Tensen is a Justice Warrior in the service of Spring. Exiled from the dimension known as the far side, he now faces his homeland's enemies in the strange land of America.
Or so it seems. As it turns out, it's not that simple.
Some things, however, are certain. Tensen can read auras, detecting lies and corruption. He can also recognise superhumans - paranormals - on sight. His left hand calls up his shield, a force field backed by his will. And his right hand wields his sword, a devastatingly powerful and accurate energy blast.
Tensen brings justice. Tensen is Justice. And his sentence for the wicked is usually death.
Justice was one of eight titles launched to introduce the New Universe, a shared world unrelated to the existing Marvel Universe. It was initially billed as “the world outside your window”, a setting which only diverged from the real world when a single Mass Empowering Event granted some people superpowers.
However, Justice didn't really follow those guidelines when it started - although the "White Event" seemed to trigger Tensen's unexpected appearance in New York, that didn't explain the magical realm he came from, or how the villainous Damon Conquest and his father - enemies from Tensen's homeland - had already built a criminal empire in America before he arrived.
Midway through the run, Mark Gruenwald and incoming writer Peter David wrote a Wham Episode story that addressed those discrepancies. Tensen wasn't who he thought he was. His homeland was a lie. His enemies weren't from another realm, just normal humans who'd been gifted with paranormal powers by the "White Event".
And so was John Tensen himself, a DEA agent who'd been investigating an organised crime family when he vanished shortly after the White Event. Darquill, the crime boss he was after, had acquired some level of Reality Warping power from the White Event. Tensen's own paranormal powers surfaced and he survived and escaped their meeting - but his memories and appearance were still reshaped to fit Darquill's fantasy world.
Once freed from the delusions, Tensen became a vigilante who policed how other paranormals used their powers - soon referred to by the police as "the Justice Killer", but eventually recruited by the NSC.
Once the New Universe was connected to the Marvel Universe, versions of Tensen also appeared in series such as Quasar and Exiles. One version became a recurring character in Spider-Man 2099.
A one-shot Untold Tales of the New Universe: Justice comic was also published in 2006, as part of an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the New Universe.
Three different Justice Legacy Characters also appeared in the newuniversal reboot of the New Universe concept, with the modern day version closely based on the original John Tensen.
More recently, Al Ewing's run on The Ultimates (2015) introduced an Alternate Universe version of Justice, Jim Tensen, into Earth-616, the 'main' Marvel universe.
Justice includes the following tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: When Seraph's blade is boosted by his paranormal power, it can cut through almost anything. Including force fields.
- Aura Vision: Tensen can read auras to determine if people were good or evil.
- Ax-Crazy: Tensen.
- Barrier Warrior: Tensen can project energy shields with his left hand.
- Brought Down to Normal: Judge Mental telepathically suppresses Tensen's powers when the Forsaken capture him. So Tensen shoots him with a gun instead.
- Catch and Return: Seraph can use his scythe to absorb and redirect some energy attacks - including Justice's sword blasts.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Seraph easily murders Captain Brooklyn. Super-strength, flight and armoured skin don't save him from Seraph's scythe. Although that's not what actually kills him - Seraph decides that since only his skin is armored, it would be more fun to make him eat a grenade.
- Detect Evil: Having an absolute certainty as to who was wrong made Tensen into a Well-Intentioned Extremist serial killer.
- Feed It a Bomb: Minor superhero Captain Brooklyn, who has super-strength and steel-hard skin, takes on Seraph and the Forsaken alone. Seraph establishes that it's only his skin that's armoured, force-feeds the Captain a grenade and then clamps his mouth shut. Doubles as a Kick the Dog, as Seraph had already established that his scythe could slice through the Captain's skin anyway. He fed him a grenade purely because it was more fun than just impaling him.
- Frog Men: One of the Forsaken, Horny Toad, is a paranormal with a long prehensile tongue, green skin and froglike features.
- Hand Blast: Tensen's sword, a devastating but precise blast that can reduce its targets to ash with little or no damage to their surroundings.
- Having a Blast: Impact slowly builds up energy, then discharges it in a huge explosion when he hits something hard enough. It's suggested that doing this repeatedly has caused some damage to his brain.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Seraph loses his footing while fighting Tensen atop the Coney Island Wonder Wheel. He makes a good attempt to snag something with his scythe before he falls - but the scythe becomes an Absurdly Sharp Blade whenever he's holding it, so it just slices through the metal and he plummets to his death.
- Knight Templar: John Tensen, aka "Justice".
- Never Found the Body: A variant. A little while after Tensen shoots Judge Mental in the final issue, someone notes that the Judge's body isn't there anymore.
- No-Sell: Darquill's Hounds are immune to Tensen's sword.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The series did an impressive one of these about halfway through its run. In Issue 15 The Reveal (a Retcon) is that Tensen isn't an interdimensional holy warrior - he's John Tensen, a DEA agent who had an entire false life mentally implanted into him by a drug lord. He then becomes a borderline psychotic loner, judging other paranormals with his powers.
- Psychic Powers: Tensen can identify other paranormals by reading their auras.
- Reality Warper: Downplayed, but Daedalus Darquill has some level of this. His power creates another world where he can shape reality - and changes made within it seem to remain when people or objects return to the real world.
- Retcon: Used to explain away the Magical Land origin, which was originally intended to be taken at face value.
- Steel Ear Drums: Averted. After Tensen rescues a baby from an explosion (caused by the events of The Pitt) that wipes out a city park, he sadly points out that although he saved the child's life, the baby is now deaf; he snaps his fingers next to the infant to demonstrate its lack of reaction.
- Sword/Shield Contrast: Tensen has the ability to project two forms of energy. From his left hand hand comes a personal force field which he calls his "shield" and from his right hand a deadly blast of energy, his "sword." He can read people's auras as to whether they are "good" or "evil" and uses his "sword" to punish the evil.
- Vigilante Man: In early issues, when Tensen thinks he's a warrior from a Magical Land, he goes after criminals in general. After a Retcon reveals that he's actually a paranormal, he devotes himself to policing his brethren, punishing the ones who use their powers for evil.
- Wham Line: In issue #18, Tensen confronts Glen Baker, who can see 48 hours into the future but used his powers to enrich himself rather than help others. When threatened by Justice, he doesn't care. He's seen something awful coming for both of them - he thinks it's World War III - and he knows he's going to die.Tensen: [hand raised, ready to unleash a lethal blast of energy] If you have truly foreseen Armageddon, I can make sure you're not here for it, if you wish.Baker: I don't think you'll have the time.[everything goes white as Pittsburgh is annihilated]
