John Domeck (Cataclysmic Gerosha)

John William Domeck, a.k.a, "The Gray Champion," is the titular character of a series of stories in The Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics referred to as The Gray Champion: Modern Legends. John himself is a Marlquaanite, one assuming the identity of Nathaniel Hawthorne's character from Twice-Told Tales. His debut is in Dozerfleet's The Gray Champion: Freedom's Apparition, but his early life is also documented in A So-Called Heretic.

He returns in the fourth season of the Cataclysmic Gerosha series Sodality, as one of the rescued "Legends" whose recruitment to the Sodality of Gerosha significantly increases the superhero league's overall power and influence. John is the father of Margaret "Marge" Domeck-Ramirez, who goes by the superhero identity "Mapacha." He is also the widower of Katherine "Kicked Deer" Domeck. He becomes a grandfather-esque figure in the life of his sidekick Hea Pang, as well as beginning his superhero career in the 21st century as an ally of Dae Pang.

Powers
Flight and levitation are things Gray can do in moderation, though he is better at transmitting himself through electronic and radio signals. This gives him a "ghost-like" ability to climb inside of a TV screen in one part of the world and come out of a screen or camera on the other end. He can become invisible at will, or make select parts of him invisible or intangible at will. He even has an increased tolerance of extreme temperatures, preventing him from sweating too greatly on a hot summer day or freezing too soon on a cold winter's day.

Equipment
Gray's trusty weapon is a sword modeled after a museum model at Dae's history museum. It is a lightweight equivalent to a sword that may have been used in the days of George Washington. It's closest equivalent is the Hunting/War Sword model forged by John Bailey of Fishkill, New York.

His mask is a custom design, supposedly created by Hea Pang in her spare time. His hat is a short hat that is supposed to be a cross between a 20th-century businessman's hat and a Puritan hat similar to the one William Bradford may have worn. His gloves and boots are more modern in design, and are implied to be a rubber treatment process. However, the majority of his suit is not that different from a Confederacy general uniform. This is because while Puritan history would certainly be in Dae's museum, that doesn't mean that it'd be the sole focus. Due to the civil unrest outside, Gray had to assemble his costume in a hurry. He would have grabbed the most practical relics in sight for his costume, which would not necessarily have been relics exclusive to his original time period.

Weaknesses
While he may heal quickly and be able to phase through matter, Gray is not completely invincible. Marlquaanite prisons will place him in suspended animation just as easily as they will Extirpon or any other Marlquaanite. While he ages at a significantly slower rate than before, he does still gradually age and can eventually die of old age. If caught off-guard, he can still be shot or stabbed. It might not kill him, but wounds of that magnitude can temporarily disable him. His strength also seems to be amplified by his confidence with his surroundings; so he becomes a weaker fighter and has less focus the longer he spends time in venturing into unfamiliar territories. For this reason, he rarely leaves the greater area around Boston. He will, however, venture elsewhere briefly if the situation is dire enough and calls for it. However, Gray usually sticks to his mission of fighting street crime and standing up to local corruption. He leaves most of the globetrotting to Extirpon, and usually lets Pilltar worry about dealing with evildoers in the American Midwest.

Early life
John was born to Robert and Elizabeth Domeck in 1607, in Brentwood, England. Robert was an astronomer who had observed the Marlquaan and its activities, utilizing special equipment to do so. However, a lot of his fellow Marlquaan observers began to adopt a strange new cult-like faith. They spoke frequently of an "Icy Finger" of rule, and a new era. Robert would have no part of it. However, he had other problems. The Domecks were a non-denominational family with Lutheran sympathies, living in the time of King James I. With Robert's help, young John became aware of what were known as "Marlquaanite rubies." A good friend of Robert's was eventually killed by the son of one of Robert's old associates. The murder took place with John as a witness on the scene of the then-newly-established Caistor Grammar School. John chased after the murderer, who inexplicably "froze solid" the victim and shattered him. His detective work led John to discover an elaborate cabal, a secret society calling itself "the Icy Finger."

The Icy Finger's members begin committing random murders and acts of terrorism around England, with normal police baffled and the king in disbelief. John Domeck begins forming an underground resistance in 1631 to help his fellow Englishmen defeat the Icy Finger. He also allows his counter-society to know about the Marlquaanite rubies. Those rubies must all be collected, and then buried where the Icy Finger cannot find them. However, this mission proves more difficult than John thought.

A So-Called Heretic
Main article: A So-Called Heretic

Cult leader named Samuel Fortin takes over control of the Icy Finger and tells his followers who didn't already know of an event in which the Marlquaan struck several rubies. They decide to look for the Beamer's Ruby; one that, if guided, can give or take away Marlquaan bonds to whomever the wielder wishes. Samuel's right-hand man, Eric Sylvester, warns that their Society of the Icy Finger isn't alone in knowledge of all things pertaining to the Marlquaan. He warns them that a certain John Domeck has been keeping them in mind. Samuel assures Eric that there is no need to fear John Domeck.

John finds himself in prison for refusing to affiliate with the Church of England. He explains to the warden that Samuel and his followers mean to overthrow the monarchy and establish an Icy World Order. The warden doesn't take the threat seriously, until John points out the window. Theresa Welling, a maiden serving the visiting Duchess of Saxony during her stay in London, comes under attack from Samuel Fortin while in possession of the Handler's Ruby. One's bond to the Marlquaan, as John explains, is only secured under the Handler's Ruby so long as the powered individual is physically holding the ruby. Being separated from it takes that power away. The warden accuses John of being "a heretic of the worst kind," and of "meddling in a devilry like none the world has seen before." John argues back that if Marlquaanite powers fall into the wrong hands, they may very well be used for devilry. And for that reason, he intends to retrieve the Handler's Ruby and return it to its rightful owner - Miles Wealthington of Oxfordshire. The warden mocks John, but fails to notice that he has dropped the keys.

The warden goes off to use the bathroom, and John seizes the distraction to escape from prison. He immediately flees amidst the shadows, finding a black-cloth mask and heading straight for Samuel. He catches up with Samuel, who is about to kill Theresa. A battle ensues; and John manages to secure the ruby. Samuel ends up falling to his death. Theresa offers to have her rescuer rewarded, but he reminds her he is a wanted man - a so-called "heretic," for knowing too much about the Marlquaan and refusing to be part of the Church of England. He vanishes with the ruby, whom he then returns to the rightful owner. He warns Miles to flee to America with him, so that the Society cannot use it a second time. Miles agrees.

Several years later, Eric Sylvester is seen with several other Society members stalking a squaw whose tribe they had just obliterated. That squaw happens to be Kicked Deer. John arrives and, in spite warning himself not to be tempted to use the Handler's Ruby, uses it to save Kicked Deer's life. Kicked Deer quickly falls in love with John, and the two of them get married. They begin discussing their knowledge of the Society and its ambitions with the local minister. He seems reluctant at first to take John seriously, until John shows him the Handler's Ruby. Rev. George Spellingworth decides that the ruby should be buried beneath the church's foundations, ruling that it is evil.

However, John's insistence that the Marlquaan is real rubs many other colonists the wrong way. Suspicions arise that he and Kicked Deer are secretly practicing witchcraft. However, nobody can substantiate anything. A few more years pass, and John has become a neighborhood watch. Kicked Deer, going by "Katherine Domeck," begins selling her Indian braid designs and becoming a schoolteacher. She teaches children about both English and her own tribe's histories. The Marlquaan controversy appears to be in the past.

That's when a man named Jordan Smithson arrives in town. John expresses to his captain concerns that Jordan, eccentric from the beginning, might be a member of the Society. The concerns are ignored. Before anyone knows it, various murders begin to happen. John once again dons his mask to find out who is behind the murders. He suspects Jordan, but Jordan slips through his fingers. He leaves John a threatening letter, stating that he will always be one step ahead.

John tries to have Jordan arrested immediately, but Jordan vanishes. Rumors and whispers begin to resume that the Domecks are witches, until young Margaret is sent home from school for getting in a fight to avenge her mother's honor. John warns the families whose children tormented his daughter that they are giving the Society exactly what it wants, as Jordan and the Society continue to sow seeds of discontent. John finds himself removed forcibly from his position after warning the town that Jordan and the Society are using them for evil.

John and his family retreat into the woods to regroup. However, the Society manages to gain an upperhand in town politics, turning the town against the Domecks. The minister's attempts to find John end in failure when Society members catch up to him and reclaim the Handler's Ruby. They use its power to find and capture John and his family. Kicked Deer is executed, while John and Margaret watch helplessly. Father and daughter are sent to the beach, where the Society and its followers in town prepare to execute them. However, they capture a young boy named Robert Boyde. Robert was one of many who tormented Margaret in school on allegations of witchcraft. However, he overhears a conversation between John and Jordan that convinces him that John was telling the truth. He is immediately spotted by a Society member while hiding behind a tree, and is killed in front of Margaret as he apologizes to her. While dying, Robert prays for a miracle.

That miracle soon arrives. Some 400 years later, billionaire scientist Dereck Johnson generates a Marlquaan storm in his company's lab. It goes disastrously wrong, to the point of instigating a synchronized Marlquaan storm 400 years in the past. Right as Jordan and company are about to run John and Margaret through with spears, a bolt of red lightning strikes that area. The Handler's Ruby is destroyed, and Jordan along with several of his cohorts are found incinerated on the beach. John and Margaret are nowhere to be found. A friend of the preacher's notes that the so-called "heretic" John often spoke of a Roman slave named Lord Zeras, who was similarly struck by Marlquaanite lightning - and then lived to tell about it after arriving on the scene again some time later. A small number of surviving Society members retreat, noting the words.

They vow amongst each other that the Society would make as one of its goals the discovery of where - and when - John Domeck would reappear. They also wonder what happened to the Beamer's Ruby, not aware that it has now become Hester's locket after falling into the safekeeping of a young Hester Prynne.

Freedom's Apparition
Main article: The Gray Champion: Freedom's Apparition

In the 21st century, billionaire Dereck Johnson conducts a scientific demonstration from one of his own business buildings of the Marlquaan; by forcing it down to Earth. The experiment goes wrong, and in a huge blast, several attending are killed. Others vanish, and several others around the globe become bonded with it, becoming known as "Marlquaanites." These beings gain seemingly supernatural abilities. One of John's spokesmen vanishes into the 17th century, and is killed shortly after arrival. John Domeck and his daughter, however, end up in the 21st century&mdash;separated from each other. John immediately believes that he is the only survivor. He ends up wandering the streets of Boston, feeling like Rip Van Winkle. His daughter, however, ends up being adopted by a Cuban family.

Boston teenager Hea Pang and her mother Dae, rescue John and take him into their home. The mother-daughter duo are curators for a local museum, and have studied up on Puritan history. When Dae traces her way back through her deceased husband's genealogy, she discovers that the American side of Joo-Chan's ancestry actually traces back to John's brother Peter.

However, Dereck Johnson has been transformed into the hideous Eqquibus. One of his plans involved sponsoring an event on a school day which would force schoolchildren to receive injections for a recently-discovered STD. Parents would be denied both a choice and an opt-out right. Dae and Hea vow to put a stop to it, and take part in a demonstration in public. However, Dereck pays off the local police to harass demonstrators.

When Johnson's inside man, police captain Eric Andro, decides to go ahead and order violence and arrests of all teenagers among the demonstrating crowd; John Domeck decides that he's had enough. He borrows a mask, sword, Puritan hat, cape, blue gloves, blue boots, and a Confederacy outfit from the museum and heads out in public to confront the corrupt officer. Their confrontation is short, because Johnson calls in his helicopters to make war on the demonstrators. John Domeck retaliates by destroying the helicopters, which leads to a direct confrontation between him and Eqquibus. He gets Dae and Hea out harm's way, then continues battling Eqquibus until forcing him to retreat. Eqquibus vows that the war has only begun.

Dae and Hea soon set to work, allowing John to have numerous spare costumes so that he no longer has to borrow museum props, and rumor begins flying around town that Hawthorne's "Gray Champion" had returned. This leads to Eqquibus declaring all-out war on the Gray Champion, even as John is still getting used to the role. Meanwhile, Dae and Hea educate John about what it means to have taken on the Gray Champion's mantle.

Gray soon makes a career out of protecting Boston (and the US by extension) from acts of both domestic tyranny and acts of terror from outside. He also learns of other Marlquaanites, the weaknesses of a Marlquaanite, and how to cope in a world filled with them and the dangers they pose.

Chillingworth's Revenge
Main article: The Gray Champion: Chillingworth's Revenge

Almost a full two years later, Gray goes back and forth between his hideout in a church belfry and living with Hea and her young daughter Tabitha Pang. However, the Society of the Icy Finger has made one of its goals be to find out which part of the time stream John has fallen out of, and use their resources to launch an attack. It is revealed that Hester's locket, the gold necklace worn by Hester Prynne containing the Beamer's Ruby, is still out there. If activated, the locket and ruby combination could give or take away an individual's bond to the Marlquaan.

The Icy Finger as it stood in the 17th century was threatened by John's operations. An early Marlquaanite, Roger Chillingworth, made pursuit of the ruby one of his goals in life (along with getting revenge on his estranged wife and her lover.) However, Dimmesdale's public confession and Hester's panicked reaction in public activated the locket and robbed Chillingworth of his Marlquann bond. Despondent that he could no longer freeze his victims solid, he retreated into the forests and was soon not to be heard from ever again. Hawthorne was careful to airbrush the Marlquaan and ruby out of his narrative for The Scarlet Letter, to avoid drawing undue attention to himself from the Icy Finger. The Icy Finger learned of Chillingworth's defeat, and blamed John Domeck for everything. They vowed revenge. But after learning of the Marlquaanite storm that transported him through the time stream, they vowed they would not rest until John's new time period was identified and John was destroyed. Adding to the complications, John has learned that his daughter Margaret is now living in Miami; and was being raised to adulthood by immigrants from Cuba. She had taken a job in fashion modeling, a job which John could not comprehend.

A member of the Icy Finger, Miles Charleston, begins putting the puzzle pieces together and figures out that Hea Pang is an accomplice to the Gray Champion. Miles murders Dae Pang, and assembles his own Champion outfit to battle Gray. It doesn't take too long before he learns that Gray and John Domeck are the same man; and then makes it his goal in life to hunt down and kill the Gray Champion.

John and Hea travel with Tabitha and the Medsors to Miami to find Marge and get her help in defeating Miles, who has become the new Chillingworth. Nearly losing his life and his daughter's, he finally vanquishes Chillingworth with help from Hea. Hea acquires Hester's locket from the Ramirez family, and uses it to turn the tide of battle in the heroes' favor over the skyline of Miami. John decides to let Margaret live her life with her adoptive parents, while he returns with Hea and her in-laws to Boston.

Abolition
Main article: Abolition

When the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Beliah tries to outlaw all Marlquaanites and Phexos, Gray becomes a target. He and Hea are forced to band together with Extirpon, Ciem, Navyrope, Pilltar, Mukade, Meerkat, Dolly, and even the Sapphire King for survival. He and Navyrope end up forming one faction of the resistance. However, it is with Mukade and Miriam Flippo's help that he is able to rescue Beliah's daughter and win the president to the heroes' side. His sword ends up blocking a bullet that would have been used in an attempt on the president's life.

Enemies
Gray's primary archnemesis in the beginning is Eqquibus, though he also does battle with street criminals and sometimes targeted by corrupt politicians and other authority figures who feel threatened by him. Middle Eastern terrorists have put him on their hit list also, however, due to his occasional interference in their activities. Judge Terry Beliah is on of Gray's most dangerous enemies though, as Beliah was actually able to turn the whole government against Gray at one point. When Gray and Hea Pang have to fight their good fight without Dea's help, their enemies gain an ally in the form of a sociopathic Marlquaanite that can freeze his enemies solid. This new villain, Miles Charleston, adopts the moniker of "Chillingworth;" after Roger Chillingworth from Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

Personality
Gray is a man of tremendous curiosity, but he is also very skeptical of his surroundings. His 17th-century morals and mannerisms make him confusing to 21st-century Bostonians. Other than with Hea, he most of the time prefers not to socialize with anyone. He feels that he has an obligation as the Gray Champion to remain fairly reclusive, always present yet hidden. His favorite haunt when not at the museum (or around Hea) is a church belfry. He does have an attitude of mistrust about most modern music. However, he doesn't question Hea's decision that the lyrics to "Freedom Fighter" by Creed describe him quite well.

Development of character
Gray was perceived in more or less the form he has now ever since the fall of 2001. In that year, the Dozerfleet founder was taking American Literature class at Holt Lutheran High School (called St. Matthew Lutheran High at the time.) The instructor, Traci Backus, had the class read The Gray Champion as a part of a class assignment.

This was followed up by everyone in class getting to write their own short stories about "the Champion's return." Everyone's take was a little different, but some were cheap knock-offs of The Patriot. The Dozerfleet founder's initial short story on this subject matter may not have survived to the present day, but it was the first depiction to indicate that the apparition's appearance had been updated slightly. It was also the first incarnation to introduce the black mask with rectangular jewel eyepieces. In this short story, the Champion's role was a tiny bit more active than in Hawthorne's tale.

The character soon evolved into a movie premise by the beginning of 2002, in which Gray would be a ghost trapped in the Marlquaan and forced to battle until his spirit could be freed. Hea was known as Heeshwa, given the Dozerfleet founder's lack of exposure to anything genuinely Korean at the time. The first story was going to involve a hypnotic, green-cloaked monster from Saudi Arabia named "Verdabbin" that Gray had to protect his friends and loved ones from. The decision to replace Verdabbin with Eqquibus came after the Dozerfleet founder watched Spider-Man in theaters. Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin became the inspiration for a newer, more fleshed-out and more personable villain. From there, pictures of horses and one of an incubus that featured on Google Images inspired the idea of a man who was merged with a horse and an incubus.

The need to have Gray become a human being bonded with the Marlquaan instead of a spirit trapped in it was the result of a need to 1)make the character more vulnerable and 2) make the Marlquaan's nature more universal and applicable to other characters. A lot of this change was necessitated by a decision to merge Gray's mythology into the Gerosha universe, where it needed to share space with The Meshalutian Trilogy and Ciem. In Classic Gerosha, there was an attempt to make the Gerosha universe even more inclusive, which resulted in the inclusion of Volkonir and the Grillitan Diner. There were even plans, ultimately rejected, to fuse The Bison and his mythology into Classic Gerosha.

In Comprehensive Gerosha, Gray's mythology would end up being refined even further. "Heeshwa Pwong" became Hea Pang, and her unnamed mother was named Dae Pang. Eqquibus would become slightly more clever and use cheap lines less often. Gray's first superhero tale was going to simply be called Gray Champion, after the Hawthorne story. However, it soon became obvious that a more distinct title was needed. That added distinction came on September 28th of 2011, when the Dozerfleet founder watched a YouTube video featuring footage from the trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. It suddenly became obvious that a subtitle on that order was needed. Since the novel adaptation of Ciem became Ciem: Vigilante Centipede, Gray's first story in Dozerfleet was renamed The Gray Champion: Freedom's Apparition.