STAR BRAND

 

STAR BRAND

Real Name: Kenneth Connell

First Appearance: Star Brand (Vol. 1) #1, October 1986

Powers: Kenneth Connell was a garage mechanic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of Earth-148611 (aka "New Universe") when he received powers courtesy of the Star Brand.

The original New Universe was a reality exactly like that of Earth-616, except for the existence of the Star Brand and the consequences of that existence. The Brand was a zero-point energy collector, making it an infinite source for all power in the universe. It was described as a self-perpetuating paradox, having accidentally created itself in a massive release of energy that tore through space/time. Nearly all superhumans on that Earth owed their powers to either the White Event or the Black Event, two failed attempts of a Star Brand wielder to get rid of the power.

The Brand itself was a black tattoo combining a crescent and a star, easily small enough to fit on the palm of a hand. A wielder could move the Brand around on their body by touching the Brand to another part of their body and willing it to transfer. A wielder could also give the Brand to another person, but doing so only transfers 90% of the Brand's power, leaving the previous wielder with a small, but still powerful, 10%. It should never be attempted to transfer the Star Brand onto an inanimate object:

The first person from the Earth-148611 reality to wield the Brand was a Dutch count during the 15th century. Having survived for centuries thereafter due to the Brand's power, the now "Old Man" attempted to transfer the Star Brand onto a lifeless asteroid millions of miles away in space, and this caused the White Event, an astronomical phenomena detectable from Earth which created the various superhumans. Similarly, Kenneth Connell later initiated the Black Event when he attempted to transfer the Brand onto his dumbbell in the skies over Pittsburgh, an act which completely obliterated the entire city and caused ongoing ecological disasters which at last recording render large portions of the surroundings states uninhabitable, all the way to New York City. Unknown to the Old Man, the explosion of the White Event also sent the Brand's power back in time to the 15th century, bestowing it upon his past self. Shortly after the event, the Old Man sought out Kenneth Connell and transferred the Brand to him.

Kenneth Connell was both the Star Brand's originator and primary user. The Star Brand had a conceivably infinite number of uses, but Ken used it for a select few. Anyone possessing the Star Brand automatically developed an extremely retarded aging process, reducing the passage of centuries to decades. A wielder also couldn't be killed by any means -- they would always eventually regenerate following any attack, even one that reduced them to stray molecules. Through an act of will, Connell could activate his "energy form", a state in which his body was actively infused with the Star Brand's power. This gave him the ability to survive in the vacuum of space, total invulnerability, and immeasurable limits of strength and flight speed, controlled only by what he could imagine himself doing. Ken could also generate volatile discharges of stellar energy, either by focusing it down his arms or as an omni-directional blast.