missions to supply high-tech custom mission support. On occasion, he would custom build a computer which would be well ahead of its time, such as a computer that could read playing cards face down on a table or a computer that could beat the world's greatest chess players.^[35][36] Starting in Season Five, he was revealed to possess criminology skills that were key to several missions. He was a veteran of the US Navy, specifically the Sixth Fleet. In his IMF dossier, it was noted that he owned his own electronics firm.^[37] In order to maintain cover when on personal travel to foreign countries, he once used the alias "Barney Davis."

Due to his being black, his role play in earlier missions which took place in Eastern European countries was often as a supporting character. Those missions which took place in Latin America or the United States gave him the opportunity for more visible roles within the mission. Although Barney Collier is primarily remembered as an electronics expert, he was often called upon for his hand-to-hand combat skills. Notably, he was an accomplished boxer, having been the champion of the Sixth Fleet when he was in the Navy. His boxing skills were the centerpiece of a two-part mission in the third season, "The Contenders."^[38] He also had the strength and agility to penetrate denied areas going hand-over-hand using grappling lines without any assistance, shimmy up drainpipes, and rapel down elevator shafts.^[39] He demonstrated incredible fortitude even when injured, continuing with missions even after being shot in the back, the knee or the head, temporarily blinded by a concussion, or poisoned.^{[33][40][41][42][43]} In the course of seven seasons worth of missions, on rare occasions he killed men in self-defense both in hand-to-hand combat as well as with firearms.^[27][44] A recurring sub-theme for Collier was, when a mission was at risk, his unwavering faith in his fellow agents in their ability to come through.

Barney Collier, along with Willy Armitage, was one of only two IMF agents that were regulars on the team for the entire seven-season run of the original Mission: ImpossibleTV series, and he was the only one shown in the opening credits of every episode. Like all of the regular IMF agents, he was not used in every mission, but he was the only character in the opening credits of every episode of the original series. On occasion, he would not appear during the course of a mission, but the characters would use devices that were noted as being supplied by him. In later years of the series, that stayed in the United States and dealt with organized crime, Barney, although still supplying gadgets and devices, did less of the physical duties, and began to be a character more in line of the Mimic and Master of Disguise roles played by Rollin Hand and Paris in earlier seasons. In later seasons, Barney was also a de facto second-in-command of the IMF team in situations where Jim Phelps was missing or incapacitated.^[10]

Barney had a brother Larry who was a newspaper publisher that was unwitting to Barney's career in the IMF. Barney's brother was killed in the fifth season episode "Cat's Paw" for his efforts to bring a ghetto mob to justice. Larry's murder was the catalyst for the off-book mission in that episode to bring down the mob as a way to avenge Larry's death.^[45] It was noted in that episode that, at the time, Barney's mother was still alive.

In the series canon, Barney had a son named Grant, who would have been born in approximately 1960, corresponding roughly to the actual age of Phil Morris, actor Greg Morris's real-life son. However, some ten years later, Barney was single in Seasons Four and Five when he twice met and romanced women in foreign countries in an off-book mission and in the aftermath of an on-book mission gone bad at its finish, and brought them both back to the States at each mission's conclusion.^[40][46] Barney would reprise his role for three episodes across two missions in the Mission: Impossible series revival in the 1980s, where his son Grant was an agent. It was noted in one of those missions that Barney was extremely despondent at the recent death of Grant's mother.

Comments:  

The above biographical information is taken from Wikipedia.  Barnard Collier never actually appeared in any Super Comics stories.  His inclusion in the Wronskiverse is due to a remark in The Man Who Stole Brains in which Jim Wright says that he used to work for the IMF.

Impossible Missions Force

Impossible Missions Force

Created by Bruce Gellar

Members:

Dan Briggs

Jim Phelps


Cinnamon Carter


Barnard "Barney" Collier


William "Willy" Armitage


Rollin Hand


Grant Collier


"The Great Paris"


Dr. Doug Robert


Tracey


Dana Lambert


Casey


Mimi Davis


Jim Wright


 Ethan Hunt


Claire Phelps


Sarah Davies


Jack Harmon


Luther Stickell


Franz Krieger


Billy Baird


Sean Ambrose


Benji Dunn


Declan Gormley


Zhen Lei


Lindsey Farris


First Appearance:  Mission Impossible Episode "Pilot", September 17, 1966


Biography:


The U.S. government has a lot of different agencies, so many so that they don't even know about each other, nor does even the president know about all of them.


One such agency is the Impossible Missions Force, later changed to the Impossible Mission Force.  


Jim Wright has claimed to have worked for this agency before working for the International Missions Bureau.


Comments:


Jim Wright's comment in the Man Who Stole Brains brings this show and film series into the Wronskiverse.  One bad guy says mistakenly says that Wright works for the IMF, and Jim relies that it's the IMB.  He doesn't work for those other guys anymore.  No other agents from the series have ever actually appeared in a Super Comics story.  This little conversation exchange is the only presence Mission Impossible has had in the Wronskiverse.

Jim Wright

Jim Wright

Created by Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Real Name:  James Perfect "Jimmy" Wright

Current Occupation:  Government Agent

Parents:  Unnamed

Siblings:  None

Spouse:  None

Children:  None

Group Affiliation:  Impossible Missions Force, International Missions Bureau, National Heroes

Place of Birth:  Unknown

Current Place of Residence:  Washington D.C.

First Appearance:  The Man Who Stole Brains # 1, September 1987

Biography:

Little is known about the early life and background of Jim Wright.  What we do know was that in 1987, he was already established as one of the greatest secret agents in the world, and a thorn to enemies of America all over the world.  In 1987, he was working for the U.S. Government's International Missions Bureau, though he has stated he once worked for the Impossible Missions Force.

Jim went on special solo missions on operations that the government could deny knowledge of.  In his first story arc, he was first seen running from the Wronskovian Army, then later having to rescue a captured scientist and his daughter.

In 1992, Jim was on a mission in Iran with the mercenary known as the Scorpion.  The two had a romantic interlude during the mission (not something new for Jim on a mission.)  Later, they were captured, and both were executed by firing squad.

Three years later, when the mutant named Adam conquered the world, a resistance army was formed, and Jim Wright was part of the army.  Jim never revealed how he survived being shot to death.

In 2009, Jim resurfaced, now working for the government agency called the National Heroes, whose primary mission was to fight the New Power Organization.  He still serves in this position today.

Comments:

James Wright would have been my sister's name if she had been a boy.  That is where I got the name from.  I should note that in my own life, I've suffered from time to time from a sort of dual identity problem, and Jim Wright was my Buddy Love.  When I was a teen, I also used the identity as my alter ego during my short wrestling career in the Wagner Wrestling Federation and Wronski Wrestling Federation.

The Man Who Stole Brains was actually a novel I wrote, that I later broke up and serialized as a comic mini-series.  It was my first attempt at a spy novel.  My previous and first novel was Star Patrol, a rebooted  adaptation of Space Patrol, a comic series previously co-written by Phil Sheridan and myself.

The series only lasted a year, as it was only meant to be one story arc.  And then I didn't use the character again.

Until my Death of the Super Universe event, in which in one month I killed off every character I ever created.  I actually brought back Jim Wright for one story, four years after his last appearance, which was really his first appearance, just to kill him.  But it really was a good story, and the story was really about the Scorpion, which was really a story about Allorin Vonski and Shon Crest, who weren't in the story.  But it is about them.  Really, it is.  Trust me.  I wrote the story.

Anyways, so...

I killed him in 1992.  In 1998, in the mini-series called Timeline, he shows up.  Yes, I forgot he was dead.  Sometimes writers forget about that when they are dealing with large comic book universes with thousands of characters.  By the final issue, I had remembered that he was supposed to be dead, and in fact I address it by not addressing it.  At one point, Alison Swift meets Jim Wright.  Alison Swift happens to be operating at the time as the hero called Speedy.  Just before Alison's first appearance, all the speedsters on Earth had perished, absorbed into the Speed Force.  Then when Alison was visiting the Flash Museum in Central City, she was struck by lightning in a recreation of Barry Allen's lab.  She not only gained the powers of super speed, but all the memories of every speedster that came before her.

So as I said, she met Jim Wright.  And when she saw him, she looked shocked, and asked "How did you survive?"  You see, the Scorpion was one of those speedsters.  Thus, young Alison had her memories...all those memories.  Jim replied "I always survive."  Jim had thought she was referring to the recent scrape the heroes in this current adventure had been through.  He didn't recognize Alison was the Scorpion.

Or....

Perhaps he did somehow know, and was being coy.  Jim has never explained how he survived.

So after that mini-series, Jim Wright again went into obscurity, until he returned in the 2008 - 2009 mini-series called Crisis, where he was seen amongst those trying to take down the New Power.  Following that series, the National Heroes, a series from the 1980s, was revived.  The National Heroes in the 1980s had been a military group that had one goal:  the take down the New Power.  They didn't accomplish the goal.

Now, in 2009, the team was reformed.  This time, the government had the same mission, but they canned the military guys and recruited the former members of the Champions, all of whom had formerly been hunted by the government.  To work with these meta-humans, a few government types joined the team as well, including Jim Wright.

Jim Wright is a very sarcastic guy.  He loves danger.  He loves the ladies.  He hates authority figures.  He hates bureaucracy.  He hates dictators.  Oh, and he happens to sometimes seem to realize that he's a fictional character.  He even knows the name of his author.  And sometimes the author helps him out when he asks for it.

Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Robert "Rob" E. Wronski, Jr. (November 18, 1972 – ), who also used pseudonyms including Jim Wright, Bobby Wronski, and Bob Wronski, was the American creator of Powerman, the first of the great comic book superheroes of Super Comics and one of the most recognizable of the 20th century.

Robert E. Wronski, Jr.
Robert E. Wronski, Jr. in 2011
Born	Robert Edward Wronski Junior November 18, 1972 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer
Pseudonym(s)	Jim Wright, Bobby Wronski, Bob Wronski
Notable works	Powerman, Super Comics # 1
Fiance	Jessica Wierzbowski

Early life

The son of a factory worker and a waitress, Wronski was the oldest of two children. His father Bob Wronski was a factory worker and encouraged his son's artistic inclinations. Wronski's parents divorced when he was eight. Wronski was a fan of movies, comic strips, and especially science fiction. He became active in what would become known as fandom, corresponding with other science fiction fans, including the young future author Phil Sheridan. In 1978, Wronski published what might have been the first SF fanzine associated with Super Comics, Adventures of Other Worlds, which he produced handwritten with a notebook and advertised by word of mouth. He published several other issues over the next few months.

Siegel attended Mahar Regional Junior-Senior High School in Orange, Masachusetts and worked for its weekly student newspaper, The Red and Blue Revue. He was a shy, not particularly popular student, but he achieved a bit of fame among his peers for his popular character, "Ratman." At about age 7, while at Dexter Park Elementary School, he befriended his later collaborator, Phil Sheridan. Wronski described his friendship with the more charismatic Sheridan:

“

We immediately became partners in crime.

”

The writer broke into comics with his own landmark Super Comics, debuting with Super-Bob, Little Bobby, Animal Town U.S.A., Waterman, and Bobby the Kid (Nov. 1979).

Powerman

Wronski created a crazy alien hero named "Krazy-El," bent on understanding human nature. He appeared in the short story "Krazy-El" from Adventures on Other Worlds #1, a science fiction fanzine that Wronski published in 1978. The character was not successful. Tossing and turning in bed one night in 1979, he came upon the more familiar version of the character. Wronski then began to self-publish with co-publisher Deborah Skowronski. Titling it Super-Bob, Wronski chose it as the cover feature for Super Comics' Super Comics #1 (November 1979). The following year, Wronski initiated the syndicated Super-Bob comic strip. Wronski also created the humor strip characters of Little Bobby and Animal Town U.S.A., the western hero Bobby the Kid, and the aquatic character Waterman during this same period.

Doctor John Grandly

Doctor John Grandly

Created by Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Real Name:  John Grandly

Current Occupation:  Inventor (though it's possible he is retired or deceased)

Parents:  Unknown

Siblings:  None

Spouse:  None

Children:  Jim Hawkins (creation)

Group Affiliation:  None

Place of Birth:  Unknown

Current Place of Residence:  Unknown

First Appearance:  Super Comics # 23, September 1981

Biography:

Doctor John Grandly was a scientist whose expertise was robotics and artificial intelligence.  He had previously worked with inventor Ted Lawson.  In 1981, Grandly actually created a robot that looked like a six year old boy.  He was able to pass the robot off as a real boy.  He named him Jim Hawkins after the boy from his favorite book, Treasure Island.  Though the boy had some trouble initially adapting and learning, he soon began to feel like a real boy.

Two years later, Grandly upgraded Hawkins into a 16 year old model.  Unfortunately, Hawkin's new personality programming worked to well as Hawkins became rebellious, as teens are towards their parents, and exposed himself to the public for who he truly is.  This brought him to the attention of a music promoter who was putting together a rock band whose gimmick was that all band members were teen super heroes.  Hawkins toured for a year with the band, until their fame faded and the band broke up.

Eventually, Hawkins would get Grandly to implant him into an adult body around the age of 26.  Hawkins went off on his own, trying to live a normal life while committing acts of heroism from time to time.  


Grandly's activities since 1988 are unknown.


Comments:


Grandly was a supporting cast member in the "6 Year Old Robot" feature that ran for 10 issues in Super Comics from 1981 to 1982.  


Grandly appeared in Super Rock # 1 (as part of the premise for Hawkins joining the team).


He was mentioned a few times throughout the 12 issue run of Super Rock.


In Super Spotlight # 76, December 1988, Grandly appeared in flashbacks.  


He has not made any appearances since, nor has he been mentioned.

Robot

Robot

Created by Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Real Name:  Jim Hawkins

Alias:  6 Year Old Robot, 16 Year Old Robot, 26 Year Old Robot

Current Occupation:  Hero

Parents:  Doctor John Grandly

Siblings:  None

Spouse:  None

Children:  None

Group Affiliation: Super Rock, Revengers

Place of Birth:  Grand Little, Minnesota

Current Place of Residence:  Unknown

First Appearance:  Super Comics # 23, September 1981

Biography:

Doctor John Grandly was a scientist whose expertise was robotics and artificial intelligence.  He had previously worked with inventor Ted Lawson.  In 1981, Grandly actually created a robot that looked like a six year old boy.  He was able to pass the robot off as a real boy.  He named him Jim Hawkins after the boy from his favorite book, Treasure Island.  Though the boy had some trouble initially adapting and learning, he soon began to feel like a real boy.

Two years later, Grandly upgraded Hawkins into a 16 year old model.  Unfortunately, Hawkin's new personality programming worked to well as Hawkins became rebellious, as teens are towards their parents, and exposed himself to the public for who he truly is.  This brought him to the attention of a music promoter who was putting together a rock band whose gimmick was that all band members were teen super heroes.  Hawkins toured for a year with the band, until their fame faded and the band broke up.

Eventually, Hawkins would get Grandly to implant him into an adult body around the age of 26.  Hawkins went off on his own, trying to live a normal life while committing acts of heroism from time to time.  Recently, Hawkins fought alongside Earth's other heroes to defeat the New Power Organization.  He hasn't been seen since, but it was clear when last seen that his new life of heroism was just beginning.

Comments:

This was a character with only a few appearances, but over a long period of time.

"The 6 Year Old Robot" was a feature in Super Comics for a year from September 1981 to August 1982.  It was not a super-hero feature, but rather a simple, cute story of a robot child trying to learn to be human.

In 1983, when I created Super-Rock, which was a spoof of the New Teen Titans, I needed characters to take the form of the Titans.  I could have created new characters, but instead I felt it would be more fun to use already existing characters that would fit the mold.  So my Cyborg choice was the 6 Year Old Robot.  But of course, I had to upgrade him into a teenager for the part.  After the title ended a year later, the character went back into obscurity.

He did of course appear in the Crisis Within.  But every character I had created up to that point did.

He returned in December 1988 in Super Spotlight # 76.  This one shot was basically to update the readers on what the character has been up to, making him now an adult adventurer.  The appearance was meant to be a pilot for a new series, but there wasn't enough interest.

So the character appeared recently in Crisis, along with every character I've ever created up to that point.  He was no longer coping with trying to be human.  He has come to terms with who he is and embraces both his learned humanity and his robotic abilities.

Daniel "Blacky" Falkner

Real Name:  Daniel Falkner

Alter Ego:  Robber, Danny, Blacky

Current Occupation:  Police Detective

Parents:  Unknown

Siblings:  None

Spouse:  None

Children:  None

Group Affiliation:  (Earth B) Super Rock; (Earth 5) Heroes of Earth

Place of Birth:  Worcester

Current Place of Residence:  Worcester

First Appearance:  Mystery Comics # 1, September 1982

Biography:

Danny Falkner grew up an a very abusive environment in the city of Worcester.  His parents were criminals and drug users who were always either neglecting or abusing the boy.  When Danny was 12, he ran away from home and took on a life of crime himself while living homeless.  Danny started using the alias "Blacky" in his new career.  Though Blacky became a thief, he never used violence except in defense and never used or sold drugs.  That was the lifestyle he was escaping from, after all.

However, his new life only lasted a few months when he was apprehended by the vigilante known as the Unknown who caught him ambitiously and single handedly robbing the penthouse of a local millionaire.  The Unknown, rather than taking the boy in, instead heard his story, and feeling bad for him, took him in as his ward.  He also trained the boy to be his partner in crime fighting, and jokingly dubbed him "Robber".

The Unknown and Robber worked together for four years, until Robber nearly perished at the hands of the Trapster.  After that, the Unknown asked his friend, Private Eye Peter Lebane to take the boy in.

Blacky stopped operating as Robber, but would assist Lebane in his own crime fighting investigations.

It was also at this time that a music promoter thought up the gimmick of having a rock band consisting of teen heroes.  The band was called Super Rock, and Blacky was recruited as lead singer.  The rest of the band consisted of Princess Angela of Booer, the Rocket Kid, the 16 Year Old Robot, Changer, and Witch Woman.  Of course while on tour, the band also fought against super villains such as the Dragon, the Booers, the New Power, and the Legion of Doom.  The team was very effective as crime fighters, but though the band quickly rose in popularity, it faded just as quickly and the band was disbanded.

A few months later, a team of heroes called the Heroes of Earth arrived from an alternate universe called Earth-5.  Amongst the heroes was an alternate version of Blacky.  This Blacky shared the exact same history, except that he was never a member of Super Rock, which didn't exist on his world, and of course his membership in the Heroes of Earth.  During the Crisis in Infinite Earths, Earth-5 was destroyed, and Blacky and his teammates were stranded on Earth-B.  Allorin Vonski used his powers to merge the two into one being, with one shared history.  Thus after that Blacky had memories of both lives on both worlds.

After that, Blacky graduated from high school shortly after.  He dropped the "Blacky" and started going by Danny.  He enrolled in the police academy, and graduated, and within two years made detective and was partnered with Lebane, who had rejoined the force.

They spent much of the time for years assigned to catching a new vigilante called Justice (who was actually Danny's cousin Peter Falkner.)  After a while though, the two established a working relationship with the hero.

During the time when the mutant Adam became ruler of Earth, Danny was a member of NighTrain's underground resistance movement.  Following Adam's defeat, Danny returned to the force.

In recent years, Danny had started a working relationship with a new Justice (Michelle Wrigley), who has since retired.  Danny still works as a detective in Worcester as of this writing.

Comments:

Danny Falkner started off as a spoof of Robin, which is probably obvious, though his physical appearance and personality were modeled after John Stamos' character "Blackie" on General Hospital.

Danny's commonality with Robin continued with Super Rock, which was a spoof of the New Teen Titans. His change from working with the Unknown to working with Lebane was due to Lebane taking over the lead story in Mystery Comics.

The doppelganger from Earth-5 came from my desire to do a two part homage to the JLA/JSA crossovers.  Earth-5 was a world of nonpowered vigilantes and magic users.  Thus Blacky fit into that category.  But of course, Blacky was firmly planted in the main Wronskiverse (Earth-B) as the Unknown was a member of the Powerkid Police and Blacky had been a member of Super Rock.  Thus there were two.

The two merged after the Crisis just as Earth-1 and Earth-2 characters merged (such as Wildcat, for instance).

Danny stopped appearing regularly when Detective Lebane was replaced by Doctor Mystery in Mystery Comics.  Danny returned though with Justice # 1, and remained a supporting character in that series for years, until it ended in 1992.

He appeared again in the Timeline mini-series, and then recently returned again as a supporting player in the new Justice series, though now that Michelle Wrigley has retired and left Worcester, to be replaced by a new Justice (Holly Frost), who operates in Amherst, Danny has stopped appearing in the series, and is currently in comic book limbo, but is sure to return somewhere, somehow in the future.