Johnny Cool

Origin

Johnny Cool is a member of the Desert Stars, the Arizona based team of the Initiative. During the Secret Invasion, Skrulls were infiltrating the Initiative by placing a Skrull agent on each team. The Desert Stars were handling a situation in Phoenix when the new 3-D Man and the Skrull Kill Krew discovered that Blacksmith of the Desert Stars was an actual Skrull. Blacksmith revealed his true identity and attacked. Johnny Cool was going to use his cold powers when Blacksmith struck a car with his hammer and it took down Johnny. Blacksmith was killed by Riot and Johnny Cool would recover from his injuries.

Creation

Johnny Cool was created by Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage and Stefano Caselli in 2008 and first appeared in Avengers: The Initiative # 16.

Mayor Story Arcs

During a fight with the electric entity Zzzax; The Desert Stars teamed up with the Nevada branch The Heavy Hitters to defeat him. Zzzax was attempting to drain the Hoover Dam of the vast amount of energy it provides, however the combined forces of the two states, were determined to stop him. As the monster created multiple holes in the dam wall which spewed out water, Johnny used his abilities to lower the temperature of the rushing water so that it would freeze. While he attempted this feat, fellow Desert Star Supermax increased his size as to take on the foul beast. While this was going on, Gravity negated the gravity of the area around the damaged wall, giving Johnny more time to plug up the holes. During this ordeal, Gravity told the Heavy Hitters to follow Two-Gun Kid’s lead. As leader, Two-Gun Kid decides to tell Supermax a story of how his “amigo” Hawkeye defeated the monstrosity. Without letting him finish the story, Supermax knocked Zzzax into the river below, however this did no damage but did anger the beast. Zzzax immediately sent forth a burst of electricity to incapacitate the brute. To stop the enemy, Two-Gun Kid quickly used his gun to fire through the beast and into the water, at the same time Telemetry sent forth a spear to complete the same task. Unfortunately their attacks met each other and not the beast, leaving Komodo & Hardball to defeat him while Non-Stop evacuated all of the civilians. Komodo quickly jumped into the river bed below to distract the enemy, while Hardball prepared to use his energy balls (made of electromagnetic energy) to disrupt the monster. As Zzzax used his powers to electrocute Komodo, Hardball sent forth an energy ball successfully defeating Zzzax. After the beast was defeated, Johnny Cool was easily able to patch up the rest of the damages while the two team leaders comforted Supermax. As this happened around them, Komodo and Hardball spent their time making out against one of the walls, while Non-Stop & Telemetry teased from afar.

Fear Itself

Commander Steve Rogers informs Prodigy of the unknown meteors that have fallen from the heavens and mass panic is on the horizon. Rogers asks Prodigy to gather heroes on a volunteer basis to help keep the peace and lead a new Initiative where there is no forced conscription or registration. Prodigy agrees to become the leader of the new Initiative and most of the former Initiative teams gather in Washington DC. Johnny Cool volunteers and joins his old team, the Desert Stars and prevents some armed, masked men from robbing the National Bank. 

Powers & Abilities

Johnny Cool has cold powers and can emit freeze blasts.