Dr Beat

Real Name: ? McDowell

Identity/Class: Human mutant

Occupation: Superhero

Affiliations: Member of Taskforce U.K. / Cloud Nine

Enemies: CIA telepathic assassins

Known Relatives: Jenny Ridgeway (White Heat, wife); Robert (Zenith, son); unnamed parents

Aliases: Warhead

Base of Operations: U.K.

First Appearance: 2000 A.D.

Powers/Abilities: Like all the members of Cloud Nine, Dr Beat could fly, was nearly invulnerable, and had incredible strength. As with the rest of his cohorts, it would seem likely that his superhero name related to his other powers in some way, but what that power was I do not know. 2000A.D. editor Tharg once answered a reader's query as to what Dr.Beat's power was by replying he was "the only white man who could dance."

History: Dr Beat was a member of Cloud Nine, the group of superhumans created by UK government sponsored experimentation on pregnant women in the post war years. Like the rest of the group, he was trained to be a soldier as part of Taskforce UK, and like the rest he rejected outside control and became a member of sixties counterculture. Romance blossomed with his teammate Jenny Ridgeway (White Heat) and they married. Shortly thereafter they worked out that they were not genuinely sterile as they had been informed by their creators, but were instead being kept infertile by drugs hidden in the medication they took supposedly to keep their powers stable. They had a child together, Robert  McDowell (a.k.a. Zenith).

Shortly afterwards the two superhumans were ambushed by the CIA shadowmen, telepathic assassins, while they were out driving. White Heat was killed, but Dr Beat survived, albeit with horrific injuries, including extensive brain damage.  Somehow he ended up in the care of Dr Peyne, the man who had been behind the government experiments those many years ago. His injured body was kept alive, hooked up to extensive cybernetics, though his mind was not so lucky. Peyne renamed him Warhead.

Peyne and his employer Scott Wallace used Warhead as an assassin, sending him to kill his own son. Zenith was horrified to discover what had become of his father, and given little choice ended his father's misery permanently.

Comments: Created by Grant Morrison.

Thanks to Matthew Cocks for information re: Tharg's comments on Dr.Beat's powers.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

• any other Doctors

• Warheads, agents of Mys-Tech

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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