Jack Rower was a young mutant adult with the power to control the cold and dominate the ice.

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As a teenage in Vermont, Jack discovered his cold and ice powers when he formed a freak ice storm...in July.  Although the ice quickly melted, he realized he was the one who created it.  Being careful in the use of his powers, he'd wait for the winter season before he started training himself in how to use his new-found powers.  Jack was renown in school for his patience; patience that was key in him learning to secretly hone his powers. 

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By Spring, on his 17th birthday, Jack left his Crack addict of a single mother, Claire, filing and obtaining his emancipation.  He journeyed to various ski resorts throughout New England. There, he'd hone his powers even further by 'pretending' to use snow-making equipment on the slopes and instead use his own powers.  One ski location he'd worked at was Top Notch Ski Resort in northern Vermont. While working there late one winter, the resort manager discovered Jack's mutant powers.  Rather than fire him or call the authorities, they worked a deal; help to make the snow early and late in the season using his powers, and he'd have a year-round job working at the resort.  Jack agreed.  He soon became family to the manager, his wife and their children. It was the happiest time in Jack's life.  That all changed when the evil madman named Yukon arrived from Canada.

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Late one Winter, as Jack was teaching children how to snowboard at the resort, a super-villain from the infamous "United Canadian Empire" (UCE) was fleeing authorities and a couple of superheroes.  Yukon barged onto the slopes, knocking down, freezing and killing anyone in his way.  He barreled down the slope and charged through Jack's 'bunny hill' he was training the children on, knocking Jack on his backside, stunned.  There, a superhero battle ensued, feet away from the children.  With the heroes on the ropes, Jack scooted all the children to safety...all but one which he didn't see at the time. 

 

Yukon froze the one child in a block of ice and threatened to smash the ice block unless he was allowed to get away.

 

The heroes backed off.

 

Yukon then created an avalanche down the mountain, placing dozens of skiers in harms way as he made a break for it.  The superheroes flew off to save the skiers.  Jack pursued Yukon.  Without even knowing he was being followed, Yukon took the block of ice with the child in it and smashed it into a rock, shattering the ice and the child into hundreds of pieces of ice, killing the child instantly.

 

The child was the youngest daughter of the ski resort owner; a child that had recently accepted Jack into their ski resort 'family'. She was like the little sister he'd never had. Now, she was dead.

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Jack screamed in rage, using his ice powers for the first time in public, doing everything he could to stop Yukon.

 

Since Yukon's powers were also ice-based, there was little Jack could do to stop him.  Yukon got away, but Jack put a fear into Yukon that Yukon hadn't known in hundreds of years.  Yukon soon became Jack's obsession for revenge; a revenge that would pit these two against each other in an eventually final...and fatal...battle.

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A few years ago, the UCE reared its ugly head once again, this time invading New England and turning it into the UCE's new nation of "New Canada". To fend off anyone attempting to take back New England, the leader of the UCE, Emperor North, rigged the region with several hidden nuclear bombs that he could detonate at whim. With the United States, Canada and the United Nations stymied into inaction, a vigilante hero by the name of Minuteman decided to take charge. Minuteman contacted several heroes and skilled individuals to form a team he called the "Yankee Minutemen" to stop Emperor North's mad plan; one such recruited member was Jack at the ski resort.  Minuteman knew about Jack and his powers for the last year.  Minuteman had Jack team-up with the notorious (and at that time, considered criminal vigilantes) Green Mountain Boys (GMBs) to defuse and disable the nuclear weapon hidden in Vermont. Thanks to stealth and wilderness tactics, the GMBs and Jack disarmed and disabled quickly and correctly. Their battle, however, was far from over.

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Over 300+ UCE Troops descended on Jack and the 122 GMBs. In the middle of this intense battle, the UCE super-villain, Yukon, arrived on the scene.  Enraged, Jack attacked Yukon only for Josiah Wentworth, the leader of the GMBs,  to instead quickly trap Yukon himself.  Feeling cheated out of his vengeance, Jack scolded Josiah, however, Josiah reminded Jack that Yukon needed to be brought to justice; killing Yukon would not bring the little girl back.

 

Reluctantly, Jack went back to fighting the troops, only to see more and more of the GMBs getting cut down in the battle...including Josiah, who died in a mortar attack. In the middle of the intense firefight, Yukon escaped unseen.

 

Within an hour, the remaining UCE had surrendered and/or retreated from their "New Canada", saving New England from the UCE occupation...but at a great price.

 

Out of the 122 GMBs that started in the campaign, only 30 remained alive.  Jack was devastated at the Wentworths family's loss, especially Josiah. Jack swore he'd never let vengeance cloud his duty to save and protect others ever again. Exhausted and wounded, Jack instead went to work helping others at the battle site...even the UCE Troops...to get medical care and rescue. Sadly, Jack didn't live long enough to see the final results of the team's victory.

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As Jack was helping get the injured UCE Troops and GMBs to safety that same day, the media descended upon the site. Cameras buzzed, live news broadcasts were conducted and throughout all of this, Jack ignored them all and continued to help the remaining wounded get the medical aid needed. At one point, as Jack was hauling down the last Wentworth to safety (Clyde Wentworth), Yukon burst out from the frozen treeline, bent on killing everyone in his path...especially Jack.

 

Clyde Wentworth was in no condition to fight.  Jack instead created an ice sled, threw Clyde onto it and sent it careening downhill to the reporters below, yelling at all of them to take Clyde and run for cover.  Jack fought Yukon and eventually made a massive ice wall to block Yukon's rampage, but in Jack's exhausted state, he wasn't able to make the wall strong enough. Yukon burst through the wall and stabbed Jack in the chest with an icy spear. As Yukon rampaged past Jack to attack the wounded combatants and the reporters, Jack used his last ergs of power and life to freeze Yukon into a massive block of ice 20 feet thick, stopping Yukon...'cold'...as it were.

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Jack died seconds later.

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Yukon was hauled away and placed in a proper prison (which Yukon was eventually broken out of months later).

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Jack's battle and his grim death was recorded live by several reporters on the site. Once the images hit the media in wake of the Yankee Minutemen's efforts in thwarting the UCE, Jack (and his fellow teammates) became national heroes overnight. Jack was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, posthumously. Clyde Wentworth, who swore he would never help another person in his life after his family's recent dealings with governments and politics and the massive amount of deaths in his family from the battle (see the Green Mountaineers history for more details about this), swore instead to be a protector of Vermont and New England; a protectors like Jack AKA Nor'easter, as Jack became known as.

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Today, a statue of Jack as Nor'easter resides on the Vermont capitol's grounds. Each year, a special event occurs at Top Notch Ski Resort, where ice carving contests of Nor'easter, ski competitions, snow boarding exhibitions and at the close of the day, a celebration and hot-air candle memorial and vigil is held, ending in a massive "Nor'easter" pot luck dinner done to a magnitude unseen anywhere else in the region.  The Yankee Minutemen and the entire Wentworth clan also attends and conducts an additional private ceremony for Jack at the end of the night.

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