Korean-Canadian Justin Jin goes from a sweet baker to Kid Juggernaut, the avatar of the demonic extra-dimensional entity known as Cyttorak. But unlike his villainous predecessor of a similar name, Justin has more heroic ideals.
Family Legacy
The invulnerable superhuman and infamous villain, Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut, has a predecessor, Justin’s grandfather Jin Moon-Ho. When Moon-Ho stumbles upon an ancient temple of the mystical entity known as Cyttorak and discovers a shard of the Gem of Cyttorak inside. Upon touching it, he becomes the Juggernaut, the avatar for Cyttorak on Earth. Cyttorak orders Moon-Ho to join Japanese Imperialists and he then takes the name Jin Taiko. As the Juggernaut, Taiko receives an order from his boss to destroy his home village in South Korea. When Taiko refuses, Cyttorak chooses a new champion in Marko, and sends him to kill Taiko. The two juggernauts battle and Marko is the only one that emerges alive. Taiko’s son, Jung-Woo, inherits the legacy of his father’s acts, which labeled him a traitor. Defending his father to no avail, Jung-Woo resorts to drinking and gambling. He meets Hae-Ran Jin, his future wife, while she waitresses during college, and seeing that he had a good heart, she marries him and they have a child, Joon-Sung-Ah who would become known in Canada as Justin Jin.
When Justin is 5 years old, his father bails on him and his mother, moving back to Korea. Justin grows up and bulks up, ending up bigger than the rest of kids his age. He plays basketball, feeling bad that he’s always dunking on others, and works at his mother’s bakery, Vancity Buns, in Vancouver. They have regular customers, such as Tommy, Justin’s best friend since the first grade, though he doesn’t pay for the donuts he steals. Then there’s Noah, whom Justin has a crush on but his mother says he’s straight. Justin holds out hope though.
One day while working, his mother informs him about the death of his father, who lives in Korea and whom they haven’t seen in years. Told it was a random attack, Justin’s father was actually killed by Malphegor on the order of Cyttorak, who were both seeking the gem shard of Cyttorak. Unable to grieve a man he barely knew, Justin went about his daily life. While running the bakery, while his mom handled his father’s estate, Justin received a package from Korea but couldn’t read the accompanying letter written in Hangeul since his mom let him drop out of Korean school. He opened the box to find his father’s belongings, including the gem shard of Cyttorak, and upon touching it, it empowered him to become a Juggernaut. When his mom witnesses his strength, she tells him about his Juggernaut heritage and reads his father’s letter to him. In the letter, his father admitted to not being there for him as one of his many regrets and blamed the gem, which he believed brought great evil to their family. As such, he avoided having anything to do with out but questioned whether his life turned out better. He leaves the gem to Justin to either claim its power or avoid it. Having touched it already and not wanting its power, Justin considered giving it up. But Malphegor interrupted them, magically binding Justin in chains and demanding the gem or he would take his life just like he took his father’s.
While Justin’s mother safeguards the gem, Justin leads Malphegor away from her, tricking him into thinking he possesses it. A battle over the gem ensues between the two but it’s interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange. Strange magically disabled Malphegor and took Justin to Whistler, home of the temple of Cyttorak where his grandfather found the gem all those years ago. Strange hopes to tap into the temple’s mystical energies to protect Justin. He also explained that Malphegor was a dark arts wizard whom Cyttorak wanted to inherit his power, just as he crashed their party and Strange blocked Malphegor and encouraged Justin to become the Juggernaut and kill him.
Though Justin resists and calls Strange out as the real Strange wouldn’t encourage him to kill anyone. “Strange” reveals himself as Cyttorak and warns Justin that he has bigger plans for him. Though Justin refuses to be his pawn. Justin returns home to Vancouver to his mom where she presents the gem and finishes the letter from his father, which conveys that he knew that the right person would be able to use the gem and become something great.
Gem-Empowerment
When Justin touches the gem, he possesses the power of the crimson bands of Cyttorak, making him unstoppable. The gem provides armor, including a hefty helmet that keeps out psychic intrusions, as well as superhuman strength and durability, allowing him to take physical hits to his body, magical or otherwise. He can leap across great distances. Furthermore, he does not need to breathe nor eat.
Opponents
With a gem shard of Cyttorak in his possession, Justin inadvertently attracts opponents who want to take his power, such as the dark wizard Malphegor and the energy vampire Marius St. Croix, AKA Emplate.
Justin faces a newer iteration of the Sinister Six, led by the highly-intelligent Calvin Cuttle, AKA Squid Kid, and goes head-to-head with the super-strong Cindy Shears, AKA Rhinoceress.
Friends and Avenger Allies
The X-Men take an interest in Kid Juggernaut, seeing as another wielder of the Crimson Gems of Cyttorak was the unstoppable and often out of control Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut. Though the merry mutants see how Justin differs from their oft-times foe and recommends that he attend the Avengers Academy. At the academy, Justin allies with headmaster Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, veteran Avengers staff members and guest lecturers.
At the academy, he becomes fast friends with his fellow students, such as the defender of the disadvantaged Aaron Fischer, AKA Captain America, Daywalker Brielle “Bri” Brooks, AKA Bloodline; the trans mutant and circumstance-switching Shela Sexton, AKA Escapade; the young runaway and heir to the Oscorp and Alchemax fortunes, Normie Osborn, AKA Red Goblin, and the young genius and Inhuman Lunella Lafayette, AKA Moon Girl, and the transdimensional Devil Dinosaur that she shares a psychic link with.
Justin develops feelings for his roommate, Aaron, but largely keeps those feelings to himself.
From Baker to Juggernaut
After learning of his family’s legacy with the gem of Cyttorak, the 18-year-old Justin went back to work at his mom’s bakery. One day outside, he saw a truck about to strike his crush Noah and a girl he was kissing. Justin donned his Juggernaut armor and saved them in the nick of time. The X-Men arrived, including Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, whom Justin tossed aside with ease not realizing who he was. The other X-Men let him know they were there to help, including the telepath Jean Grey, a bakery customer of Justin’s from earlier in the day. She informed him that she could not read his mind with his helmet on, and he realized that the helmet must protect against telepathic intrusion, in addition to looking cool. Their leader, Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, approached Justin. Having heard about a Juggernaut doing good, he had to see for himself. Xavier suggested that Justin attend a new school for people like him, the Avengers Academy, led by Avenger Captain Marvel. Upon arriving at the school, Justin said goodbye to his mother, who lovingly encouraged him to make mistakes, learn from them, and to save the world.
Justin soon learned about the ins and outs of the academy, like how it was located across multiple locales and planes of existence thanks to the M’Kraan Crystal shard. He also learned that he would room with Aaron Fischer, known as Captain America of the Railways. He ended up meeting Aaron in a somewhat awkward position (after a shower while in a towel), and they were suddenly attacked by the Nazi Fritz von Meyer, AKA Swarm, and his hive of bees.
Working with the other students, including Aaron, Escapade, Bloodline and her magical “cat”, Walpurgis as well as kid genius Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, they fought off Swarm and his bees. While a bee kaiju kept Devil Dinosaur busy, Escapade swapped places with one of the bees to gather data, Aaron transferred his kinetic force-field to protect Lunella from the bees since she was allergic, meanwhile getting stung himself. Worried about the school, Aaron suggested a plan B and Red Goblin suggested that they disable the parallax configuration by disconnecting the M’Kraan Crystal shard in the school’s cellar. Justin ran to do disconnect it but upon touching the crystal, a woman emerged wanting to create something with him, but unsure of what to do, he declined and went back to the group. The group had defeated Swarm only to discover Swarm was merely a skull and possibly controlled by someone or something else.
Justin’s more formal studies kicked off with how to fight a foe, learning alongside his fellow students. Their first lesson was from some of the best fighters in the X-Men, Logan/James Howlett, AKA Wolverine, and Piotr Rasputin, AKA Colossus. Justin learned how to toss a smaller fighter, Aaron, at an enemy and it worked except Aaron wasn’t quite up to the task. Justin and Aaron continued to bond and his feelings for Aaron started to grow.
Justin soon joined his fellow students on a mission to liberate Red Goblin’s younger half-brother from the new Sinister Six. He battled their strongest member, Rhinoceress, and nearly lost but Devil Dinosaur came in with an assist. One of the Sinister Six betrayed the group to help Justin and the others, Qaari Beck, AKA Mysteriant, whom Aaron was dating.
As he attended his studies, Justin kept in touch with his mom through letter writing. Inspired by her baking skills, Justin joined a baking class in the city with Escapade, where he met Daily Bugle TV journalist, Marcus Wetherell. Escapade encouraged Justin to ask Marcus out, but Justin had already caught feelings for his roommate, Aaron, and his feelings only grew as they got to know each other. Though, it was clear Aaron was more interested in Qaari. When they all went out clubbing, Justin ran into Rhinoceress, who gave him some friendly words about love, and it inspired Justin to research more about how to best prepare for being sexually active. He sought out Dr. Steven Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, for medical advice.
When Justin was suddenly taken from his slumber into a strange dimension, he met another captive, the invulnerable Ken Mack, AKA Mettle, a former Avengers Academy student thought dead. Their warden, George Baker, AKA D.O.A., was merely a minion of their true enemy, the energy vampire and mutant Emplate. D.O.A. added former academy student turned resident advisor Jennifer Takeda, AKA Hazmat, to Emplate’s growing collection. Mettle knocked D.O.A. down and they were all soon liberated by Bri and Walpurgis. Making their escape, they found their classmate Escapade had also been taken but had had their energy swapped with their captor, Emplate, who controlled the other students as well. When Emplate stabbed Bri with her own steak, Escapade used her power-swapping abilities to borrow Justin’s protective armor, along with various powers from her fellow classmates, to defeat Emplate. Without Escapade’s powers, Emplate slinked back into his other-dimensional prison. Escapade liberated everyone who had been affected as well.
Justin’s studies at the academy continued. When Justin delivered lunch to Aaron at the Arnie Roth Community Center, an LGBTQIA+ youth center where he and Qaari volunteered, it was attacked by violent bigots. Justin donned his Juggernaut armor and protected others from social media Clikclock sensation Cherry Crane, who was revealed as Sinthea Shmidt, AKA Sin, and her minion. Marcus reported live at the scene and Juggernaut protected him from Sin’s minion, the Driscoll. Marcus kissed Justin for his bravery just before he left to find Aaron, who was rattled by the attack but determined to stand up to Sin. Together, with Qaari, they kept people safe and defeated Sin, who unfortunately escaped in a puff of smoke and a helicopter.
