Justice (newuniversal)
Encyclopedia
John Tensen is a character from the newuniversal
imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event
in 2006 (the others being Star Brand
, Cipher
, and Nightmask
). newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse
, is a re-imagining of the New Universe
(designated Earth-148611) imprint from the late 1980s. The name Justice actually refers to two things: a powerful extra-dimensional glyph (tattoo) that confers superhuman powers on a sentient being, and the name of the being that wields the glyph. The concept of the Justice glyph was created by Warren Ellis to parallel the concept of the Star Brand
. Unlike the Star Brand, the Justice glyph will attach itself to the chest of its wielder and not the hand.
. Rather than being a randomly created superhuman, Justice plays a pivotal role in the development of the newuniverse. The Justice glyph was created by a supposedly long-dead alien race that created it as a tool along with the Star Brand, Nightmask, and Cipher glyphs. The purpose of the Justice glyph is to help the transition of any given world through the inevitable paradigm shift
caused when it comes into contact with a web of strange matter
, called "newuniversal structure", wherein normal physical laws operate differently. Whenever a world enters the web it can become unstable, taking thousands of years before it finishes traveling along one of its many strands, thus contact implies the danger that any given world could be destroyed if its transition period is not guided. It is the purpose of the Justice glyph to help protect the world from being destroyed in concert with the other three glyphs.
The Justice glyph grants its wielder the ability to see anyone's past crimes within an aura that surrounds their heads. All of an individual's crimes are made visible and completely open, and all lies revealed to the wielder. It is not clear if the glyph reveals only those crimes that an individual is aware of committing, in the case of being mentally controlled, or if it reveals those crimes to which an individual is the direct perpetrator, as opposed to simply being an accomplice, or in Tensen's case, if his mental instability is interfering with the accuracy of his visions. The glyph also grants the wielder the ability to create energy shields and edged weapons, such as knives and swords in a variety of shapes and sizes, as well as simple tools such as scissors. The energy shields and blades are not limited to being held, they can be mentally controlled as projectiles, though there is no indication if there is an effective range limitation. Usually the blades appear haloed slightly behind the wielder's shoulders and head, seemingly for both intimidation and for ready use.
Each Justice seems able to use their abilities slightly differently. For instance, the first incarnation of Justice, named Ukru, used his energy fields as extra appendages. While the second incarnation of Justice, Veronica Kelly, created scissors to use as a weapon.
The abilities granted by the Justice glyph all amount to the capability of enforcing one's sense of justice, but it remains to be seen if the Justice glyph allows its wielder to dispassionately judge the severity of an individual's crimes. For example, the current wielder of the glyph, John Tensen, has so far killed most (if not every) person who he has seen commit a crime within their auras (as of newuniversal: shockfront #2).
It is unclear at this point whether or not he is acting the way he is due to mental instability (either stemming from the wounds he suffered prior to becoming Justice or from some innate defect), or due to the glyph itself somehow controlling his actions.
he and his partner are involved in a shootout, and the very same bullet that kills his partner lodges in his brain, sending him into a coma (declared "98% dead"). When the White Event occurs he was lying comatose in his hospital bed being attended by a male nurse named Thomas Reid, when the Justice glyph bonds with him. The glyph completely cures his physical wounds and awakes him from his coma. He immediately becomes aware of Reid’s intention to euthanasize
him, as well as becoming aware of all the people he had previously euthanised in the past. Sickened, Tensen instantly creates a knife out of glowing white/blue energy and kills the nurse. Tensen then writes "JUSTICE" on the wall with Reid’s blood, a message for anyone who cared to see it that the killing had been justified. Tensen, with the full knowledge of his own death and unexplained resurrection in his mind, leaves the hospital. Of those first shown to gain powers during the white event, only John seems to be comfortable with his newfound powers, as well as having no difficulty using them. That said, he seems unable to "turn off" his ability to see a person's crimes.
Tensen finds it difficult to reconcile his past as a police officer with the fact that he’d murdered the nurse, justified or not. The only justification he can come up with is that he is still dead, and that he had been sent to hell, which has been made to look like New York, and that he was surrounded by sinners. This delusion allows him to see killing Thomas Reid as not actual murder per se, since they are both already dead and in hell. As a sign of his mental instability, his guiding principle nonetheless established, Tensen decides to find and kill the men who shot him before turning himself in, choosing to find whatever justice he could find for himself in hell.
At that point, a police officer finds and recognizes him in an alley and confronts him. Both are relaxed, but when Tensen reaches for his notepad to show the cop what he had written in order to explain what he thinks happened to him, the policeman mistakenly assumes that Tensen is reaching for a gun and fires at him. Tensen instinctively throws up a series of transparent blue shields that deflect the bullet, then uses them to attack the police officer, lifting him violently in the air and then smashing him hard enough into the pavement that it cracks. Tensen, believing himself in hell, feels no regret for his actions, and doesn’t bother to check on the officer.
Tensen later finds the men who killed his partner and himself, creates swords constructed purely of energy and brutally executes them, cleaning slicing off limbs and bisecting torsos from a distance. Just before Spike, the last surviving gang member, is killed he resigns himself to his fate and tells him to finish his revenge: “Make it good Tensen. Make it so that you’re the one who’s hunted. Make it so you’re the number one threat to life in New York city. See how long your dead man’s magic lasts when every last person in America wants you back in your coffin”.
Later, still unsure if he is trapped in hell Tensen climbs to the top of a building to look down upon the people in the street. To his horror, he sees that all of them have committed what he deems to be unforgivable sins (e.g., a mother beats her child, a rickshaw driver ran over two people, and a man beat a dog). Now completely immersed in the delusion that he is trapped in hell surrounded by sinners, Tensen judged their sins as outweighing the values of their lives: Creating several dozen energy blades, he sent them into the crowded street and proceeded to viciously slaughter all present, stating "I'm not sorry". When he is finished killing, Tensen carved the word “Justice" into the pavement with a blade before ascending a staircase he constructed from energy shields. The killing spree is later covered up by the government as having been done by a sniper who escaped in a helicopter.
By the end of newuniversal: shockfront #1, Tensen has fallen deeper into his delusion of Hell, and is seen sitting amongst his latest victims (both men and women), talking to both them and to himself. Tensen is in shock, saying that they (his latest victims) where worse than anything he’d found in two weeks of killing. Tensen is too afraid to see if hell is larger than Manhattan, demanding that the dead bodies tell him how to kill more of them quicker.
Another incarnation of Justice is introduced in the newuniversal: 1959 one-shot. Veronica Kelly is a resident of Kansas City and the widow of a police officer who was killed by a corrupt colleague. Veronica gained the Justice glyph during the Fireworks
in April 1953. Veronica's powers were portrayed slightly differently to Tensen's, forming energy blades in the shape of scissors and knives as opposed to blades. Although she evidently had similar abilities, newuniversal: 1959 does not show her manifesting any energy shields (though she presumably did so to protect herself from gunfire at the climax of the comic).
After her husband's murder, Veronica is found "in hysterics" the following month, along with the body of her husband's murderer. As a result, Veronica is committed to a psychiatric institution for care, but she is released shortly thereafter, apparently having made a full recovery. Project Spitfire
monitors Kansas City for the next few years, noting that the homicide rate increases but the general crime rate falls drastically - their suspicion is that Veronica has been using her powers to police the city, and while they might no agree with her methods the results speak for themselves.
Over the next four years she has numerous conflicts with Lester Robbins, the Star Brand of that era, trying to get him to take his life and duty seriously. Throughout their clashes Veronica repeatedly attempts to convince Lester that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. Having no stomach for the constant conflict, Lester stays out of the U.S. returning only occasionally. But every time he returns to the U.S. Veronica confronts him soon after. How Veronica knew when and where he teleported into the U.S. is unknown. They're conflict ends in 1957, when Robbins teleports into Veronica's home and he thanks her for helping him. The two fall in love and Veronica gives birth to a baby boy in 1959.
Previously, the conflicts between Veronica and Lester were covered up and monitored by Project Spitfire, who took no action since no innocent civilians were hurt, and because the conflicts usually occurred without any witnesses. However, the birth of their baby triggered Philip L. Voight's deepest fears: that superhumans would reproduce. Believing that Veronica and Lester were locked into Darwinian evolutionary imperatives that forced them to engage in primitive territorial disputes over their four year conflict, Voight theorized that their romantic behavior was actually indicative of a strange kind of "mating ritual". Fearing that Anthony Stark, the Cipher of that era, might clash with Lester for Veronica's affections, Voight convinced the head of Project Spitfire that any and all superhumans needed to be killed, otherwise their conflicts might cause death, not to mention the eventual extinction of the human race.
Not wanting direct confrontation, Voight relied on subtly in order to kill the three superhumans. Lulling Anthony Stark into a false sense of security, he kills him by shooting him in the head. Approaching Veronica and Lester with more caution, he probes the strength of their relationship, presumably to see if they can be taken on individually rather than face them together. An NSA agent seduces Lester and convinces him to have an affair, a fact which Veronica immediately sees within his aura when he returns home that day. Lester runs away from her fury at being cheated on, but Veronica doesn't follow him. Fearing that Veronica will somehow see the intentions of any agent sent to kill her in the same way she saw Lester's guilt, Voight secretly poisons Veronica's lunch at a local restaurant. Veronica, realizing that she had been poisoned moments afterwards, tracks them outside and kills the agents accompanying Voight before dying. After her death, Lester and their son are murdered when Philip Nolan decides that they are to be considered too dangerous to live.
The newuniversal: conqueror one-shot, set in 2,689bce (an unknown number of years after the first failed White Event), introduces Ukru as the world's first Justice. Ukru helped establish Zardath along with that era’s Star Brand
, Cipher
, and Nightmask, named Starr the Slayer, Baneth, and Trull respectively.
Ukru is an old friend of Starr and fellow warrior, but by the time of newuniversal: conqueror his mind has been taken over by Trull, who is determined on taking over Zardath and killing Starr. What little mind Ukru has remaining to him is kept asleep in an "ice-engine" and drugged on "poppybrew". Trull uses him as a tracking animal to hunt down superhumans and bring them to him, keeping him chained and controlled by animal-handlers.
Eventually, though his mind has been mostly destroyed, Ukru realizes that Trull has done something to him and confronts him while he was torturing his latest victim, Gila. Ukru proves no match for Trull, who easily defeats him with the promise that he might wipe away the remainder of his mind as a penalty for disobedience. It is not revealed what happened to Ukru after this confrontation.
Ukru is far taller and larger than the other inhabitants of Zardath, standing approximately 10–12 ft tall, and massive enough to grasp a grown woman around the waist with one hand.
Newuniversal
newuniversal is a comic book series by writer Warren Ellis, artist Salvador Larroca and colorist Jason Keith, published by Marvel Comics. The series is a re-imagining of Marvel's New Universe concepts, launched to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the New Universe's creation in 1986.As with the...
imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event
White Event
The White Event was a fictional occurrence which played a key role in Marvel Comics' New Universe line.-New Universe:The White Event was the name given to a mysterious blinding flash of light which bathed the Earth on July 22, 1986, at 4:22am EST...
in 2006 (the others being Star Brand
Star Brand (newuniversal)
Kenneth Connell is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980’s...
, Cipher
Cipher (newuniversal)
Cipher is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980s...
, and Nightmask
Nightmask (newuniversal)
Izanami Randall is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980’s...
). newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse
Multiverse (Marvel Comics)
Within Marvel Comics, most tales take place within the fictional Marvel Universe, which in turn is part of a larger multiverse. Starting with issues of Captain Britain, the main continuity in which most Marvel storylines take place was designated Earth-616, and the multiverse was established as...
, is a re-imagining of the New Universe
New Universe
The New Universe is a comic book imprint from Marvel Comics that was published in its original incarnation from 1986 to 1989. It was created by Jim Shooter, Archie Goodwin, Eliot R. Brown, John Morelli, Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco and edited by Michael Higgins.In 1986, in honor of Marvel Comics'...
(designated Earth-148611) imprint from the late 1980s. The name Justice actually refers to two things: a powerful extra-dimensional glyph (tattoo) that confers superhuman powers on a sentient being, and the name of the being that wields the glyph. The concept of the Justice glyph was created by Warren Ellis to parallel the concept of the Star Brand
Star Brand (newuniversal)
Kenneth Connell is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980’s...
. Unlike the Star Brand, the Justice glyph will attach itself to the chest of its wielder and not the hand.
Origin of the Justice glyph
The origin of Justice as written by Warren Ellis is markedly different from the origin described in the original Justice (New Universe)Justice (New Universe)
Justice is a character from the New Universe imprint of Marvel Comics, the protagonist of a 32-issue comic book series of the same name published from 1986 to 1989. The title was notable for featuring the early work of Peter David and Lee Weeks as well as rare 1980s Marvel work from Keith Giffen...
. Rather than being a randomly created superhuman, Justice plays a pivotal role in the development of the newuniverse. The Justice glyph was created by a supposedly long-dead alien race that created it as a tool along with the Star Brand, Nightmask, and Cipher glyphs. The purpose of the Justice glyph is to help the transition of any given world through the inevitable paradigm shift
Paradigm shift
A Paradigm shift is, according to Thomas Kuhn in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , a change in the basic assumptions, or paradigms, within the ruling theory of science...
caused when it comes into contact with a web of strange matter
Strange matter
Strange matter is a particular form of quark matter, usually thought of as a "liquid" of up, down, and strange quarks. It is to be contrasted with nuclear matter, which is a liquid of neutrons and protons , and with non-strange quark matter, which is a quark liquid containing only up and down quarks...
, called "newuniversal structure", wherein normal physical laws operate differently. Whenever a world enters the web it can become unstable, taking thousands of years before it finishes traveling along one of its many strands, thus contact implies the danger that any given world could be destroyed if its transition period is not guided. It is the purpose of the Justice glyph to help protect the world from being destroyed in concert with the other three glyphs.
Powers and abilities
Each Justice seems able to use their abilities slightly differently. For instance, the first incarnation of Justice, named Ukru, used his energy fields as extra appendages. While the second incarnation of Justice, Veronica Kelly, created scissors to use as a weapon.
The abilities granted by the Justice glyph all amount to the capability of enforcing one's sense of justice, but it remains to be seen if the Justice glyph allows its wielder to dispassionately judge the severity of an individual's crimes. For example, the current wielder of the glyph, John Tensen, has so far killed most (if not every) person who he has seen commit a crime within their auras (as of newuniversal: shockfront #2).
It is unclear at this point whether or not he is acting the way he is due to mental instability (either stemming from the wounds he suffered prior to becoming Justice or from some innate defect), or due to the glyph itself somehow controlling his actions.
John Tensen
John Tensen is a well known and respected NYPD detective who, having no family, completely dedicated himself to his job. Just prior to the White EventWhite Event
The White Event was a fictional occurrence which played a key role in Marvel Comics' New Universe line.-New Universe:The White Event was the name given to a mysterious blinding flash of light which bathed the Earth on July 22, 1986, at 4:22am EST...
he and his partner are involved in a shootout, and the very same bullet that kills his partner lodges in his brain, sending him into a coma (declared "98% dead"). When the White Event occurs he was lying comatose in his hospital bed being attended by a male nurse named Thomas Reid, when the Justice glyph bonds with him. The glyph completely cures his physical wounds and awakes him from his coma. He immediately becomes aware of Reid’s intention to euthanasize
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
him, as well as becoming aware of all the people he had previously euthanised in the past. Sickened, Tensen instantly creates a knife out of glowing white/blue energy and kills the nurse. Tensen then writes "JUSTICE" on the wall with Reid’s blood, a message for anyone who cared to see it that the killing had been justified. Tensen, with the full knowledge of his own death and unexplained resurrection in his mind, leaves the hospital. Of those first shown to gain powers during the white event, only John seems to be comfortable with his newfound powers, as well as having no difficulty using them. That said, he seems unable to "turn off" his ability to see a person's crimes.
Tensen finds it difficult to reconcile his past as a police officer with the fact that he’d murdered the nurse, justified or not. The only justification he can come up with is that he is still dead, and that he had been sent to hell, which has been made to look like New York, and that he was surrounded by sinners. This delusion allows him to see killing Thomas Reid as not actual murder per se, since they are both already dead and in hell. As a sign of his mental instability, his guiding principle nonetheless established, Tensen decides to find and kill the men who shot him before turning himself in, choosing to find whatever justice he could find for himself in hell.
At that point, a police officer finds and recognizes him in an alley and confronts him. Both are relaxed, but when Tensen reaches for his notepad to show the cop what he had written in order to explain what he thinks happened to him, the policeman mistakenly assumes that Tensen is reaching for a gun and fires at him. Tensen instinctively throws up a series of transparent blue shields that deflect the bullet, then uses them to attack the police officer, lifting him violently in the air and then smashing him hard enough into the pavement that it cracks. Tensen, believing himself in hell, feels no regret for his actions, and doesn’t bother to check on the officer.
Later, still unsure if he is trapped in hell Tensen climbs to the top of a building to look down upon the people in the street. To his horror, he sees that all of them have committed what he deems to be unforgivable sins (e.g., a mother beats her child, a rickshaw driver ran over two people, and a man beat a dog). Now completely immersed in the delusion that he is trapped in hell surrounded by sinners, Tensen judged their sins as outweighing the values of their lives: Creating several dozen energy blades, he sent them into the crowded street and proceeded to viciously slaughter all present, stating "I'm not sorry". When he is finished killing, Tensen carved the word “Justice" into the pavement with a blade before ascending a staircase he constructed from energy shields. The killing spree is later covered up by the government as having been done by a sniper who escaped in a helicopter.
By the end of newuniversal: shockfront #1, Tensen has fallen deeper into his delusion of Hell, and is seen sitting amongst his latest victims (both men and women), talking to both them and to himself. Tensen is in shock, saying that they (his latest victims) where worse than anything he’d found in two weeks of killing. Tensen is too afraid to see if hell is larger than Manhattan, demanding that the dead bodies tell him how to kill more of them quicker.
Veronica Kelly
White Event
The White Event was a fictional occurrence which played a key role in Marvel Comics' New Universe line.-New Universe:The White Event was the name given to a mysterious blinding flash of light which bathed the Earth on July 22, 1986, at 4:22am EST...
in April 1953. Veronica's powers were portrayed slightly differently to Tensen's, forming energy blades in the shape of scissors and knives as opposed to blades. Although she evidently had similar abilities, newuniversal: 1959 does not show her manifesting any energy shields (though she presumably did so to protect herself from gunfire at the climax of the comic).
After her husband's murder, Veronica is found "in hysterics" the following month, along with the body of her husband's murderer. As a result, Veronica is committed to a psychiatric institution for care, but she is released shortly thereafter, apparently having made a full recovery. Project Spitfire
Project Spitfire
Project Spitfire is a fictional comic-book intelligence agency appearing in the newuniversal comics published by Marvel Comics. Created by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca in newuniversal #1, it is tasked with monitoring and, if necessary, killing superhumans.-Fictional history:On April 26, 1953,...
monitors Kansas City for the next few years, noting that the homicide rate increases but the general crime rate falls drastically - their suspicion is that Veronica has been using her powers to police the city, and while they might no agree with her methods the results speak for themselves.
Over the next four years she has numerous conflicts with Lester Robbins, the Star Brand of that era, trying to get him to take his life and duty seriously. Throughout their clashes Veronica repeatedly attempts to convince Lester that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. Having no stomach for the constant conflict, Lester stays out of the U.S. returning only occasionally. But every time he returns to the U.S. Veronica confronts him soon after. How Veronica knew when and where he teleported into the U.S. is unknown. They're conflict ends in 1957, when Robbins teleports into Veronica's home and he thanks her for helping him. The two fall in love and Veronica gives birth to a baby boy in 1959.
Previously, the conflicts between Veronica and Lester were covered up and monitored by Project Spitfire, who took no action since no innocent civilians were hurt, and because the conflicts usually occurred without any witnesses. However, the birth of their baby triggered Philip L. Voight's deepest fears: that superhumans would reproduce. Believing that Veronica and Lester were locked into Darwinian evolutionary imperatives that forced them to engage in primitive territorial disputes over their four year conflict, Voight theorized that their romantic behavior was actually indicative of a strange kind of "mating ritual". Fearing that Anthony Stark, the Cipher of that era, might clash with Lester for Veronica's affections, Voight convinced the head of Project Spitfire that any and all superhumans needed to be killed, otherwise their conflicts might cause death, not to mention the eventual extinction of the human race.
Not wanting direct confrontation, Voight relied on subtly in order to kill the three superhumans. Lulling Anthony Stark into a false sense of security, he kills him by shooting him in the head. Approaching Veronica and Lester with more caution, he probes the strength of their relationship, presumably to see if they can be taken on individually rather than face them together. An NSA agent seduces Lester and convinces him to have an affair, a fact which Veronica immediately sees within his aura when he returns home that day. Lester runs away from her fury at being cheated on, but Veronica doesn't follow him. Fearing that Veronica will somehow see the intentions of any agent sent to kill her in the same way she saw Lester's guilt, Voight secretly poisons Veronica's lunch at a local restaurant. Veronica, realizing that she had been poisoned moments afterwards, tracks them outside and kills the agents accompanying Voight before dying. After her death, Lester and their son are murdered when Philip Nolan decides that they are to be considered too dangerous to live.
Ukru
Star Brand (newuniversal)
Kenneth Connell is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980’s...
, Cipher
Cipher (newuniversal)
Cipher is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980s...
, and Nightmask, named Starr the Slayer, Baneth, and Trull respectively.
Ukru is an old friend of Starr and fellow warrior, but by the time of newuniversal: conqueror his mind has been taken over by Trull, who is determined on taking over Zardath and killing Starr. What little mind Ukru has remaining to him is kept asleep in an "ice-engine" and drugged on "poppybrew". Trull uses him as a tracking animal to hunt down superhumans and bring them to him, keeping him chained and controlled by animal-handlers.
Eventually, though his mind has been mostly destroyed, Ukru realizes that Trull has done something to him and confronts him while he was torturing his latest victim, Gila. Ukru proves no match for Trull, who easily defeats him with the promise that he might wipe away the remainder of his mind as a penalty for disobedience. It is not revealed what happened to Ukru after this confrontation.
Ukru is far taller and larger than the other inhabitants of Zardath, standing approximately 10–12 ft tall, and massive enough to grasp a grown woman around the waist with one hand.