Icon

## **History**

### **Augustus Freeman: ???? - 1839**

Before he was known as Icon or even Augustus Freeman, he was a successful alien arbiter from a race of beings called Terminians, but Arnus had the misfortune of living in a time of civil revolution. The so-called Cooperative had invited Terminia to join their ranks, but required that they adhered to Cooperative Law, which did not recognize the galactic standard practice of arbiters.

Arnus had some political reservations about living under Cooperative rule and chose to leave his home planet. He had to travel far to escape the influence of the Cooperative, but eventually he found others willing to take a stand against the growth of the Cooperative, namely the Guardians of the Universe and their police force, the Lantern Corps.

However, before Arnus could properly defect, Cooperative forces attempted to arrest him near the border of Cooperative reign and the Lantern Corps’ Sector 2814. After hearing of his supposed charger, Arnus chose not surrender and put his ship into overdrive, making a run for the border.

Arnus’ ship was fired upon and its navigation, communication, and life support systems were damaged. Though he made it across the border and beyond Cooperative jurisdiction, Arnus would not live long… but at least he would die free.

Unable to find a suitable planet or survive long inside his ship, Arnus put himself in a stasis pod. Arnus had hoped someone would find his ship and rescue him, but that did not happen. No, Arnus’ ship crash landed on Earth, in the American south of 19th century.

A slave woman named Miriam saw the ship crash in a marsh. Miriam climbed into the wreck as it was sinking and found the stasis pod. As she tried to open the pod, it scanned her physiology and fused her DNA with the viable tissue remaining of the then deceased Arnus, creating a hybrid life-form that could survive on Earth. So, when Miriam opened the pod, she found a young black baby that for all intents and purposes was her son. Miriam took the boy home and raised him as her own, giving him the name worthy of a king or emperor: Augustus

### **Icon: 1839 - Present**

Augustus found himself constantly shocked and surprised by the humans that surrounded him. He discovered an intricate and very irrational caste system based on skin pigment. The kind woman, Miriam, who had taken Augustus in was dark-skinned and was a slave. Still, what mattered was Miriam raised Augustus with love and so he found a home on Earth after all.

Over the next 50 years, Augustus grew stronger. When the institution of slavery had ended, he and his mother Miriam took the surname "Freeman" and moved North. During this time, Augustus used his powers to help support the Union, doing so for moral reason... and for selfish ones. The Union had a better chance of developing technology to repair his ship. During the Civil War, Augustus realized his human body's full potential when he was struck with a cannonball and survived.

After the war, Augustus attended University and used Arnus' already vast experience as an Arbiter to become an attorney. Once able to afford it, Augustus secretly purchased the land that his mother and friends had buried the ship on. When Augustus realized he was aging much slower than humans, he began portraying his own fictional son, buying property in different parts of America or even in Europe; and building a new life in a new place every forty or fifty years or so. As Augustus Freeman III, he met and fell in love with a human woman named Estelle Jackson. Estelle reaffirmed Augustus' faith in the human species. She was kind, moral and sophisticated. Augustus and Estelle were married, and spent time living throughout America and France. Estelle died in 1997 of cancer.

In pain and frustrated by his inability to help, Augustus grew cold and distant from the rest of humanity. He felt cheated by humanity's brief lifespan; first Miriam and now Estelle. Reluctant to lose another, he moved to Dakota and lived in seclusion... until 2004, when he met a young teenager girl named Raquel who had broken into the warehouse he kept his spaceship. It is thanks to this idealist teen inspired by the Justice League's stand against Apploxeians that Augustus once more decided to put his stock in humanity and become the hero known as Icon.

## **Appearance**

Icon resembles a strong, large African American man with short cropped black hair; he only hides his eyes behind a domino mask. He wears a red tunic with crossed black bands and a golden ring in the center, black pants, and a large green cape. The back of his cape features a thin golden circle with a stylized "I" in the center.

## **Powers, Abilities, Equipment, and Weaknesses**

### **Powers**

**Human-Terminiam Hydrid Physiology:**

* **Absolute Strength:** Icon possesses vast strength due to the maximization of his DNA and alien heritage. He can lift over 100 tons effortlessly. Due to his alien heritage and the maximization of his potential as a human being, he has near limitless strength shown to at least be equal to Superman. At one point, he punched Superman out of the Watchtower 50ft into space.
* **Absolute Reflexes:**
* **Absolute Senses:**

## **Trivia**

* Icon joined the Justice League of America in 2004 nominated by Superman.