Real
Name: Giovanni "John" Magniconte ALL-AMERICAN
Real
Name: Giovanni "John" Magniconte
Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-148611/"New Universe") human mutate
Occupation: Former soldier, professional football player
Group Membership: Formerly First Paranormal Platoon (Major Kathi Blizzard, Gridlock/Garth Mengeling, Mapper/Jonathan Matthews, Metallurgist/Chris Barret, Nightmask/Keith Remsen, Norad/Jacob Lao, Pit Bull/Gaylord Picaro, Pretty Boy/Bob Loeser, Shooter/Vincent Sahno, Troll/Brian Pickett), US Army; Kickers, Inc. (Dallas "Dasher" Corbin, Darkene "Doll" Magniconte, Thomas "Suicide" Smythe, Beauford Kimbal "Brick Wall" Wohl), New York Smashers (Cable, Corbin, Smythe, Wohl, Baldi, Baker, Tommy Bright, Collins, Hawkins, Ed Hunter, Monahan, Pudlinski, Williams, others)
Affiliations: Kayla Ballantine, Robert Barnes, Broken Skulls, "Bear" Chase, Captain Manhattan, Casey, Chrome (Jenny Swenson), Benigno Feliciano, Mrs. Mirano, Michael Courtney, Coach Garner, Coach Ed Kirby, Clinic for Paranormal Research Therapy Group C (Charlotte Beck, Lenore Fenzl, Stephanie Harrington, Dave Landers, Randy O'Brien, Scuzz/Dennis Cuzinski, Jeff Walters), Justice (John Tensen), Overshadow (Philip Nolan Voight), Psi-Hawk, Sally Rothman, Quasar (Wendell Vaughn)
Enemies: Amed, Arnie Beaker, Christine Edith
Chase, Len Darvin, Fists (Bruno, Fist, Slasher, others), circus gang
(Felina, Idget, Senor Leon, Trapeze Twins/Nip & Tuck), Heart of
Liberty/Saniserve (Manny "the Boss" Scampetti, Chuck, Jimmy, others),
Icecutters (Iggy, Jacobs, Jo, Pierre, others), Professor Jordan,
Jordan's unidentified accomplice, Colonel Oort, Perun,
Reinforcer
(Dexter Charne), Sephelcurus Krosk, Skeletron,
Mr. Sloan, Stranger,
Susie, "Ugly" Mack Thornton, Vargas;
formerly Dave Landers, Randy O'Brien, Scuzz, Philip Nolan
Voigt, Jeff Walters
Known Relatives: Darlene (wife), unidentified parents (deceased), Steve (brother, deceased)
Aliases: "Jack," Mr. Magnificent
Base of Operations: Formerly Fort Benning, Georgia; Kickers, Inc. HQ, in the former Sports Power Building, New York State
First Appearance: (Mr. Magnificent) Kickers, Inc.
#1 (1986);
(All-American) D.P.7 #21 (1988)
Powers/Abilities: Jack's strength, durability, reaction speed and stamina are all superhuman. He can run at nearly 40 mph for around 10 minutes before starting to tire, can lift over one ton, and is bulletproof to calibers up-to-and-including automatic weapons; at close range the bullets will break the skin and draw blood before bouncing off the muscles beneath. He is a moderately skilled martial artist, and his uniform and helmet are bulletproof Kevlar. He is skilled at accurately throwing objects, his football-throwing skills translating to knives and darts.
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 250 lbs.; formerly 220 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White; formerly blond
History:
(D.P.7#21/2
(fb) - BTS) - Jack Magniconte's early life was full of people making
choices for him. His parents and coaches both decided that football was
the way for him to get ahead in life,...
(Kickers, Inc#1 (fb) - BTS) - just as it had been for his older brother Steve before a knee injury in college ended his career before it could really begin. After their parents died Steve practically raised Jack by himself.
(New Avengers I#18/2 (fb) - BTS) - During Jack's high school homecoming game his coach, Garner, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest.
(D.P.7#21/2 (fb) - BTS) - Jack spent some time in the army
reserves.
(Kickers, Inc.#1 (fb) - BTS) - Jack eventually became the
star quarterback of the New York Smashers football team, wearing the
number 12 jersey and dubbed Mr. Magnificent by the press. He married his
girlfriend Darlene, and developed close friends with three of his
teammates, the stylish Dallas "Dasher" Corbin, robust Beauford "Brick
Wall" Wohl, and thrillseeking Thomas "Suicide" Smythe. Meanwhile Steve
developed a gambling problem, then overcame it to rebuild his life and a
successful business, Sports Power Plus Amalgamated, selling nutritional
programs to sports franchises and training companies, albeit using seed
money borrowed from Jack.
(Kickers, Inc#1) - Invited to Steve's lab, Jack and
Darlene were shown Steve's newest invention, a device he called the
"intensifier" for lack of a better word, which he hoped would
artificially stimulate an increase in muscle mass and decrease reaction
time, all without the harmful side effects of steroids. He offered to
let Jack try it out and perhaps get an extra edge, before he informed
the Football League about it and had to submit it for FDA testing. After
spending some time thinking about the offer, Jack decided to try the
intensifier, but even as he informed Darlene of this decision the world
underwent what became known as the White
Event, as for a brief moment the planet was bathed in a blinding
white light. Unknown to most of the world, Jack included, these were the
alien energies of the Starbrand, and like many others worldwide Jack
absorbed some of the energies. The next morning Steve used his
intensifier on Jack; though Steve had insisted that it would take months
of repeated treatments before he started to see even slight
improvements, the device triggered the alien energies within Jack,
causing him to glow brightly and immediately transform. His hair turned
white and his body swelled up as he suddenly added several pounds of
muscle mass. Shocked by this radical transformation Steve naturally put
Jack through an array of tests, but found nothing wrong with him. Jack
soon learned the changes were more than cosmetic. While out for a jog in
Central Park the next morning he was deliberately splashed by a car
driving down the pedestrian paths, and when he ran after it he not only
caught up to it while it was doing almost forty miles an hour, but
ripped off its bumper with his bare hands. Further tests run by Steve
confirmed that Jack had become virtually superhuman, though Jack's
brother remained stumped how his device, which he'd previously tested on
both himself and some lab staff, had triggered such a dramatic change in
Jack but not the others.
Initially overjoyed and feeling his value as a player had multiplied, Jack soon realized there were downsides to his new abilities when he accidentally broke some of Dasher's ribs with a thrown ball during practice. However, despite now holding back during games, his new powers let him lead his team on a historic string of victories in the following weeks, accompanied by a string of lucrative endorsements for Jack and his friends. Despite this, Jack began to feel down, even as he led his team inexorably towards the Super Bowl, now believing that he was unable to lose and the game was no longer a challenge. Feeling he had become too powerful and had such an advantage over the other players that it felt like he was cheating, Jack asked Steve if he could reverse the process. Adding to his concerns, he began to suspect Steve was gambling again, unaware that the truth was far worse; Steve had borrowed money from a loan shark, Mr. Sloan, to pay for the development of the intensifier, and was now being threatened to get Jack to rig the upcoming Super Bowl result to pay off his debt. Despite the threats, Steve retained sufficient integrity to keep this from Jack, unwilling to make his brother cheat on his behalf. A few weeks later Jack led the Smashers to win the Super Bowl by 65-17, unaware this would antagonize Sloan. While his team were celebrating a despondent Jack immediately went to see Steve, desperate to get him to remove his new power level, but he arrived at the lab just in time to witness Steve being fatally shot by one of Sloan's goons. Jack disarmed the gunman (almost literally, nearly ripping the man's arm from its socket) and took down Sloan and his other goons, but Steve died in Jack's arms.
Three weeks later, with Sloan and his men awaiting
trial, Jack brought Darlene, Dasher, Suicide and Brick Wall to the lab
and told them everything. All four were exposed to the intensifier, but
(unsurprisingly) remained unaffected. Having re-evaluated his life and
his gifts, Jack told them he felt he owed something to those who didn't
have the advantages he had, and wanted to give Steve's life and death
some meaning. With Wall's business skills they set up a foundation based
out of the building that had housed Steve's business, intending to help
people with "interesting" problems (at least in the off-season). When
Darlene jokingly called them a "bunch of dumb kickers" for larking
around with the furniture, she inadvertently inspired their choice of
name for the new venture: Kickers, Inc.
(Kickers, Inc#2) - Jack appeared with the others on Johnny
Carson's Tonight Show to publicly launch Kickers Inc, explaining that
they had a dedicated staff to help callers with more mundane concerns
such as whether a problem required a call to Social Security or the
Health Department, but that the main team might look into more offbeat
problems personally. The next morning, amid a slew of more normal
requests, the team got their first case, a report from a Mrs. Mirano in
the Bronx claiming that a robot had destroyed her garden. Investigating
the scene and asking around the neighborhood led the Kickers to suspect
this was gang related, though when Suicide and Wall managed to find one
of the gangs, the Broken Skulls, they were initially uncooperative. That
changed after the Skulls themselves were hit by the robot and called the
Kickers for help, informing them that the "monster" belonged to a rival
gang, the Fists. One of the Skulls led the Kickers to the Fists'
headquarters and while the others waited outside he showed Jack a secret
route inside, where they discovered an arsenal of weapons in excess of
what might be expected of a street gang. Jack decided they should inform
the FBI, but before he could leave he was discovered, learning from his
captors' conversation with each other that the Fists' leader, Fist, was
working with a terrorist called Amed with the intention of starting a
revolution using the street gangs. Fist ordered his gang to kill Jack,
but he easily threw off several gang members who piled on to him, and as
he began fighting the rest of the Kickers stormed in the building,
concerned Jack had been gone too long. When Jack leapt for Fist, the
gang leader shot him, and Jack discovered he was bulletproof in addition
to his other enhanced abilities. Then the gang's "robot" attacked,
turning out to be an experimental mini-tank. After a tough battle, Jack
disabled it with electricity. Fist and Amed escaped, blowing up their
headquarters behind them. Deciding telling the police about what had
really happened and their involvement in events might be problematic,
the Kickers hastily returned to their own headquarters before the
authorities arrived.
(Kickers, Inc#3 (fb) - BTS) - Jack continued to have growing doubts about whether he wanted to continue his football career, though thus far he only shared this with Darlene. The Smashers meanwhile arranged to hold a pre-season mini-camp at Westchester's Trace University during their summer trimester. While there...
(Kickers, Inc#3) - the Kickers were called in by Michael Courtney, who informed them of "witches" that showed up at nights in a nearby park. Investigating, the gang witnessed what appeared to be a demon worshiping cult led by a man in a goat mask, and when the goat-faced man suddenly threatened one of his followers, who turned out to be Courtney, for exposing their secrets, the Kickers moved in to save their informant. However the goat hit Jack with a thrown water balloon that burst, dousing him and Dasher with a foul-smelling liquid that caused them to hallucinate monsters, giving the miscreant time to escape. Taken to the local hospital, Courtney explained to the team that he was an assistant college professor at Trace University who had accepted an invitation extended by chemistry Professor Jordan to join a coven, figuring that it was just going to be some fun fooling around until the goat-faced "ceremonial magician" showed up, claiming he could lead them to real magic, and then seemingly summoning a demon to prove it. When a student in the coven committed suicide, Courtney had decided to call on the Kickers since they were already in the area.
At practice the next morning Jack was
chastised by Coach Kirby for not having signed his contract for the
upcoming season yet. Afterwards Jack visited Professor Jordan, hoping to
learn more about the coven's new leader, but he proved unwilling to
talk. Leaving the professor's lab Jack was approached by some
well-dressed Italian-American thugs who asked him to accompany him to
visit their boss. Despite the ominous undertones this engendered, Jack
agreed, confident he could handle things if they got violent. He was
taken to meet a Mafia crimelord, Don Salvatore Cannelloni, who revealed
he was the father of the boy who had killed himself. Cannelloni asked
Jack to find out the names of whoever had driven him to this, but Jack
refused, wanting the authorities to punish the miscreants rather than
letting the Mafia murder them. Cannelloni agreed that if the police
could handle the problem he would let them, and provided Jack with the
address of a warehouse where he believed the coven held ceremonies.
While Dasher and Suicide kept watch outside, Jack and Wall broke in,
discovering a sacrificial alter and account books that proved the coven
was extorting protection money from its members. However they were then
confronted by the goat-faced man who knocked them out with gas. Jack
woke to find himself chained to the alter and surrounded by the coven
members. As the leader was about to stab him, Dasher and Suicide
intervened, and Jack used the distraction to break his chains and
captured the goat, unmasking him as Professor Jordan. However the
miscreant pointed out he'd done nothing illegal, stating that he had
only used hallucinogens he had developed for the government on willing
subjects, and that if the Kickers tried to press assault charges for his
attacks on them personally, he would produce coven members as witnesses
to say they had attacked him first. Realizing the police could do
nothing, Jack and the Kickers left, but as he departed Jack spotted one
of Cannelloni's men waiting outside and directed his attention towards
Jordan. With Courtney informed of the hallucinogens he was able to
arrange proper medical treatment for those exposed and the coven
dissolved. Meanwhile Jack signed his new contract, wanting to know that
he had at least one area in his life where the people he was up against
were playing by the same rules as he was.
(Kickers, Inc#4) - With the new season starting soon Jack
began to worry what would be found if he was chosen for a random drug
test. Then, during a pre-season match against the Wreckers, a team known
for playing rough, Jack watched in horror as Wrecker linebacker "Ugly"
Mack Thornton deliberately tackled Smashers' rookie Hawkins after he had
made a touchdown, breaking Hawkins' spine. Watching Thornton and his
teammates laughing as Hawkins was being loaded into an ambulance, Jack
lost his temper and almost attacked Thornton before the referee stepped
in and ordered him out of the game. With confirmation that Hawkins was
going to be paralyzed from the waist down, Jack contemplated paying
Thornton back in kind when the Smashers played the Wreckers again on
opening day, though Darlene counseled against this, telling Jack he
would be committing murder. Around the same time Jack discovered the
Fists gang were still active when they left a doll in a Smashers uniform
and a knife sticking out of it hanging in his locker in the Smashers'
changing room, followed by a threatening call from Fist himself
promising he'd get a "present" that Sunday, the day of the rematch with
the Wreckers. Learning that Thorton had a wife and children, Jack
realized he really couldn't cause the rival player permanent harm
despite his bad actions, so instead he taunted Thornton to visit him in
the gym. With no witnesses around Jack began bending a string of heavy
metal dumbbells in front of the Wrecker to intimidate him, making it
clear just how easily Jack could kill him if he wanted to. A few days
later during the match Jack kept knocking Thornton to the ground with
thrown balls, blocks and tackles, keeping up the intimidation until
finally Thornton's nerve broke and he simply refused to get back up.
Jack then made the terrified man apologize to Hawkins, who was watching
the game from the sidelines, and promise to never play again. The
Smashers went on to win the game, but in the locker room afterwards Jack
found a gift basket in his locker, with an accompanying note telling him
to have a nice day, since he'd never know when it would be his last.
Realizing Fist was trying to psyche him out the way he had Thornton,
Jack decided he was made of sterner stuff.
(Kickers, Inc#5) - The Kickers were contacted by a group
of seven paranormals on the run from the Clinic for Paranormal Research,
a medical institute that they had approached for help with the powers
they had developed since the White Event only to realize it had more
sinister motives and had sent hunters after them when they tried to
leave. The Kickers met with these displaced paranormals in a Wisconsin
hotel, listened to their story, and agreed to try and help get the
Clinic's investigators to back off. The next day while Darlene stayed
with their clients the other Kickers visited the Clinic to deliver the
message, but the Clinic's manipulative head, Philip Nolan Voigt, spun
them a web a lies about how dangerous the abilities of the runaway
paranormals were to both themselves and others, claiming that the Clinic
was only trying to help. Unaware that Voigt's assistant Charne was using
his paranormal psychic powers to mentally manipulate them into accepting
these lies, the Kickers raced back to confront the runaways and
"protect" Darlene. As soon as they reached the campgrounds where the
paranormals were now staying the Kickers picked a fight, but Jack soon
discovered that one of the paranormals, Dave Landers, was far stronger
even than him. Darlene returned from a walk she had been taking with the
women in the group in time to see the rest of the Kickers already
defeated and Landers and Jack fighting, with Landers pounding on Jack
before finally knocking him out. One of the paranormals, Stephanie
Harrington, used her powers to heal Jack's injuries, and then the
paranormal group hastily fled, fearing the Clinic's hunters had been
alerted to their location. Listening to what Darlene had learned from
their former clients while he had been at the Clinic, Jack began to
question what he had been told by Voigt, and though they realized that
they might not otherwise be able to help the group, they visited
Stephanie's estranged husband who had been illegally denying her access
to her children, making it clear they would intervene if he continued to
do so.
(New Avengers I#16/2) - Having been left crippled by the
Mafia, Professor Jordan sought revenge against the Kickers, using an
accomplice to lure them to an apartment where he had rigged a pentagram
and seemingly using genuine magic (or incredibly realistic
hallucinations) to trap them in a demonic realm where they were
tormented by visions playing on their personal fears, such as Darlene
secretly preferring Jack as he was before becoming enhanced. A vision
(or the real spirit?) of a skeletal Coach Garner gave Jack a rallying
speech however, and he gathered the others to fight their way through
the demon guards back out of the pentagram gate. With their escape
Jordan and his accomplice were seemingly sucked into the demon realm in
the Kickers' place.
(Kickers, Inc#6) - Jack arranged with the Smashers' owner
Christine Chase to take a later flight than the rest of the team to St.
Louis so that he and Darlene could check out a UFO sighting in upstate
New York, but it proved a wasted trip. Racing back to the airport to
make his flight in time to make the game the team was due to play that
afternoon, Jack and Darlene began arguing, and when a tire blowout
caused the car to swerve Jack accidentally struck Darlene when he tried
to grab the spinning steering wheel. To make matters worse, while
attempting to repair the vehicle Jack kept misjudging his own strength
and breaking new parts of the car, and by the time they managed to set
off again the tension was extremely high between the couple. They ended
up lost, which Jack blamed on Darlene's map reading, and ran out of gas.
Jack ran the six miles to the nearest gas station, but by the time he
got back there was barely three hours to go before the kick off. As they
drove off, their high speed got the attention of a bike cop, but luckily
the patrolman was a Smashes fan and recognized Jack, so he and his
buddies arranged a police escort to get him through the traffic, at
least until they became stuck in a traffic jam with less than a mile to
La Guardia. With too many potential witnesses for Jack to run the
remaining distance the couple just had to wait for the traffic, and
finally reached the airport just in time to see Jack's flight lift off.
Seeing there was a flight an hour later that would, in theory, land half
an hour before the game began, Darlene booked them new tickets. On the
plane Jack caught the attention of an excitable child fan, Sally
Rothman, much to Darlene's amusement. However, while he was accompanying
her on a cockpit visit, an overstressed flight attendant, Susie, got
pushed too far by a string of annoying passengers and snapped. Pulling a
gun, she shot out a window, causing the cabin to depressurize, then she
shot the co-pilot and took over the cockpit, hijacking the plane. Using
Sally as a hostage, Susie prevented Jack from trying to stop her, and
directed the pilot to fly the plane to "Shangri-La." However, when it
became clear Susie was about to shoot the child anyway Jack made a leap
for the hijacker. She shot at him, but the bullet broke the skin and
drew blood before ricocheting off him to hit her in the throat, killing
her. Though he had saved the child and the plane, Jack was full of
remorse for indirectly killing Susie. Upon landing Jack had to answer
questions from the authorities, with a local cop who had bet on his home
team deliberately making sure to delay Jack as much as he could. Jack
finally reached the stadium with less than ten minutes left in the game,
and the irate coach nearly didn't let him play. However, with the
Smashers losing, Coach Kirby relented and put Jack on the field, but it
proved narrowly too late to recover, and the Smashers lost. Back at the
airport the investigators discounted Sally's claims that she'd seen
bullets bounce off Jack, and instead took his word that the bullet had
ricocheted off the bulkhead above him, at least until one, CIA agent
Scott Templar, found blood in the cockpit, confirming Jack had been hit.
(Kickers, Inc#12 (fb) - BTS) - Templar assigned a man,
Meyers, to monitor the Kickers and gather photographic and film evidence
on Jack. He covertly followed them through several of their subsequent
adventures.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Starbrand#1 - BTS) - Jack led the Smashers to victory in a game against Pittsburgh's Steelers, in a game that was watched on the television over the bar where Ken Connell, possessor of the Starbrand, was drinking.
(Kickers, Inc#7) - Jack began to find himself increasingly
uncoordinated during games thanks to being unable to properly estimate
his increasing strength. When Suicide broke contact while investigating
calls about a suspicious circus the other Kickers came to find him, and
discovered him a captive about to be murdered by the performers, who
were using the circus as a staging ground for committing robberies.
Spotting that Suicide had been locked in a cage with the circus' albino
lion Whitemane, Jack bent the bars to get in to rescue him, and when the
lion pounced Jack inadvertently broke its neck.
(Kickers, Inc#12 (fb) - BTS) - Meyers caught this on camera.
(Kickers, Inc#7) - Now more worried
than ever about his strength, and with the press beginning to speculate
about "Mr. Magnificent's secret" Jack did his best to exhaust himself
with a grueling work out just before his next match, but even with that
he badly hurt an opposing player when he stiff-armed the man out the
way. Learning after the match that his opponent had suffered a serious
neck injury that would require surgery and might cost him his career,
Jack decided to report himself to the Football Commission to undergo
voluntary testing.
(Kickers, Inc#8) - Claiming he was worried that the "mega
vitamins" his late brother had given him since college might count as
doping, Jack provided urine and blood samples, though the latter proved
tricky thanks his leathery skin breaking several needles before finally
getting the job done. However Darlene was not happy to learn that Jack
had gone to the commission without discussing it with her first, and she
chastised him for his general tendency to do things without thinking
first, and to avoid making his own decisions, instead running to the
nearest authority figures to hand off responsibility to them. Team owner
Christine Chase and Coach Kirby were similarly angry when they learned
Jack had gone to the commission and potentially might get himself
disqualified right before the Super Bowl. The tests proved inconclusive,
but there was enough concern over the apparent level of
"pseudo-steroids" in Jack's system for the commission to order a second
battery of more extensive tests, especially after Mack Thornton reported
his experiences with Jack to them; however, because of the delicate
timing with the Super Bowl imminent, the commission said he didn't have
to undergo the tests immediately if he didn't want to. Jack declined,
and taking Darlene's words to heart, he decided he would be a danger to
everyone around him until he got his abilities under control. Leaving
Darlene a note, he moved out, and then failed to show for the Super
Bowl, a rematch with the Smashers old foes the Wreckers, instead
watching incognito from the stands as his team narrowly lost. After the
game Jack went to the Football Commission to take their new tests.
(Kickers, Inc#9 (fb) - BTS) - While Jack waited for the results, the Commission suspended him.
(Kickers, Inc.#9) - At Chase's insistence the Kickers
attended a press conference she called, where thanks to her late arrival
Jack became the press' focus instead as muckraking reporter Arnie Beaker
tried to interrogate Jack about his "drug problem." However Chase then
arrived and shocked all present by announcing her intention to sell the
team to a group of investors in Los Angeles, who intended to relocate
the team there. Beaker wrote an article about this that inflamed the
fans, and a week later at the United Charities Banquet one particularly
angry fan tried to stab her. With his superior speed Jack managed to
block the attack, the knife breaking against his skin, but Jack emerging
unscathed only increased Beaker's suspicions that he was using drugs. By
way of a thanks, Chase agreed to answer Jack's question about why she
was selling the team, and she admitted she was doing so to pay off
gambling debts. Jack tried to change her mind, but she ignored his
appeals to her better nature. However, at the suggestion of her
boyfriend Len Darvin, she offered a wager, a public tennis match between
them with the fate of the Smashers as the prize, which Jack reluctantly
agreed to. The next day as Jack was practicing his tennis skills Darvin
approached him and made it clear that if he won Chase would kick him off
the team and ruin his reputation, but if he threw the match she'd ensure
he was promoted to coach. Sensing something was up, when Darvin left
Darlene asked Jack what he had said, and when Jack tried to hide the
truth from her she stormed off angry, noting that if he couldn't trust
her with the truth in this then she couldn't trust him with the future
of their relationship. When the tennis match finally came around, Chase
found that though she was the better, more experienced player, Jack's
speed and power more than made up for this, and Jack not only won, but
did so with a shut-out.
(Kickers, Inc#12 (fb) - BTS)
- Meyers photographed Jack during the match.
(Kickers, Inc.#9) - With the fans
cheering Jack for saving their team, Chase informed Jack she couldn't
fire him. Instead, she waited until he got home from the match, firing
him by a telegram that also informed him she was demanding the Football
Commission reassess the findings of the drug investigation. Watching him
receive this news from a distance, the gloating Chase vowed to herself
that she would make Jack pay for humiliating her, get his friends to
hate him and his wife to leave him, and make him come to her to seek
solace, at which point she would finally destroy him.
(Kickers, Inc#12 (fb) - BTS) - The Commission suspended Jack indefinitely from playing pro-football.
(Kickers, Inc#10) - Kickers were approached by Barbara
Diaz, purportedly the wife of a pilot running an import company whose
plane had been brought down by engine trouble near the Caribbean island
of San Leandro, where he and his co-pilot/business partner were now
being held for ransom by local despot Vargas. With the U.S. having
allegedly cut off all ties to the island since Vargas came to power in a
coup, Diaz had no one else to turn to other than the Kickers, so Jack
agreed to take up the rescue mission, insisting to the rest of the team
that he would handle the island incursion solo while they stayed safely
waiting off shore in their seaplane. Sneaking in and recovering the
drugged pilots from the comparatively lightly guarded building they were
being held in for interrogation proved easy for Jack, but he realized
his unconscious charges were wearing U.S. Airforce uniforms, proving
Diaz had lied to him. Hearing gunfire nearby, Jack hid the pilots to
investigate, and discovered that the other Kickers had ignored his
instructions and come ashore to help, only to be captured by Vargas
during his search for the escaped pilots. Returning to the camp where
the pilots had been held, Jack unsurprisingly found far more guards on
duty than before, so he drugged the base's water supply with
tranquilizers taken from its medical supplies, and then threw a box of
ammunition on a bonfire, so that the bullets began firing as they heated
up, providing a diversion to rescue his friends. As the Kickers made
their escape Jack disarmed another soldier who had captured the now
revived pilots, then with several more of Vargas' men closing in, had no
other choice but to open fire on them, though he deliberately aimed low
to hit their legs, hoping to avoid fatalities.
(Kickers, Inc#12 (fb) - BTS)
- Jack and the others were unaware that Meyers was hiding nearby,
again taking photos of Jack's exploits.
(Kickers, Inc#10) - As they reached
the beach they spotted more of Vargas' men in a patrol boat heading for
their seaplane. Witnessing the guerillas kill his plane's pilot and
prepare to shoot Darlene, Jack opened fire again, killing them. With a
second patrol boat fast approaching the Kickers and the Airforce pilots
hastily boarded the sea plane and took off, but as they rose higher Jack
spotted a strangely designed plane hidden under the water beneath camo
nets. He realized that the pilots had been on some sort of top-secret
government mission, and that when it went wrong they couldn't risk
direct action so had instead decided to use deniable civilians for the
rescue attempt. Attempts to get an honest answer out of the military
initially received a run-around, until the Pentagon finally agreed to
see Jack because one of the rescued pilot had noticed him scanning the
water and suspected he had spotted the downed jet, so they needed him to
tell them where their lost stealth bomber could be retrieved before the
Russians located it. Though he made it very clear how angry he was at
being manipulated and used, Jack did so.
(Kickers, Inc#11) - Jack remained angry about the
government's manipulation of them, and when the other Kickers learned
their janitor Benigno Feliciano was being blackmailed by threats against
his family made by the company he worked for, Saniserve, to smuggle
cocaine through the Kickers' building, Jack suspected they were being
manipulated again. Angrily disagreeing with the other Kickers, who
wanted to let the pick-up from their building go ahead in order to not
raise the smugglers' guard before Feliciano's family could be rescued,
Jack instead intercepted the vehicle collecting the latest cocaine
shipment from the Kickers' HQ, and once the police had charge of it, he
raced after the other Kickers as they headed to Feliciano's tenement in
Harlem, sure they were heading into a trap. This proved to be the case,
though only because of Jack's own actions, as the arrest of his delivery
driver had alerted the criminal using Saniserve as a front, Manny "the
Boss" Scampetti, and he confronted the other Kickers at Feliciano's
home. Luckily Jack arrived in time to stop Scampetti and his thugs from
killing anyone, and Jack admitted he'd been wrong about suspecting
Feliciano, and had been too full of self-pity to see straight.
(Kickers, Inc#12) - Unaware Scott Templar had a man
monitoring them, the Kickers got into a bar brawl with Canadian ice
hockey team the Alberta Icecutters and both sides got arrested. Bailed
out to find the press waiting, Icecutters' leader, Jacobs, called Jack
out, declaring him to not be a real sportsman, so Meyers, posing as a
reporter, suggested the face off in a charity showdown, a relay race
through northern Canada to raise money for a hospital. Though Jack was
more interested in hopefully finding Bigfoot, who had been frequently
sighted in the region, Darlene pushed the Kickers into accepting the
challenge. Throughout the race Meyers covertly sabotaged the Kickers,
creating challenges for them as a means of testing their abilities. Jack
started the final leg of the race with a sizeable lead thanks to his
teammates' efforts, but was decoyed off route by special effects
arranged by Templar and Meyers that fooled him into believing he was
having an encounter with both aliens from UFOs and Bigfoot, and as a
result lost the race, badly damaging the Kickers' already tarnished
reputation. Understandably, the other Kickers, including Darlene,
refused to believe Jack's excuse.
(D.P.7#21/2 (fb)) - Templar approached Jack and tried to
recruit him to work for the CIA, letting slip he had been behind sending
Jack to San Leandro, but Jack refused, stating that he didn't want to be
a killer for them or anyone else. To prevent the rest of the Kickers
being pulled into the CIA's machinations he left the group, and telling
Darlene that the CIA knew about his powers and wouldn't leave him alone
until the forced him to work for them, Jack instead decided to re-enlist
in the army, believing this would allow him to serve his country in his
own way and prevent the CIA getting their hands on him.
(D.P.7#21/2 (fb) - BTS) - The army told Jack that his powers had not come from his brother's intensifier, but that he was a paranormal. Because of his special powers, they decided Jack could be used as more than just a regular soldier, but instead be a symbol of America's fighting might, as the All-American...
(D.P.7#22 (fb) - BTS) - though his official rank was
Captain.
(D.P.7#21/2) - After completing training Jack went through
a final test, breaking into an Army facility and getting by several
armed guards.
(Starbrand#12 - BTS) - Around a month after Jack became
the All-American the city of Pittsburgh was wiped off the map by a
massive explosion of paranormal energies. Fearing this was caused by
enemy attack, the U.S.A. moved to a war footing.
(D.P.7#21) - As part of the army's rescue and
investigation operations Jack was sent to the outskirts of what was now
dubbed the Pitt. There he encountered two of the Clinic paranormals he
had met months prior, Dave Landers and Jeff Walters, both of whom had
been discovered badly injured near the Pitt and were now recovering in
army medical custody. He informed them that they could be charged with
trespassing in a restricted area in times of national emergency, but
offered to get the charges dropped if they enlisted. Jack explained that
several foreign terrorist groups had already claimed responsibility for
the disaster, and the President had responded by instituting the Draft;
suspecting the Pitt had been caused by foreign paranormals, they were
intending to assemble a paranormal army, with Jack assigned to be the
field commander of the First Paranormal Platoon.
(D.P.7#22)
- Jack checked with Lieutenant Keith Remsen, a.k.a. Nightmask, how his
dream therapy with Jeff Walters was going, as Walters had been suffering
severe mental issues because his entire family had died in the
Pittsburgh event. Remsen told Jack he would clear Walters as fit for
enlisting so long as he could continue the man's treatment at Fort
Benning, where the paranormal army was to be trained. Agreeing, Jack
then informed the paranormals they army had apprehended near the Pitt -
Landers, Walters and Gaylord Picaro (a.k.a. Pitt Bull) - that they were
going to be shipped to Fort Benning to undergo boot camp.
(The War#1) - Jack continued to oversee paranormal
training at Fort Benning, observing Private Vincent Sahno's exceptional
marksmanship in the firing range. Called to headquarters, he met his new
CEO, Major Kathi Blizzard, making an immediate bad impression as she
registered the costume he was wearing and ordered him to change
immediately to a regular army uniform. Once had done so Blizzard
informed him that the paranormal force had its first mission, tracking
down a Mozambican paranormal who had claimed responsibility for the Pitt
event. Blizzard also revealed she was able to communicate with Jack
telepathically, her paranormal ability, but he angrily told her to stay
out of his mind. After Jack introduced Blizzard to the platoon, the
members were given a short amount of leave in the nearby town before
setting off on their mission; as Blizzard anticipated, given that
several of them had been unwilling draftees, a number tried to use the
opportunity to go AWOL, but they were intercepted by senior soldiers
sent by Blizzard, with Jack personally stopping Sahno and Jacob Lao from
stealing a car to flee town. The point proven to the soldiers that they
couldn't get away, Blizzard telepathically told Jack he could return to
base, though she also had to chastise him when he momentarily thought to
himself how attractive she was, especially given how long it had been
since he had seen Darlene. The next morning the platoon flew out,
heading for Africa.
(The War#2) - After listening to Blizzard's briefing on
the flight, Jack tried to make conversation, and learned that Blizzard
automatically picked up the thoughts and feelings of anyone in her
vicinity. Jack told her that her power was a gift, not a curse, and to
trust him. The team landed in South Africa where they met their local
liaison, Colonel Oort, who greeted Jack warmly, but was visibly
stand-offish to the African American Blizzard. Later in private Blizzard
confirmed to Jack that Oort was hiding something from them, but that
until they knew more they had to focus on their mission to find and
eliminate the rogue paranormal.
Setting out into neighboring Mozambique, Jack
and the rest of the platoon watched from cover as platoon member Pretty
Boy, able to take on the illusory appearance of others, infiltrated a
rebel camp in the jungle, hunting for their target. However, back in
South Africa Blizzard spotted a prisoner in the South African camp who
was clearly their target, and realized Oort had duped them. She tried to
telepathically alert Jack, but was captured, and her telepathic distress
cry caused Pretty Boy to drop his disguise, exposing him to the rebels.
Pretty Boy was gunned down as he tried to flee despite covering fire
from Sahno, and after the platoon returned fire to pay the rebels back
for this, Jack ordered a retreat in the face of overwhelming odds.
Blizzard alerted Jack that nuclear-headed cruise missiles had been fired
towards their location. After Walters raced off to help Blizzard Jack
ordered the unit to do everything they could to stop the missiles,
personally hurling a tree at one as it passed overhead, though this did
no real damage. With the missiles flying, and others sure to retaliate,
it looked like World War III was imminent.
(The
War#3) - Unable to do anything now to stop the missiles, Jack and the
Platoon hid from their rebel pursuers while Jack contemplated what was
to come, expecting to die at any moment in a nuclear blast. When that
failed to happen (because unknown to anyone the Star Brand had disabled
all the warheads some time ago), he sent some of the platoon back to the
rebel camp to retrieve Pit Bull, who had stayed behind to cover their
retreat, while the others headed to the South African base, crossing the
Limpopo River to do so, which resulted in Jack having to fight off
several crocodiles that decided the soldiers were lunch. Reaching the
base, Jack initially approached openly, still as yet unaware that it had
been Oort who had fired the missiles, having faked the video of the
paranormal claiming responsibility for the Pitt to get the Americans
involved and intended to lay blame for the resulting devastation on
them. He and the others took cover, but spotted that the heavily-armed
rebels had just arrived and were clearly about to launch an attack. The
platoon members Jack had sent back to the rebel base arrived, and they
prepared a plan to extract Blizzard and Walters before they could be
killed in the crossfire between South Africans and rebels.
(The War#4) - With help from Oort's prisoner, the framed
paranormal Casey, Blizzard managed to re-establish telepathic contact
with Jack, allowing them to co-ordinate an escape and to commandeer a
plane, though Jack was shot in the back by some of the rebels during the
attempt with a high-enough caliber round to pierce even his dense flesh.
Reaching the plane they found Oort had gotten there first and was
holding Blizzard hostage. Though Casey killed Oort before he could harm
her, the South African had delayed them long enough for the plane to be
damaged by shots from approaching enemy forces, but then everyone's
weapons and equipment abruptly stopped working, as the Starchild (the
embodiment of the Star Brand's power) blocked all weapons worldwide.
With the entire world telepathically informed that his power had been
unintentionally responsible for the Pitt, and so now was preventing the
world descending into a war his power had inadvertently caused, Jack
ordered the platoon to ditch all their weapons. As soon as they did, the
plane began working again, and the Platoon were able to escape. Back in
the USA while healing from his wounds in the hospital Jack was reunited
with Darlene, and later he and the rest of the Platoon visited Blizzard
in her hospital bed to let her know that (barring Pretty Boy) they had
all survived their injuries and were on the mend.
(Quasar#56) - Some years later Skeletron, a menace from
Reality-616, threatened to destroy Jack's Earth in an attempt to seize
the power of the Starbrand. Learning of this, Nightmask summoned several
powerful paranormals, including Jack, to defend their world. Their
meeting was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an unconscious naked
woman, who, upon waking, identified herself as Kayla Ballantine, a
resident of Earth-616 and current wielder of the Starbrand.
(Starblast#4) - Another member of the group Nightmask had
gathered, Overshadow (the former head of the paranormal Clinic Jack had
met years earlier, Philip Voigt), checked Kayla's claim that Skeletron
was in orbit above their world and returned with Kayla's boyfriend, the
superhero Quasar. Using his powers Quasar transported the paranormals,
including Jack, up to Skeletron's ship, where they encountered another
group trying to stop Skeletron, heroes from Earth-616 gathered by the
Stranger. Believing the paranormals to be Skeletron's forces, they
attacked, with Jack battling the Slavic god Perun until the
misunderstanding was cleared up. The Stranger then shifted the entire
Earth of Reality-148611 to Reality-616 so he could study it, trapping
Skeletron back in Reality-148611 with no means of returning to his
native reality.
(Quasar#57) - Jack and the other paranormals found
themselves on the Stranger's laboratory world. They were unhappy at the
prospect of becoming the Stranger's specimens, but then the cosmic
entity known as the Living Tribunal intervened, sending them all back to
their Earth, and then isolating that world from the rest of Reality-616,
apparently forever.
(Marvel Comics 1001 (fb) - BTS) - Jack apparently returned to the Kickers (see comments).
(Marvel Comics 1001) - The Kickers met with a Hollywood
executive and tried unsuccessfully to pitch a range of movie concepts
starring them intended to make them the center of Marvel's next big
movie franchise (see comments).
Comments: Created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, with Sal Buscema.
Kickers, Inc, along with several other New
Universe characters, appear in a one-page story in Marvel Comics 1001,
where they pitch themselves in various scenarios to become the next big
Marvel movie project. However, while comedic tones do not generally
prevent a story being in continuity, I'm hesitant to say this tale is
set within the main New Universe continuity. New Universe stories didn't
have a sliding timescale and so were mostly set in the years they were
published. If it was set back during the original late 1980s run of the
Kicker's title then Marvel's only movie "franchise" was Howard the Duck;
even if you included TV movies (some of which did get theatrical
releases outside America) it would make zero sense thinking that
Hollywood might get excited at a pitch based on how successful those
movies had been. Marvel movies being any sort of financial hit really
didn't start becoming a thing until (at earliest) the late 1990s with
the Blade series, and it's really a 2010s phenomenon. Plus back during
the original run the characters present in the waiting room would also
be a problem, as they would have been highly unlikely to all be in the
same room in the early days of the New U when Jack was still working
with Kickers. As well as them being present, so is Nightmask (in costume
outside the dream world), Psi-Hawk (in costume and apparently minus
Psi-Force), Starbrand in his original costume, and the armored Spitfire.
In theory however you might make all this work if this is set years
after the last time we saw the New Universe, allowing for any number of
changes to the status quo we knew - with the New Universe Earth dragged
into Reality-616, Jack might have gone back to Kickers, Nightmask did
begin manifesting his costume outside of dreams in later stories,
Psi-Hawk might have somehow split from Psi-Force or might just be
someone dressed as him, someone new might be wearing the Spitfire armor,
and someone new could in theory be dressed up in Ken Connell's original
Starbrand outfit. But it takes a lot of assumed off-panel events to make
it work.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
All-American has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update#2, All-American
entry, taken from D.P.7#21/2, p6, pan4 (main, in All-American uniform)
Kickers, Inc.#1, p3, pan3 (prior to transformation, in football uniform)
Kickers, Inc.#1, p1, pan1 (in Kicker's Inc. uniform with rest of
Kickers)
The War#2, p11, pan2 (in combat uniform)
The War#3, p1, pan1 (with Paranormal Platoon)
Appearances:
Kicker's Inc#1 (November 1986) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz
(pencils), Sal Buscema (inks), Michael Higgins (editor)
Kicker's Inc#2 (December 1986) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz
(pencils), Brett Breeding (inks), Michael Higgins (editor)
Kicker's Inc#3 (January 1987) - Tom DeFalco (plot and partial script),
Jo Duffy (partial script), Ron Frenz (pencils), Brett Breeding and Sam
DeLarosa (inks), Michael Higgins (editor)
Kicker's Inc#4 (February 1987) - Tom DeFalco (plot), Terry Kavanagh
(script), Ron Altaville (assist), Howard Bender (layouts), Art Nichols
(finished art), Michael Higgins (editor)
Kicker's Inc#5 (March 1987) - Tom DeFalco (plot), Mark Gruenwald
(script), Paul Ryan (pencils), DeLaros and friends (inks), Michael
Higgins (editor)
Kicker's Inc#6-7 (April-May 1987) - Terry Kavanagh and Ron Altaville
(script), Rod Whigham (pencils), Tony DeZungia (inks), Michael Higgins
and Carl Potts (editors)
Kicker's Inc#8 (June 1987) - Terry Kavanagh and Ron Altaville (script),
Larry Alexander (pencils), Tony DeZungia (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Kicker's Inc#9 (July 1987) - Dwight Jon Zimmerman (writer), Alan
Kupperberg (layouts), Tony DeZungia (finishes), Carl Potts (editor)
Kicker's Inc#10 (August 1987) - Adam S. Blaustein (writer), Rod Whigham
(pencils), Tony DeZungia (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Kicker's Inc#11 (September 1987) - Dwight Zimmerman (writer), Larry
Alexander (pencils), Gerry Talaoc (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Kicker's Inc#12 (October 1987) - Terry Kavanagh and Ron Altaville
(script), Rod Whigham (pencils), Tony DeZungia (inks), Carl Potts
(editor)
D.P.7#21/2 (July 1988) - Howard Mackie (script, editor), Ron Frenz and
Joe Sinott (art)
D.P.7#22 (August 1988) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils),
Danny Bulanadi (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
The War#1-4 (June 1989-March 1990) - Doug Murray (writer), Tom Morgan
(art), Howard Mackie (editor)
Quasar#56 (March 1994) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), John Heebink
(breakdown artist), Aaron McClellan (finishes), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Starblast#4 (April 1994) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Kong, Palant, Butler
Jr (pencils), Don Hudson and Ernie Chan (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Quasar#57 (April 1994) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Peter Sanderson
(co-plotter), John Heebink (pencils), Aaron McClellan (inks), Mike
Rockwitz (editor)
New Avengers I#16/2 (April 2006) - Jeff Parker (writer), Juan Santacruz
(pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Untold Tales of the New Universe: Starbrand#1 (May 2006) - Jeff Parker
(writer), Javier Pulido (art), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Marvel Comics 1001/2 (November 2019) - The McElroys (writers), Ig Guara
(art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 10/26/2026
Last updated: 10/26/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright
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All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
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