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History

Speed Carter resided on Earth-5391, a universe where advancements in space travel and exploration boomed in the late 20th Century. His origins and background are unknown. By the year 2075 he was captain of the Space Sentinels peacekeeping force, a group devoted to intergalactic peace. There he met and started a romance with the Colonel Stone's daughter Stellar Stone. He befriended and often worked with young cadet Johnny Day and had a playful rivalry with Lieutenant Crash Morgan.

Speed Carter (Earth-5391) from Spaceman Vol 1 1 0002
In his earliest recorded mission, Speed and Johnny were attacked by the Blobs an alien race of space pirates. When Johnny was captured to keep the Space Sentinels away, Speed asked permission to lead a rescue mission and was denied. Pretending to go on vacation, Speed went after Johnny anyway and learned that the Blobs were working in secret with the evil Saturnians. With the help of Crash, Speed managed to rescue Johnny and cripple their operation. Speed and Johnny were later captured on patrol by the Starmen, who sought to steal a fleet of space craft for criminal purposes. Speed and Johnny freed the other captured Space Sentinels and destroyed the Starmen's giant space ship ruining their plans. Speed and Johnny were next caught in the middle of a Saturnian attempt to steal plans for a disintegration ray, using both a human spy and having a Saturnian agent murder the United Planets dignitary from Mars and take his place. Speed quickly exposed the plot before the Saturnians could succeed[1]. Speed next came to the rescue of Stellar who had been captured by renegade members of the Birdmen of Uranus. Defeating the Birdmen and freeing Stellar, Speed also rescued Captain Kondor, a dignitary from Uranus who came seeking membership in the United Planets. Later, while exploring the planet Haydes, Speed and Johnny were captured by the Half-Men of mad scientist Professor Alfred Kurt, who also sought to transform Speed and Johnny into Half-Men as well. Speed managed to escape with the help of Kurt's daughter and Kurt ended up being the victim of his own experiment. Split into two halfs a good half and bad half, the good Kurt slew his evil counterpart and surrendered to Carter. Shorty thereafter all the Space Sentinels were called to determine why the sun was moving out of orbit. Speed and Johnny's ship discovered a fleet of Saturnians being attacked by Lizardmen. Investigating they found that the Lizardmen were stealing the sun to heat their home asteroid after the Saturnians denied them to share it. Speed and Johnny came to the Saturnians rescued and offered to allow the Lizardmen to stay in Earth's solar system, ending the crisis. In apparent retaliation, the Saturnians targeted Speed and Johnny's ship later when they constructed a massive robot to destroy the Space Sentinels. However Speed and Johnny managed to break free from captivity and destroy the robot before it could be used further[2].

Speed and the other Space Sentinels were then deployed to deal with reanimated skeletons that were coming from the Ghoul Planet. There, Speed, Crash and Johnny discovered space pirates that were using a machine to bring the dead back to life and destroyed it. Returning to Earth, Speed and the others were shocked to find the planet was being attacked from below the surface. Travelling to Earth's core Speed discovered the Core People a race of mineral based beings that believed that they were being invaded by the human race due to mineral and oil extractions. Speed brokered a peace agreement with Nikka the leader of the Core People. This proved beneficial when the Saturnians made an invasion attempt on the Earth which was driven back with assistance from the Core People. Speed, Stellar and Johnny next tracked the evil Bems to an asteroid and found themselves captured. The Bem leader Bakka then ordered Speed to call off the Space Sentinels so they could escape. When Speed refused, Bakka used his Matter Converter to change Stellar into a Tigagator and Johnny into a Girafonkey and force them to fight to the death. Speed still refused and Bakka transformed him into a Elepheagle. Through his own will power Speed managed to maintain his human intelligence and led the Space Sentinels to the Bems before restoring himself and his friends to normal[3].

Speed and Johnny were later attacked by Saturnians over Earth's Moon and were forced to crashland. There they discovered that two races: the Positpeople and Neganatives. The two races were at war against one another due to attacks by Lunanimals on both sides, however Speed and Johnny revealed that the Saturnians were responsible, and restoring peace on the Moon. Speed and Johnny next stopped the Jetmen from bombing the Earth, sending them back to their homeworld with pictures of ancient Earth ruins to satisfy their ruler. Speed and Johnny were next assigned to help stop the Mosquito Men. They were unable to stop the Mosquito Men from slaying Doctor Venture, and make off with a weapon they assumed was a DDT sprayer that could kill them. Learning that the weapon was not stolen, and that the Mosquito Men stole something more powerful, Speed and Johnny went after them. When the Mosquito Men fired their stolen weapon at Speed, they were horrified to learn that it was a duplication ray and created an army of Speed Carters, each armed with a DDT weapon. With their leader slain, the Mosquito Men surrendered and Speed left them on an asteroid to serve as their prison, with his army of duplicates as their guards[4]. While in a battle with space pirates, Speed and Johnny's ship crashed on a frozen world where they freed a group of Earth explorers from the year 2050 who were frozen in the ice. They were then attacked by the Ice People who believed that they were also going to free the frozen prehistoric beasts trapped in the ice. However, Speed and the other humans pleaded their case and escaped in a rocket when a renegade faction of Ice People tried to free the monsters, sealing their own doom. Speed and Johnny returned to Earth where they defended the planet from attacks from the Beastmen. The pair were occupied battling enemy fleets when the Beastmen shot a meteor at the Earth. However, the Earth was saved by Major Ram -- a decorated soldier who lost his arms in a previous Beastman battle -- who crashed his ship into the meteor, sending it crashing into the Beatmen's world. While answering a distress signal on the planet Vega, Speed and Stellar were captured by the Vegans. They held Stellar hostage and demanded that Speed turn over a map of Earth's defences. Speed seemingly betrayed the Space Sentinels to free Stellar, but unknown to the Vegans he altered the map. When the Vegans ultimately betrayed Speed, he freed Stellar and the pair escaped just as the Vegans flew into the trap Speed set for them[5].

Speed and Crash Morgan next worked together to stop the various Things from Outer Space which appeared to be giant creatures, but in reality were machines constructed by space pirates. The pair exposed this deception and destroyed the pirates asteroid base. Speed was next targeted by Comet and Bulka, a pair of spies who sought to infiltrate the Space Sentinels. To this end, they hypnotized Stellar, Johnny and Crash and all set them to try to kill Speed. When Speed survived the attacks he was taken prisoner instead. Bulka disguised himself to look like Speed, but Stellar -- able to tell the difference between her real lover and the impostor -- tricked Comet into shooting Bulka. When Speed attempted to subdue Comet, she committed suicide instead by jumping out the airlock. In their last recorded mission, Speed and Johnny were sent to the planet Scorpio where they were captured by the Scorpeople and forced to use their rocket to launch an attack on the Centaurs of Sagittarius. Speed and Johnny bailed out of the ship and left it to crash. They then led the Centaurs on a counter attack, where they wiped out all the Scorpeople warriors. Discovering a peaceful faction of Scorpeople, Speed and Johnny facilitated a peace agreement between the two races[6].

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Speed occasionally employs a "Zoom Vest" a jetpack that allows for short distance flight in space. He also has a space suit and helmet that allows him to survive in space and worlds that do not have an oxygen based atmosphere.

Weapons

Speed has access to the entire arsenal of the Space Sentinels, but typically uses a Hydro-Gun as his primary weapon.

Transportation

Speed usually pilots an "atomic gas" powered rocket issued to him by the Space Sentinels. On Earth he has a rocket car.

See Also

Links and References

References

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