History
Kymn is a character from the 2000 AD strip Grey Area. He works as an Exo Transfer Control (ETC) officer in the Global Exo Segregation Zone or Grey Area, where aliens who want to visit Earth are quarantined. It was originally based in the Arizona desert.
Aliens first visited Earth in 2020 AD, an event known as the 'greet'. During the greet Kymn's parents were infected with a linguistic technovirus which meant that Kymn was born with the ability to instantly understand any human or alien language. He also seems to have some low-level telepathic ability. By 2045 AD he was working as an ETC officer, a rôle he was in a sense destined for from the moment of his conception.
As he is a naturally thoughtful and sensitive person anyway, Kymn tries to use his gift to break down the barriers of fear and incomprehension that stop humans and aliens from living peacefully together. However, his status as one of the 'greeted' means that other humans are apt to view him with suspicion. Notable exceptions are his team-mates Bulliet (leader of Kymn's squad), Birdy and Feo. Kymn's former boss, Captain Janzen, was prejudiced against the greeted, which meant that he took full advantage of Kymn's incredibly useful talent while simultaneously needling him with snide remarks and dirty looks that would have made his disdain blindingly obvious even to someone who spoke no languages at all. Kymn bore this with a quiet dignity until Captain Janzen was eventually murdered by a sadistic alien ambassador.
Most of Kymn's job involves being something like a cross between a diplomat, a riot cop and a customs officer. However, he and his squad once had to go on a suicide mission to save the Earth from a world-killing alien called a God-Star by flying into its mouth and detonating a nuclear bomb. They were all surprised when they survived this encounter, fell down a wormhole and emerged from the maw of a second God-Star on the other side of the galaxy. This God-Star was on the verge of destroying a planet called Homeworld, but its natives, a telepathic race called the Harmonious Free, refused to believe that they were in danger. When they eventually realised that they faced imminent annihilation, Kymn helped them use their telepathy to mimic the call of a God-Star and make the God-Star that was about to eat them back off. It was then exterminated by some immensely powerful aliens called the Congruence, who gave Kymn and the other humans a lift home. Two of the Harmonious Free, Resting Bitch Face and Compelling Male Musk Odour, came with them on a cultural exchange.
It was lucky that Kymn is the sort of man who seeks no reward for using courage and intelligence to save entire planets, because he didn't get one. Instead, he and his team were redeployed in the Grey Area, which, because of the damage inflicted on Earth by the God-Star, had been forced to relocate to New Mexico.
Powers and abilities
Powers
Can understand and speak any language; can sense other people using telepathy.
Abilities
Armed combat; containment of extraterrestrial immigrants; diplomacy.
Strength level
Human male who gets regular exercise (policing aliens).
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Body armour; riot shield.
Transportation
Human spaceship; Congruence spaceship; flying ETC vehicle.
Weapons
Baton.
Links
- Appearances of Kymn
- Character Gallery: Kymn
- Images that feature Kymn
- Fan-Art Gallery: Kymn
- Kymn quotations