Angar the Screamer
Real Name: David Angar.
First Appearance: DareDevil 100
Died In: Angar screamed his last during a flashback in T-Bolts Annual 97.
What's His Problem? Apart from that god-awful fringed vest he insisted on wearing? Angar was an anti-war protester and wannabe hippie who became embittered over his inability to change "the man." He voluntarily submitted to a treatment that gave him super-human powers, but which tipped him right off the teeter-totter edge of sanity he'd been balancing on. He brought San Franscisco to a stand-still a couple of times, and even messed with the publishing schedule of Rolling Stone magazine. After a mind-meld with Moondragon left him scream-less, Master Khan offered him the position of chief brainwasher and regenerated his powers.
Powers: Angar's voice induced a "mindscream" in his victims, affecting the chemicals in their brains to produce intense, realistic hallucinations often based on their own life experiences. The memories of these hallucinations typically faded after a few minutes, often leaving the victim unsure that anything had actually happened. Some superheroes, however, discovered they could recall the details of Angar's scream attack. For example, DareDevil's blindness did not protect him from Angar's reality-twisting scream but allowed him to remember it afterwards, leading him to conclude there was some optical-based hypnosis going on in addition to the chemical imbalance. Iron Fist found his years of mental training helped him recall the Screamer even though he couldn't keep a grip when Angar was screaming. Spider-Woman's unique physiology made her immune to his mindscream after prolonged exposure. She was one of the few super-heros who enjoyed the satisfaction of physically smacking Angar around.
Favorite Quote: "You missed. I didn't feel a ... thing." (Iron Fist 7. Angar belatedly realizes that samurai sword blades cut cleanly and painlessly.)
Heroes He Kept Running Into: Originally a DareDevil and Black Widow foe back when they all lived in San Francisco, Angar accepted an assignment to brainwash Colleen Wing into assassinating Danny Rand, AKA Iron Fist. Somebody forgot to tell Angar that Colleen was a trained samurai warrior; when Iron Fist cleansed her mind and Colleen realized what Angar had done to her, she eviscerated him and left him to die. After an extended convalescence, Angar returned to California and ran into Spider-Woman, who thumped him royally. Later run-ins with various Avengers members resulting in still more thumping.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: Angar started out as a mis-guided pawn of Murdock's law partner Kerwin Broderick, who was one part of the original Terrax. The accidental death of David's girlfriend Janis drove him over the edge -- Angar's insanity turned deliberately violent, and he lost his last vestiges of a conscience. Master Khan used Angar's mind-bending powers to brainwash prisoners into committing acts of terrorism, and may have been the mysterious benefactor who broke him out of prison in Hawaii. The only person who really missed Angar, however, was his partner Screaming Mimi. After his death, Mimi didn't stop screaming until she destroyed her own voice box.
Most Despicable Act: Angar deliberately drove people insane, sometimes under orders, as he did with Colleen Wing's father, and sometimes just for amusement, as he did whenever he came across police officers. When covering his tracks after an escape from prison, Angar used his scream to kill the manager of Star City and his secretary just to keep them quiet, even though they were part of the criminal underground helping him escape.
