Real Name: Ryan
Castiglione
Real Name: Ryan
Castiglione
Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (Earth-Amalgam) human / amazon hybrid
Occupation: (currently) adventurer; (formerly) Thanoseid's personal assassin
Affiliations: (currently) New Asgods, Highfather Odin, Big Titania; Diana Prince (Princess Diana of Themyscira); The Punisher (Trevor Castle); (formerly) Thanoseid; Granny Harkness; Female Furies, Bernadeth, Lashina, Mad Harriet, Stompa
Enemies: (currently) Thanoseid; (formerly) Diana Prince (Princess Diana of Themyscira); The Punisher (Trevor Castle)
Known Relatives: Diana Prince (mother); The Punisher (father)
Aliases: none
Base of Operations: (currently) New Asgard; (formerly) Armaghetto, Apokolips
First Appearance: Bullets and Bracelets#1 (March, 1996)
Powers/Abilities: At one time Thanoseid's most prized assassin, Kanto is an extremely skilled swordsman and presumably an efficient killer. Gallant and chivalrous, Kanto dresses and talks as if he were raised during Europe's Renaissance era.
History:
(Bullets
and Bracelets#1 (fb)) - Soon after their marriage on
Themyscira,
Diana Prince (Princess Diana of
Themyscira) and the Punisher (Trevor
Castle) had a son named Ryan Castiglione. Ryan was named
after Trevor's deceased battle friend
Orion, who had briefly used the alias
"O'Ryan" while posing as a mob-boss on Earth. Shortly after Ryan's
birth, however, the differences between Diana and Trevor drove them apart.
After their separation, Diana was granted sole custody of Ryan.
(Bullets and Bracelets#1 (fb)) - Thanoseid, the ruler of Apokolips, orchestrated the kidnapping of young Ryan from Diana's home (although Diana had no idea who was responsible for her son's abduction at first).
(Bullets and Bracelets#1) - "Final Thrust" - Diana and Trevor, reunited during the search for their missing son, eventually followed Ryan's trail to Apokolips where Diana was captured by the Female Furies and taken before Granny Harkness and Thanoseid. While Diana was incapacitated, Granny Harkness held young Ryan Castiglione and stood beside Kanto, Thanoseid's master assassin. As Thanoseid threatened to destroy the baby if Diana did not reveal the location of the all-powerful Infinity Links (which had been destroyed during the SECRET CRISIS OF THE INFINITY HOUR), Kanto felt sorry for the fair Diana's predicament.
Minutes later, Trevor and Big Titania attacked Thanoseid's forces in an attempt to rescue Diana and Ryan. In the ensuing chaos, Kanto confronted Diana and was about to slice her throat with his sword in the name of Thanoseid. But, for some reason, Kanto's heart would not let him kill Diana. Rather, Kanto withdrew his weapon and allowed Diana to escape with her life, warning her that others may not be so gallant.
Meanwhile,
Thanoseid, annoyed by Trevor and Big Titania's interference, struck young
Ryan with his Omega Beams, causing the baby to disappear in a flash of
light. Trevor immediately assumed that Thanoseid had destroyed his
son and was about to kill Kanto for his participation in Thanoseid's scheme,
but Diana (realizing that Thanoseid's Omega Beams had the ability to bend
space and time) deduced that Thanoseid had merely sent Ryan back in time
so he could be raised on Apokolips as Kanto -- Thanoseid's personal
assassin. Diana explained to Trevor that it would have been Thanoseid's
ultimate revenge to have Trevor kill or be killed by his own son (just as
Thanoseid's errant son Orion was killed defying his father's will during
the SECRET CRISIS OF THE INFINITY
HOUR). When Diana looked into Kanto's eyes earlier she
had realized that he was her son Ryan -- and Kanto subconsciously realized
this as well, explaining why he found himself unable to kill Diana
earlier.
Disgusted that his master plan did not come to fruition, Thanoseid
struck Kanto with his Omega Beams again and sent him, along with Big Titania,
where they belonged -- to live with Highfather Odin
and the New Asgods across
the Bifrost Bridge in the gleaming realm of New
Asgard. Diana and Trevor were similarly sent back to
Earth.
Comments: created by John Ostrander, Gary Frank, and Cam Smith
Key:
Marvel characters are listed in regular, or bold black
type.
DC characters are listed
in bold blue type.
Amalgam characters are
listed in bold purple type.
In case you're confused, Amalgam Comics didn't really exist beyond those seen in the few DC/Marvel cross-overs. The titles you don't recognize are amalgams of similar Marvel and DC comics--Snood.
The
SECRET CRISIS OF THE INFINITY HOUR
is an amalgam of Marvel's SECRET
WARS and THE INFINITY GAUNTLET and DC's
CRISIS ON INFINITE
EARTHS and
ZERO
HOUR.
Special thanks to writer John Ostrander for clarifying some of the component sources for his amalgamated characters and providing some additional insight into the Amalgam Universe!
Q: Was Kanto (Ryan Castiglione) intended to have a Marvel Universe component?
Mr. Ostrander:
There was no Marvel counterpart per se to
Ryan
Castiglione but, on the other
hand,
there is no real counterpart to him at DC, either. There was
Kanto, of
course, but no such being as
Ryan
ever existed.
Q: Where did the name "Ryan" come from?
Mr. Ostrander:
Trevor used
the name
"Ryan" to
honor his friend
Orion who
briefly used the name
O'Ryan when posing as an Earth mob-boss.
(Something that
Orion did
in THE NEW
GODS.)
Q: Was Kanto's origin story a
nod to the similar origin of Validus (Garridan
Ranzz) in the pre-Zero Hour
DC Universe?
Mr. Ostrander:
The origin is a nod to the origin of
Validus
in Legion of
Super-Heroes.
In the DC Universe's pre-Zero
Hour Legion of Super-Heroes, the villain
Darkseid kidnapped
Garridan Ranzz, one of the twin sons
of Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen Ranzz) and
Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz), at the moment
of his birth, mutated him into the lightning-emitting monster known as
Validus, and sent him back in time where
he became a member of the criminal alliance known as the
Fatal Five.
Profile by Skullogeist
If you like the Amalgam stuff, Skullogeist recommends these two sites:
http://www.geocities.com/schablotski.geo/Center.htm
http://www.io.com/~woodward/chroma/amalgam.html
CLARIFICATIONS:
Also assume that the Amalgam characters have no other connection to any others than whom they are Amalgamated, unless specifically mentioned.
Kanto (Ryan Castiglione) is an Amalgam Universe version of:
Kanto of the mainstream DC Universe,
Darkseid's master assassin, @ Mister Miracle
#7
Last
updated: 02/20/03
Any Additions/Corrections? please
let me
know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All characters mentioned or pictured are ™
and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc or DC Comics.
All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real
thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at:
http://www.marvel.com