Contributed by Ronald Byrd
Arnold Astrovik was the father of Vance Astrovik, the mutant super-hero initially known as Marvel Boy and later called Justice. When Vance’s mutant powers first appear, Arnold, outraged that his son is a “freak,” beats him to discourage their use. The abuse continues until Vance, by now a member of the heroic New Warriors (a further source of anger to Arnold), finally lashes out with his telekinesis, accidentally killing his father. Vance is found guilty of negligent homicide and spends some time in the superhuman prison known as the Vault before returning to action. Some time later, when the New Warriors are cast back into various periods of the past, Justice encounters his father as a teenager thirty years ago in Queens, New York. Justice is startled to discover that the teen Arnold is gay and in love with a young man named Bradley, for which his father Jerry berates and beats him, and he realizes that it was his father’s own self-loathing and resentment that led to their antagonism, Arnold beating him not only for his mutantness just as his own father beat him for his homosexuality, but because Vance succeeded in “deviating from the norm” where Arnold had failed. Despite the risk of erasing his own existence, Justice urges Arnold to follow his heart and tries to convince Jerry to accept his son as he is, but to no avail. The young Arnold turns his back on his potential new life, dooming himself to repeat the cycle of abuse that will ultimately result in his own death. Justice vows to prevent such problems from plaguing other young children when he returns to the present, but how or whether he pursued that goal upon his return is unrevealed.
Arnold worked as an accountant in the family’s home town of Saugerties, New York. Vance learned that his father was a closeted homosexual in New Warriors #48.
© by ® Marvel Comics. Used without permission.
