The OrigIn of Bulletman (Nickel Comics #1)

Every origin story of a hero begins with key elements necessary for the reader to invest their time and interest in the character. First, there has to be motivation for why he or she is pursuing this course. Second, explaining what distinguishes this featurered character from others surrounding them. And third, build upon the character by providing them compelling challenges they must face.

Jim Barr was son of Pat Barr, an official killed in the line of duty. However, the boy focused during his formative years towards intellectual pursuits instead of physical ones, meaning that as an adult Jim failed the officer exam. However, as he was well known as a ballistics expert, Jim was invited to take a different exam, which proved his mental acumen to be a police scientist.

At the station he was assigned, Barr was relentlessly teased by the patrolmen and officers he helped assist on cases. Even his boss Sgt. Kent showed him no mercy in this regard, although Kent's daughter Susan saw something special in the criminologist.

Determined to empower himself to qualify as a cop like his father, Jim ingested a serum of his own creation which was designed to flush impurities from the body in criminals. The next morning, he found his own body had grown substantially, gaining tremendous strength while discovering his mental facilities had also been heightened

This led to his next creation, which would define his costumed career to come. The Gravity Regulator Helmet, which allowed him to not only defy gravity but to propel its wearer through the air at high velocities. For this, the police lab tech nicknamed Bullet became the Bulletman.

And the timing could not have been better, as a crime boss named Blackmask kidnapped Susan and her father in a political play for power, whereby the gangster could install his own people in the police. Bulletman tracked down the Kents, freed them, and gaining notoriety as well.

Curiously, the local newspaper offered a reward of $1000.00 to anyone with a picture of the flying hero, which Barr secretly provided them with a stipulation to pay the policeman's fund. Hopefully, his picture wasn't a close up, as Bulletman wasn't wearing a mask. Nor would he during his subsequent exploits, which appearemtly was a fashion choice he didn't need as no one recognized that Barr and Bulletman were one in the same. Even Susan, his soon to be steady girlfriend, nor her father. Does the helmet regulate not only gravity but the perception of others? Apparently so, although the official explanation was that Jim wore an oversized lab coat at work to disguise his physique. Yeah, um sure.

A regular feature as we dissect Bulletman's history are the following categories:

• Bullet Buddies: While not the only supporting cast he would have, Susan Kent and Sgt. Kent would be the most important people in Jim's life. As his girlfriend/cheerleader and boss/tormentor, the two would continue to interact with both Barr and Bulletman, never connecting the two.

• Rocketing Romance: Definite signs of interest from Miss Kent, as a groupy of Jim's. As for Mr. Barr, nothing as of yet. Still to focused on his life's passion in police work. Will he allow room for two?

• Bedeviling Bulletman: Blackmask is a fairly generic masked felon, although his hoods have access to am impressive net that stuns its captives, as it has done to Susan and the Sarge. Newspaper publisher Stephen Doone will return a few more times as his masked alias, becoming Bulletman's first recurring nemesis.

• Powerful Projectile: Gaining near superhuman strength with a mind to match from a homemade serum is impressive. What's more so is constructing a Gravity Regulator Helmet from scrap pieces of equipment in his lab. What kind of lab was that, to have such awesome items that assemble into a state or the art wingless flight mechanism? Perhaps it is in part due to the wacky physiques of Bulletman's Earth-S, where he is later revealed as living on. The helmet with have new features revealed overtime, while Jim's physical might is downplayed over time.

• Fawcett Facts: Jim bares a resemblance to the previously debuting Jay Garrick aka the Flash of Earth-Two. Both are police scientists, both have their bodies modified to superhuman levels by chemicals, both streak at swift speeds to and fro, and each is clad with stylish helmets. They would meet decades later, although their counterparts on each other's world were different.

How will Jim continue to masquerade as a weak technician? How will Bulletman continue to strike terror in the hearts of criminals? How will his relationship with Susan progress? Check back to find out.