Astonishman

Origin

Brian Terrance was found in 1915 by Officer Jack Terrance at the age of three. While working undercover in a speakeasy in 1930’s Hollywood, Jack was killed by mob boss Charles Lexington. Wearing a ski mask and his father’s uniform, Brian went out and began to wage war on the mob. Within weeks, he had put an end to all mob activity in LA.

After having his high school sweetheart, Kelly Reynolds, make a costume for him, he went to work for the government in Europe during WWII. As time went on, he became sure he knew what was right for humanity and stopped consulting the world governments. His arrogance became his downfall in May of 1962. Lexington leaked false files to Astonishman about a communist nuclear facility on the ocean floor. Brian attacked it with a nuclear warhead and set The Green Event in motion.

He later formed The League of Righteousness to battle the new world’s villains. This went on for decades until Lexington and Wolfsangel rallied the villains under one leader and attacked on the Day of Annihilation. Most of the heroes were killed, but Astonishman rallied the rest at his Citadel of Seclusion.

Twelve years later, he was holding The End League together in the hopes of finding Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir to liberate the planet from the vast majority of super-villains and their leader, Dead Lexington.

With their food supply low, Astonishman led Divinity, Blur, Brother Occult (and his demon servant Azul), Soldier American, and Prairie Ghost on a mission to raid Dead Lex’s food supplies. Things went smoothly until Azul betrayed the team and left them stranded inside the fortress, wounding Astonishman in the process. Dead Lex contacted the team and apologized for “not being there to kill them all personally.” Thor, who had been missing for years, suddenly appeared under Dead Lex’s control, his mind having been destroyed. The team battled with Thor. Divinity used her magic sword to temporarily give Thor a moment of clarity, in which he warns Astonishman of a great danger. However, this only lasted for a few seconds and he resumed his attack. Astonishman knocked Thor away from the rest of the team to buy them time to escape. In an effort to save innocent bystanders, Astonishman allows Thor to impale him with Mjolnir. Since puncturing his body releases his super-energy, he and everything in a very large radius will be destroyed as soon as the hammer is removed. His last act was to tell Divinity personally to never hold the hammer, and he threw her clear of the blast radius. Thor removed the hammer and they both died in a massive explosion. Dead Lex later recovered Mjolnir.

Wolfsangel later cloned Astonishman in order to create a super-army capable of lifting Mjolnir. In the end, it was revealed that Astonishman was Soldier American and Divinity’s third born son, sent back in time to the Terrances to prevent any disruption of the timeline.

Powers and Abilities

Astonishman fits the “Superman” archetype of the team. He has immense strength, super speed, humongous durability and can fly. In the first issue, to prevent the destruction of Earth, he pushed the entire planet back into its natural gravitational cycle. He has been recorded as flying at mach six, taking blows from Thor and possessing the durability to survive the explosion caused by The Green Event. He also has enhanced senses, allowing him to scan the entire planet in seconds. Since he is powered by the earth’s core, he needs no sustenance. His one notable weakness is Hellfire.