Our story begins in an undisclosed United States military base, one in which nuclear missile silos are stored. The day is moving along just fine, until a launch alert suddenly rings out, and a missile is launched into orbit, accompanied by a strange, star-like glow. This Air Force rocket achieves its target in no time flat, utterly destroying the fiery asteroid that was about to strike the earth's atmosphere!

Proclaiming that the salvation of the earth had begun, the son of Ken Connell sent a portion of his essence to where Jane and Roger were being interred by the United States Army. You see, he (looking much older than the two months that had passed should warrant) wanted to clear up some issues he was having concerning his dead mother's memories, and he attempted to probe Jane's mind.

However, Roger woke up to her screaming, and trying to protect his wife, struck the disembodied youth's apparition. Reflexively, the child struck Roger dead, in order to protect himself. Naturally, this totally freaked Jane out, who called the baby a murderer once again. Confused, he told her that he'd been doing this for quite a while now, when attacked by various folks that wanted to kill him on sight.

Folks like a stunned mob of Pitt survivors, those Air Force pilots that encountered him last issue, and even that mutant wolf thing he killed to save the Prices. Her reaction again confused the child, as the most powerful memories he possessed were those of his mother's, in relation to the annihilation of Pittsburgh - a memory where millions lost their lives.

Dismayed over all this, the child then set out to locate his father in order to get the answers to his many questions. He located the man, quite unhinged, in an abandoned home in the Pitt's vicinity, where he was holding a woman aloft with the power of his Star Brand. You see, he'd saved her from a mob of looters ransacking the area, and then... he had kept her for several days after that.

In order to talk to him in privacy, Ken's child teleported him to the dark side of the moon, but Ken freaked out upon hearing the baby speaking in Debbie's former voice. Blasting the youth to atoms, Ken started proclaiming that his was the one true vision, and that God had given him the power because only he was worthy of it. As he ranted on, his child reincorporated himself, and seized Ken with his power.

The cosmic toddler then told Ken he was too dangerous in his current mindset, and told him he had a choice. He could be forever absorbed into the essence of his child, like Debbie was, or he could give up his Star Brand powers forever. The latter choice, however, could not be accomplished without causing even more damage to Ken's already weakened sanity. Wanting life, Ken chose madness over death.

Soon after, back on earth, several Army doctors had finished their autopsy of poor Roger Price's ruined body. Leaving him on the table, they weren't present to see the cosmic child return to his body. Though he can not bring a dead body back to life, the child could repair a body that had even the slightest spark of life within it still, and since Roger still had at least one living cell, the child could repair his body.

He didn't just repair Roger Price, though - he rebuilt him in what his memories told him would be the Perfect Man!

Elsewhere in the Army base where Roger and Jane Price were being held, another family was being observed by military doctors. The Robinson family, caught in the wake of the Pitt's creation, would've died if not for the heroic intervention of Jenny Swensen, in her Spitfire armor suit. However, before she saved them, the family had been exposed to the strange matter at the bottom of the Pitt.

This stuff, the so-called Pitt-Juce, had apparently inflicted a bizarre skin condition on the whole family, one that burned and itched unless all four members of the family were in constant contact. The family kept this from the doctors who were observing them, however, and after a group of them took yet another round of skin samples from the family, they hugged in order to quell the agony they felt once again.

However, something different happened this time, something horrible! You see, they were suddenly overwhelmed with hunger, and the flesh of all four family members began to merge and flow together! When they discovered this, several military doctors tried to knock the Robinson monster out, but it only ate one of them in retaliation. In a panic, the doctors sealed the family in their room, and ran like hell...

While exploring the area immediately surrounding the Pitt, several Army scientists managed to spot yet another freakish mutant; over the last month or so, more and more such creatures, of human origin or not, had been appearing in the area around the former city of Pittsburgh. When the beastie tried to approach them, the scientists went to kill it with a bazooka, but something got to them first. Something planty...

Listening to the audio tapes of this doomed mission dozens of times, Colonel Browning - the man in charge of the Pitt area - decided that the entire extended area around the Pitt needed to be sealed off at once. Meanwhile, elsewhere within the Pitt military complex, several military doctors examined Roger Price, as he'd returned to life, and this (and his superhuman power) intrigued them greatly.

As these scientist wound down a continuous, seventy-two hour study of Roger on an electronic treadmill, Ken Connell's cosmic-powered child, now appearing about seven years old, approached the Pitt in search of a life-form he sensed was in agony. He was confused, however, for the life-form he sensed was all around him. In order to single it out, he entered the Pitt itself.

Submerged in the so-called Pitt-Juice, the child discovered a tableau of horror; everything that had been swept into the Pitt, living or not, was hanging suspended in a perfectly preserved state. This may possibly be due to the temporal nature of the Star Brand's power being imparted on the materials within the Pitt during its creation, but it was nonetheless a creepy sight to the child.

Creepy, though not as much as the large fissues he discovered at the bottom of the Pitt, where molten magma was threatening to seep out. In fact, heat and pressure from these fissures were causing the Pitt-Juice to bubble, boil, and roil, which caused the child of the Star Brand to finally discern the nature of the life form he was seeking... just as an Army 'copter did so miles above.

You see, Colonel Browning had just arrived at that spot, and he and his assistant noted that the entire rim of the Pitt was writhing with life - a single, giant planty life-form! Noticing that it was creeping out towards civilization, Browning tested an experimental defoliant on the planty tentacles, which caused them to not only howl out in pain, but to strike out at his helicopter!

It dragged the 'copter down, at which point Connell's son, the so-called Star Child, examined the creature. Determining it to be non-sentient, he reached out with his powers to contain it, and when it resisted at the rim of the Pitt, the Child tried something new. He created a massive dome of energy, one that was of the diameter of the explosion that created the Pitt, and managed to hold the creature at bay.

However, this - combined with the tectonic heat and pressure behind it - caused the monstrous creature to die abruptly, much to the Child's sorrow. Vowing to never commit such a mistake again, he again utilized his power in a new, far-reaching manner, the results of which were not readily apparent. Oblivious to this, Ken Connell raced on a likely stolen motorbike across several nearby mountains.

As his son predicted, the removal of his Star Brand had driven him totally insane, and he was ranting and raving for all the world to hear... or so he thought. This drive came to an abrupt end, however, when Ken was startled once again by the ghost of his old pal Myron, which caused him to drive clean off his mountain, crashing himself into a ravine hundreds of feet below.

Finally, we are introduced to Jacob Burnsley, who is in a hospital with his grandson, Billy. The child, dying of cancer, was basically waiting to die, but for some reason his body had clung to life. His grandfather was simply standing fast against the inevitable, but it was heart-wrenching to see his last relative suffer so. He would find out why soon enough...

At the United States / Canada border, we find one Leland Sharp attempting to pass northward, but he is held up by an Army post attempting to root out Draft dodgers. Rory Ramos, an Army grunt, checked the man's I.D. out, only to discover that it was a fake! Approaching 'Leland's' car, the three military men found themselves subjected to his terrible paranormal powers!

You see, this 'Leland' was actually Shrapnel, one of several former mercenaries in the employ of the Clinic, who was trying to avoid being sucked into Uncle Sam's reported paranormal fighting force. When the Army guards came at him with their guns out, he unleashed his power, the ability to fire psycho-plasmic blisters from his skin, and felled two of his pursuers.

However, it turned out that Ramos was also a paranormal, one who was hiding this fact from his fellow soldiers. This incident forced him to bring his own abilities to bear, however, and he then animated a hunk of soil and flung the semi-humanoid mass of earth at Shrapnel. Fighting it for a time, the rogue paranormal was eventually defeated, and both he and Rory found themselves turned over to the authorities.

Unlike Shrapnel, though, Rory decided to use his powers in the service of his nation after all...!

This tale begins with Roger, soaring over the New York City skyline as the mighty Star Brand, wrapped up in a costume like Ken's public uniform, but with a slick visor and tall-collared white cape. He was searching for the villainous Cerebrex, a villainous brain-in-a-dome mounted on a robotic body, who was holding an innocent woman hostage while he tried to destroy the earth!

Roger used his 'star-vision' to locate the cybernetic fiend, however, and blasted him to bits with his optical 'infra-star-vision' (heat rays). While the damsel in distress - who looked remarkably like his wife, Jane - thanked him, Cerebrex recovered from his blasted state long enough to gloat, and then throw a lever that caused the entire world to be engulfed in a volcanic apocalypse!!

Waking up from this terrible nightmare, Roger was unaware that he was being monitored by several military psychologists, who were trying to figure out just what was going through this resurrected man's mind. They were ultimately distracted, though, when they found out that several lab animals they were testing Pitt-Juice on weren't dying, despite the fact that they'd been dissected and drained of fluids...

Elsewhere, Billy's doctor found himself confused over his patient's state, in that he should've died three days ago, but he was still alive. Before he could inform the boy's grandfather - Jacob Burnsley - of this, however, the Star Child appeared before the old man. Now physically in his early teens, this glowing youth offered to help Jacob. Not by healing Billy, however, but by giving him power!

Closer to the Pitt, two hunters found themselves up against rather hardy prey, in that they kept shooting bits out of the monsters around them, but they kept coming despite the fact that they should be dead. Similarly, in a nearby, desiccated church, Ken Connell told the huddled masses within the building that he was the messiah, and immortal! Of course, he looked like a charred corpse...

Taking Burnsley into space, the Star Child granted him the power of the Star Brand, imploring him to watch over the earth while he explored the origin of this ultimate weapon. Though he was unwilling at first, claiming to be a shriveled up old man, the Star Child told him that he chose Burnsley because of his wisdom, knowing his long life would enforce his ability to use the power of the Star Brand wisely.

Amazed by this, Jacob flew back to the hospital where Billy was interred, and despite the fact that he believed he was still dreaming, he decided to cure Billy of his cancer as soon as he arrived. Just then, the Star Child appeared before Roger and Jane Price, telling them that he'd done something wonderful - he'd cured the problem of death forever! The Prices didn't seem to happy, however.

You see, they explained to the youth that this would drastically devastate the world's population, as immortal bacteria would cause untold problems in people, even if it couldn't kill them outright. Besides, if nothing could be killed, it couldn't be digested by other living beings, and this would render people starving, if immortal. The Child then grew depressed, feeling he could do no good.

The Star Child then went to leave the earth, hoping to learn all he could before he did more harm, though Roger and Jane convinced him to return Roger to normal, and to take them home before he went. As he went to leave, he told them that he'd restored death to the earth, but not the various arsenals of nuclear weapons that he'd deactivated all over the world. He then shot off into space.

Disappearing into the cosmos, the Star Child failed to notice that his returning death to the world, in addition to ending the torment of everybody around who really should've been dead (from injury, disease, etc...), caused poor Ken Connel's life to wink out abruptly during one of his megalomaniacal religious rants. Of course, only one of his followers remained to witness his fall...

Meanwhile, Jacob was fishing with his grandson, Billy, to whom he discussed the events of the last day or so. Still mystified by the whole thing, Billy thought his grandfather could do anything. After all, he'd created a perfect fishing hole on the dark side of the moon, a hole they were currently fishing in, so his powers must be absolute. Jacob didn't know about that, of course, but he was about to find out!

In Fort Benning, Georgia, Keith Remsen found himself pulled into a dreamscape totally against his will. One he gathered his wits, he found himself confronted by a big, muscle-bound oaf wearing naught but chains and studded leather bands and boots. Of course, he also had a six foot long chain saw, which was covered in gore, and he was menacing Keith with it!

The man knocked Keith off the bridge of skulls he was standing on, if only to thrust him into the jaws of a giant, fire-breathing black dragon. He was saved at the last minute by a disembodied voice, however, one which prodded him for information. When Keith wouldn't talk, the voice told him it needed to feed on the sleeping souls of others to live, and wanted to see if Keith, a fellow dreamwalker, could kill him.

Mobbed by gibbering green dream phantoms, Keith used his own powers to reach into both his foes' mind and his own, in order to find some mental imagery to use against this Madman, and this fear took the form of the Justice Killer! Intrigued, the Madman let Keith escape his nightmare after all, hoping to test his mettle against the notorious paranormal vigilante he now had reason to fear...