Characteristic

Cost

END

Cost

18

-2

3

3

3

3

3

3

0

3

3

3

3

11

17

-10

3

3

3

15

15

20

20

15

20

15

15

15

Bernie Whitman was one of the earliest American super heroes, first appearing in the Spring of 1955 as Captain Comet after being endowed with superhuman abilities by the fictitious Baker's Comet. The Baker's Comet was actually an early Skellarian scout vessel which had been damaged on its long journey to Earth, and in the final moments before it crashed into the sun, the crew attempted to convert themselves into a computer code and send themselves o the nearest inhabited planet, hopefully to be restored to their original forms.

What happened was completely unpredicted. The beam of alien encrypted code shot directly into the head of astronomer Bernie Whitman, the compressed alien life essence reacting with his dormant ubergene to transform him into Captain Comet. The Skellarian crew would never be recovered, although it would be another twenty years before the Baker's Comet was discovered to have been an alien vessel in the first place.

Whitman ventured into the new superheroic era with strong morals and a dream to bring about democracy to the world. He fought valiantly within America for nearly a decade before vanishing in the Nevada Desert after a battle with the Dust Devil. It was 1964. Whitman left behind a wife, Celia, and two sons, Kane and Max.

In 2004, Whitman returned to Earth.

It was revealed that he had been kidnapped by the Skellarian Empire which initially hoped to extract any residual memories of the original Skellarian crew which had empowered Whitman. The extractions had failed and it was determined that the crew had not been able to succeed in the transfer. So Whitman was put in stasis where he stayed for forty years until he was involved in a 'break out' orchestrated by a band of alien raiders. While most of the prisoners banded together to oppose the Skellarians, Whitman returned to Earth where he hoped to continue his life as before.

When he arrived home he realised that his wife was now in her seventies and he had teenaged great-grandchildren. He moved to Washington D.C. to live with his wife and began working with NASA, who are aware of his dual identities. The relationship with Celia is beginning to strain, and she has begun to drink heavily, unable to cope with his return and his relative youth. Whitman seems unable to deal with her new state either but tends to ignore it and treats their relationship as being 'just like it always was'.

When he realised that the world still needed heroes he steeled himself to lead a new generation of defenders. Inspired by his old team mate, Jason (who currently lives in retirement in Orlando), he organised the Argonauts and based the team in the Argus City, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas.

In recent times Captain Comet has assisted the Sentinels with Skellarian-related investigations and he is almost certain that the Skellarians had established a scout base on the planet... somewhere.

Captain Comet is able to generate a protective propulsion field around his body which enables him to fly and supersonic speeds as well as protect him from injury. The field also increases his stamina and reaction speed, almost as if his field allows him to operate slightly out of synch with the world around him. With the involvement of the Skellarians in the development of his powers it is hypothesised that his powers operate in a similar method to Skellarian space travel.

Bernie Whitman is a clean-cut man with white hair and piercing blue eyes. He appears to be in his thirties, although he is nearing 76. He tends to wear clothes that would have been popular in the 1950s, although in the modern era he is sometimes forced to buy conservative clothing of a nondescript design. Generally he doesn't worry too much about clothing.

As Captain Comet, his costume has only slightly changed over the years. Originally he wore a yellow skintight costume with blue trunks, boots and gloves, topped off with a brown leather mask and goggles. Since returning to Earth and forming the Argonauts, Captain Comet has succumbed to modern hero design. His costume is still predominantly yellow and blue, but the whole suit has more of a hardened onepiece bodysuit feel to it. The goggles are also of advanced technology and enable him a level of nightvision.