The original premise didn't fit well with the central concept of the New Universe: as a visitor from another dimension, Justice contradicted the rule that there had been no superhumans before the White Event, and the fact that this other dimension was peopled by a race biologically identical to humans, who all spoke English, and who lived in a society closely resembling a romanticized Medieval Europe, overrode the New Universe's advertised basis in realism.
In issue #22 John Tensen joins the National Security Council, and Justice became essentially a team book, with the title character working alongside paranormals such as Playback and Kleenex.
Justice was a middle-aged DEA agent named John Tensen, whose wife was killed by vengeful members of organized crime.
Tensen's new identity is that of a law-enforcing knight called a "Justice Warrior", who was having an illicit affair with Queen Endolana of the Land of Spring when he was exiled to Earth.
[2] As a Justice Warrior, Tensen has a self-assured, black-and-white sense of right and wrong, supported by his ability to see people's inner auras and thus determine at a glance whether they are good or evil; it is never revealed whether Darquill was able to give him this power for real or the power of suggestion convinced Tensen that he was seeing people's auras, with a combination of simple observation and luck contributing to its accuracy.
He learns Earth's ways while befriending Rebecca Chambers, a DEA agent with a "golden aura" denoting utmost purity, and Arnie, a cab driver.
This helps Damon to manipulate Justice into deep despair and anger, and these dire emotions feed a machine constructed by the Wizards to destroy Spring.
[4] The wizard Webstral escapes to Earth and, as he tells of Spring's fall and the king's death, heals Justice of the impurity caused by his earlier injuries before perishing.
[7] However, whenever Tensen is drugged or fatigued these defenses are weakened, and he once again retreats into his "Justice Warrior" persona, suffering severe audiovisual hallucinations.
Furthermore, he was able to see people's auras and thereby judge instantly whether they were inherently good or evil (this being the primary reason for his draconian morality, though later it was said he could mainly read paranormals).
At one point, he apparently regenerated his right hand over a period of one month after it had been lost in a fight with one of Darquill's creatures; however, for a time his "sword" no longer functioned reliably.
Gone were his trademark psionic "sword" and "shield", replaced by Optic Beams, and Spatial Translocation powers that required his hands be freed.
The newuniversal version of Justice also has different abilities; he appears to possess a limited form of telepathy, allowing him to read misdeeds from someone else's mind.
He also manifests solid constructs made from glowing energy; these appear as either flat, rectangular panels which he uses as shields or platforms, or angular shapes which he uses as cutting blades.
Despite the collapse of the New Universe, Peter David retained a fondness for the character, and in late 1993 re-introduced a version of Justice in the Marvel 2099 line's Spider-Man 2099 comic book as the "Net Prophet", a.k.a.
He appeared from a portal into a dimension 2099 scientist Jordan Boone dubbed "Virtual Unreality", from whence also came Thanatos, an alternate-timeline version of Rick Jones in search of powerful relics from other worlds.
When last seen in 2099, Tensen had remembered his real name and met Spider-Man's former girlfriend, Xina Kwan, who was then leaving New York City for parts unknown.
In a scenario similar to the events which brought Tensen to 2099 on Earth-928, Proteus and Justice arrived via Alchemax scientist Jordan Boone's Virtual Unreality portal.
His body degenerating due to Proteus' abilities, he allied himself with Boone long enough to find a suitable replacement host: John Eisenhart, the Hulk of 2099.