Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #28: Captain Comet
"Akeno Bekki was born a decade before the world was rocked by the cataclysm known as Second Impact, to parents Jobon and Mariko Bekki, a farming couple who lived in Osaka, Japan. Mere moments after Akeno was delivered, a comet streaked through the sky overhead, aweing the fledgling parents as they watched through the window of the hospital's maternity ward. An amused Jobon commented that the comet was a good omen, not knowing just how right he would be-both he and Mariko never knew that the comet had emitted low-level waves of radiation that triggered multi-genetic cellular growth within the newborn Akeno, which caused him to start developing incredible mental attributes. At age four, he could demonstrate acute observational skills, which on one occasion enabled him to locate his mother's wedding ring in a pile of discarded chopped wood she'd built up; at age eight, his intelligence had grown to the point where he was able to memorize and comprehend all the information in a complete set of encyclopedias.
By his teenage years, Akeno's mental skills and abilities allowed him to develop expert-level talent in nearly anything he attempted without having tried before, from sports to music to games of skill. When Second Impact struck, Akeno strove to make himself useful in his hometown's rebuilding and rescue efforts as a volunteer, whether it be construction or medical situations. Grateful for his help, most of the town's people pooled some money together to send him to college. While studying at the University of Tokyo-2, his physical prowess began catching up to his mental prowess, and while a bit slower than the latter, it enabled him to excel in nearly every athletic event, especially soccer, thanks to his virtually superhuman speed, stamina, and durability. His mental acuity developed further to the point where he exhibited mild telepathy and telekinesis, which he at one point secretly used to save the life of a classmate who almost fell to their death.
All the while, Akeno grew concerned over his seemingly-limitless abilities, feeling he was becoming further isolated from the rest of humankind because of them. Seeking aid in understanding his powers, Akeno found it in a visiting American scientist named Professor Emery Zackro, who was in Japan as part of a globe-spanning lecture tour; among Zackro's accomplishments was the secret development of a prototype one-person space rocket, which he had dubbed the Cometeer. Intrigued by the young man's inquiries, Prof. Zackro agreed to help Akeno, and proceeded to test all of Akeno's talents at length; at the conclusion of the testing, Zackro determined that Akeno was a metahuman, born with physical and mental abilities that made him almost 100,000 years ahead of his time. Zackro offered Akeno the position of his aide during his stay in Japan, to which Akeno agreed. Among the projects the two worked on was finding out the true cause of Second Impact; like his colleague Kozo Fuyutsuki, Zackro believed that the official explanation offered to the world was completely untrue and reeked of a massive cover-up.
Unknown to the two, their work was being watched covertly by agents of the true masterminds of Second Impact, the hidden cabal known as SEELE, who felt Zackro and Akeno's efforts threatened their goal of a controlled Third Impact. The cabal ordered their agents to either seize or eliminate Zackro and Akeno, as well as acquire any piece of the work they had collaborated on. However, SEELE hadn't counted on Zackro being anonymously tipped off by Fuyutsuki (who by then had become the reluctant co-director of the U.N.-sponsored scientific concern known as GEHIRN, which had been secretly set up by SEELE), leading Zackro and Akeno to quickly destroy anything important in their laboratory; Akeno, thanks to his abilities, had already memorized the most crucial of details. Zackro then led Akeno out of the lab before the raid took place, and brought him to the hidden hangar where the Cometeer was stored. Zackro came to the conclusion that Akeno needed to safeguard his abilities from the world, to prevent unscrupulous men like those who led SEELE from attempting to exploit him for their own ends. Zackro further reasoned that the best way for him to do so...was for Akeno to take himself off-world, using the Cometeer. Hesitant at first, Akeno realized Zackro was right, and the two soon prepared the ship for launch. Once Akeno was safely secured in the ship, Zackro triggered the launch sequence, and the ship soon blasted off from the hangar, just as SEELE's agents arrived to capture the scientist.
Akeno found himself traversing the spaceways, seeking out a habitable place to land utilizing maps and star charts he and Zackro had put together. His course eventually took him to an inhabited planetoid that would fit his needs, only to discover that it was under attack by a space-faring alien race called the Astur, who were using gigantic, spinning top-like remote-controlled machines in an attempt to terraform the planetoid to their liking by siphoning away its oxygen (since they themselves could not survive in an oxygen-rich environment). Akeno also noticed that the planet was being defended by officers of the Galaxy Patrol System Cosmo Police, who were being overpowered by the might of the Astur. Deciding to intervene, Akeno flew the Cometeer into the middle of the fracas, eventually breaking into the main Astur mothership. On entering it, garbed in a highly-advanced spacesuit and armed with a powerful stun gun of Prof. Zackro's design, Akeno made his way to the bridge, where he encountered the lone Astur running things from it by the name of Harun, who like Akeno also possessed an advanced intellect. Akeno convinced him that they should settle the fight in a contest of strategy, which he ultimately won. Harun, however, was determined to beat Akeno, and attempted to do so by bringing the rest of the Astur crew out of suspended animation, which they'd been put into until they could live again on an airless planet. It was then that Harun discovered that the crew had actually died in stasis several years ago, and driven to despair, he attempted to take his own life by jettisoning himself out of the mothership's airlock; Akeno prevented him from doing so and brought him into the custody of the Cosmo Police officers he'd aided.
Impressed by his efforts and skills, the officers brought Akeno and the Cometeer back with them to their central headquarters, where their leadership offered him a spot among their ranks. Akeno, wanting to use his powers to help innocent people throughout the universe, accepted, and went on to become one of the most decorated officers on the force, known by his codename 'Captain Comet'. Akeno's primary 'beat' was hunting down criminal espers, with him bringing in over 200 of them; his exploits became known far and wide, even to the other two major intergalactic peacekeeping forces in the universe, the Green Lantern Corps and the Darkstars. In that time, he gained a ward in Astaris Vega, the young daughter of crimelord Magnamum Vega, who he raised with the help of his partner Jelna Flarestar. Akeno never forgot his homeworld, however, and at one point, he requested permission from his superiors to check in on Earth, informing them of the circumstances that caused him to flee off-world in the first place. Given his standing with them, they granted his request, and Akeno soon set course for Earth.
Returning to Earth's star system, the first thing Captain Comet discovered was the presence of a strange creature that had unexpectedly appeared on the planet Mercury. Tracing the lingering energy signature of the teleportation process used, Captain Comet (via a brief telepathic sweep and tapping into Earth's information networks using some of the upgrades made to the Cometeer's onboard systems) learned that the creature was Zeruel the 14th Angel, one of a number of otherworldly monstrosities that began appearing in 2015 and had attacked Japan, specifically the fortress-city of Tokyo-3, the location of the central headquarters of NERV (the succeeding entity to GEHIRN); NERV had been fighting back using weapons they had created in the form of biomechanical giants called Evangelions. Comet further learned that Zeruel had been transported to Mercury using a device created by one of a number of 'superwomen' who'd been emerging in Tokyo-3, oftentimes assisting NERV (whether they wanted it or not) in facing the Angels. The superwoman in question was Blue Beetle (secretly NERV head scientist Ritsuko Akagi), who was given her abilities thanks to being bonded with a scarab created by the alien race known as the Reach, whose reputation Comet was very much aware of as a member of the Cosmo Police. On seeking out Blue Beetle, Comet informed her of his knowing her secret identity and his intentions after learning about the Angel situation. Convinced he was trustworthy, Blue Beetle revealed her true face to him, at which point both realized they knew each other as classmates at the University of Tokyo-2; Comet further recognized her as the same classmate he'd saved all those years ago. Ritsuko, in turn, then laid out the whole truth behind the battle with the Angels, and how it was all by SEELE's design; she further informed him of the plot for a controlled Third Impact by NERV's own supreme commander, Gendo Ikari, and how she vowed to stop it and SEELE's. Comet offered his help, to which Ritsuko suggested that he act as a 'secret weapon' once SEELE put their endgame in motion following the defeat of the remaining Angels; she also had him meet with her fellow superwoman in Earth's Green Lantern (secretly Misato Katsuragi, Ritsuko's best friend and NERV's tactical operations director). In the meantime, Comet proved to be instrumental in helping her and the other superwomen of Tokyo-3 prevent a full-scale invasion by the Reach, acting as their hidden ace. Once the last of the Angels was dealt with and SEELE and Gendo Ikari each attempted to bring their respective scenarios to fruition, Captain Comet was among the allies of the superwomen who assisted them in defending NERV HQ and stopping both plans for good.
A year following the 'Final Battle of Tokyo-3', Captain Comet was again among the allies of the superwomen as they helped them against the strange alien lifeform known as the Centre, which was heading on a path of destruction towards the Japanese coastline. In the wake of their defeat of the creature, the superwomen decided to band together as a team called the Justice League, with Captain Comet offered reserve membership in their ranks, which he accepted. His association with them would prove fruitful when he called for their assistance to help stop a war between the planets Rann and Thanagar, which had been stirred up by the space tyrants Lord Synnar and Lady Styx, the leaders of the malevolent Eternal Light Corporation Church. Inspired by the League, Captain Comet would help found an independent team of intergalactic troubleshooters known as L.E.G.I.O.N., then a splinter team called R.E.B.E.L.S. when L.E.G.I.O.N. found itself being controlled by the alien being called Starro the Conqueror."
*Author's Note(s)*
The theme for this 'wave' of allies and antiheroes is 'heroes in outer space law enforcement', and for the DC half of it, I chose to do a spin on the cult-favorite Captain Comet, a unique character in that he was created between the end of the Golden Age of Comics and the start of the Silver Age, falling into what some have called the 'Atomic Age' because of the prevalence of sci-fi stories (among other genres) at the time. The character's been all over the place in the DC Universe, even being absent from it for over 20 years before he returned in the pages of, of all titles, the mid-1970s Secret Society of Super-Villains series. He's also unique in that he's one of the first superhero characters to be referred to as a 'mutant', well before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would create Marvel's X-Men.
For the anime character acting as the visual basis for this take on Captain Comet (seen in my DeviantArt gallery), I found the perfect one after watching another "Kyoto Video" review, this one being of the OVA adaptation of the short-lived 80s manga title Cosmo Police Justy. Its lead character, Justy Kaizard, being a psychic spacefaring hero made him the perfect match for Captain Comet's backstory and powers, with the only things needing done being tweaking his background a bit (going from American Adam Blake to Japanese Akeno Bekki) and of course altering the colors in an image illustrated by Justy's creator, Tsuguo Okazaki (along with adding Captain Comet's trademark comet symbol to the outfit). While it may have taken me a while to get around to this entry, I'm ultimately satisfied with the result.
