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Comet
Man
Real Name: Dr. Stephen Beckley Occupation: Astronomer, astrophysicist, former astronaut Identity: Publicly known Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record Other Aliases: None known Place of Birth: Somewhere in Florida Marital Status: Widower Known Relatives: Jack (father, deceased), mother (depicted but
name unrevealed), John (last name unrevealed, brother, deceased), Rosemary (sister),
brother-in-law (voice depicted but name unrevealed), Ann (wife, deceased), Benny
(son) Group Affiliation: None Base of Operations: Mobile First Appearance: COMET MAN # 1
History: Dr. Stephen Beckley was the son of Colonel Jack Beckley
of the United States Air Force. Stephen's parents were enraged when Jack went
out to the South Pacific as a naval aviator; Jack was unaware that his fiancee
was then pregnant with his child. Her family sent her to Florida to have the
baby, who was then put up for adoption. Returning as a highly decorated hero;
Jack married his fiancee and they had two children, Stephen and Rosemary.
However, Jack remained unaware of the existence of his older son, John, who
grew up going from one foster home to another. John eventually became a powerful
figure in naval intelligence and developed his own top secret intelligence agency,
the Bridge. As head of the Bridge, John was known as the Superior. Tracing his
own background, John discovered the identity of his father. John went to see
Colonel Jack Beckley and told him he was his son. Jack, however, not knowing
the truth, said he had only one son. The vengeful John determined to destroy
the Beckley name and arranged an airplane accident in which Colonel Beckley
died.
Stephen Beckley had become an astronomer and astrophysicist. He and his wife,
Ann, a former astronaut, had a young son, Benny. Stephen and Ann Beckley were
also the creators and heads of the Edmond Project, a joint effort by the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
to investigate comets and related phenomena.
As the culmination of the project, Stephen Beckley piloted a
spacecraft that encountered an apparent comet passing through
Earth's solar system. Beckley lost directional control of
his spacecraft; which was drawn into the tail of the comet.
Within the comet, however, was another spacecraft piloted
by an alien who called himself Max, a being from the so-called
Colony Fortisque. Max claims that his race has "seeded"
planets in the Milky Way Galaxy and that it is thus responsible
for the origin of human life on Earth. (Claims have also
been made that the Celestials created human life on Earth
through genetic experimentation, but these assertions are
now believed to be incorrect. It remains to be seen how
much validity there is to the Fortisquians claims of Earth’s
human race. It is definitely known that the Fortisquians
played a role in the history of Earth’s Savage Land.
Roughly every 77 years a Fortisquian spacecraft concealed
beneath the appearance of a comet passes by the Earth to
observe it.
When Beckley's spacecraft entered the tail of the comet concealing Max's starship.
the intense heat of the comet vaporized Beckley's craft as well as Beckley himself.
However, Max employed Fortisquian technology to gather up Beckley's molecules
and to reconstruct his body. Max's technological devices do so in such a way
as to bestow upon Beckley various superhuman powers, apparently through partially
reconstructing Beckley along the lines of Fortisquian physiology and body chemistry.
Using his new powers, Beckley returned to Earth, where he was believed to have
died in space. Beckley encountered David Hilbert, a man whom he believed to
be his friend and who was chief of Bridge operations. Hilbert was formerly Ann
Beckley's boyfriend and had seen Beckley's apparent demise as his opportunity
to win her as his lover. Learning that Beckley was alive, Hilbert allowed Ann
to continue to believe her husband was dead and he quarantined Beckley, subjecting
him to tests of his new superhuman abilities. The Superior decided to keep Beckley
captive in order to learn how to duplicate the process through which he had
gained superhuman powers. The Superior also decided to capture Max and his ship
and launched a secret program to send men into space to do so. Hilbert had Ann
Beckley and her son Benny taken captive as well.
Stephen Beckley soon escaped captivity, unaware that his wife and son had also
been made prisoners. Ann made an escape attempt, taking Benny with her, but
was accidentally killed when she made contact with an electrified fence. Taken
back into Bridge custody, Benny was subjected by order of the Superior to a
brutal series of tests and experiments in altering his own molecular structure
by a scientist named Dr. Fishler in an attempt to duplicate Stephen Beckley's
powers within his son.
Searching for his missing wife and child, Beckley encountered
and nearly defeated the Hulk. Reed
Richards, leader of the Fantastic
Four, saw Beckley battling the Hulk on television and went
to see him in person. The news media dubbed the newly superhumanly
powerful Beckley "Comet Man." Richards aided Beckley
in controlling his power of self-teleportation by giving him a
"psi-amplifier" device. Concentrating on his wife, Beckley
teleported himself into her presence only to discover her within
a buried coffin. Returning to Richards, Beckley then learned about
his older brother John, who was now the Superior, from S.H.I.E.L.D.
Beckley teleported himself into the presence of his son, only to find him seemingly
dying in Bridge captivity. Unknowingly, the anguished Stephen Beckley transmitted
part of his own life force into Benny, thereby apparently activating superhuman
powers given Benny by the Bridge's experiments. Awakening, Benny, enraged and
perhaps driven by insanity by the shock of his father's seeming death, his witnessing
his mother's death, and the torments he had undergone at Fishler's hands, used
his new powers to attack his father and to kill Fishler. Benny blamed his father
for abandoning him and his mother to the suffering they had undergone. Benny
then fell into a catatonic state. Stephen confronted the now repentant Hilbert,
who vowed to take care of Benny.
Meanwhile, men serving the Bridge had reached Max's starship and had gone aboard.
They invited Max to return with them to Earth. Comet Man teleported himself
aboard Max's starship just as the Bridge's men were about to kill the alien,
who had refused to go to Earth with them. The Bridge assassins then attacked
Comet Man. Faced with violence for the first time in his life, Max, who was
from a pacifistic culture, turned insanely violent, in the grip of emotions
stirred in him through observing violence on Earth. The Bridge assassins fled
Max's starship. Max told Comet Man that he intended to wipe out the human race
on Earth before its violent ways contaminated the rest of the sentient races
of the galaxy. Beckley calmed Max down and agreed to accompany him on a visit
to the Fortisquian colony.
Back on Earth the Superior triggered a nuclear device to destroy Max's starship
and his brother with it. Max sensed the danger, and he and Comet Man teleported
away to safety. Max took Comet Man to the Colony Fortisque, where Beckley gained
more control over his powers through training. Beckley and Max returned to Earth,
where Beckley found his sister, Rosemary, and his son, Benny, living with his
brother, John. Comet Man used his powers to free Benny from his catatonic state.
Ultimately, Comet Man learned John was the Superior, who then paid for his crimes.
Height: 6 ft. 1 in. Weight: 190 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown
Strength Level: Comet Man possesses superhuman strength that
enables him to lift (press) roughly 25 tons.
Known Superhuman Powers: Besides his superhuman strength,
Comet Man can project spheres of concussive energy from his hands at will. He
possesses telekinetic powers which enable him to levitate objects. He most often
employs this power to fly by levitating himself. His resistance to injury has
increased to superhuman levels, enabling him to recover with superhuman rapidity
from bullet wounds and to survive the heat of re-entry from outer space through
Earth's atmosphere without harm.
Comet Man can teleport himself over vast distances, even from Earth to a location
in outer space. The limits on Comet Man's teleportational range are as yet unknown.
Comet Man's teleportational ability is triggered subconsciously when he is in
danger. He can utilize his teleportational power consciously through the use
of a "psiamplifier" device given him by Reed Richards. Comet Man can
teleport himself into the presence of another person by concentrating on that
person, even if Comet Man does not know where that person is. Apparently Comet
Man subconsciously psionically scans the area to which he teleports himself
to make sure he does not materialize within a solid object.
Comet Man can psionically project a portion of his own consciousness into the
mind of another human being or the mind of an animal. In this way Comet Man
can read the memories of that other human being or animal and can even influence
the thoughts and emotions of that person or animal. Comet Man refers to this
power as "thought pitching." As a side effect of receiving psionic
abilities, Comet Man's capacity for feeling emotions himself has increased.
The limits of most of Comet Mans superhuman powers have yet to be defined.