Origin
Whilst in South America to claim a fortune left to him by an uncle, Tim Kelly is taken prisoner and sold into slavery. Kelly is with a group on a forced march when he rescues another slave, an old man who’s been thrown into a piranha infested swamp by their captors. The two manage to escape.
The old man turns out to be an Incan shaman, he takes him to the Temple of Zoltec, where while exploring Tim finds a gem named the Eye of Zoltec, which he discovers makes him invulnerable to all harm as well as enhancing his speed, strength, and intelligence as long as he is touching it.
Kelly makes his way back to the slavers and using the Eye of Zoltec he manages to bring the criminals to justice and set the other slaves free.
Creation
Tim Kelly’s is the star of Kelly’s Eye. Originally created for the anthology comic Knockout, Kelly’s Eye transferred to Valiant when Knockout was cancelled and merged with it.
Character Progression
Diablo and the Left Eye of Zoltec
When Tim originally took the Eye of Zoltec from its placing in its stone statue it caused the whole Temple to come crashing down and a huge explosion (the eye kept Tim alive). Unbeknownst to Tim there had actually been two Eye of Zoltec’s, the right eye, which he had found, and the left eye, lost in the rubble.
Much later an escaped convict named Diablo stumbled across the ruins of the Temple of Zoltec whilst on the run from the police, and found the Left Eye of Zoltec, otherwise known as the Eye of Evil.
Whilst the Right Eye made the wearer indestructible, the Left Eye gave the user the ability to control the minds of others, within no time Diablo has accumulated an army of slaves.
After a stand-off between Tim Kelly and Diablo, Diablo decided to take a step back and wait for an opportunity. He took control of Tim’s traveling companion and used him to steal the eye.
Fortunately the two Eye’s could not be used together for long as Diablo had become so corrupted by the Left Eye that the Right began to fail on him, he threw it away thinking it broken.
Tim managed to retrieve the eye but by this point Diablo had a large army of followers behind him, Tim worked out that if he could manage to magnify the light from the right eye he could use it to free the people who were under Diablo’s control, and this is exactly what he did.
Tim Kelly and Diablo entered into a battle of wills, with both eye’s emitting a beam of light and fighting for supremacy, Tim triumphed, and the Left Eye shattered.
Diablo desperately tried to escape but was accidentally run over by a tank.
Meeting Dr Diamond and Subsequent Adventures
After saving the world on multiple occasions Tim Kelly eventually met up with an amoral genius by the name of Dr Diamond. Dr Diamond had created numerous inventions over the years and was in dire need of a guinea pig to try them out on, he felt that Tim Kelly would be perfect for this role.
Tim Kelly was however soon embroiled in a mystery to solve, someone had it in for the good Doctor and was attempting to sabotage his experiments and ruin his work.
The Saboteur was soon discovered to be the Doctor’s long-suffering assistant, a man driven crazy by his many near death experiences, accidents which had been caused in no small part by the doctor’s total lack of safety procedures and flagrant disregard for human life in the pursuit of science.
After the mystery was solved Dr Diamond tricked Tim Kelly into accompanying him in a Time-Machine that he invented, before he knew what was happening Kelly found himself in the year 9000BC, cursed to travel back and forth in time having adventures with the Doctor, trying to find a way home.
Powers
Whilst in contact with the Eye of Zoltek Tim Kelly is completely impervious to harm, he cannot be blown up, set on fire, melted with acid, crushed with rocks, or cut with any sharp object (it will just break as soon as it comes into contact with him). Tim Kelly doesn’t need to breath and is unaffected by extreme pressures and temperature, as such he can survive in the vacuum of space or the depths of the sea.
On top of the invulnerability, the Eye of Zoltek increases all of it’s holders physical features, instilling tremendous speed, increased strength, and higher level intelligence and senses.
Tim Kelly has been shown running at over 100 miles an hour through a forest, and has been described as moving “faster than the eye can see” on more than one occasion.
His increased intelligence has allowed him to learn a new language in hours just by listening to it being spoken, and gain technical mastery of airplanes and other vehicles in minutes. Everything he learns stays with him even if he breaks contact with the Eye of Zoltek at a later date.
Other Appearances
A Tim Kelly analogue named Tom Rosetta appeared in Alan Moore’s acclaimed Captain Britain story “Crooked World”. Here the character was a hero of an alternate dimension Earth 238.
The hero’s of Earth 238 had been previously destroyed by the Cybiote construction named The Fury which had been specifically built with this task in mind. The Fury managed to somehow bypass the magical capabilities of Tom Rosetta’s version of the Eye of Zoltec, roasting him alive.