WAYNE TUCKER

Real Name: Wayne Tucker

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (New Universe/Earth-148611) human, paranormal

Occupation: Mercenary, former gang member

Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with a criminal record

Group Membership: Medusa Web, Psi-Force

Affiliations: Crasniye Solleetsi, Mona Freemont, Justice (John Tensen), Dave Landers, Alan Moran, Father Pavineau, Jackie Prentiss, Emily Proudhawk, Emmett Proudhawk, Eugene Proudhawk, Psi-Hawk, Colby Shaw, Skipper, Jenny Skytower, Lincoln Stryker

Enemies: Bazooka, Colonel McIntyre Browning, CIA, Seth Cleveland, "Cool," Mr. Flowers, Foundations Inc., Gridlock, Bill Holstrum, House Master, KGB, Mind-Wolf, Bert Olson, Pit Bull, Michael Proudhawk, Rodstvow, Derek Shiningstar, the Siberian Project, Skits, Father Suniyoshi, Doug Tanner, Jake Travest, Serge Vladimiroff, Jeff Walters

Known Relatives: Lindsey Falmon (wife), Nancy Tucker (mother, deceased), Ronald Tucker (father)

Aliases: Network

Base of Operations: Mobile;
    formerly Sanctuary, San Francisco, California
    Earth-148611

Place of Birth: Evanston, Illinois (November 12, 1968)

Extent of Education: Dropped out of High School

Religion: Catholic (non-practicing)

First Appearance: Psi-Force#1 (November, 1986)

Powers/Abilities: Tucker possesses the psionic power of telepathy, enabling him to communicate with others across the globe. Through the use of this power, Tucker can mentally command up to at least twenty people to do whatever he wishes. While under control from Tucker, the victim can be controlled ("pushed" as he calls it) to perform both physical and mental tasks. After manipulating the victim, Tucker can plant the equivalent of a post-hypnotic suggestion on them, whereby the victim will not remember ever having encountered Tucker at all.

    When assembled with the other members of Psi-Force, Tucker can summon the Psi-Hawk.

    After an encounter with Jake Travest, Tucker obtained a spring-released blade which he wore on his arm from that point on.

Height: 5'8"
Weight: 145 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History:
(Psi-Force Annual#1 (fb)) <7/22/86> - Wayne was the son of a police officer, and was abused by him. He became a gang member to rebel against his father. When the White Event occurred, Wayne was stealing car parts from a garage, and was momentarily disoriented. When a police officer confronted him, Wayne tried to lie his way out of the situation, and the policeman believed him. In the days that followed, Wayne realized that he had telepathic powers, and once was overcome by voices inside his head. Scared, he told everything to his father, but his father wouldn't listen. Wayne tried to hurt him with his powers, but after seeing all of the pain in his father's mind he couldn't go through with it. Wayne ran away from home.

(Psi-Force#3 (fb)) <7/28/86> - Wayne was telepathically compelled by CIA agent Emmett Proudhawk to go to San Francisco's Sanctuary runaway home, where he was gathering other teenagers with psionic powers.

(Psi-Force#1) <08/3-6/86> - Wayne met Anastasia Inyushin, the last of the five teenagers Emmett had gathered together to form Psi-Force. Now that he had all five members of Psi-Force gathered at Sanctuary, Emmett explained to them how they needed to protect each other, and observed that Tucker was a telepath like him, meaning he was the keystone of the team. When Anastasia tried to turn herself over to the KGB, Emmett forced Tyrone and the others to track her down, but they wound up in a confrontation with the KGB in which Emmett was killed by Mind-Wolf. Wayne then led the others in using Emmett's medallion to summon up the Psi-Hawk for the first time, and the Psi-Hawk destroyed Mind-Wolf's mind. Crawley convinced Wayne that they should bring Emmett's body back to Sanctuary.

(Psi-Force#2) <8/7/86> - The teens were pursued by the police and CIA on their way back to Sanctuary, and Wayne wounded his leg when Crawley caused a building to explode, causing debris to land on him, but Anastasia healed Wayne. They were finally apprehended outside of the building with Emmett's body. When the CIA demanded to know the secret of their powers, Wayne had them create the Psi-Hawk, but they were all shot as the Psi-Hawk was created. The Psi-Hawk fought off the CIA, erased all knowledge of Psi-Force from their minds, then used Anastasia's powers to heal all five teens. Only the "Skipper," a CIA friend of Emmett's was allowed to retain his memories of them.

(Psi-Force#3) - As the others began going to school in San Francisco, Wayne kept out, but hung around after school and saved the others from "Cool" and his gang when they tried to beat them up. Wayne began to wonder about how Emmett brought them together, and they discovered that he had manipulated them into coming to San Francisco. They summoned the Psi-Hawk to ask it for guidance, but it just wrapped five branches together as a symbol. This made Wayne fed up and he decided to leave, but before he had gotten too far he was compelled to return by a tampering Emmett had made to him, and he returned to the others just in time to save them from Cool, but made it clear that he was only back because he had no choice.

(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Psi-Force#1) - Psi-Force met Michael Proudhawk, cousin of Emmett, who had the ability to generate a Psi-Hawk by himself. He attempted to recruit Psi-Force into the CIA, but they refused and their respective Psi-Hawks fought each other. When Proudhawk's Psi-Hawk was beaten, he was placed into a comatose state.

(Psi-Force#4) <10/20-26/86> - When Kathy tried to leave Psi-Force to rejoin her family, Wayne forced her to meet with the other four in an attempt to bring her back to Sanctuary, but she refused. When she went home, she found Olson showing her parents photos of her using her powers, advising them to turn her over to the government, and Kathy struck him down with her powers. The others came to her aid, as Anastasia healed Olson's wounds and Wayne erased Olson and her parents' memories. Kathy reluctantly returned home.

(Psi-Force#5) <11/9-15/86> - Wayne and the others were stalked by Thomas Boyd, an agent of Derek Shiningstar. Boyd posed as a runaway and befriended Crawley and Jessup before turning on them and using his powers to drain them of energy. He also managed to get the drop on Ling and Tucker, but when he had to face Anastasia, her healing powers made her immune to him, and their powers locked them in a circuit until Anastasia won. Tucker tied up Boyd while he retrieved Crawley and Jessup, but Boyd disappeared.

(Psi-Force#6) <12/24-25/86> - On Christmas Eve, the teens kept to themselves while the rest of Sanctuary had a Christmas party, and Tyrone sent his astral form to visit his family. When Cool and his friends threatened Tyrone's body, the other four came to his defense, but Tyrone returned in time to beat up Cool. Colby demanded that the five of them move out of Sanctuary the day after tomorrow and an hour later, they were on the road, hitchhiking, with Wayne using his powers to control a driver.

(Psi-Force#7) - The teens traveled to Seattle, Washington, where they wound up at the Sanctuary home located there, run by Mona Freemont. They befriended Jackie Prentiss and Doug Tanner, but later learned that Tanner was using girls at the Sanctuary for "auditions" with film producers that left them beaten up (presumably raped). After Jackie was beaten by Tanner, Anastasia healed her, and they learned that Kathy had gone to an audition. They rescued Kathy from Tanner, and Crawley destroyed Tanner's house in order to warn him against returning to Sanctuary. Afterwards, the five decided to return to San Francisco and deal with their problems.

(Psi-Force#8) - The teens went on a tour of the Alcatraz prison, but were ambushed there by Thomas Boyd. They summoned the Psi-Hawk to help fight him, but when Boyd realized he could absorb the Psi-Hawk's energies, he drained on it until it vanished, and all five teens were knocked out. Boyd kept Tucker unconscious by leeching power from him, but ultimately turned against the CIA and helped the teens escape them. The five teens decided to look up Emmett's grandmother for help.

(Psi-Force#9 (fb)) - Wayne had some encounters with Alan Moran at Sanctuary, and found him annoying.

(Psi-Force#9) - After Alan Moran committed suicide, Wayne was overcome with guilt because he thought he had made Alan kill himself. Wayne tried to use his powers to help others with their problems, but just caused more grief when he told a man who needed a loan to get money from a bank, only for the man to wind up robbing a bank. Crawley ultimately helped Wayne come to terms with his guilt, and realize that Moran had chosen to kill himself.

(Psi-Force#10) - In Arizona, at last on their way to the Proudhawks, Kathy was annoyed by a redneck named Bill Holstrum and some of his friends, and the teens drove them off with their powers. They went to the Apache reservation where Emmett's brother Eugene and grandmother Emily lived, but Eugene was suspicious of them because of his brother's death. Emily began to try and help them determine what their destinies were, but when Holstrum came to the reservation for revenge and hurt Eugene, they summoned the Psi-Hawk to drive Holstrum and his friends off. The Psi-Hawk used Anastasia's powers to heal Eugene, who was amazed to see that Psi-Hawk resembled Emmett. Although Emily was now uncertain about the teens, Eugene gave them his complete support.

(Psi-Force#11) - Eugene helped train the teens with their powers and told them about Emmett's past, particularly about his friend Derek Shiningstar. Wayne began to drift away from the others when he became involved with Jenny Skytower, a girl on the reservation, but when an agent of Shiningstar set off dynamite in a cave where Eugene and the other four were training, Wayne revealed his powers to Jenny as he helped coordinate the rescue effort. Jenny left Wayne because she was afraid he might have used his powers to make her love him. Wayne erased her memories of him. Eugene finally decided that it was time for them to return to San Francisco.

(Psi-Force#12) - Anastasia became involved in a cult run from Haven House, led by Father Suniyoshi, who used Anastasia's abilities to drum up financial support. The others suspected that Anastasia was in trouble and came to investigate, and when Anastasia tried to leave the cult, they revealed their true colors, and tried to force her to stay. Father Suniyoshi threatened Anastasia, but the police had been called by Colby Shaw, and they broke up the cult.

(Psi-Force Annual#1) - When Boyd sent the teens a letter asking for help against the CIA, they discussed whether or not they could trust him. With Colby's help, they found floppy discs that Emmett had left at Sanctuary, and read his files on Boyd. They learned that Emmett had named them Psi-Force, and saw each of the codenames Emmett had for them. Wayne's was "Network." They ultimately aided Boyd against the CIA, and the six of them formed the Psi-Hawk to battle the agents, but the Psi-Hawk exhibited wild behavior, and turned on them when they tried to calm it down. Crawley realized that the Psi-Hawk could only merge five minds, and had Wayne knock him out so that the Psi-Hawk would vanish. Crawley decided that Boyd needed the others and that he could manage all right on his own, and decided to leave the group. Wayne was about to use his powers to force him to stay, but Crawley said that he wouldn't forgive him if did, and Crawley caused an explosion to cover his exit.

(Psi-Force#13) - Anastasia was visited by Grigori Mironenko, an old family friend, who asked her to come to the Russian Consulate to help heal his wife, but it was actually a ploy by Vladimiroff to recapture Anastasia. The other members of Psi-Force broke into the grounds and brought in the State Department. Ultimately when Mironenko realized that Vladimiroff had infected his wife just to capture Anastasia, he let Anastasia off of the consulate grounds. Tucker mindwiped the State Department staff to forget the incident.

(Psi-Force#14) - While Tyrone was in astral form searching for Crawley, his body was stolen by Seth Cleveland, who demanded that Jessup spy on a meeting and report on it to him in order to get his body back. While the rest of Psi-Force tried to learn Cleveland's identity, Jessup attended the meeting and learned that Cleveland was after a truck containing nerve gas, and needed to know what route it was taking. Unwilling to share the information, they tried to find Cleveland first, but Boyd took over the situation by finding Cleveland's family and holding a gun on them to make Cleveland turn Jessup's body over. Boyd had wanted to prove himself to the others, but Jessup was furious when he got his body back, because he thought Boyd had crossed the line. Tucker wiped the minds of Cleveland, his family, and his associates.

(Psi-Force#16) - Psi-Force allowed themselves to be studied by the scientists of Foundations Inc., but when Tyrone learned that they intended to operate on them, Wayne used his telepathy and learned they intended to abuse their powers, and they escaped from the facility, with Wayne erasing the memories of the head, Dr. Emilio Licciardo.

(Psi-Force#17) <10/19/87-11/25/87> - In the aftermath of the Foundations debacle, Wayne started going to church every week. For his birthday, Anastasia and Kathy gave him an earring of a cross. Wayne joined the others for a confrontation with the paranormal Troublemaker, a member of the mercenary Medusa Web. They met at Golden Gate Park, and Ling managed to hold him with her telekinesis and Boyd beat him until he gave the location of the Medusa Web's cameras. Psi-Force destroyed the camera's films, unaware that Medusa Web member Imprint had recorded everything with his powers. That evening at Sanctuary, Tucker doubled over in pain as he sensed the coming of Rodstvow, a powerful Russian paranormal.

(Psi-Force#20 (fb)) <11/25/87> - Tucker felt Rodstvow's attack coming, and took control of Kathy to make her throw him from Sanctuary with her powers. Tucker hit the ground so hard that he blacked out, and the others couldn't find him. Sanctuary was destroyed by Rodstvow.

(Psi-Force#18) <12/12-18/87> - Tucker wound up in Seattle, Washington, where he stayed at the hotel of Eugene Marriss, using his powers to defraud him. He fell in love with Marriss' stepdaughter, Lindsey Falmon, and started taking up the guitar again, playing on an electric guitar that had been left at the hotel. The Medusa Web pursued Wayne with their agents Electrique, Backfire and Thunder Head, but Lindsey helped Wayne escape in a car, and Tyrone came to their rescue. In the course of escaping the Medusa Web, Lindsey turned out to be a paranormal herself, with the power to see the past or future of any object she touched. She suggested that they head to Canada to escape the Medusa Web.

(Psi-Force#20) <2/15-16/88> - In Victoria, British Columbia, Tucker let Falmon touch his earring, and she saw how he escaped Sanctuary, and that Kathy, Anastasia and Boyd had survived. Now aware that Rodstvow was the one responsible, they met with Tyrone, who told them that the Medusa Web would help them rescue their friends, but only if they joined them.

(Psi-Force#21) <2/29/88> - Jake Travest attacked Tucker and Falmon at their hotel room in the MAX armor, which rendered him immune to Tucker's powers. Tucker tried to control people to help them, but Travest killed them all. Travest took Tucker captive then waited for Jessup to arrive, and burned off some of Tucker's hair for kicks. Thunder Head, Backfire and Imprint came to Falmon's aid, and they managed to hold their own against Travest until Jessup arrived and shorted out the armor's electrical systems. Tucker kept a spring-loaded blade of Travest's, and forced him to turn himself over to the authorities and reveal all of his classified information to them. Tucker turned down the Medusa Web's offer of membership for the time being.

(DP7#23/Psi-Force#23) <4/4/88> - Jessup, Tucker and Lindsey broke into Fort Benning to breakout Boyd, and had to fight their way past Jeff Walters, Gridlock, Bazooka and the Pit Bull. Dave Landers helped the four escape the base.

(Psi-Force#24) <4/5/88> - Boyd, Falmon, Jessup and Tucker broke Ling and Inyushin out of the hospital and decided that their next mission should be to confront the CIA directly and settle matters with them. They entered CIA Headquarters, but found the halls littered with bodies of victims of Rodstvow. Some nervous soldiers shot at them, and everyone except Jessup was wounded. Jessup defeated the soldiers, and Anastasia gave her life to heal the wounds of the others. When Rodstvow himself appeared, they used Emmett's medallion to create the Psi-Hawk, placing their own bodies into comas.

(Psi-Force#25) <4/5/88> - The Psi-Hawk fought Rodstvow through Washington, D.C., and they even turned the Washington Monument into a weapon to hit Rodstvow with. They tried to destroy Rodstvow but he proved more powerful than they expected, and the Psi-Hawk was destroyed.

(Psi-Force#27 - text) <4/5/88> - Rodstvow teleported Boyd, Ling, Tucker and Falmon's unconscious bodies to the Siberian Project.

(Psi-Force#27) <9/4/88> - Although Tucker remained unconscious for months, his mind sent out constant signals to the Medusa Web, asking for their help.

(Psi-Force#28) <10/3/88> - Tucker began to speak in Kathy's mind, directing her against Crasniye Solleetsi in training sessions, and preparing her for their escape.

(Psi-Force#29) <10/5/88> - The Medusa Web and Justice came to break out Tucker, Boyd, Falmon and Ling. Upon meeting Justice, Tucker immediately realized that he was after them. With Dehman Doosha, they began to escape in a helicopter.

(Justice#29) <10/5/88> - What remained of Crasniye Solleetsi pursued them and downed their helicopter, but they managed to hold their own. Justice had brought Wayne's earring from the States, and Kathy returned it to Wayne. Just as Crasniye Solleetsi were defeated, Rodstvow appeared.

(Psi-Force#30) <10/5/88> - Psi-Force, Justice, the Medusa Web and Crasniye Solleetsi joined forces against Rodstvow, under the direction of Wayne, and managed to crack his armor open and kill him, but his skeletal form continued to exist because he wasn't "aware" that he had died. Boyd was injured in the fight, and to destroy Rodstvow once and for all they had Coojeechiscue lift Boyd towards Rodstvow so that Dehman Doosha would come to his rescue and destroy Rodstvow. With the crisis past, Justice turned on Psi-Force.

(Justice#30) <10/5/88> - Justice faced Psi-Force on the psychic plane, blaming them because his daughter was injured in the fight between the Psi-Hawk and Rodstvow. He intended to kill them, but when Lindsey described him as "dead inside," he came to his senses and let them go.

(Psi-Force#31) <1/27/89> - Still recovering from their ordeal with Rodstvow, the group was offered a place in the Medusa Web again. Wayne went to Father Parvineau for spiritual guidance in the matter. They finally accepted, but Kathy chose to leave on a vacation to get away from all the violence. Babel had them engage in a training session against Potiphar, armed with a paint gun. Wayne was shot by Potiphar as soon as the exercise began, as ordered by Babel. Babel then put them into intensive training for their first assignment: Afghanistan.

(Psi-Force#32) <5/13-14/89> - Now a well-honed team of professionals, Psi-Force parachuted into Afghanistan to destroy a Soviet base that was supplying to Iran. In the course of the assignment, they met Sedara Bakut, a teleporting paranormal member of the Mujahedin, and Tucker learned that the traitor in the Mujahedin was Sedara's own father, whom she killed. In the aftermath of the assignment, Wayne proposed to Lindsey, giving her his earring instead of a ring, and she accepted. Sedara joined Psi-Force, and teleported them to Switzerland for a vacation.

(Psi-Force#32 - text) <4/1/98> - Wayne gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he referred to some of Psi-Force's missions, including "the incident at Los Alamos."

Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson.

    Wayne received an OHOTMU-style biography in Psi-Force#21.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Wayne Tucker should not be confused with:

• Network, one of the Hellbent, @ Marc Spector: Moon Knight#50
• Network, Sarah Vale, student at Xavier Institute, @ New X-Men II#13
• Network alias of the Vi-Locks, @ Exiles#20
• Network Nina, psychic agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., @ Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. II#2
• Alice Tucker, classmate of Peter Parker at Midtown High, @ Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#3
• Eric Tucker, mutant who committed suicide, @ X-Men Unlimited I#39

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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