Greetings from the Future! This is David Michelinie, back with another visit to the stories that might have been. This time we’re going to examine Future Comics’ first, and flagship, title: FREEMIND.

Since Bob and I were playing with three new story arcs when Fate took our toys away, it might be fun to look at those one at a time, to see specifically what adventures--and misadventures--our mind-transferring hero had in store for him.

We’d already begun the first arc in our final published issue, #7. That story ended with the revelation that one of McKinsey Flint’s companies had been buying powerful particle beam weapons for a mysterious third party, for an equally mysterious reason. In issue #8, Mac (as android Edison Wilde) was to go to Flint Aerotech, where he’d re-team with Paul Erwin (from issue #6) to uncover a traitorous administrator on Ang Mann’s payroll. But when Wilde attempted to stop the particle weapons from being launched in a commercial rocket, he’d find himself trapped in the rocket’s payload chamber, headed for outer space! Then, in the next issue, he’d arrive at a “communications” satellite owned by Ang Mann, only to discover that the installation had a hidden, and much less savory, purpose. After battling a loyal and powerful guardian, Wilde would have shut the satellite down and returned to Earth-- but Ang Mann would be left with suspicions that Edison Wilde was not entirely human.

In our next arc, scheduled for issues 10-12, circumstances would have caused Flint technologies to relocate its main operations back to San Diego, where the heat-wielding Ang Mann agent, Fevre, would be sent to steal a sonic compression device. Edison Wilde would go against Fevre and, in making a choice to protect lives instead, would allow Fevre to get away with the experimental machine. Historically, McKinsey Flint has not dealt well with failure, and this incident (combined with his perceived inability to save Pamela Dean from suicide in issue #5) would cause Mac to shy away from using the Wilde android. He would retreat to the more familiar and secure position of running a business empire from his wheelchair. Meanwhile, in an Ang Mann research facility, the sonic compression device would be focused on the smooth metallic “meteor” Fevre stole in METALLIX #4. The compression effect would cause the meteor to emit zero-point energy, allowing it to rise into the air in defiance of gravity! Back in San Diego, investigation would reveal that Ang Mann, owner of the weapon-laden satellite from our previous arc, is an agent of the Chinese government, but seems to be pursuing some unknown, and possibly sinister, personal agenda. This threat, along with pep talks from his friends and supporters, would get Mac back into the Edison Wilde android. During a battle between Wilde and Sirocco, the meteor would be bathed in so much sonic energy that it would rise out of the Earth’s atmosphere, lost to Ang and his mysterious master plan. One more reason for Ang to get to the bottom of who--or what--Edison Wilde might be.

For our third planned arc, we decided to have Wilde--publicly on the FlinTech payroll as a troubleshooter--actually troubleshoot something. He was to go to the American Northwest to oversee the operation of a cutting edge missile defense installation. There, he would be accidentally zapped with a powerful beam of radiation and crash land in the wilderness. He’d be found and taken to a small, isolated logging community, where it would be revealed that his built-in homing beacon had been fried by the radiation--which had also wiped out his memory! While both FlinTech crews and Ang Mann operatives search for him, Wilde would be cared for by the good people in the small town--and would slowly fall in love with a young woman there. Eventually, the town would be menaced by some disaster--forest fire, dam brake, or something more original. Wilde would rediscover his awesome mental powers and realize they’re the only thing that can save the town and its people. About this time both FlinTech and Ang Mann troops would show up and battle each other. Wilde’s background would be explained to him and he’d be told he has to return to his Mac Flint body immediately or it--and he--will die. But only Edison Wilde can save the town. So Wilde would take the risk, save everyone, and return to his human body at the last instant. Unfortunately, this would leave the immobile Edison Wilde android vulnerable, and Ang’s agents would make off with it!

As Mac recovers, he would realize that he can never return to the woman he’d fallen in love with; he can’t imagine that she would still love him as a robot.

Instead, he focuses his bitterness on getting the Wilde android back. To that end, he excavates the radioactive Mark I Wilde that had been sealed in concrete in issue #4, and uses it to retrieve the Mark II. In the process, he confronts Ang Mann for the first time. Ang, having had time to examine “Edison Wilde,” threatens to reveal to the world that it’s an android (though he has no idea how it works, or that Mac Flint’s mind is inside). Wilde Mark I counters with the threat to send evidence of Ang’s duplicity to the Chinese government. We’d thus end with the Mark II ‘droid recovered, and a very uneasy stalemate existing between Ang Mann and McKinsey Flint.

Ah, but readers of this article’s previous installments are probably asking, what the hell does this have to do with the deathmask? As you may recall, I said that parts of that mask were key to all Future Comics series. Well, FREEMIND was no exception. The deathmask was going to change this book, and in a way that no one would have expected; no sizzle and flash that would result in simply a new costume, or new power, or supporting character. The very nature of the FREEMIND series was going to change, for real and for good. In a phone conversation, Bob and I had discussed where this book was going, where it ultimately would end up. We realized that McKinsey Flint’s sole motivation had been to become normal, and we decided that he wouldn’t stop trying just because he’d failed once. He’d keep working on it--and in the end would succeed. He’d learn to “grow” organic parts, and eventually construct a totally organic, completely human, body. But without a synthetic brain, the spintronic mind transfer wouldn’t work. As it would turn out, the only thing that could make a permanent, one-time-only brain switch successful would be a chip of the otherworldly metal from the deathmask.

But, would McKinsey Flint take this irreversible and unrepeatable step? After all, he would have spent a couple of years as a super-powered being by then. Could he possibly give up all that power, that ability to help people and change things, just to become a mere human? Yes. Because that’s what he’d truly wanted all along.

So somewhere a few years down the pike we’d have a FREEMIND series with a human Mac Flint and an Edison Wilde android without a brain. Sounds kind of dull for an action series, doesn’t it? Hmmm, could there possibly be a mind floating around in the Future Universe in search of a body? If you read last month’s installment, you’re probably saying, “You betcha!” That’s right, we were going to transfer Gil Sanderson’s essence from the liquid memory chip into the Edison Wilde android. This would have given us a super-powered character for FREEMIND, and a whole new set of intriguing questions to explore: would Gil embrace the Wilde persona, continue the myth? Or would he attempt to assume his old identity? Would his friends--or for that matter, his mother--accept him as himself in this new form? Or would it be best to just start all over again? I guess we’ll never know, now.

Anyway, it’s been fun going over all this history, reliving a past that never happened. Thanks for reading, both the comics and this article. Coming up: bob.layton makes a guest appearance on his own website to conclude this series with our final unrealized project.

Next month: PEACEKEEPER!