| Kenneth Connell | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Star Brand #1 (1986) |
| Created by | Jim Shooter and John Romita, Jr. |
| In-story information | |
| Notable aliases | Star Brand |
| Abilities | Super-strength, flight, invulnerability, energy blasts |
Kenneth Connell, also known as Star Brand, is a fictional super powered being in the Marvel Comics imprint New Universe. He first appears in Star Brand #1.
Contents |
In the original story-line created by Jim Shooter (issues 1-7),[1] a young American man, Kenneth Connell, is given an enormously powerful gift, embodied in the Star Brand. Subsequently, he has issues with the responsibilities inherent in the use of that incredible power. This is reminiscent of Spider-Man, although Connell is no Peter Parker. He is tall, ruggedly handsome, athletic, and appealing to women.
Connell is twenty-five years old, working in an auto re-conditioning shop, employed by McMullen and Zayre of Dormont—a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The story opens with Connell, the protagonist, riding a dirt bike in the Laurel Mountains of south-eastern Pennsylvania. After climbing a few hills, he happens upon a devastated area—trees and flora flattened as if the spot had been bombed.
While surveying the scene, an old man appears, unnoticed by Connell until he calls him by name. A giant in size, he speaks in riddles, finally pronouncing that he wanted to give him something. When Connell off-handed assents, the old man renders him unconscious.
Awakening from the hypnosis, lying in the grass and alone, Connell realizes it is now the next day. He also recalls the old man giving him a tattoo. Shaped like an asterisk set over a crescent moon, Connell searches for the old man but finds only a body—the body of an alien. In the process he discovers he can fly.
Back at his home in Pittsburgh, Connell realizes that he also has super-strength and invulnerability as well as flight. He visits his friend Myron and reveals these new powers. However, a gigantic alien warrior interrupts, chasing Connell to a slag dump. Faced with mortal danger, Connell erupts like a nuclear weapon, defeating his foe.
After finding evidence the alien is still alive, Connell returns to the mountains and locates the alien and his space craft. He defeats the extraterrestrial and kicks him off the planet.
Connell tries out his new flight ability, soaring past the atmosphere and into space, amazed that the hard vacuum does not effect him. Returning, he makes a tour of his hometown, Pittsburgh and returns to his rented apartment. Somewhat of a ladies man, he meets one of his girlfriends, Debbie the "Duck".
The next afternoon, Ken and Debbie sit in on Myron's therapy group, but leave in annoyance when Myron tries to get Ken to talk about his secret powers. On their way back, Ken reveals his secret to Debbie by lifting his Corvette over his head, by the side of the road.
The news of a young boy trapped in a well spurs Ken into action. He flies to the location, but hesitates when he considers the ramifications—he will have revealed himself to the world. His attempt to rescue the child by digging a tunnel by hand is unsuccessful, but at the last moment a huge robot enters the scene and rescues the boy.
Back home, Ken speculated about the use of his powers to help people in distress, and after learning of the seizure of a cruise ship and 1,200 passengers by Moslem terrorists, decides to try again. He locates the vessel but upon viewing the situation, is again torn by indecision about his inexperience, and the difficulties rescuing hostages from hard-core terrorists.
Again, while he tarries, a spec-ops squad boards and overwhelms the terrorists, but a nuclear weapon cannot be defused, and is tossed overboard by the commandos, who are unaware of Ken. Ken follows it into the sea, forces it into the sea-bed where it detonates without harming the ship. He survives the point-blank explosion—more evidence of his powers, the most powerful in the universe.
Afterwards, at work, Ken's boss, while unaware of the Star Brand, tells him he should use the gifts that were given him. However, Ken is still undecided on what to do. He makes a trip to the moon, where he again releases an explosion of energy, and decides the proper use of his powers will come to him later. On his way back home, he destroys a pair of Soviet fighters trying to bomb the Afghanistan resistance.
Ken discusses the affair with his confidante, Debbie, and reading the classifieds, sees a notice about a "Flying Man", and a desire to meet him where he "flared up like the sun". Someone knew about him and Ken decides to investigate.
He meets a mid-eastern woman who asks who he is, admitting she works for foreign interest and that at this moment, they are being watched by "agents". Ken tells her it is a gimmick, and flees while she protests, asking him to return tomorrow night or she will suffer consequences.
The next evening, Ken goes on a date with another girlfriend, Barb, and although not revealing his secret, discusses responsibility with her. Ken decides not to spend the night with Barb, and to return to the slag heap for the confrontation with the foreign woman and her "agents".
He finds her in a car, bruised and apparently unconscious. She wakes and while she pleads for him to acquiesce to the agent's demands, he notices the bruises are only make-up and turns to leave. She pulls a pistol and viciously shoots Ken, which of course has no effect except tearing his clothes. He decides to flee, with the woman decrying and insulting him as he leaves.
Back at home, Debbie and Ken ponder what has happened—the situation has become more complicated than they realized.
Ken visits the only other person aware of his situation—Myron Feldman—and recounts the events to date. Myron begins to show doubt about Ken's memory recall and asks for another appointment. Ken returns to the Laurel Mountains and finds no evidence of the alien and its spaceship. Doubt begins to cloud his mind as well.
Barb visits Ken—as Debbie beats a hasty retreat—and as the couple have grown closer, she questions the tattoo (Star Brand) on his palm. He moves it to his shoulder and does not reveal its powers.
Ken keeps his appointment with Myron who admits that he does not believe specifics about the Star Brand and that it comes from here on earth. Later, at home, Ken calls an Air Force base to talk about the Brand, but they refuse. He flies to Washington D.C. and lands near the White House to confront the President, but considering the consequences, instead wanders into a bar. The bartender casually remarks that a super-powered being would be considered too dangerous by the Federal Government and they would try to eliminate him. This disturbs Ken and he returns to Pittsburgh and tries to find Barb to finally confide in her.
Ken discovers Barb is dating others and while he flies around town thinking, he hears screams coming from a supermarket. Everyone is fleeing and he senses a strange feeling of panic. A woman walks out with an arm-load of groceries and calmly drives away. Ken follows her into the woods where she meets two men, a young man and a crazed lunatic. He confronts them, the woman, who is psychic, tries to overwhelm him with fear, succeeds, and the lunatic knocks Ken out. A badly beaten Ken returns home, vows to never slip up again, and starts a journal about his experiences.
Ken and Debbie visit a friend, Rick, who tells Ken to start enjoying his life, and not worry about his relationships. That night, in bed alone, Ken decides that "settling down" is in his best interests. Suddenly he remembers the foreign agents and the woman who shot him—he also has a target on his back.
The next morning, he travels to Laguna, California and meets a beautiful woman on the beach. They go to her house, but Ken decides Barb is the person he wants to be with.
Back in Pittsburgh, Ken follows the mysterious foreign agents back to their lair and sets them up for a bust by Federal operatives. He also treks to Libya and demolishes a military base, leaving a warning for Muammar-Al-Qaddifi, who he suspects is behind the foreign agents.
In the morning, Ken confronts Barb and tells Barb he will move in with her and take charge of his life. He visits Debbie and tells her about his decision and Barb, but Debbie turns hysterical and Ken promises to see her occasionally. Back at Barb's, Ken starts to tell her about his powers, but is interrupted by unusual behavior by her two children. He decides to confide with her, definitely, but later.
At work, Ken finds out he's up for a better job. Debbie had called earlier and pleaded for a meeting. There Ken and Debbie are confronted by the Old Man, who asks for a confidential meeting with Ken to discuss some things that Ken should attend to.
After the Old Man leaves, Ken returns to Barb's house, where her daughter, who has been acting strangely lately, causes a commotion. After Barb goes to bed, waiting for Ken, the Old Man, accompanied by an entranced Debbie, pays a surprise visit. The Old Man relates to Ken the enormous power of the Star Brand and that he, Ken, should attend to a war on the other side of the universe. Ken balks, and the conversation is interrupted by Barb, who demands the Old Man and Debbie leave.
Ken escorts the couple outside, where he insists the Old Man release Debbie from the trance. The Old Man acquiesces, and Ken offers to hand back the Brand. Fortunately, Ken realizes he is being entranced by the Old Man in time to refuse the transferral. The Old Man leaves and Ken returns to a badly shaken Barb, who gets a call from Debbie, who is apparently in danger. Ken flies to her rescue, confronts a lurking Old Man, and fights him. A titanic battle ensues in space, and Ken delivers a decisive blow that sends the Old Man into the depths of space.
Ken returns to Pennsylvania from the indecisive battle and visits Debbie in the hospital. He checks up on Barb, who asks him to move out. Ken takes his belongings and back home, retrieves his journal and intensely studies all that has happened to him, including the "Star Wars" on the other side of the universe. He finds out the Old Man is alive and back on earth, leaving messages, cryptic ultimatums, for him. He finally locates him at the hospital, threatening Debbie with bodily harm. The two men have an epic battle, with Ken the victor. He hurls the husk of the Old Man's body into interstellar space.
As Shooter envisioned the character, Ken Connell was to be the Superman pastiche for Marvel Comics. Basically, he was known as a F.I.S.S. type superhero—Flight, Invulnerability, Super strength, Super speed. He was able to fly, e.g., to the moon in a matter of minutes, through the atmosphere from Pittsburgh to the West Coast of the U.S., and cross the Atlantic Ocean to Libya in much the same time—a few minutes. He showed an ability to reside in space vacuum for extended periods of time. He was virtually indestructible, even in close proximity to a tactical nuclear weapon, yet was able to power-down enough for a haircut and absent-mindedly suffering a paper cut. Bullets did not faze him. He was strong enough to "swim" through solid earth. He demonstrated the ability to release nuclear-weapon-class blasts centered around his body, vaporizing an entire mountain on the moon and turning a huge slag heap into a smoldering crater. Connell did have limited control over the powers, and at one time was overcome by telepathy; he temporarily lost his powers and was beaten senseless.
Through his conscious will, his apparel—notably the denim suit given to him by the Old Man—would also be indestructible.
Main article: Star Brand (newuniversal)#Kenneth Connell
Writer Warren Ellis, Artist Salvador Larroca In the 2006 series newuniversal[2] the character Kenneth Connell was one of several protagonists.
Connell is an American male, early twenties living in the Mid-western United States—Optima Down, Oklahoma (fictitious), population 21,000. On March 2, 2006, he and his girlfriend, Madeline Felix, the daughter of the local sheriff, are lying in a nearby field, unconscious from a bout of drinking. In the meantime, at 0649 UTC, the entire world is cloaked in pure white, a paradigm shift triggering supernatural events, and bestowing a Justice to maintain order, a Cipher for the technological leap, a Nightmask for the consciousness shift, and a Starbrand for defense. The Starbrand and its powers are received by Connell, as well as the icon/tattoo.
When Connell wakes up several hours later, to his horror he finds the remains of Felix, unbeknownst to him incinerated in the oversplash from the transfer of the Starbrand. Her father incarcerates and confronts a psychotically traumatized Connell. Beaten and threatened by the sheriff, Connell reacts violently, as the powers of the Starbrand emerge. He destroys the police station, killing the sheriff and several officers. Bewildered and bloody, Connell involuntarily rises from the ground and flies into the atmosphere to escape.
Connell lands in the Wichita Mountains, bemoaning his fate and that of Maddie Felix. As he reacts by trying to disfigure the icon, three alien Starbrands appear via a confluence of quantum tunneling in the Superflow. They announce that they are here to save his world from him. The dumb-founded Connell asks what is happening, but does not understand their explanation. One of the Starbrands, a strangely familiar figure of an old man, tells him the transition has not gone well, and offers him a way out or an end to his life.
Connell demands an explanation he can understand or threatens violence. The old man pleads with him, asking him to hold it together and use the Starbrand as it was intended—to defend people and build things. Connell does not appear to yet understand.
The Starbrands have been spotted by rogue elements in the Pentagon and a general orders the Air Force to use force, including the option of nuclear weapons, against the superhumans. Missiles do not faze the quartet, and the alien Starbrands transit out into the Superflow, but not before revealing that the old man is Connell, from the future.
Just as the Air Force is ready to launch a nuclear weapon, a Nightmask, Izanami Randall, appears and snatches Connell away, into the Superflow, where they land in her apartment in San Francisco. Connell reacts badly, assuming a fetal position.