John Dusk is a man possessing the power to create an aura which he can shape and use in many ways. He has used this aura to glide and float from the tops of buildings, as means of holding someone in place kind of like ropes, hold someones mouth shut and pressed against wounds to prevent bleeding and in very lethal ways. John Dusk has often and effectively used it as a bladed or sharp sided weapon (he has sliced throats and caused other physical harm with just a wave of his finger) and he has implemented it as a projectile weapon (he occasionally points his finger like a gun and the aura forms a beam and shoots through a culprits head leaving a bullet hole looking injury he has used this ability in more brutal and messy ways also). He uses his aura to fight evil and uphold the law as not just a super hero but as a police officer. He and a couple other heroes, with and without powers, form a team that the police uses as a super powered S.W.A.T team. The members are very effective and close, they go to each others home for barbecues and know each others family well. After years of super heroics and seeing the many evil deeds of people, super powered or not, John begins to question the justice system he has worked for and believed in for many years. After a rather dark experience something snaps in John and his methods change, his police duties become a bloody quest for vengeance and peace.
Â
John Dusk had been fighting crime for some time but the evil things he has witnessed start to haunt him day and night. He had never intentionally killed anyone until one fateful encounter with a racist, rapist with super strength named White Power. While White Power held John in a bear hug he could only escape by using his aura to slice White Powers arms off. John, in usual heroic fashion, used his powers to keep his enemy alive by stopping the bleeding with his powers while he called for police back up and an ambulance. While he restrained White Power he begins to search for a muffled sound he heard he finds the source in a back room and John shocked by his discovery. White Power had two women bound and gagged to two beds. White Power had kidnapped the women and held them prisoner for days, continually raping them and leaving them beaten, abused and malnourished. John disgusted by this he decided to let the man die, he removed his protective aura from his wounds and White Power quickly bled out, even though White Power was a horrible person John was still shocked by his choice and still question his decision. John has to report to the police chief what “actually happened” but John lies to protect himself but luckily John’s boy scout like demeanor and spotless career allow him to get away without punishment or question. After discussing his version of what happened with the police chief, he is again reminded of all the horrid things he has witnessed over his eight years working with the police. John is surprised in the stations hall by his girlfriend, homicide detective, Karen. That night while John and Karen are having sex john stops because he was again haunted by the image of the terrible things he has seen, this time he sees an image of one of White Powers rape victims. John with the help of his super team, which consists of Alpha, the Servant and himself, storm a hideout that a wanted pyrokinetic villain has been staying at. The four of them along with a group of officers finally capture the villain and some of his gang, basically the ones he did not burn to death trying to escape. After the raid he, Karen, the Servant and his family attend a barbecue at Alphas home. While Karen and Alpha converse John smiles as he watches the children in the pool but his smile quickly fades as he again has a flashback of a sadistic crimes he has seen. He remembers and is most haunted by the crime that had a young girl being chopped up and sewn back together with other children’s limbs. (This heinous act can be seen in Absolution number zero, he relives the event in a nightmare. Also in issue zero we learn the police are hunting a serial killer that does not leave bullets in the body or environment.) The serial killer the police are baffled by is none other than John Dusk. A conversation between John and Karen in front of the court house leads him to pick his next victim, Karen tells John about a pervert she saw in court who was masturbating during court proceedings. Eventually John is called to court to testify about what happened with White Power and John sees what he thinks might be the man Karen told him about. While John Is in testifying on the stand he realizes the guy is who Karen told him about. Later that night we see John stalking the pervert and when he confronts the man he challenges John and his motives. The guy knows John is one of the good guys and can not prove he has done anything so he “knows” John can not and will not do anything to him. John tells him a little about how he views not killing compared to actually killing culprits and that leaving them alive does not help the world. John then shows the guy his face right before he uses his aura to “shoot” him through the forehead, this left no bullet in him or around him. One night while he can not sleep he suits up and begins to patrol the city to get out and clear his head. While out he responds to a domestic disturbance call that is quite severe. A man had been cut by his wife, probably in self defense, he demanded John call the ambulance for him but John looks at what is left of the guys wife. The woman’s body laid mutilated on the floor her husband had beaten her to death in “self defense,” brain was exposed, an eye barely intact she was very messed up. John knew the man was in the wrong but still remained calm and still followed procedure. John politely asked the man to stay calm while the man demanded John call him an ambulance for his cut arm. John tells him hes fine and the wound is merely superficial but the man gets in Johns face and continues yelling to which John asks him to step back because he is bleeding but this only makes the man angrier. He claims John is saying hes got A.I.Ds and will sue him for slander saying he is calling him gay and that John is a racist and goes on about that so John uses his power to slit the mans throat. John was actually surprised by his action but then uses the knife in the cut he made in the husband and puts the knife back in the mans hand to set the scene up as a murder suicide.
