Star Brand: New Universe #1

When Ken Connell rides through the Laurel Mountains, a chance encounter with the enigmatic Old Man changes everything—he’s marked with the Star Brand, a mysterious tattoo that grants him superhuman strength, flight, and near-invulnerability. Soon after, an alien assailant arrives, drawn to the power of the brand, forcing Connell to test his new abilities in a fight for survival.

In "Taking Charge!", Ken Connell steps into the spotlight as he races to save a boy trapped in a well in Kingston, New York—only to be outpaced by the sudden arrival of Spitfire, who dives into the depths to rescue the child. When a cruise ship is seized by terrorists wielding a nuclear device, Connell joins the fray, using his abilities to avert catastrophe by submerging the detonated weapon in the ocean’s depths. As the dust settles, he confronts Spitfire and the Troubleshooters at their base, warning them about the risks of their methods—before the full consequences of their choices unfold.

In "Close Encounter," Ken Connell—still grappling with the weight of his powers—flies to the moon and leaves his mark before returning to Earth to intercept Soviet planes over Afghanistan. The next day, drawn by a mysterious classified ad, he meets Jo, a university student who claims to be there to study him, but whose true intentions remain unclear.

In "The Fight!", Ken Connell finds himself caught between two women—Debbie and Barbara—while grappling with a growing unease about his own choices. When he attempts to confront President Reagan on the White House lawn, hesitation stops him cold. Later, after being overwhelmed by three escaped paranormals—Mr. Lovejoy, Mrs. Kaminski, and Deanie—he wakes to face his own vulnerability, left shaken by how easily he was bested.

In "Crossing the Line," university student Jo tries to reach out to Ken Connell through the classifieds, unaware she’s drawing the attention of Libyan spies using the campus as a cover. When Connell tracks them down, he’s forced to act—first alerting the authorities, then taking matters into his own hands by striking a military base in Libya. Back home, his attempts to navigate a complicated personal life with Debbie and Barbara lead to emotional confrontations that leave him rethinking what it means to stay connected.

In "Destruction!", Ken Connell visits Jenny in prison, where she warns him of dangers lurking within the M.A.X. armor’s power pack. As the Troubleshooters move to reclaim the suit from police custody, Connell must act fast when a malfunction threatens to kill Giotti—hurling the power pack into the sky to prevent disaster. Meanwhile, a recovering Steel Hawk receives a new mission from the Club: assassinate the UK Prime Minister during a visit to Boston.

In "Dead Duck!", Ken Connell, newly empowered as the Star Brand bearer, finds himself caught between a mysterious Old Man who claims to be an alien and a desperate mission to join an interstellar war. When the Old Man’s true intentions begin to unravel—especially after he harms Debbie to manipulate Ken—Ken must decide whether to trust the man or protect the people he’s come to care about, leading to a fight that rockets from Earth into the void of space.

In "The Reckoning!", Ken Connell races to protect Debbie after tracking the sun back to Earth, only to face betrayal and escalating danger as the Old Man demands the Star Brand. With Barbara’s final goodbye echoing, Connell must confront the Old Man’s threat head-on—before it’s too late.

In "The Brand of a Hero," Ken confronts the consequences of his power when he encounters Tad Selby, a sickly teenager grappling with the fallout of a local company’s toxic waste dumping. As Ken reveals the truth behind the star brand, he’s forced to act when the pollution threatens to spiral out of control—leading to a moment that tests his resolve and the weight of his responsibility.

In "Where Walks the True Believer!", Ken Connell grapples with haunting nightmares after Tad Selby’s funeral, leading him to a sleep therapy clinic run by Dr. Lucian Ballad. There, therapist Keith Remsen—unbeknownst to Ken—uses his Nightmask abilities to guide Connell through the dreamscape, where Connell envisions himself as a superhero with Tad as his sidekick. As Remsen helps Connell confront his guilt over Tad’s death, the line between therapy and the surreal begins to blur.

In "Intimate Enemies," Ken’s visit to his friend Tony Kraft in Zurich takes a deadly turn when he’s ambushed by hired assassins—only to discover they’re secretly working to turn him in to Interpol. After surviving the attack by burying the men in an avalanche, Ken reveals his powers to Tony’s girlfriend, Ariane Poirot, and becomes her reluctant protector as Interpol closes in. When Ariane rejects Ken’s methods and leaves, he returns to America, only to learn the next day that she’s been killed—her death blamed on terrorists.

In "Enemies," Randy Kellog, the invulnerable and unstoppable Gladiator, wages a relentless war against the USSR, his super-dense form shrugging off every conventional and nuclear assault. When Ken Connell, a fellow paranormal and former soldier, tries to stop him—fearing global catastrophe—the two are forced into a brutal clash that ends not in death, but in exile.