COMET MAN

 

COMET MAN

Real Name: Stephen Beckley

First Appearance: Comet Man (Vol. 1) #1, February 1987

Powers: Dr. Stephen Beckley was an astronomer and an astrophysicist who was piloting a spacecraft that encountered Halley's Comet as it was 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. 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 himself. However, Max employed Fortisquian technology to gather up Beckley's molecules and reconstruct his body. Max's technological devices did so in such a way as to bestow upon Beckley various superhuman powers, through partially reconstructing Beckley along the lines of Fortisquian physiology and body chemistry.

As the Comet Man, he possesses Class 25 strength, superhuman endurance, durability, healing powers, and the ability to survive in the vacuum of space. 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.

He has telekinetic abilities which allow him to levitate and manipulate objects from a distance, and create protective force fields to shield himself and others from further harm. Comet Man can fly, projecting a fiery aura around his body similar to a comet, and achieve speeds in excess of Mach 32. He has a telepathic ability called "thought-pitching", which enables him to send a fraction of his own mental energy into the mind of another person or animal. This visiting psi-pattern lets him read that individual's mind, and exert some control over their thoughts and actions. He is also capable of projecting concussive and explosive energy, either as beams from his hands or by creating energy spheres and launching them at his chosen target. Finally, Comet Man is capable of teleportation. He is able to instantly reach anywhere on Earth with this power, and can even teleport to locations he has never been to or seen before. His power automatically compensates for mass as he teleports in, preventing him from materializing inside solid objects, and he can instantly teleport to the side of any other person, simply by visualizing them in his mind as his transports himself.

Dr. Stephen Beckley holds Ph.D.'s in astrophysics and astronomy and has NASA astronaut training. He is also co-creator and co-head 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.