Justice

Origin

Since a young age John Tensen had a firm and unshakeable moral code and stance on right and wrong and had only one ambition: to be a hero. He grew up with few friends, due to an instance wherein he beat up a bunch of classmates for offering him drugs, but was lucky enough to meet a woman called Irene whom he married and had a daughter named Angela with. After putting himself through college while Irene supported him and their daughter, Tensen quickly got a job as an investigator for the Justice Department's Narcotics Division. Tensen's incorruptible nature meant he quickly rose the ranks and made a lot of enemies. Eventually, this took it's toll when a carbomb meant for him killed his wife, Irene.

Following his wife's death, Tensen was sent into deep undercover to bust Daedalus Darquill, a corporate giant who was suspected of major drug trafficking. Darquill was actually a superhuman with the ability to generate illusions and shape reality with his dreams. Tensen became involved in Darquill's fantasy world and developed powers of his own. The ability to shoot offensive blasts our of one hand and defensive blasts out of the other as well as being able to see the pureness of people's auras and whether they were good or bad. Using his new found powers, Tensen became a "Justice-Warrior" and sought to use his powers to right wrongs.

Creation

Justice was created by Archie Goodwin and first appeared in Justice #1 in 1986.

Character Evolution

The original story of Justice, involving the fantasy realm, was a great area of contention within Marvel. It was felt that the fantasy elements of Justice's origin detracted greatly from the initial concept and it was soon decided to rid Justice entirely of the fantasy-oriented storyline and allow Justice to continue doing the vigilante thing he's always done with zero emphasis on these elements. By the 13th issue, there was no more mention of Darquill or the dream realm and Tensen even got a new haircut and costume to distance from the original origin.

Major Story Arcs

Tensen returned to Earth, after having spent a great deal of time in Darquill's fantasy realm, and could no longer tell which was reality and which was fantasy. He sought revenge on Darquill for what he had caused and with the help of Nightmask learnt of Darquill's powers and the nature of the dream world. Tensen then slew Darquill as he slept as a horrified Nightmask watched on.

Using his powers, Tensen began to seek out those who he could see were evil and execute them for their crimes. He also devoted a great deal of time to killing those with superpowers who he saw as abusing them. Unbeknownst to him, he was secretly being supported by corrupt Government agents who saw him as doing their own dirty work free of charge.

Cosmic Battles

Falling into disuse with the end of his own series, Justice made further appearances fighting alongside Quasar and the Avengers against the Stranger in Starblast. Not long afterwards he was among various heroes of the multiverse battling against power-mad Thanatos. In the latter conflict, Justice was renamed the Net Prophet citing the Prophecy of Thor, although in actual fact, he was presumably renamed simply to avoid confusion with Justice from the New Warriors.

World Tour

For more information see: World Tour

When the mutant Proteus was looking for the perfect host body, after having killed Mimic by using up all his body's energy, Proteus next possessed the body of John Tensen (again calling himself Justice and wearing his original costume). Proteus aspired to a more powerful host and was using Tensen mainly as a stop-gap between bodies as he searched for someone more powerful.

It wasn't long before the Exiles arrived to fight the Proteus-possessed Tensen and after an unsuccessful skirmish, the team called upon Tensen's ally Nightmask to help them subdue Proteus from within. Nightmask travelled into Proteus' dreams where Proteus quickly deduced the Exiles plans and tore out Nightmask's heart. After Longshot arrived to assist the Exiles in battling Proteus, Proteus fled with Tensen's body to seek a new host.

Proteus now had his eyes set on a Hulk and with the help of Jordan Boone located John Eisenhart a Hollywood producer who was such. The Exiles again arrived to attempt to foil Proteus' plot but they were too late as Proteus had already left Tensen's body and was now housed within Eisenhart's hulked out form. As Proteus began an assault on the Exiles in his new body, Tensen's body was left behind and whether or not he survived the possession was not seen.

Powers and Abilities

As Justice, Tensen's main power was his energy blasts which by his own admission had a lot more potential than his limited use of them. The basics of his powers were he could use his right hand to fire offensive blasts of energy of varying sizes and intensity and his left hand generated energy that could be used for defensive measures - most commonly a shield. Although, they could be used for a lot more such as the offensive blasts being used to create energy knives or the defensive blasts creating platforms for Tensen to walk on. Tensen could only use one of his hands at a time and could not simultaneously use both energy blasts. it was also shown that with great concentration he could eventually fire offensive blasts from his left hand and presumably under similar circumstances defensive blasts from his right.

Tensen's other major power was the ability to see people's auras. He could tell if people were good, evil or superhuman from this. Depending on the extent of their goodness or evil, their auras could be seen from miles away. Tensen could also detect those with abilities that would otherwise obscure them from ordinary vision.

Tensen displayed other powers that were not often seen - again due to his lack of exploration of his own powers. Tensen could fire concussive optic blasts of concentrated energy similar to the X-Men's Cyclops and Tensen was also seen as being able to teleport himself and others when required by warping space around him. Both these skills were rarely used as Tensen's only real goal was executing those who he saw as bad.