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Thomas Kalmaku, a.k.a. "Pieface," was a young Inuit engineer at Ferris Aircraft and friend of test pilot Hal Jordan.

Earth-One Origin

Wanting to support his family in Alaska, Tom took some seasonal work as an airplane mechanic at an arctic air force base. His father, however, wanted to find his own ways to gain money and maintain the family.[1] Tom's father and an associate named Jimmy Dawes found a gold mine and split a map with its location in two parts. Unfortunately, Tom's father died of natural causes, and his associate never returned with his half of the map. Tom set to find this associate in Coast City, where he took a job in Ferris Aircraft, where a couple of thugs assaulted him and stole his map. There he met Hal Jordan, who gave him the nickname "Pieface," and Green Lantern, who helped him find the thugs and the gold mine. Tom however deduced Green Lantern's identity due to how similar both Hal and Green Lantern fought the thugs. Since that point, Tom became Green Lantern's confidante, keeping track of their adventures together in a journal.[2]

He had a girlfriend named Tegra, with whom he married and had a son and a daughter.

Life as a Mechanic

Tom worked as a mechanic at Ferris Aircraft, but shortly after Hal's first departure from the company, Tom also left and mounted his own chain of gas stations.[3] The business flourished, and he became a respectable entrepreneur, and he asked his friend to stop calling him "Pieface."[4] However, an energy crunch affecting the oil industry, along with a pile of debts, caused Tom to leave his business and return to Ferris Aircraft.[5] In time, Ferris suffered a series of sabotages that led it near bankruptcy, and Tom couldn't deal with another economic crisis. Feeling hopeless, Tom was about to commit suicide, but Hal helped him see purpose in life again.[6] Tom returned to his job as a grease monkey, but he was still under a lot of pressure and in an emotional turmoil, which resulted in his wife Tegra taking the children away.[7]

It took him quite some years to get his life back on track, but he finally found success when he created and patented a new engine he sold to the NASA, which gave Tom a good amount of income. With the pressure out of his shoulders, he reunited with his family.[8]. The success lead Tom to become a contractor for Ferris Aircraft, instead of a mechanic.[9]

Millennium and New Guardians

 Main article: Millennium

Kalmaku was revealed to be one of the "Chosen" who formed the New Guardians - the next step in human evolution to breed the next race of immortals. However, he decided to remain with his family instead of joining the New Guardians. Either way, the Guardian Herupa and the Zamaron Nadia Safir gave him to power to bring out the best in people, although in an dormant form. [10]

Following the formation of the New Guardians, Tom learned that his wife, Tegra was pregnant. This made them a target for Janwillem Kroef, one of the Chosen who betrayed them, refusing to unite with "inferior races." Tom and the New Guardians went to Tegra's rescue, and Tom's powers manifested right before he was killed by Kroef's mutants.[11] His new abilities allowed him to reach to the inner peace of the cannibals, and even Janwillem himself, placating their hatred.[12]

Tom Kalmaku decided to stay with his fellow New Guardians in Kroef's Island, as well as taking his family with them. Eventually, the island was destroid by dakr beings called Entropoids, and the New Guardians were kidnapped by Entropy.[13] As a result, Tom seemingly lost his powers. Tom and his family moved to Carol Ferris' house until they could figure out what to do.[14] Still, the New Guardians remained in a state of doubt and uncertainty when they realized the original Guardians returned from their retreat and haven't informed them.

Tom returned to California and joined Hal in his Air-Taxi business.[15] However, after Coast City's destruction and the subsequent rampage that turned Hal Jordan into Parallax, Tom and Carol returned to their roots and rebuilt Ferris Aircraft in California, this time with Tom as Project Manager.[16]

After Hal's (several) deaths, Tom went on a final mission on Hal's behalf, eventually reconstructing the planet Oa.[17]

Kalmaku later became an equal partner with Carol Ferris' in Ferris Aircraft. Despite this, he still does mechanical work for the planes, telling Hal Jordan that a wrench is his power ring.[18]

Green Lantern: Secret Origin

Shortly after the Infinite Crisis, Green Lantern's origin was altered, and this affected Tom Kalmaku too. He deduced Green Lantern's identity shortly after he first appeared in Ferris Aircraft. Tom saw Hal wearing a glowing green ring, and his suspicions were confirmed upon finding the Green Lantern Power Battery.[19] He often assisted the hero, or required rescuing as well as serving as his confidante. Hal had considered him as a replacement Green Lantern for Sector 2814, and the Guardians of the Universe even offered him a Green Lantern Ring (which he declined, famously saying "naw").[18]

Powers

  • Former Powers: Thomas Kalmaku was enhanced by the Guardians and given the power to "bring out the best in people." After he left the New Guardians he showed no further signs of any powers.

Abilities


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

He owns a "complete" stamp collection, with stamps from every country in the world, including the tiny balkan nation of Modora.[20]

Related

Footnotes


Wikipedia This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Thomas Kalmaku. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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