Respect Francis Ruben

General Information

Francis Ruben is an anti-hero/hero who was the star of a four part miniseries known as BUZZKILL. He is a reluctant hero who struggles with his heroic identity due to the fact that his powers come from doing drugs/drinking alcohol.

Here is a quick list of the effects from various substances:

• Alcohol - Increased Strength & Durability
• Caffeine - Increased Senses
• Nicotine - Healing Factor
• Unknown Drug/Substance - Flight

It's a fun little series and I wanted to shine a little light on the "hero" that is Francis Ruben, so let's begin!

Table of Contents

1. Strength
2. Durability
3. Senses

1.0 Strength

When Francis consumes alcohol he gains an increased level of strength. The more he consumes, the stronger he becomes, but also, the drunker he becomes, resulting in him not recalling much from his fights.

• Buzzkill #1 - Crushes/crunches a stop-sign pole the first time he ever got drunk.
• Buzzkill #2 - Throws two dogs through the roof of a building. They 'blast off' Team Rocket style.
• Buzzkill #2 - Rips an android in half, obliterates a man's skull, tears a woman's head from her body and uses it to seriously injure another person. Also endures a harsh energy blast, begins bloodying a man in a mech suit and is blasted through a wall by a magic blast.
• Buzzkill #4 - Punches his father (who has the same powers) through several buildings. Then, overpowers him through the atmosphere and into space where he leaves him there to die.

2.0 Durability

Another effect of drinking alcohol, his durability is increased. He does have some impressive non-drunk durability however.

• Buzzkill #1 - Survives a car crash that killed two of his friends instantaneously. Was ejected from the car, hit himself off the truck that crashed into them, and flew an even further distance before falling. Apparently this put him in this hospital for ~1 week.
• Buzzkill #2 - Without any alcohol (his standard) he is blasted through a wall by an android's energy blast. Then he finds himself being hit by every single one of his villains (from his hero days) which results in his arm and sternum being broken and his head being broken to pieces, he also receives several stab wounds with the knives still left inside him. He survives without blacking out and winds up walking away from the fight (though he later returns and returns the favor, as we saw in the strength section).
• Buzzkill #3 - Survives an energy blast that sends him through a wall and onto the roof of a parked car. He had no alcohol before this, so once again, this is his standard.

3.0 Senses

When he has caffeine his senses are increased to super-human levels.

• Buzzkill #2 - Accidentally consumes regular coffee and gets ultra-heightened senses. Claims he can hear a butterfly flap it's wings and tell if someone is lying by the smell of their sweat. During this moment he senses that 'Wayne' has no heartbeat because he is a robot/android.

Conclusion

It's a short RT but it was fun re-reading this series. I do wish Francis had more appearances because I think his "powers" lend themselves to some interesting storytelling, but alas, we find ourselves stuck with a miniseries.