Ray Duke

Known as the Strongest Man on Earth, Ray Duke was a master martial artist and the surrogate father of Johnny Duke. The second son of an industrialist called William Duke and his wife Rumiko, he and his older brother Roy were delinquents in their youth who used to steal cars. Hoping to set them straight, their mother sent them to Japan under the care of her father Hanzo Mishima. Hanzo was a powerful martial artist who had retired to the life of a monk in order to atone for a violent past. He had mastered all styles of unarmed combat and had even managed to use his Aura. In order to teach the boys discipline, he decided to initiate them into the family style of martial arts which could bestow superhuman abilities. The boys proved immensely talented in their studies, eventually becoming incredibly powerful. When the time came to choose an inheritor, Hanzo passed over Roy because of the darkness in his heart and instead chose Ray. Furious, Roy left and Ray learned the Aura Gun, thereafter leaving his grandfather's mountain to make his way in the world.
Over time Roy returned, having achieved a new level of power. He took advantage of his grandfather's ill health and killed him in battle, afterwards being hunted by a vengeful Ray. Ray defeated his older brother, but could not bring himself to kill him. He spared his life, and afterwards took to wandering the world, protecting the weak with his fighting skills. After a few years, he was inspired to leave the world of fighting to settle down for a peaceful life with his wife Carrie. Upon settling in a town called Kattegat in New Jersey, he opened an auto garage.
When Johnny crashed to the Earth in front of them, Carrie convinced him that they should take the child and raise him as their own. When his powers manifested, Ray realized he might have a perfect candidate for a disciple. Unbeknownst to all, Ray had cancer and was slowly succumbing to it. He complained often that he wasn't as strong as he used to be. His private reason for training Johnny was the hope that he’d be able to kill Ray’s evil brother Roy, who Ray himself realized must be stopped but knows he couldn't bring himself to do the deed. Johnny eventually succeeded in the mission his father laid out for him and inherited the Aura Gun. Unfortunately when Johnny went away to college, Ray and Carrie came to visit him. On their way back home, they got into a car accident and were killed. Ray left a lasting impression on Johnny, who despite being terrified of his foster father also idolized him. He wears white t-shirts and blue jeans like Ray used to, and his prized Jolly Roger belt buckle were inherited directly from him.
In his prime, Ray Duke was a martial artist without equal. Even weakened by cancer, he was still the strongest person on Earth. In his youth Ray evoked complete terror in those he encountered. He had a reputation as the strongest man on Earth, which he repeatedly lived up to by displaying superhuman feats in battles where he showed no mercy to his opponents. He became famous for taking on whole armies with his bare hands, as no gun, tank, or bomb were any match of him. His invincibility became so well known that he could do whatever he wanted and no one would stop him, and only the very stupid would dare challenge him. It was at this time that he met his future wife Carrie, who managed to tame Ray and offer him a peaceful life.
==Techniques==
Ray is a master of practically all martial arts and has a working knowledge of the ones he doesn't personally use. Rare among Earth born Humans, Ray managed to learn and master Aura, which turned him into a superhuman fighter.
Ultimate
Aura Gun: Aura Gun was the Ougi developed by Hanzo after his years of study in martial arts. It is accomplished by gathering a large amount of Aura into one's hands and releasing it at a target for massive damage. The technique enabled Ray and later Johnny to gain the title of Strongest Man in the World, but the sarans were not impressed by it.
==Trivia==
- Ray's prized possession was his golden belt buckle with a jolly roger etched on it. He admired the jolly roger as a symbol of freedom to live one's life as they wanted, and Johnny inherited this spirit. He put the Jolly Roger on his jacket in admiration of his father, and when Ray died Johnny inherited the buckle.
- According to Johnny, Ray was never very clear on exactly what the martial art he was teaching was called. He'd alternately call it budo, bugei, karate, kempo, jujutsu & strangely occasionally kung fu. When he would wear an outfit for training he would dress in a white gi with a black hakama similar to aikido.
- While Ray specialized in the Mishima Family Bugei learned from his grandfather, over the years of his travels he trained in, mastered, or developed a working knowledge in most or all other martial arts. While he often fought bare handed, he was also a master at using weapons, his favorite being the Japanese sword. For those in the know, Ray was considered a master swordsman. Johnny said he rarely saw his dad use swords, but when he did he was so fast with them he couldn't be tracked by eye.
- Even after his retirement, he collected antique nihonto and had an encyclopedic knowledge of who forged them and when. He would even gift a daisho to Johnny, who kept the swords with him and even gave them a place of honor in his quarters aboard the Rocco II.
- When he was younger Ray would wear his hair much longer tied behind his back in a low ponytail.  Shortly after meeting Carrie however, he cut it shorter giving him what people would refer to as "Bon Jovi hair" or "hockey hair."
- Ray is a profound fan of prog rock, with Yes being his favorite band.
- Despite not being born as superhumans, Ray and Roy became ones as a result of their training under their grandfather.  They became so powerful, that superhumans from Soohn attempted to collect them to bring them back to the superhuman community on that planet.  However, the brothers were each too powerful to be coerced or forcibly removed, and stayed on Earth.  Ray Duke in particular, in his prime, was the most powerful unenhanced human in the entire story. Later on, Johnny muses that Ray was probably a bit stronger than Dashora.
- In his wanderings, Ray Duke not only fought other martial artists, but also a wide variety of monsters and aliens.  He single handedly defeated a cannibalistic giant that emerged from the ocean, smashed a meteor that was threatening the city he happened to be in, and fought and killed an Outlaw King who had ambitions of turning Earth into his base of operations.  It was these actions that brought him to the attention of AEGIS, with whom he would work from time to time.  However, eventually their relationship soured and Ray told AEGIS to leave him alone.  So complete was their fear of him that even when they suspected he was harboring an alien child they wouldn't make a move.
- For a very long time Ray's cancer was held in check by his superhuman physiology to the point no one had any idea he was sick at all.  However, when he fought Roy in order to save Johnny, Roy wounded Ray by poisoning his ki, allowing the cancer to affect him the way it would affect a normal person.
- Unknown to Johnny and the others, Ray has a bastard son called Tommy Duke. During one of his training trips with the young Johnny, Ray fell victim to a curse which struck him with amnesia. In this state he was found by his former partner and lover Anna Constantine. Anne seduced Ray and became pregnant, but when his memory was restored he had no memory of the interlude. Anna would go on to have a son, who she would name Thomas (or Tommy) after her infamous father Lord Tomas Constantinus. He was taken in and raised by the Black Hand which her father controlled, after they discovered that he had inherited his father's incredible power and talent for fighting. Tommy's driving goal was to take the title of Strongest Man on Earth from Johnny, though he later discovered that Johnny had left the planet.
- Ray also owned a jet black '69 Dodge Charger R/T he named Rocco.  The car served him on many of his adventures and he brought it with him into his "retirement" in the south Jersey Shore.  Unfortunately the car was destroyed in the accident that claimed the lives of Ray and Carrie Duke.  Johnny would name his own spaceship the Rocco II after his dad's car, which even today he remembers as one of the coolest things in existence.
Category:Characters
Category:Humans
Category:Fighters