• Home
• Site Updates
• Main Site

You grew up happily as the only child of David and Linda Curtis in Des Moines, Iowa. You were an okay student and were admitted to the University of Iowa. But, after two years, you decided university was not for you and dropped out. You worked at various odd jobs for a while, finally settling in as a salesman (and later manager) of Nova Electronics in Iowa City.

While at university, you became interested in theatre, especially the technical aspects. Between university and community theatre, you worked on everything from lights to sound to stage managing. Deciding the only way to break into professional theatre was to go to New York, you and a friend, Donna Kilkenny, who wanted to be an actress, packed your bags and headed east. You were driving down Interstate 90 in Ohio when everything went black. The next thing you knew, you and Donna were prisoners of the twisted Dr. DNA. You were to be the first of his super-powered army. What happened next had to be pieced together from police and newspaper reports and your own fuzzy memories.

Given control over crimson energy, you and Donna were brainwashed and sent to rob a bank under the watchful eye of Dr. DNA. But the brainwashing couldn't overcome Donna's stubborn streak, and when she was ordered to kill a bank guard, she hesitated then fired on DNA himself. Going berserk, he opened fire on her with a ray gun. Seeing Donna ripped apart freed you your own programming. You laced into DNA with your energy blasts. He went down and you raced to Donna's side, but it was too late. Donna was dead. Scooping up Dr. DNA, you turned yourself in to the local police. After an investigation and a psychiatric exam, you were cleared of any wrongdoing and resumed your trek to New York.

In New York, you landed a few jobs as a theatre tech, but without Donna, your heart wasn't in it. Taking the name Crimson Fist, you decided to become a costumed crimefighter. After a few months of solo action, you were approached by Challenger and asked to join the new SuperSquad America. You readily agreed and while you got along with most of the team, you sometimes felt you didn't live up to the powerful abilities you possessed. And, of course, there was Karen.

In August 2000, the team was in an alternate dimension where people's histories were altered. You saw a happy-go-lucky Karen who was never assaulted. It broke your heart when you had to help Karen accept her true history. You two began to date.

In July 2003, Karen sacrificed her powers and chunks of her memory to destroy the computers controlling a virtual reality world in which the team was trapped. When you all realized Karen's lost memories included the assault that triggered her powers, the Squad, as usual, began to debate what should be done. Karen was scared and lonely and wondering what the hell everyone was arguing about. With no team consensus in sight, you decided to just tell her. After all, she would find out somehow. Unfortunately, you weren't prepared for her reaction. She just sat there, stunned. And that look. The look that said she never wanted to see you again. You had failed her. And there was certainly no way the team was going to keep you around after this – you weren't that great of a hero to begin with. You decided there was only one thing to do. The team found your body three days later, an empty pill bottle beside it.

While you were dead, you created your own afterlife where you were a Tony-nominated producer as well as the leader of a SuperSquad America that included a superpowered Donna Kilkenny, the original Challenger, and other dead heroes. In June 2004, the real Squad showed up and helped you recall your life among the living. With those memories restored and assured that Karen loved you and that she and the team wanted you back, you decided to return to the living. Trying to leave brought the team face to face with the Guardian of the Afterlife, who did not to understand human emotions. Eventually, the Squad convinced him that the way to do was to live as a human and you and Karen volunteered to give birth to him as a twin to another child.

With Jerry Curtis dead, you needed a new identity, so with help from David Kennedy and EAGLES, you became Jackson Kirby. David also gave you a well-paying job as an electronics designer with Kennedy Industries and bought a great Manhattan condo for you and Karen. Your twin sons Michael and Jerry were born on March 15, 2005.

In September 2005 the Squad visited the Ukraine to stop Red Fury and his Soviet era dream machine which brought people's nightmares to life. Powering the machine was Red Fury's comatose father, the Soviet hero Champion, a frequent opponent of your father. You learned Champion was also Nightingale's father, making Red Fury her half-brother. The team freed Champion from his 24 year coma which was caused by Zyzzaxx, the first known alien, who got stuck in the Soviet hero's mind when he was sent to determine if his planet should invade Earth. After the Squad talked him into learning more about Earth before recommending its fate, all involved agreed to keep his existence secret. For his silence, Red Fury got a pardon and joined the Squad as Impact. And when Zyzzaxx had to merge with a human body to survive, he too joined as the Mysterious Mr. Z.

In the aftermath of that adventure, you proposed to Karen and she accepted. On your sons' first birthday, March 15, you two were with wed. As a happily married man, you, more than anyone, understood the pain that David felt when DeathGrip murdered his wife Dianne last September 18th. But Dianne was not just David's wife, she was Bernie's mother and the team's administrative assistant. David announced his retirement as Challenger; Bernie disappeared, determined to use time travel to get his mother back; and in many ways, the life went out of the team. You still fight crime, but something is definitely missing.

 

Note: This background is written in a second person style as it is the background provided to the player playing the character in the SuperSquad America event.