Contrary | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Malibu Comics |
First appearance | Freex #1 (July, 1993) |
Created by |
Gerard Jones Martin England |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | possibly Mary |
Team affiliations |
Academy of the New Elite Ultraforce |
Notable aliases | Wetware Mary |
Abilities | Ability to stimulate the pleasure/pain centers of the brain |
Contrary was a character from Malibu Comics' Ultraverse. She was created by Gerard Jones and Martin Egeland and first appeared in the series Freex, though she was better known as the founder of Ultraforce.
Though it has never been truly confirmed, it is heavily implied in Freex that the nurse nicknamed "Wetware Mary" (the one responsible for creating the Freex and other superhuman Ultras by injecting babies with nanotechnology) was the same woman who would eventually become Contrary. Both were humans who had access to the advanced technology of the Fire People, and both manipulated people in various ways for their own agendas.
Contrary was first seen (under that name) as leader of the Academy of the New Elite, a small group of teenage Ultras (including Feline and Flygirl) living inside a high-tech base hidden in Mount Shasta. She arranges events so that the Freex (the presumed result of her genetic tampering) would find their way to Mt. Shasta and engage in combat with the Academy trainees, just so she could observe their powers and fighting abilities. When the Freex proved more capable than she thought, they escape, even convincing one of Contrary's Academy students (Cayman) to leave with them. Boomboy, one of the group, stays behind in order to gain an education. Needless to say, Contrary was quite furious at Cayman leaving.
Later, she meets the newest Academy member, Pixx, and encounters Hardcase and Ghoul. They had all independently discovered that the Fire People had stolen nuclear missiles and were planning to "take back" the surface world their ancestors had abandoned millennia ago. The group join together to form Ultraforce, but it was not a seamless fit.
The Ultraforce recruited first Prototype, and then Prime, who fit Contrary's bill perfectly; powerful, young, not too bright, and easily manipulated. Contrary essentially tricked Hardcase into becoming the leader, and the group received official sanction from then-President Bill Clinton. Contrary tried to make peace with the Freex in order to recruit them, but they were uninterested in her offer.