Duane Kennedy

DUANE KENNEDY

Real Name: Duane Kennedy

Class: Human

Occupation: Bureaucrat

Group Affiliation: P.N.A.

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile

First Appearance: MASK special insert in the September, 1985 DC Comics, such as Action Comics I #573

Powers: Duane Kennedy was a bureaucrat skilled at coordinating peacekeeping missions.

History: (MASK special insert) - Duane Kennedy ran the P.N.A. (Peaceful Nations Alliance) and employed MASK to counter Contra-World, who sought to undermine world order with their agents of VENOM. Kennedy contacted MASK's leader Matt Trakker when VENOM stole a molecular-dissembler from P.N.A.'s sub-atomics lab division. The dissembler had only one shot, so Kennedy wanted MASK to find out who or what VENOM would target with it and stop them. Miles Mayhem of VENOM had stormed Mount Rushmore, taking staff and visitors hostage, and threatened to destroy the monument unless Matt Trakker surrendered himself to him. MASK foiled VENOM by creating an illusion of Mount Rushmore which Miles shot the molecular-dissembler at.

(MASK I #!) - MASK and the P.N.A. started an ambitious missile defense program in space using satellites that could form a laser grid. VENOM sent a snake balloon filled with sleeping gas to Kennedy's office. Kennedy contacted Matt Trakker, telling him that all the gold in Fort Knox had mysteriously disappeared, and asked him to investigate. Matt contacted Sato, Turner and Hayes, telling them to meet him at Fort Knox, and they discovered that VENOM had drilled into Knox using their Mole vehicle, stole the gold and put down quick-drying cement in an attempt to cover up their activities. They caught up to the Mole and recovered the gold, but the theft was meant as a distraction by VENOM while they kidnapped Matt's son Scott.

(MASK I #2) - Trakker and Sato flew to Egypt to meet Egyptologist Prof. Ginsburg, an expert on Anubis in hopes that the graffiti VENOM left behind would give them a clue about where Scott and T-Bob were. In their hotel they saw a news report about the P.N.A.'s laser grid defense system being implemented and nations in the free world starting a process of nuclear disarmament. Miles Mayhem, dressed as Anubis, alongside Rax, Dagger and Bruno Sheppard, who were disguised as mummies, ambushed Prof. Ginsburg in a temple dedicated to Anubis, and put him in a cell alongside T-Bob and Scott. They then robbed the Cairo Museum, but were driven away by Trakker and Sato. Duane Kennedy contacted Matt, telling him he was sending MASK's new recruit Nash Gorey to assist in finding Scott, although Matt was wary of someone inexperienced joing in on such a sensitive mission. Matt called in Hondo, Jacques LeFleur and Julio Lopez to join in on the mission. They traveled to the temple of Anubis where Ginsberg was last seen, but were ambushed by VENOM. MASK drove them off and found Scott, T-Bob and Ginsburg's cage and freed them, but Gorey, actually a double-agent of VENOM, used his Outlaw tanker rig to seal the temple with a boulder.

(MASK I #3, 4 (BTS)) - Hondo used his Blaster mask to free his team, and an angry Matt called up Duane to tell them they'd been infiltrated by Venom. Duane promised him heads would roll, but this Duane was an imposter; the real Duane had been kidnapped after being sent a balloon filled with sleeping gas just like Scott. The imposter Duane called Scott Trakker reporting that VENOM had stolen a number of valuable paintings from the Louvre. Scott wanted to be at the opening of the P.N.A.'s missile-defense, but the false Duane insisted he and his team go to France. His Spectrum mask revealed that the paintings hadn't been stolen, VENOM had only installed lighting that made the paintings invisible to the naked eye. While MASK was preoccupied VENOM agents Vanessa Warfield, Floyd Malloy and Sly Rax knocked out the NASA astronauts set to put the final satellite in place for the P.N.A. defense system and replaced it with a VENOM satellite armed with a particle death-ray. Alex and Buddy set a fire in their cell, setting off the MASK computer system, which unlocked the holding cell in case of an emergency, and brought Matt up to spread. When President Regan pushed a computer console to demonstrate the defense-system it activated VENOM's satellite, calling down a death ray that would continue firing until it hit nuclear storehouses in the Midwest. VENOM looted Las Vegas casinos as the city was being evacuated, but MASK responded, capturing them all. Alex Sector hacked into the VENOM satellite, shutting it down, and the imposter Duane Kennedy was arrested by the P.N.A.. Matt was proud of his team, but told Scott and T-Bob worried that the delay in implementing the space missile prevention program would lead to continued tensions in the world that could end in nuclear war.

Comments: Created by Kenner.

Duane Kennedy was a character from the MASK toy line and cartoons. This entry covers only his DC appearances.

The MASK special insert was in Action Comics I #573, Batman I #387, Batman and the Outsiders I #27, Blue Devil #16, Green Lantern II #192, Justice League of America I #242, Superman I #411, Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #327, Tales of the Teen Titans #57 and World's Finest Comics #319.