Captain Venus

  aka Kim Kastle

Prowess 7*/4 Coordination 7*/4 Strength 8*/5 Intellect 4 Awareness 5 Willpower 5

Stamina 13*/10 Determination 1

Powers ''' Alter Ego 1 - *When summoned, Captain Venus' power suit provides life support, invulnerability, and enhances her already formidable physical attributes. The jet pack and ray gun are linked to the Power Suit and summoned at the same time. '''

Jet Pack*: Flight 8 Ray Gun*: Blast 5

Specialties Acrobatics Martial Arts

Qualities Motivation: Triumph over adversity Motivation: Defeat would-be world conquerors

Challenges The Enmity of Hyper Man Bad Luck: Life Tinged with Tragedy

Background

First Appearance: Star Comics #1, May 1958 First Modern Appearance: Secret Guardians (v1) #1, October 1981

The life of Captain Venus has been tainted with tragedy. Orphaned as a young teen, Kim Kastle grew up on the streets with no relatives that she knew of. She worked odd jobs and begged for scraps to survive. During a stint as a bike messenger, she encountered a strange man who offered her a new job - that of guardian of humanity. Based on her experiences on the street, she concluded that the man was delusional and accepted his offer for fear of enraging him.

It turned out he was an alien wizard representing the interstellar V'Nus Corps. He provided her with the uniform of the corps, complete with jet pack and ray gun, and marked her left wrist with the symbol of the corps, a circle with a lighting bolt descending from its base. By pressing the symbol, she could summon and dismiss the uniform at will. As Captain Venus, she fought crime and injustice for nearly seven years. During the time, she found her long-missing sister, only to lose her again when the Neo-Khan Empire made its bid for world conquest. Captain Venus fought valiantly, but like the other heroes of her world she was ultimately defeated. In March of 1965, she was captured, had her access to her V'Nus Corps equipment blocked (she believed at the time it was destroyed), and was imprisoned.

For over sixteen years, Kim Kastle, known only as prisoner KK-11920125, worked in the Neo-Khan labor camps. She watched in frustration, unable to help the only family she had ever truly known, the V'Nus Corps, as they were destroyed by Neo-Khan forces during an attempt to free the earth. She found some peace when she fell in love with another prisoner, only to have that peace shattered when he was killed during an explosion during a failed escape attempt.

Finally, in October 1981 (Secret Guardians #1), she was contacted by Paul Manhattan (prisoner PM-13113812) to join a resistance force. Kim was hesitant, but when he helped her regain access to the last remaining V'Nus Corps uniform, she agreed. Over the next few months, Captain Venus and Mr. Manhattan gathered other allies, forging the clandestine group known as the Secret Guardians.

Ultimately, in an attempt to free their from the control of the Neo-Khan Empire, the Secret Guardians raided a scientific bunker to use experimental equipment to jump dimensions and gain allies from our earth. When they first arrived, they were mistaken for villains by the Guardian Corps. While the confusion was ultimately cleared up, the bad feelings from the initial battle between Captain Venus and Hyper Man has left a seemingly permanent antagonism between the two heroes.

With the help of the Guardian Corps, the Secret Guardians ultimately freed their world, but at a great cost. As a result, Captain Venus, Mr. Manhattan, and the rest of the Secret Guardians were banished from their world, unable ever to return. Today, Captain Venus serves with the rest of the Secret Guardians as a proactive interventionary agency, constantly seeking to prevent their new world from being conquered by any force, seemingly benevolent or otherwise.

Kim Kastle's formidable physical attributes when she is not Captain Venus are due to her time growing up on the streets and working in the Neo-Khan labor camps.

Art by Menotroph.