assassin
assassin
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-148611) human technology-user
Occupation: Mercenary assassin
Group Membership: None known
Affiliations: Nightmask (Keith Remsen);
Formerly Gnome (Horst Kleinmann);
physicians caring for him
Enemies: Gnome (Horst Kleinmann), Adam Remsen, Lenore Remsen, Theodora "Teddy" Remsen;
formerly Keith Remsen;
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Terrorist" (from Lucian Ballad)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly an unidentified hospital that was a relatively short drive from the University of Maryland
First Appearance: Nightmask#1 (November, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: The man was experienced with explosives, using something that devastated a significant section of an airport.
Height:
Unrevealed (he is not seen standing in proximity to anyone of known
height, but he did not appear to be particularly short nor tall;
perhaps 5'8" - 6')
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 160-200 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (only seen from a distance; dark; likely brown, possibly blue)
Hair: Brown (including mustache)
History:
(Nightmask#1
(fb) - BTS) - Horst Kleinmann, head of Zurich, Switzerland's Kleinmann
Institute accepted the graduating high-school Keith Remsen for a summer
program. However, the paranoid Kleinmann had assumed that Keith's
parents, both former students of his involved in dream research, were
sending their son to spy on him, and so he sent a man to kill the
Remsens with a bomb. Not trusting his own assassin, Kleinmann altered
the timing on the assassin's bomb so that it would go off prematurely
so that the assassin would be killed, too.
(Nightmask#1) - At Washington, D.C.'s Dulles Airport, Adam, Lenore, and Theodora Remsen said their goodbyes to Keith as he prepared to depart. None of the Remsens noticed as Kleinmann's agent dropped a bag containing a bomb beside the Remsens as they stood there.
The bomb then went off, killing Adam and Lenore, and leaving Teddy
paralyzed below the waist. Keith was struck in the forehead by a piece
of shrapnel and sent into a coma. The bomber was badly injured, left
bandaged from head to toe, and remained under intensive care. Many
others present in the terminal were injured or killed. 
(Nightmask#1 - BTS) <July 22-24, 1986> - The White Event occurred, blanketing Earth with the energies of the Star Brand. These energies awakened Keith from his coma and granted him the power to enter and manipulate the dreams of others.
Keith had a dream in which he met the man who had planted the bomb (although he had never seen his face and therefore didn't recognize him); wrapped in tentacles, the man proclaimed that there was no escape, as the tentacles were too strong and too tangled to ever be undone. He further stated that the Gnome (Kleinmann's dream identity) would never allow him to escape...he must die to protect the Gnome's treasure, as those others had had to die...
The man then recognized Keith's face, and Keith's bathrobe changed into the outfit he was wearing at the time of the explosion. When the man's outfit changed and he was holding the same bag -- which Keith had seen before the explosion -- he had been holding when he dropped the bomb, Keith realized this was the man who had killed his parents. Just as the Gnome grabbed Keith, Teddy pulled him out of the dream.
(Nightmask#1 (fb) - BTS) - The stress of seeing Keith Remsen in his dream caused the assassin to have a heart attack.
(Nightmask#1) - Seeing
the man being rushed down the hall, Keith recognized him as his
hospital room neighbor and an another explosion victim. The doctors
told Keith the man had had a heart attack. 
(Nightmask#1 - BTS) - Teddy, having shared the dream, drew a sketch of the assassin (despite his having been covered in bandages since the explosion). To confirm this was the man, Teddy had her physical therapist, Lita Mercado, photocopy the man's passport photo.
While Dr. Lucian Ballad was skeptical of Keith's claims, Keith and Teddy had him compare Teddy's drawing with his passport photo.
After Lucian was convinced of Keith's abilities and claims about the bandaged man, he warned Keith that he could die in an intense dream, and he advised that Keith disguise his identity to avoid stressing the bomber again.
(Nightmask#1) - Keith
subsequently sensed the assassin's dreams and re-entered them, finding
him hiding from the Gnome, who assured the man that he needed him to
live. When the man complained about the Gnome sabotaging the bomb, the
Gnome acknowledged that that had been both unfair and short-sighted, as
the Remsen children still survived. Vocalizing in surprise, Keith drew
the attention of the Gnome, who attacked and noted that the dying
assassin had served his purpose as his dreams had drawn back this
invader into the realm the Gnome considered his own. The Gnome
overpowered Nightmask, but Teddy pulled him out before he could be
killed. However, she was somewhat traumatized by the Gnome's assault as
well. 
(Nightmask#1 - BTS) - Following some research on Germanic legends, Keith appreciated that the Gnome was Kleinmann, after which he tried to drug Teddy so she wouldn't be at risk.
(Nightmask#1) - Nightmask re-entered the bomber's dreams. As vultures circled the bomber, the Gnome exhorted him to crawl his way to a water fountain. Complaing of weakness, the bomber begged to be allowed to rest, but the Gnome urged him forward toward the water.
Nightmask then confronted them, noting that though he wished the man could survive to tell the world of his employer's crimes, the doctors had said that the man would never regain consciousness.
As the Gnome challenged him, Nightmask identified him as Kleinmann, which disrupted the Gnome's confidence, causing him to revert to his unpowered form as Kleinmann, after which Nightmask revealed he was Adam and Lenore's son.
Although Kleinmann ordered the man and forbade him to enter the abyss, the bomber noted that, at last, he was beyond the Gnome. He then allowed himself to fall forward into the abyss and apparently perished.
(Nightmask#1 - BTS) - With the bomber's death, the abyss spread began to spread. Kleinmann and Nightmask narrowly escaped back to the real world.
Comments: Archie Goodwin, Tony Salmons, and Bret Blevins.Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The assassin/bomber should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Nightmask#1 (November, 1986) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Tony Salmons (penciler), Bret Blevins (inker), Michael Higgins (editor)
First posted: 08/13/2022
Last updated: 08/09/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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