Chief Brian Spearing

Chief Brian Spearing

Created by Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Real Name:  Brian Spears

Alias:  Brian Spearing

Current Occupation:  Orange City Police Chief

Parents:  Unknown

Siblings:  Karate Spears, Charles Spearing Senior

Spouse:  Paulette Spearing

Children:  Charles Spearing Junior (adopted)

Group Affiliation:  Orange City Police Department

Place of Birth:  Earth-K

Current Place of Residence:  Orange City

First Appearance:  Super Comics # 23, September 1981

Biography:

Brian Spears was born on an alternate Earth where the mightiest warriors were chosen to rule the planet.  His oldest brother, Karate, had become such a ruler.  His other brother, Charles, was equally as bloodthirsty.  Brian was odd in that he was humane and believed in justice.  He couldn't stand the world he lived in.  And he feared for the infant son of his brother Charles, to be brought up in this world.

Their Earth may have been more savage, but it was also more technologically advanced.  Brian used a device only for use by the highest of officials to scan into alternate realities.  He found an alternate Earth that seemed a utopia to him.  And he witnessed a man abducting his child, escaping from a distant planet, and bringing him to Earth, where they changed their names and began new lives.  (This was in fact Michael Bossman aka Robert Kowalski and his son Christopher.)  This inspired Brian, who abducted Charles Junior and used their experimental teleportation device to travel to this other Earth, destroying the device behind him.

Brian changed his last name to Spearing, and claimed young Charlie to be his own child.  He met and married a woman named Paulette and managed to get a job as a police officer in Orange City.  (How he obtained such things as birth certificates and social security numbers is unknown, but this was in the pre-digital age.)

He turned out to be one of the best cops in the force, and within less than a decade had become the chief of police for the entire city.  Meanwhile, he had moved his family to live on the same street as that family he had observed back on his homeworld.  His Charlie and Christopher had become good friends and classmates.  And even though Spearing knew Chris was an alien (something he kept to himself), he was not aware that Chris had become the urban legend called Super-Bob.

However, it was very shortly after Super-Bob began operating in the city and after Obie Planters had tried to blow up the city that Brian found himself meeting Super-Bob.  Super-Bob wanted Chief Spearing to know that he was real and on the side of the law.  He presented Spearing with a special communication device that could be used to contact Super-Bob at any time, via his super computer VIC-20.  From that point on, the two had developed a close professional relationship.

In 1982, Karate Spears discovered this other Earth, but the newly built teleportation devise was not as good as the original, and the only way for Spears to travel was to switch places with someone with very similar genetics.  It so happened, Charlie Spearing was the match, and was transported to Earth-K every time that Karate Spears visited Earth-B.  When Karate Spears returned to his world, Charlie would be transported home.

By 1991, Spearing had become police commissioner.  Two years later, the city was atomized.  Millions were killed by a death ray controlled by Powerman's greatest foes.  Charlie and Paulette were killed, but Brian had been in the underground armory and survived.

For 10 years the city was uninhabitable, and Spearing's activities during that time are unknown. But when the city was rebuilt in 2001, Spearing was asked back to be the police chief, which he accepted, and he continues to hold that position to this day.

Comments:

Chief Spearing was inspired by an amalgamation of two real people from my childhood.  One was the father of a neighborhood friend, and the other a police officer in my home town.

Of course, the character holds the usual position required in any super-hero fiction of the one cop who can contact the hero.

However, the fact that he comes from an alternate Earth so different than ours makes him a little more unique than your average Commissioner Gordon or Inspector Henderson.

Karate Spears

Karate Spears

Created by Chuck Spears

Real Name:  Karate Spears

Alias:  Interstellar Ninja

Current Occupation:  Mercenary

Parents:  Unnamed

Siblings:  Charles Spearing Senior, Brian Spearing

Spouse:  None

Children:  None

Group Affiliation:  Powerkid Haters, Bad Guys

Place of Birth:  Earth-K

Current Place of Residence:  Orange City

First Appearance:  Powerkid # 1, September 1982

Biography:

In an alternate reality, life on Earth had evolved differently, in a warrior culture where only the mightiest warriors ruled.  In the late 20th century, Karate Spears was that warrior ruler.  However, Spears grew bored with no challenges to his rule, and sought to find one elsewhere.

Despite being a very uncivilized world, they were much more technologically advanced, and Karate Spears used a device that allowed him to view alternate Earths to find a challenge.  He came across the universe of Powerkid, and found Powerkid to be a worthy opponent.

To that end, he came to Orange City and found Powerkid, and began attacking him.  Powerkid and Karate Spears at first seemed evenly matched, but it turned out that Powerkid began weakening because Spears was using a power draining device called Apple Crisp on the hero.

Mustering the last of his energy, Powerkid fled.  Karate Spears had given Powerkid the clue on who to seek out for aid.  When Spears revealed he was from another Earth, this let Powerkid know that he multiverse was real, just like in his comics.  He had previously used the Forbidden Forest as a portal to travel through time and to other weird dimensions, so likely he could do so to travel to alternate Earths, and he did just that.

In the meantime, Spears gloated over his victory, and threatened to keep destroying the city until Powerkid returned to face his demise.  But Spears didn't have to wait too long when both a red and a blue streak came towards him, and Spears found himself toppled over by both Powerkid and Superman!!!  (Even though there was two Supermen in the Wronskiverse at this time, they operated in secret and Powerkid was not aware of their existence, thus he traveled to another reality to get their Superman.)

The two defeated the villain, who teleported back to his own world.

Humiliated, Spears had to redeem himself (especially since on his world, weakness was surely a sign that he was unfit to rule and easy to kill.)  Over the next few years, Spears constantly tried to kill Powerkid and failed each time.  Eventually, he became a constant foe of Zap and the Powerkid Police as well.  Karate Spears eventually found it in his best interest to form a lasting alliance with Doctor Deadly, the evil ageless ruler of Death Planet.  He also joined a team of Powerkid's greatest foes called the Powerkid Haters.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, everything changed.  The wave of antimattter and the environmental damage were combining to tear Karate Spears' Earth apart, and only with the aid of Powerkid was it saved, when Powerkid actually moved the planet out of that doomed reality and into an orbit between Death Planet and Booer.  Overcome by the generosity of a hero who he's tried to kill dozens of times, Spears redefined in his mind what makes a warrior, and vowed that his world, renamed Kearth, would never do harm to Powerkid or Earth ever again.

That would be Spears' undoing.  One of Spears' top aids, General Leers, was able to convince the public that their leader's newfound outlook was weakness, and toppled the government and assumed control.  Leers did not slay Spears, however, as Spears still had a large following, and instead locked him away in a dungeon.

Eventually Leers himself was killed and replaced by Spearon, and a decade passed with Spears locked away, until he eventually escaped and fled to Earth, where he began operating as a super-hero called the Interstellar Ninja.  A few years later, a mutant named Adam took over the Earth, and aliens were all deported, including Spears.  Spears recently returned to Earth, and joined a team of mercenaries that consisted of reformed super villains called the Bad Guys.  He currently works this this team going around the world helping people in need.

Comments:

Karate Spears has the distinction of being the first Powerkid foe, and replaced the Lightning Kid as Powerkid's primary foe.  The character was created by my then neighbor Chuck Spears.  He was creatively involved in almost all Karate Spears stories from 1982 - 1985.

Ironically, as my friendship with Chuck was ending, I did the reverse for the characters.  Karate Spears' final appearance was in 1985's The Crisis Within, until I brought him back in 1994 in the Powerman series.  Karate Spears appeared a few times as the Interstellar Ninja between 1994 - 1995, then again stopped appearing until 2008 when he was brought back in Crisis, and is now a team member of the Bad Guys, which is published monthly.

The Bad Guys

The Bad Guys

Created by Robert E. Wronski, Jr.

Members:

Michael Bossman

The Trapster

Karate Spears

Krusher

Man-Killer

Kitten Girl

First Appearance:  The Bad Guys # 1 (May 2009)

During the Crisis of 2008 - 2009, many super-villains were resurrected by the New Power, though in the end, the New Power was defeated.  But the many villains were free on Earth.

Michael Bossman, a former enemy of his son Chris Kowalski aka Powerman, recruited a team of Powerman's former foes, all of whom like him had reformed.  This team became a covert team secretly funded by Bossman Enterprises, travelling the world helping people in need.

Recently, the Bad Guys found that their leader, Michael Bossman, was really a member of the inner council of the New Power, and had formed the Bad Guys in a ploy to make them his mind controlled minions, a plot that failed.  Bossman went into hiding, and the team was left in a situation where they head to decide where to go now, with their formation a ruse, their leader a villain, and their funding in question.

The team decided that regardless of how they got together, the work they do is what matters, as they continue on the road to redemption.  The Trapster, who had already been the field leader, took leadership of the team.  Shortly after, their funding was resolved as Michelle Wrigley took control of Bossman Enterprises, learned of the Bad Guys, and decided to continue funding their missions.

Comments:

The Bad Guys was one of the Super Explosion titles following Crisis.  All the members were former Powerkid/Powerman rogues who had previously reformed.

Michael Bossman first appeared in Super Bob stories in 1979 as a supporting character/sidekick.  He became an enemy of the Unknown and Detective Lebane starting in 1982, then became a Powerkid foe starting in 1984.  He reformed in 2007, though as I've mentioned, it was just a ruse.

The Trapster was an enemy of Powerkid, the Unknown, Detective Lebane, and Doctor Mystery starting in 1982.  He reformed as revealed in 2008, and was given the job of head of security for Bossman Enterprises.

Karate Spears first appeared as a foe of Powerkid in 1982.  However, when Powerkid saved his home world in 1985, the villain turned over a new leaf.  This caused the people of his world to overthrow him, now that he was considered weak, and he was imprisoned for years, until 1994 when he escaped and came to Earth, operating as a super hero under the new identity of the Interstellar Ninja.  But in 2008, he (and I) realized how stupid that name was and he returned to his original one (given to him by his creator, Chuck Spears).

The Krusher first became an enemy of Powerkid and the Powerkid Police in 1984.  For years, the heroes would stop him by giving him amnesia, but eventually that stopped working.  In 2001, though, Krusher finally gained power over his power madness, and reformed.

Man-Killer was the quickest to reform.  She first became a foe of Powerkid in 1982, but a few months later, she repented and joined the Powerkid Police.  She actually died in 1990, but was resurrected by the New Power during the Crisis.

Finally, Kitten Girl first became a foe of Super Bob in 1980, later becoming a foe of the Unknown and Detective Lebane.  Eventually, she repented and joined the Powerkid Police.  She was vaporized along with all of Orange City in 1992 by a team of villains.  She was resurrected by the New Power during the Crisis as well.

The team's adventures are sort of inspired by the Suicide Squad and the A-Team.  And it's fun to write because all of these characters bring me back to my childhood.