Star Brand Issue Guide #1

Issue 1:
the Star Brand

Our story beings with one Ken Connell, who is relaxing in the backwoods of Pittsburgh on his motorbike. After climbing a particularly rough hill, Ken spies an area blasted by some sort of flame... or a bomb. Moving in to investigate, Ken meets a mysterious Old Man in the trees, spouting off about how he was about to die, and how 'they' followed him 'down' to the earth.

Trying to learn more, Ken next finds himself unconscious in the Pennsylvania wilds, and his recollection of what happened to him slowly returns. He remembers that the Old Man gave him a bizarre tattoo, a mysterious item of power that can be moved about on his body at will, and the shock of receiving it made him pass out. Wanting to talk to the Old Man some more, Ken looked around for him.

Soon enough, Ken found him... dead. Further, the Old Man didn't look all that human, having loose, pink folds of flesh, and a sort of 'fishy' look to his head. Burying the alien, Ken drove home to think about this whole mess, and (of course) to test out the power of this Star Brand that he'd been given. For instance, he noted that the power could be made to flow through his body, making him invulnerable.

He also noted that he was incredibly strong, as well, by lifting his couch up and accidentally denting the ceiling of his apartment, and bending some weights. His favorite aspect of the power, of course, was his newfound ability to fly; all he had to do was think about moving up, or in any of the three dimensions, and his body would respond to his motive desire.

Though he enjoyed these newfound abilities, Ken decided to confide in a friend of his, Myron, in order to help him decide what to do with them. Since he was a psychologist, Ken figured that Myron'd be the best person to talk about his new nature with and, after proving that he wasn't nuts (by bending an old bike Myron was working on back into shape), Ken told his old friend the full story of the day.

Of course, Myron doubted the whole part about aliens, and wouldn't believe that without proper evidence. To that end, the duo were going to fly back to where Ken had buried the alien, when a large, green humanoid in a space suit attacked Myron's house! Trying to protect his friend, Ken led the thing away from his house, and to an abandoned slag yard nearby.

There, Ken fought with the terror from the stars for a time, and was overpowered simply because he didn't think he could win. At this point, the alien told Ken that the Old Man had lied to him, and that he'd involved the poor human in a battle that he could barely comprehend. Also, he implored Ken to give him the Star Brand, as only he could use it properly.

When Ken refused, the alien got angry, and threatened to kill him for the Brand, which only acted to defuse Ken's fear, turning it into raw anger. Gaining a powerful resolve, Ken deflected all of the alien's further assaults as if they were nonexistent. In a fit of rage, Ken then hit the alien with a force similar to a nuclear blast, though much more focused; specifically, focused on a small area around the alien.

Thinking the matter closed, Ken went to check on Myron and, seeing that he was okay, went home for the night. That next morning, he went to get the alien's body out of that hole he'd buried it in - and it was gone! Having lost his proof, Ken decided to just forget about it for the time being, as he had things to do - like go to work, hang out with his girlfriend, etc...

Later, while at his girlfriend's house, one Barbara Petrovic, Ken saw that one of Barb's kids had a golden ray-gun similar to the one that alien had used against him - and was in a daze. Enraged, Ken grabbed it and took off, flying around in a search for the monster, lest it harm those close to him. Unable to find his foe, Ken went home to think about this again.

After work the next day, Ken donned the brown leather outfit that was left to him by that Old Man, and went looking for the creature that was stalking him anew. Though it looked identical to the one he'd wore out biking several days ago, the Old Man told him it was special, and that his powers wouldn't destroy it - unless Ken wanted them to. Soon enough, Ken found his opponent - where he first met the Old Man!

As the creature lowered its spacecraft into the ground, Ken caught it unawares, and once again beat the alien senseless, shrugging off its heaviest attacks with ease! With that, he threw the monster into its spacecraft, screaming at it to get off his planet. Satisfied that his work was done, Ken resolved to keep the power of the Star Brand - no matter who tried to take it from him!

Issue 2:
Taking Charge!

This issue begins with our hero, Ken, playing around with his flight powers. He zipped around Pittsburgh, as well as making a quick shot into orbit, in order to test out what he could do and - most importantly - to have fun. Eventually making his way home after inadvertently seeing his girlfriend stripping through her window, Ken found his old pal, Debbie Felix, was waiting for him.

She had a message from Myron, and was going to drop off a note, but Ken showed up just in time. Talking for a bit, she wound up staying over (since it was a long drive back to her place), and the two went to Myron's the next day to see what was so important. Arriving there, Ken found several old acquaintances hanging out, in a sort of group therapy session, including an old girlfriend, Jan.

After a verbal lashing from Jan (in regards to Debbie), so to speak, Ken found out the true reason for the group session: Myron wanted to help Ken find his place in the world, what with him being so powerful all of a sudden. Angry that his friend had manipulated him so, Ken took off in a huff, deciding to instead confide in his pal Debbie about his Star Brand, and the powers it granted him.

The next morning, Ken and Debbie heard about a kid being trapped in a well just outside of town, and after Debbie commented on how she wished somebody could help him, Ken decided to try. Flying to where the kid was trapped, Ken tried tunneling through the earth to grab him (so nobody'd see him fly in to the rescue, and thus, reveal his powers to the world).

This failed, though, as Ken can't see through solid earth. However, before he could change his mind and go for the direct rescue, somebody beat him to the punch: a big red robot! Intrigued, Ken flew after the robot once it was done with its rescue, and figured out where it was based: in the woods nearby, out of three Mack trucks full of electronics equipment!

Noting the location for later use, Ken went home to clean up; his tunneling experiment left him totally covered in muck. After a long shower, he called up Jan, in order to check up on her kid (he was almost like a father to him), and to see what happened during Myron's little 'experimental' group therapy session. During this call, Ken heard Jan mention another situation in the news.

Basically, some middle-eastern terrorists had hijacked the cruise ship Ajax, and were sailing it to New York City - with a nuclear bomb on board!! Thinking that he would handle the situation this time, Ken put on his 'special' clothing and followed a spy plane on its mission to keep an eye on the ship as it approached American waters; once he spotted the Ajax, he landed on it.

Moving about, Ken found and neutralized several of the gun-toting idealists - some rather painfully, others less so, as he practiced with using his strength against mere humans. As he closed on the leaders of this deadly mission, several U.S. commandos boarded the Ajax, and fired upon those holding the nuke. Before they were all killed or captured, they managed to trigger the bomb.

As it ticked down its last minute to annihilation, the commandos pitched it overboard, though they knew it would still blow them to bits. However, Ken followed the bomb into the water, and flew it through the water as deep as he could, as fast as he could, striking the ocean bottom a second before it blew. Once the nuclear warhead detonated, Ken found the true nature of his invulnerability.

It could protect him from the force of a nuclear blast! Still alive, though covered with ocean floor goop, Ken flew back to the U.S. Though sore from the explosion still, he dropped in on those techies with the robotic suit, and found them preparing to take a stab at the terrorist force he'd just dispatched. Telling them not to bother, he also had them check if he were radioactive or not; he'd just been nuked, after all.

Talking to them, Ken found out that they were Jenny Swensen (the armor's pilot) and a group of engineering students known as the Troubleshooters, who'd stolen the armor Swensen's father developed from an evil businessman. After he learned their 'origin', so to speak, Ken warned them to be wary of the power they wield with their M.A.X. technology, as they may cause all kinds of unintentional damage.

With that, Ken left them to their own devices, hoping that they wouldn't blunder into a seriously dangerous situation like he just did; after all, he simply got lucky that all of those people on the Ajax didn't get killed in that nuclear blast. This, of course, only left Ken with more doubts about his powers, doubts that would haunt him for some time to come...

Issue 3:
Close Encounter

Waking up on his couch, Ken was still stunned, amazed that all of these events didn't occur in a bizarre dream. Going to work, Ken thought deeply about his incredible power, and what he should do with it - with himself - in the future. On his lunch break, Ken flew to Myron's offices to talk to him again. Though Myron was still miffed at Ken for bailing out on his 'group therapy' session, he listened to him.

Of course, as Myron implored him not to reveal his powers to the world until he was ready, the two found out that they were overheard by Bob, one of Myron's patients, whose own therapy session had been interrupted by Ken. Leaving after this, Ken went back to finish his work day, and then went flying to think some more; he found that he could do so much better when far away from his earthly concerns.

Heading out to the moon, Ken walked around on it for a bit, and blew up a small mountain on the moon's dark side - for no real reason other than that he could. Returning to earth, Ken inadvertently found himself in Afghanistan, in the midst of a 'battle' between several locals and two Soviet fighter-bombers. Thinking that a rather unfair fight, Ken smashed the planes up real good, and made his way home.

It took a bit, of course, as he had no map, but Ken eventually made it there, and found Debbie waiting for him again; they were going to do laundry together, and Ken had accidentally made her wait for several hours. Feeling bad, he let her in and agreed to get her ice cream - before he saw a bizarre ad in the classified section of the local newspaper, that is.

Basically, it was a big ad for a 'flying man'. Thinking he should investigate, Ken went to the old slag dump where he fought off that alien the first time, since the ad said he should meet his mysterious 'friend' there. Arriving nearby, he walked to where he saw a cute little middle eastern girl waiting, and once she heard him approach, she asked if he was the man she was waiting for.

Getting silence, she decided that he was. This creeped him out, and Ken prepared to leave, when the girl told him what the deal was. Apparently, the C.I.A. investigated the blast he'd made fighting that alien, and her boyfriend, an agent of a 'foreign power', found out about this. As such, he wanted to learn how Ken did what he could, and would beat her if she couldn't find out.

Ken decided this was altogether too much, and split, though she begged that he come back the next day, so her boyfriend wouldn't kill her. Much later, Ken went to have dinner with his girlfriend, Barbara, and hung out for awhile with the kids until the babysitter arrived. Once she did, Ken and Barb went out on their date, getting dinner at a 'fancy' restaurant.

After this, the two were about to have a romantic encounter, when Barbara brought up the prospect of marriage with Ken... again. This got him thinking about how the people he was close to were in danger because of this strange middle-eastern girl, and he decided to do something about it. Flying back to where he met her the previous day, Ken found her all bruised up in her car.

Ripping the door off, he found that she was simply wearing stage makeup to simulate bruises, and that she was studying his face... intently. As Ken tried to run away, the girl shot him several times, though the bullets merely bounced off of him, and as Ken prepared to beat her senseless, she gloated about how he would be 'theirs' soon enough.

Flying home to think things out again, Ken found Debbie there, apparently having fallen asleep waiting for him to come do the laundry (again). He told her what had happened, and that he actually knew the girl from a samovar club meeting he'd attended at Pitt with Myron. He was just worried that the girl might remember his identity... and make his life even worse...

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