mosh-93060-videomosh-93060-faceMOSH

Real Name: Richard Hendricks

Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-93060/"Ultraverse") human mutate ("ultra")

Occupation: Musician

Group Membership: Leader of his band

Affiliations: Idolized by numerous fans (including Jumper);
    formerly Spook, Roxanna, Ultra Records;
    minimal association with the bartender at Jack's who viewed him as a troublemaker;
    no real direct relationship with Darren Creamer, Ghoul (Johnathan Martin), or Whitney Richards

Enemies: Himself;
    he had an antagonist relationship with his producer, Roxanna, and he forced his best friend, Spook, to kill him

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Moody little bastard/snot" (from Roxanna)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    died in his recording studio in Seattle, Washington

First Appearance: Ultraforce I#7 (April, 1995)mosh-93060-rockshots

Powers/Abilities: Mosh could telepathically control others.

    Those he controlled may maintain their awareness and memories of what was going on, but even if they were doing something that was otherwise against their will, they would not realize they were being mind-controlled.

    Mosh was an experienced and charismatic musician, although he was also egocentric, temperamental, and unable to handle the pressure/attention of becoming successful.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'9")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 170 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond

History:
(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Musician Richard Hendricks adopted the stage name Mosh.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Mosh's career as a musician broke out in the warehouse district.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Mosh was best friends with a guy known as Spook, who idolized Mosh.mosh-93060-full-studio

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, both Mosh and Spook became ultras and possessed superhuman powers: Mosh could control others telepathically, and Spook could turn invisible.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Spook was unable to control his invisibility, and he felt that cocaine was the only way to make him visible again.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Falling on hard times and becoming addicted to cocaine, Spook used all of the money Mosh provided him to feed his drug habit.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Spook gave Mosh a ring.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Spook and Mosh were reportedly best friends and were always causing trouble together.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Mosh's producer(?), Roxanna, "might have" slept with him. At some point, he felt that she had almost killed his career.

    Roxanna considered him a "moody little snot," as nothing was good enough for him.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Mosh filmed a video of his song "Death on Cycle 72" from his album Mosh Pit via Ultra Records.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb)) - After Mosh invited Spook over to his recording studio in Seattle Washington, Spook begged him for some cocaine, "just this once," but Mosh angrily asked Spook how many times he had said that.

    Refusing, Mosh further told Spook that all friendships were shams and that he was sick of everyone depending on and needing him, and that he wanted to get back at all of the leeches who were sucking him dry.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) / Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Mentally controlling Spook without his knowledge, Mosh forced him to pick up the steak knife Mosh had used in his last meal, turn on the video camera, and then invisibly stabbed Mosh repeatedly. Seemingly fighting to hold back the knife, Mosh appeared to be stabbing himself.

spook-93060-killing

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb)) - Realizing that he had killed his best friend, Spook then turned off the cameras and considered that the ring he had given Mosh might be traced back to him, and so he took the ring off and kept it.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Mosh's body was found, and based on the recordings, he was reported to have died via suicide.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Within 24 hours of Mosh's apparent and reported suicide, cults of young people throughout the country formed to mourn Mosh's death, and some chose to join their fallen hero. nearly two dozen copycat fans committed suicide.
    A man nicknamed "Jumper" was the first to join Mosh in hopes of uniting his voice with the other mourners.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Spook apparently drowned himself in the waters outside of what appeared to be his own waterfront house.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Detective Darren Creamer, who was running for a city councilman seat, confirmed Mosh's cause of death as suicide.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - GNN newswoman Shirley reported on Mosh's death that night, noting him to have been 23-years-old. She discussed how he had been found dead in his "ultra high security" recording studio and that video footage had apparently shown himself stabbing himself repeatedly. She continued that police had no idea of his motivation, although some Mosh had committed suicide over allegations that he was an ultrahuman.

mosh-93060-ring

    Shirley finished with "Seems that some people just can't live without their daily Mosh," and her fellow reporter Bob told any kids listening "not to try the Mosh thing at home."

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Having watched GNN for a solid day and unable to make sense of Mosh's killing himself, the ultrahuman Ghoul departed Ultraforce HQ in Miami, Florida and traveled to Seattle.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - While Creamer boasted to the press about the speed with which his department handled this case, forensics expert Whitney Richards (herself a fan of Mosh) interrupted him with concerns that Mosh had not committed suicide. Creamer threatened to have her fired if she interrupted him again, but Richards countered that she could show the commissioner how he had ignored key evidence. She then showed him the bloody outline of Mosh's ring, although Mosh had not been wearing his ring when they had examined him. She further speculated that the derma on his finger would show that the ring had been forced, and that someone must have removed the ring from his finger and dropped it in the blood, and that that person would be the one who had murdered Mosh.
    Not wishing to have his investigation interfered with, Creamer wiped away the ring mark with his foot.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Ghoul encountered a young woman in an alley kneeling over a young man's body (dead from stab wounds, either from his own hands or hers), holding a knife over her chest but crying out for help that she was not ready to die.

    Mosh's ring's symbol was painted on the nearby wall (apparently in blood) and a jambox/personal stereo was playing Mosh's song (with the lyrics, "Gotta Diiiiiiie! Kill Me Nowww!").

    The girl initially resisted Ghoul's efforts to stop her, noting that Mosh wanted her to do this, but upon opening her eyes and seeing his appearance, she screamed and pulled away. He then had her look into his eyes to see what death looked like.mosh-93060-crucified-ish

    After Ghoul had made a statement to the police, Whitney Richards approached him and told him how she did not think Mosh's death was suicide. She convinced him to use his powers to speak to the dead to help prove this in order to stop the senseless copycat suicides.

    With George having taken a break so she could slip in, Whitney brought Ghoul to the morgue where they found a lookalike named "Jumper" in Mosh's drawer. Whitney concluded that Creamer must have switched the bodies to cover up the murder.

(Ultraforce I#7) - Ghoul and Whitney next traveled to Kapital's in the warehouse district where a large crowd of Mosh fans had gathered, and Mosh's body was present, tied to post like he was on a crucifix.

    While Whitney realized she had been wrong about Creamer switching the bodies, they were then recognized as "unjoiners" by the crowd (despite having adopted similar garments). The crowd separated the pair, but when they pulled off Ghoul's arm, he used his powers to immobilize the crowd for a few minutes. mosh-93060-crucified-reanimated

    Retrieving his arm, Ghoul questioned Mosh's corpse, who told them he "scratched when it itched." Ghoul argued that they knew he had been murdered, but Mosh mockingly asked "then why they are you wasting time jabberin' with him." Mosh further mocked their concerns, "My fans -- dying a slow death? What a shame. Can't help you."

    When Ghoul coerced him to provide further information, Mosh told him that if anyone had killed him, it would have been Roxanna, as she had buried her share of bodies in the business and had almost killed his career.

    As Mosh's consciousness faded, Ghoul called him a loser, noting that if he had not been murdered, he sure deserved to be.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Ghoul and Whitney then headed downtown to Ultra Records and met with Roxanna, who told them that she had been out at a party when Mosh had died and that she believed the "moody little bastard" had killed himself.

    After she stated that she may have slept with him but had not killed him, Ghoul told her that she was making money off of Mosh's death, and that while his music was more popular than ever, she now did not have to deal with an egocentric star who might leave her. However, corrected him, revealing that all funds were reverting to Mosh's estate and that she was out her ticket to easy street.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Roxanna suggested Ghoul and Whitney check out the bar Jack's, where Mosh used to hang out.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Someone at Kapital's committed suicide to emulate/be with/whatever Mosh.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Whitney brought Ghoul to Jack's, where they saw the news report of another copycat suicide. The bartender there -- a telekinetic ultra -- initially refused to provide any information, but then Ghoul forced his cooperation, and he told them to try Spook and related their history. mosh-93060-angryspirit

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Traveling to Spook's waterfront house, Ghoul and Whitney located Spook's corpse in the waters, noting that rigor mortis had not yet set in (see comments). Using his power to speak to the recently deceased, Ghoul communicated with Spook, who related the circumstances under which he had killed Mosh, although he remained unaware that Mosh had forced him to do it.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Following Ghoul's recommendation to have her own press conference with Spook's half-visible body as proof, Whitney reported her findings, as well as the cover up by Creamer, and Mosh's death was ruled a murder, ending the copycat suicides by Mosh's fans.

(Ultraforce I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Darren Creamer announced that he would not be running for city council.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Ghoul located Mosh's corpse, which had been returned to the county morgue, and his powers allowed him to communicate with Mosh.

    Noting that he could not stand the pain of his existence anymore and that he had to make Spook kill him, Mosh then blamed others for making him into Mosh. Asserting that he was Richard Hendricks and a musician, he stated that none of those animals ever cared about his music: "They watched me when I slept. They camped out in front of my house. I never got any peace! Ever! I wanted to kill them all and end the pain! Only -- I was too afraid to do it myself."
mosh-93060-morgue
    When Ghoul countered that he had destroyed his best friend and countless innocent lives just to avoid pain, Mosh insisted that it wasn't his fault and the all he wanted was the peace of the grave. After he insisted that he had never asked for these ultra-powers, Ghoul allowed Mosh to pass on, telling him, "Sorry pal -- neither did I."
confirm that he had used his powers to force Spook to kill him.

(Ultraforce I#7 - BTS) - Not wishing to restart any further suicides, Ghoul apparently did not share this finding with the public or the authorities.

Comments: Created by Hank Kanalz, Chris Ulm, Steve Erwin, and John Strangeland.

    There was an editorial in the Ultraverse books by Diane Botta's "Ask Diane" feature, that there were three sources of being an ultra (not including using technology without possessing powers):

(1) Jumpstart, being mutated by energies sent by the entity on the moon...like the Strangers and the Squad
(2) Wetware (nanotechnology, which was largely acquired under mysterious circumstances; many characters associated with the Freex were injected as infants by Wetware Mary (aka Contrary)
(3) Theta virus (a la the Exiles associated with Rachel Deming)

    In case its not clear, the fact that rigor had not set in would mean that the death was recent. Rigor mortis is the rigid stiffening of the limbs/muscles that occurs as quickly as four hours after death. It is due to calcium transport, myosin binding and other factors. However, at room temperature, enzymatic processes can break down the rigor within eight hours, so is it also possible that rigor had come and gone.
    Regardless, the intent was that Ghoul found Spook before rigor set in...and Ghoul would know, after all...he's in tune with death.

    There was a lot to this story...a lot of it only peripheral to Mosh, but still all involving him. I'll eventually get to profiles on Whitney Richards and Darren Creamer at some point, and then I'll either add sub-profiles or do full profiles for GNN/Shirley/Bob, Ultra Records/Roxanna, and the bartender...

    This story occurred about a year after the apparent suicide of rock star Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana. I didn't see it confirmed anywhere, but I would think that this story was somewhat inspired by Cobain's death.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Mosh should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)
Ultraverse I#7, pg. 1 (Mosh Pit video);
       pg. 3, panel 1 (rock pictures);
       pg. 11, panel 3 (martyr/crucified-ish);
       pg. 13, panel 4 (first reanimation);
       pg. 18, panel 5 (full, recording studio);
       pg. 19, panel 2 (angry face);
          panel 6 (Spook taking ring);
       pg. 22, panel 2 (angry spirit);
          panel 6 (lying in morgue)

Appearances:
Ultraforce I#7 (April, 1995) - Hank Kanalz & Chris Ulm (writers), Steve Erwin (penciler), John Strangeland (inker), Roland Mann (guest editor)

First posted: 07/22/2023
Last updated: 07/22/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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