History
Vance Astrovik was born in Saugerties, New York. As a runaway, young Vance met the Thing, who helped him. Vance's latent mutant telekinesis powers were activated when his future self, Major Victory of the Guardians of the Galaxy, traveled back in time, and across realities, in an attempt to prevent Vance from becoming an astronaut and ending up in cryogenic suspension for a thousand years[1].
Shortly after, Vance joined a circus, where he performed a mind-reading act as "The Amazing Astrovic". Crossing paths again with the Thing, the two helped to take down the Taskmaster, who was using the circus as a front to train henchmen for the underworld.
At first, Vance did not have much control over his telekinetic powers, and would often give himself nosebleeds by straining himself too much. However, as the years went by, he developed his powers to the point that he could even fly by his own power.
The New Warriors
Justice
As Marvel Boy, Vance attempted to apply for membership to the Avengers. However, he was turned down by his idol, Captain America, on the grounds that he was too young and inexperienced to be a member. Night Thrasher, an armored vigilante who was building his own team, had been paying the hot dog vendor outside Avengers Mansion for information on who was coming in and out of the building. When he heard of Vance's attempt, he approached him and offered him a position on the team.
Vance met Firestar when Night Thrasher shanghaied her into joining the team. They started out as just friends, occasionally spending time together. After some time, their relationship became much more serious. When Angelica found out her microwave-based powers were making her sterile, it was a blow to the both of them, as they had both been tentatively considering future marriage. In fact, Angelica proposed to Vance and he accepted.
Time in Prison
New Costume
Vance's father, who as a child had been beaten for his homosexuality, grew up a bitter man. When he found out about Vance's mutant abilities, he turned on him the same way his own father had, calling him a "freak" and abusing him. Eventually, Vance lashed out at his father with a full-on telekinetic assault, accidentally killing him. Vance was found guilty of negligent homicide, and sent to the federal facility for super-humans known as the Vault. Vance served his time in due respect for the law, even helping out the prison Guardsmen during an uprising. When he came out of prison, he had a new outlook on life, and renamed himself the more mature Justice. Vance eventually took over New Warriors as the team's leader.
As an Avenger
After proving his leadership abilities with the Warriors, Vance and Firestar became involved in the Morgan Conquest when their teammate, the former Avenger Rage, was attacked by Morgan Le Fey's demons. Impressively, when the Avengers were all under Morgan's spell and believed themselves to be members of the Queen's Vengeance, Vance broke out of it when Captain America tried to draw out the "truest" and "strongest-believing" Avengers. Later, while the new team was being decided upon, Vance and Angel took the initiative and hunted down and arrested Whirlwind, who had eluded the Avengers. For these reasons, he and Angel were brought into the team as reservists.
Vance Astrovik and Angelica Jones: Teammates and More
After serving several missions, and feeling vastly inferior to be joining the same league as his idols, Vance was elected to full membership. Continually trying to prove himself, Justice eventually won over his insecurities during the Avengers' battle with the robot Ultron. He had researched the Avengers files, discovering a new means of defeating Ultron and using it to help the Avengers destroy him. After seeing the emotional turmoil Hank Pym and the Wasp went through in the battle, Vance finally began to regard the Avengers as people rather than icons and became more relaxed about working with the team.
Soon afterward, Vance announced his engagement with Firestar, and the two left active duty, presumably to explore their relationship. In reality, they were asked to secretly infiltrate the headquarters of the Triune Understanding, whose leader, Jonathan Tremont, was surreptitiously attacking the Avengers' public image for his own benefit. Vance and Firestar discovered the true cause of the Understanding-- using the beliefs of its members to sympathetically power a spaceship to battle a cosmic menace. They helped a contingent of Avengers join the battle against the menace, and directly afterwards helped the heroes keep the time-traveling Kang from conquering the world. After the crises were averted, they again parted company with the Avengers.
Vance broke off the engagement after realizing Angelica was too young to be married.[2]
Civil War and the Initiative
Justice and former teammate Rage learned that people were hunting down former New Warriors members because of perceived blame for the deaths caused by Nitro in Stamford, Connecticut while fighting an incarnation of the team. They both sought out the legal services of Jennifer Walters in protecting the allies of the New Warriors, as their identities were already publicly exposed. They eventually discovered that former New Warriors member Carlton LaFroyge, (Hindsight), was responsible for the persecution and exposure of their teammates, operating a website that was slowly outing the identities of the twenty or so remaining Warriors.
Both Rage and Justice refused to go along with the proposed super-human registration act. This is further evidenced when they joined Captain America's Secret Avengers after of the death of Bill Foster.
After the Civil War, Justice was recruited by Iron Man to head the youth outreach arm of The Initiative superhero training program, based at Camp Hammond. Vance was unaware of some of the shadier aspects of the program, and was growing increasingly irritated by the Initiative "Drill Sergeant" Gauntlet's constant demeaning and disparaging remarks about the deceased New Warriors. During this time, Vance secretly began seeing Ultra Girl, a trainee with the Initiative and former New Warriors associate.
Justice's personal investigation into the fate of Initiative recruit MVP opened his eyes to the morally ambiguous activities of the Initiative, instituted by Camp Hammond director Henry Peter Gyrich. As a result, Justice apparently deserted from the Initiative to continue his investigation, and recruited Ultra Girl, Rage and other former New Warriors Debrii and Slapstick to his cause. After a clone of MVP went rogue and left the Initiative with major casualties, Justice and these former New Warriors officially informed Iron Man of their intention to quit the Initiative and act as a form of independent oversight for the program; as the group were all registered super-humans, Iron Man was unable to act against Justice's team unless they committed an illegal act. However, Ultra Girl decided to return to the Initiative, apparently ending her relationship with Justice. He is currently traveling the country with Speedball.Attributes
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Powers
Telekinesis: generate a psychokinetic nimbus of energy and direct it to grasp his body or other objects and lift them into the air, apply pressure to matter so that it moves in any direction, or make the nimbus into a solid force field. Able to levitate and manipulate objects with his mind. By using his ability on himself, he is capable of flying with great speed and maneuverability, and can carry other people and masses aloft with him. In addition to more complex or subtle operations, he can channel his power into basic feats such as defensive screen or blasts of tremendous force.
Template:New Power GridAbilities
Weaknesses
Notes
- Formerly engaged to Firestar (Angelica Jones)
Trivia
- Justice is arguably one of the single most developed heroes, by way of powers, personal life, and costume design, in the Marvel Universe. He began as a teen runaway in the company of the Thing, became the hero Marvel Boy within the pages of the New Warriors, went to jail for killing his father, went through a complete redesign and change of character as Justice, got engaged to fellow hero Firestar, and joined the Avengers.
See Also
- 309 appearance(s) of Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 14 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 19 minor appearance(s) of Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 6 mention(s) of Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 12 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 121 image(s) of Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 13 quotation(s) by or about Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
- 1 victim(s) killed by Vance Astrovik (Earth-616)
Links and References
- New Warriors
- Firestar
- Justice at Wikipedia
- New Warriors Continuity Conundrum
- New Warriors Message Board
Recommended Readings
- The Thing Vol 1 # ??
- New Warriors Vol 1 #1-75
- Justice: Four Balance
- Avengers Vol 3 #1-28, 42-54
References
- ↑ Giant-Size Defenders #5
- ↑ (I (HEART) Marvel: Masked Intentions)
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 6
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