Michael Wiseman

Michael "Newman" with his wife on his left and Dr.Morris on the rightReal Name: Michael Wiseman

Identity/Class: Artificially created, genetically enhanced human - brain transplanted in from normal man killed in accident

Occupation: Government experiment, reluctant operative; (former) insurance salesman

Affiliations: Dr. Theodore Morris (controller); Roger Bender (former work colleague and friend)

Enemies: The Eggman, Dr.Bing

Known Relatives: Lisa Wiseman (wife); Heather Wiseman (daughter); Maceo T. Jones (prototype genetically engineered man, kind of his brother)

Aliases: Michael Newman

Base of Operations: New York

First Appearance: Now and Again #1 "Origins" (CBS, 24th September 1999)

Powers/Abilities: Wiseman's new body is superhumanly strong, agile enough to climb a skyscraper with his bare hands and feet, fast enough to outrun most cars, has superhuman stamina, enhanced sight and vision, and is extremely resistant to intense cold and heat.

History: Michael Wiseman before the accident.Michael Wiseman was a middle-aged insurance salesman with a wife and teenage daughter, and a nice house in the suburbs. It hadn't been the best of days for him; it looked like he was about to lose his job, and his marriage was going through a difficult patch. It didn't look like things could get any worse.

Then they did.

In a crowded subway station on commuter shoved into another. A ripple started along the platform, until it reached Michael, standing at the edge. He was pushed straight into the path of an oncoming train, and killed. That should have been the end of the story.

Enter Dr. Theodore Morris. Dr. Morris had been working with the government on creating the perfect soldier and agent. He had managed to create a genetically engineered body, grown to adulthood in only a short space of time. But there was no way to speed-grow life experience. Instead Dr.Morris looked for a donor whose brain could be transplanted into his prototype new man. Michael Wiseman, his body destroyed but his brain miraculously intact, fitted the bill perfectly. Without informing the dead man's family, they harvested his brain and placed it into a young, sleek form.

Michael should have been thrilled at his new lease of life, and would have been. Except that he was now government property, and if he broke any of the rules his new life would be brought to an abrupt end. Rules like not being allowed to contact or see his family. Rules like going through arduous tests for Morris. Rules like not being allowed to know what day it was, or to read a newspaper, or indeed any book. Rules like having to carry out dangerous assignments for the government every so often to justify the expense of maintaining him.

In spite of all these rules Michael still manages to keep a brave face on things, and as time has past he has managed to circumvent or arrange partial release from some of them. He has been able to see his family, although they know him as Michael Newman, not as himself. He's allowed to read books again. And he lives on in the hope that one day he might be able to regain his freedom and be reunited with the wife and child he misses so much. While he waits he has faced opponents like the Eggman, an insane scientist who plants deadly nerve gas inside eggs and then breaks them in crowded, public places; Maceo T. Jones, the escaped prototype genetically engineered man, whom he befriended and didn't want to capture; the Bugmeister, a man capable of controlling deadly swarms of insects

Comments: Played by John Goodman pre-accident, and Eric Close as the genetically engineered form of Wiseman. The show only lasted one season of twenty-two episodes.

CLARIFICATIONS: None

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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