Origin
Dr. Stephen Beckley was the son of Colonel Jack Beckley of the United States Air Force. Stephen’s grandparents parents were angry with their son. When Stephen’s father Jack went out to the South Pacific as a naval aviator they learned that his fiancée was pregnant with his child. His fiancée was sent to Florida to have the baby named John, which was then put up for adoption so they would not have to live with their families knowing that their son had a child out of wedlock. Returning as a highly decorated hero; Jack married his fiancée and they had two more children, Stephen and Rosemary. Jack’s other son John became a powerful figure in naval intelligence and developed his own top secret intelligence agency, the Bridge (John was known as the Superior). John traced his father and told him he was his son. But Jack, not knowing the truth, said he had only one son, which was Stephen. The vengeful John determined to destroy the Beckley name and arranged an airplane accident in which Colonel Jack Beckley would die.
Creation
Comet Man was created by Bill Mumy, Kelly Jones and Miguel Ferrer and first appeared in Comet Man issue 1 (1987).
Major Story Arcs
In the foodsteps of the father
Stephen Beckley had become an astronomer and astrophysicist, married a woman named Ann and had a child with her. Stephen and Ann Beckley were also the creators and heads of the Edmond Project, a joint effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to investigate comets and related phenomena.
Stephen Beckley piloted a spacecraft that encountered an apparent comet. When Beckley’s spacecraft entered the contrail of the comet the strange energies vaporized Beckley’s craft as well as Beckley himself. But the comet was actaully the spaceship of an alien named Max, who had unintentionally vaporized Dr. Beckley and his ship with the contrail of his own spacecraft. However, Max was able to use his advanced technology to reconstruct Beckley’s body from his molecules, giving him superhuman powers in the process. However when he returned to Earth he learned Ann and his child were misssing
Searching for his missing wife and child, Beckley encountered and nearly defeated the Hulk. Reed Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four, saw Beckley battling the Hulk on television and went to see him in person.
Comet Man
The news media dubbed the newly superhumanly powerful Beckley “Comet Man.” Richards aided Beckley in controlling his power of self-teleportation by giving him a “psi-amplifier” device.
Beckley then learned about his older brother John, who was now the Superior, from S.H.I.E.L.D.
Other Versions
Earth X
Comet Man appeared in the alternate reality of Earth X, in the Paradise X mini-series.