ROSE BERKLEYROSE BERKLEY
Real Name: Rose Berkley
Identity/Class: Human (see
comments)
Occupation: Homemaker, at least
Group Membership: None known
Affiliations: Paul, Phobos;
indirectly the Galactic Bounty
Hunters' 11th Squad (Garm, Skylla,
Tyr), Lena (all aided in Garrett's rescue)
Enemies: Bogey,
Drachen, Slugg
Known Relatives: Jack Berkley (Mainframe, husband),
Garrett Berkley (son), Brianna Berkley (daughter)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Berkley home, location
unrevealed
First Appearance: Jack
Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1 (July, 2006)
Powers/Abilities: Rose has no superhuman abilities.
She is a loving and supportive mother
and wife.
History:
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1 (fb) -
BTS) - Rose married Jack Berkley, an interstellar bounty hunter. When
their son, Garrett, was born, Jack retired to be a father and husband,
instead writing comic books loosely based on his past adventures. Jack
sealed off his base below their house and promised Rose that it would
stay sealed forever.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1) - Bringing Garrett his jacket, dropped off by Bob from the magic shop for use in the school talent show, Rose chided the now teenage Garrett for disrespecting his father, whom he now considered to be lame, writing "worthless funny books for kids." While not wanting to reveal the truth about her husband's past, she told Garrett that he didn't have a clue and that he was so hung up on his dad's vocation that he couldn't see what kind of man he truly was.
After a change of clothes and a spritz
of perfume to hide the tension within her, Rose went into Jack's office,
telling him she was tired of Garrett's lack of respect for him. As
Garrett had no idea of what Jack had given up for him, she commented
that she wished she could tell him the truth about Jack's past.
Reminding her that they couldn't do that, Jack suggested that it was
just a phase all youngsters went through and that Garrett didn't yet
understand that there was more to life than glamour and wild adventure.
He further advised her to give Garrett some time and that he was sure
that he would come around.
As they subsequently departed for a
book signing at a local comic shop, Jack told her that their fans alway
had a way of cheering her up. Accepting that he may be right, as they
got into the car, Rose added that it would be nice to get out for a
while and that she was feeling better already. As Rose drove away, Jack
thought that he saw something in the bushes (he did, it was the alien
Bogey who was sent to delay Jack's return so that his employer, Slugg,
could raid his home while he was away); however, when he brought this
up, Rose hadn't seen anything, and she suggested that it was probably
just the neighbor's cat. Jack reluctantly agreed, and they drove away
and forgot about it.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1 - BTS) - As Rose and Jack were at the signing at an unspecified comic shop owned by Paul, Bogey fired a laser that melted their tires.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1) - After the completion of the signing, Rose and Jack went outside and discovered the melted tires. Rose called AAA but found that they were backed up and that they would have to wait an hour before a tow truck could get there.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1 (fb) - BTS) - The living computer viruses Heebie and Jeebie hacked into the computer system of Phobos, the leader of the Galactic Bounty Hunters, from which they found the code to remote-start the long-unused computer in a secret base below the Berkley's house. The two then uploaded themselves into that base and then triggered the interstellar transporter of Jack's old enemy Slugg, bringing him there.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty
Hunters#1 - BTS) - Hearing noise from below his home, Garrett discovered
his father's secret base and encountered Slugg, who ultimately took
Garrett hostage as ransom demanded the files incriminating Ma Slugg in
exchange for Garrett's return.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1 (fb) - BTS) - After the repairs, as Jack and Rose returned home, Rose appreciated the concern on her husband's face (as he was concerned that his past life was coming back to haunt him).
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters#1) - When they arrived home, Rose planned to start dinner and suggested Jack check on the kids.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty
Hunters#1 - BTS) - Jack discovered the open portal to his base and found
the ransom note from Slugg.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty
Hunters#1) - After Jack didn't return, Rose found
the open portal to the basement. Recalling how Jack had promised it
would stay sealed, she was rightfully distressed and investigated,
finding that Brianna had already climbed down the ladder and watched as
her father revealed his identity as Mainframe while using his computer
to contact Phobos. Overhearing Jack tell Phobos how Slugg had kidnapped
Garrett, Rose was furious and confronted Jack, telling him that this was
all his fault. Jack assured her that he would get their son back. When
Phobos informed Jack that his 11th Squad had disbanded after he retired
but that he would send his current team, which was highly capable, Rose
asked Phobos if he was crazy and insisted that they would not be taking
chances with her son. At her query, Phobos confirmed that none of the
new teams were in the same league as Jack's 11th Squad, and Rose told
Jack that since there was no other solution, he should assemble his old
team immediately. Jack was pleased to have her approval, and Phobos
planned to send his 297th Squad to Dangerland while Jack assembled his
old squad.
Grabbing Mainframe's helmet from its storage dock, Rose shoved it into Jack's test and angrily told him to bring home her son before taking Brianna's hand and leading her back up the ladder to their home.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty
Hunters#2-5) - Jack recruited his old teammates and ultimately rescued
Garrett before returning home.
(Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty
Hunters#6) - Having tried to keep her mind off of her absent husband and
son, Rose was ecstatic when Brianna announced as Jack and Garrett
arrived via teleportation in his base. She reached the portal just as
Garrett climbed out, and she hugged him, thanking God that her baby was
alright and telling him that she had been worried sick about him. She
then told Jack she should not have insisted that he go, after all this
time, but he assured her that he always got his man and he always
returned to her. As Garrett tried to duck out to avoid their public
display of affection, Rose insisted he thank his father for the rescue,
but Jack told the reluctant Garrett that it was OK (he did thank his
father soon after). When Jack suggested they get some pizza, Rose took
Brianna upstairs to order it, but she told Jack that before it got
there, he wanted Jack and Garrett to shut down the power to the bunker
and seal it off permanently.
Agreeing that this was a good idea,
Jack went downstairs and did just that.
Comments: Created by Jack Kirby, Lisa Kirby, Michael Thibodeaux & Richard French under the creator-owned Icon imprint.
Rose Berkley is
named for Rosalind Kirby, Jack's wife. Jack Berkley, is, of course,
named for Jack "King" Kirby.
There are nice articles by and about Lisa Kirby and Michael Thibodeaux and how they discovered the art/ideas and
put together the series.
I initially considered basing Jack's height on Jack
Kirby, but that information isn't the easiest come by. For the Appendix
profile on Jack, we used a reference that he was 5'2", which is pretty
short. Jack Berkley wasn't shown to short...he could have been average
height or a little under, but 5'2" doesn't what we saw for the
character, unless everyone around him was short, too.
I think Garrett was supposed to be like 16-years-old.
I think something along those lines was discussed in the story, but I
couldn't find anything in a quick review. He was in high school and
presumably under 18-years-old.
Alternate Reality or
not? Probably, but not necessarily...
Pro:
The Icon series were creator-owned, but I don't know if any of them part of a collective universe...
Captain Victory appeared in this series. That character was created and owned by Jack Kirby for Pacific Comics.
Are there
other Kirby-creator-owned characters? Maybe there SHOULD be a Kirby-verse,
although it's certainly possible that Captain Victory in Jack
Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters (JKGBH for future reference) was an
alternate reality counterpart. I don't know Captain Victory at all, and
so I don't know whether his history/nature differs from the one in
JKGBH....
There are a number of other Kirby-creator-owned characters - a bunch of them got short lived titles published by Topps in the early 1990s, in what got dubbed the Kirbyverse. Satan's Six, TeenAgents, Secret City Saga, Captain Glory, NightGlider, and Victory. And they had a shared universe, which included Captain Victory.
However, Captain Victory was earlier published by Pacific; it didn't AFAIK cross over with any other Pacific titles, but I'm not sure if that Captain Victory was the one who later appeared in Topps or a multiversal variant thereof.
And then Dynamite launched a Kirby Genesis line in 2011 which does seem to be an out and out reboot. So I think we've definitely got at least two main Kirby realities (Topps and Dynamite's, similar to 616 and Ultimate if you like), maybe three or four (if Pacific and JKGBH count as their own versions). For the purpose of your profile it probably doesn't matter how many, since it only impacts Captain Victory in that series and he's not the focus of the profile.
Oh, and to confuse matters more, while I don't believe Captain Victory crossed over with any other Pacific characters, the TeenAgents published by Topps did have a guest appearance by Kurt Busiek's Liberty Project, who had been published by Eclipse and definitely didn't live in any Kirbyverse prior to that TeenAgents crossover. And Busiek intended them to be the "real" versions, not variants, so I guess some off-panel reality shenanigans had happened.
And there's one more Captain Victory variant who isn't in a Kirby
reality - Dynamite included him in their Legendary series, a steampunk
alternate reality tale which also featured the Six Million Dollar Man,
Green Hornet, Red Sonja, Vampirella and others. Basically they threw
together a bunch of their licensed properties.
--Loki
Snood again: OK, so if there's at least two versions of Captain Victory, I guess it's not mandatory that it was the same Captain Victory in JKGBH as the one in Pacific...although at the time the JKGBH story was written, the Dynamite reboot had not yet occurred...
Correct.
So if it wasn't intended to be a new version, then I'd ASSume the
Pacific and Topps versions are one and the same, and that's it's also
the same one in JKGBH. I guess I need to find time to read those series
to check for evidence for or against it just being the same version.
--Loki
Con:
Obviously Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters has nothing to do
with the MU, but neither did the Eternals initially.
If the series were locked into occurring in 2006, the sliding timescale already makes that pre-FF, and so it's not as much of a stretch, especially if the group's primary activity took place like 16 years before the main story.
So...probably an alternate reality, but I'm not going to be the one to
confirm it.
Now, the comics/stories written by Jack Berkley, they mirror an alternate reality for sure...
Earth-67138 Mirrors stories created by Jack Berkley based loosely on his true world adventures in the 11th Squad, although Mainframe in this reality was largely a cameraman, as opposed to being the leader of the group. Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters #1 (2006)
Jack Kirby's
Galactic Bounty Hunters#1 had a preview for Volume two "coming soon,"
but I don't believe it ever came out.
This profile was
completed 12/19/2025, but
its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th
anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Rose Berkley should be distinguished from:
First posted: 09/19/2026
Last updated: 12/19/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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