Real Name

History: Brock Jones, a former professional football hero, was a vice-president at the Delmar Insurance Company when he accidentally stumbled into a battle between the crimefighter Daredevil and the alleged criminal called the Torpedo. In the midst of the battle, the Torpedo accidentally caused a large section of a building to collapse. The Torpedo was buried in the rubble, and Jones frantically dug him out. Fatally injured, the Torpedo told Jones he was actually Michael Stivak, a Yugoslavian who had been brought to this country by his uncle, United States Senator Eugene Kligger Stivak in order to design a new type of battlesuit for national defense. Stivak had just perfected the Torpedo suit when he discovered that he had been duped by his uncle. The elder Stivak, a leader of the criminal organization called the Corporation, apparently planned to use the suit in an attempt to take over the United States. Angered by the betrayal, the young scientist designed a much less powerful battlesuit and presented it to his uncle. Now, however, Senator Stivak had learned of the existence of the powerful Torpedo armor and sought to steal the suit's only existing plans. If he did so, his power would be almost limitless. The younger Stivak begged Jones to carry out his mission and destroy the plans, thus preventing anyone from ever again creating the Torpedo suit.

As he held the dead man in his arms, Jones decided that he had no choice but to don the Torpedo armor and stop the traitorous Senator Stivak. Thus, Brock Jones became the new Torpedo. In his first mission, Jones destroyed the plans that Stivak was searching for. Somewhat bored with the dull routine of his life, Jones decided to keep the Torpedo suit and toyed with the idea of becoming a part-time crimefighter. Denied access to the suit's blueprints, Senator Stivak was determined to procure the original suit by any means possible. In order to do this, he armed a small band of agents in the inferior battle suits his nephew had created. Called the Rocketeers, this band met and battled the Torpedo several times. Jones, believing that the security of the nation was at stake, ultimately defeated the Rocketeers. When Senator Stivak died shortly after the Rocketeers' final defeat, Jones believed that the threat was over.

Jones returned to as normal a life as possible, abandoning his career as the Torpedo. Then, one night, a new group of Rocketeers attacked Jones at his Westport home. Unaware of how these Rocketeers could have learned his secret identity (something Senator Stivak never succeeded in finding out) the Torpedo defended his family from the Rocketeers' attack. During the late night battle, Jones accidentally killed one of his opponents. Before his horrified eyes, the mysterious attacker dissolved into ash. Although Jones won this preliminary skirmish, he was badly frightened. He realized that he was facing an even greater threat than before, a threat that he did not fully understand.

Fearful for his family's safety, Jones quit his job at Delmar and moved to the rural town of Clairton, West Virginia. On his first night there, he spotted a flying individual he believed to be another Rocketeer. It was only after a fierce battle that he discovered that he was mistaken. The creature he had seen in the night sky was Rom, an alien Spaceknight from the world called Galador who had come to Earth in order to cleanse off it an invading race of shapeshifters called the Dire Wraiths. Jones and Rom became allies, and together they discovered the truth behind the Rocketeers and the creation of the Torpedo suit.

It turned out that Senator Stivak was an agent of the Dire Wraiths. Although the Wraiths were quite advanced in technological weaponry, they found they needed the special skills of an earth scientist in order to perfect a battle suit capable of defeating Rom, their primary foe on Earth. It was for this reason that Senator Stivak had duped his nephew into creating the Torpedo armor. They had hoped to arm an entire squadron of their soldiers in such an armor and defeat their ancient enemy forever.

Together, Rom and the Torpedo defeated Wraith Rocketeers, earning the Torpedo the undying enmity of the Wraith race. Impressed by the courage and skill of the Torpedo, Rom asked Jones to be Clairton's guardian whenever he was forced to leave the small town to battle Wraiths elsewhere on the planet. Jones readily agreed. In order to make the Torpedo a more effective adversary of the Wraiths, Rom modified the visor of the Torpedo suit into a variant of his own Energy Analyzer. Using this visor, the Torpedo would be capable of recognizing a Dire Wraith regardless of the shape they had assumed. For several months, the Torpedo was acclaimed by the people of Clairton as their protector, second only to Rom in their regard. With two guardians on duty, the people of Clairton felt safe from the Dire Wraiths. Unfortunately, unknown to either Rom or the Torpedo, another branch of the Dire Wraith species was making its presence known for the first time on Earth. Unlike their predecessors who were specialists in the use of science, these Wraiths were adept in the mystic arts. Indeed, they were the dominant branch of Wraith society. Impatient with the slow progress of their scientific brethren, they took control of the Earth infiltration program. Their first mission was revenge on the Spaceknight Rom by arranging the murder of his closest friends and the destruction of the town of Clairton. They subtly clouded the mind of Brock Jones through arcane means. Despite the fact that his visor registered the renewed presence of Wraiths in Clairton, his ensorcelled mind refused to accept the information. The scientific wizardry of Galador was no match for the magic of the Wraiths.

Lulled into a false sense of security, Brock Jones decided to retire as the Torpedo forever. But, on the day that he was to announce his retirement, the Wraiths revealed themselves to him. Horrified at the success of the Wraiths' plans and the murders of many of its inhabitants, Brock Jones battled the sorcerous wraiths as Clairton's last defender. But he was not familiar with the abilities of these new shapeshifters and was also hopelessly outnumbered. The Torpedo died in a battle vainly trying to save Clairton.

Although the sorcerous Wraiths had no use for the science-oriented Torpedo suit, they killed Jones in revenge for the many times he had defeated their race's plots to take over the Earth. The Torpedo battle suit was apparently destroyed in a fire that consumed the Jones family home in Clairton the same night Brock Jones died.

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Strength Level: The Torpedo possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engaged in intensive regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: None

Weapons: As a hybrid of Wraith and human technology, the Torpedo battlesuit was originally designed to battle the Spaceknight, Rom. The suit was built to withstand a direct attack by the most powerful of Spaceknights. Because Rom and the Torpedo never faced each other in direct prolonged battle, it will never be known if the suit was capable of defeating Rom.

The Torpedo's power source was the small, nuclear-powered jet turbo units that were located at the wrists and ankles of the body suit. The turbo jets enabled the Torpedo to fly at speeds of up to 2500 miles per hour for a limited amount of time. The Torpedo usually flew at a much slower speed in his patrols of Clairton, but he was able to give chase to Rom, who has been known to achieve speeds of up to 3000 miles per hour.

The turbo jets were also the source of the Torpedo's "power punches." By concentrating the incredible energies of the turbo jets into his gloves, the Torpedo was capable of delivering blows that could blast through armored aircraft and small buildings. The power level of these blows could be regulated so that the Torpedo could deliver a punch to an ordinary man without causing any serious injury The turbo jets were sufficiently powerful so that if he directed a beam of force at the ground at his feet, the shock waves would knock people off their feet for an area of 50 feet in radius.

The Torpedo suit was also capable of absorbing huge amounts of radiation and then dissipating it harmlessly.

The Torpedo's visor, originally designed to guard the wearer's eyes against the incredible speeds that the suit was capable of attaining, was later modified by Rom with special visual sensors that were able to perceive the particular radio images unique to the Dire Wraiths species no matter what form they had assumed.