Bookworm
Real Name: Nelson Gruber
First Appearance: SleepWalker 4
What's His Problem? Nelson Gruber was an industrious, if insecure, psych graduate student at Metropolitan University who was conducting sleep experiments for his graduate advisor. One patient, Rick Sheridan, exhibited a brainwave pattern Gruber'd never seen. He fed the patterns into a computer and magnified it a millionfold to better study it. However, the computer overloaded and knocked Gruber unconscious. When he awoke he discovered he had the ability to transform written text into material form. He became unhinged and soon decided to get revenge on fellow student Whitney Cooper III for ditching him. He lost grip with reality, thinking he was unstoppable.
Abilities: See, the brain patterns Gruber recorded were actually the other dimensional being known as SleepWalker leaving Rick's brain. When the computer overloaded, shocking Gruber, it allowed him draw energy from the Mindscape (SleepWalker's home dimension) and transform it into physical form. As well, Gruber was apparently a gifted psych student and computer technician.
Weapons: Oh, tomes, texts, novels, encyclopedias, collected works, scrolls, documents, scripts, magazines, pamphlets, or, I dunno, books maybe?
Favorite Quote: "I am the Bookworm! And mine is the power of the printed word!" (SleepWalker 4)
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: Since SleepWalker was the accidental cause for his powers, they're a natural combination.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: Alyssa Conover (the girlfriend of SleepWalker's human host Rick Sheridan) thought Gruber was a nice enough guy at first to hang out with him when he was feeling low. And while she may have aided in his eventual capture by SleepWalker by handing him a book with empty pages, she was doing it merely to help him since she thought he was losing grip with reality.
Most Despicable Act: Easily, one of the first manifestations of his power was his most despicable act. Angry at Cooper for ditching him while he went on a date, leaving Gruber to do all the work Gruber summoned up several Amazon warriors who beat and tortured Cooper. All this because Gruber was feeling under appreciated, yeesh! You'd think the guy would have just told their graduate advisor.
by Kirk Furlotte
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