KEI MANGA CORPORATION
HISTORY
Kei Manga Corporation was a mysterious, Tokyo-based multinational entertainment conglomerate with highly advanced technology. In the wake of the multiverse-shattering Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kei used their technology to salvage fragments of several of the destroyed parallel universes, storing them in pocket dimensions under the Corporation's control. Kei then used these worlds as stages to produce entertainment for various other dimensions. Some of this entertainment was actual recordings from the pocket dimensions, edited and sometimes supplemented to create narrative movies and television shows, others simply served as inspiration for live-action or animated content produced in Kei's giant high-tech studios in Japan.
Another asset that Kei Manga Corp. acquired after the Crisis was the cosmic being called the Nemesis, who had been held captive in the anti-matter universe for millennia and had escaped in the chaos of the Crisis, only to have been struck down when he tried to confront the Anti-Monitor. The memories of this cosmic being serve as another source of material for Kei's entertainment products. This content proves to be so popular that Kei began creating new adventures for some the properties, in this case a group of heroic teenage girls with powers tied to the planets of the Solar System, casting the Nemesis in the role as villain. Still nowhere near his full power, and indebted to Kei for saving him, Nemesis went along with this.
The time crisis Zero Hour caused many problems for Kei as the universal disruptions caused them to lose many of the pocket dimensions they were using to produce material. The upset to the universal balance also caused the Nemesis to regain some of his power and he declared he could no longer play the villain for the corporation. Needing to recoup some money to cover earnings until they could recover from the loss of so many assets, Kei decided to take a new tack. If Nemesis wanted to play the hero they would let him, but not in some fiction. Instead the corporation decided to turn Nemesis into an American-style super-hero. They assigned him the "secret identity" of art student Arasaka Konei and sent him to New York City with the simple instructions to be a super-hero.
Initially this worked better than expected for Kei. Nemesis started playing the hero in New York and soon crossed paths with the hero team Justice Inc., leading to an offer to join the team. As Nemesis' public profile rose Kei started the merchandising machine to cash in on their new hero. Unfortunately for Kei, Nemesis' association with Justice Inc. would prove to be more costly than they would know. As the heroes learned about Kei from Nemesis they began to have suspicions about this entertainment company that was much more than it seemed. Kei tipped their hand more when, in order to drum up more interest, they sent super villains to attack Nemesis and, by extension, Justice Inc., including the Storm Riders.
A series of strange events, including fluctuations in his powers and revelations that his body might not be his own, raised Nemesis' suspicions to the point where he and Justice Inc. infiltrated Kei Manga Corporation headquarters in Japan to find answers. The truth was revealed when the heroes learned that Nemesis' real body was being held in stasis at Kei, serving as a power source for the company. The body housing Nemesis' consciousness was that of the real Arasaka Konei, a recently hired artist at the company selected as an ideal candidate whose mind was then wiped so that the body could serve as a host for Nemesis. The body was modified to simulate Nemesis' powers, but recent events had begun to affect the body's artificial abilities and it was returning to a powerless human state.
Justice Inc. battled Kei's security forces as they moved deeper into the company headquarters to try and find Nemesis' original body. When they did find it, the body has been incorporated into Kei's central machine, the Hypertime Engine that let them seek out alternate realities and entrap them in pocket dimensions. During the battle with Justice Inc. the Engine was damaged, causing it to overload. Nemesis' body was destroyed and Justice Inc. were thrown out of reality and into a series of parallel dimensions. The remaining captured pocket dimensions were released, some returning to their proper places in Hypertime while others were folded into the mainstream universe. Among the realities that became incorporated into the main timeline was the one containing Nemesis' old allies/foes, the planetary avatars.
The loss of the Hypertime Engine and their pocket dimensions gravely damaged Kei Manga Corp., but they were able to lean back on their existing entertainment properties to at least stay afloat financially while they tried to recreate the Engine, or find some other means of generating new material. The reprieve would prove temporary, however. Some months later, after Justice Inc. had managed to return to this universe, they renewed their investigations into the corporation. Their arrival coincided with a new threat to Kei Manga Corporation as the headquarters came under attack by the vengeful spirit of Arasaka Konei, reanimated as a Revenant in a powerful new body. Together Justice Inc. and the Revenant destroyed what remained of the corporation, ending Kei Manga Corporation once and for all.
The last vestiges of the company, its entertainment properties, have been in legal limbo while ownership is decided on. The little advanced technology the company had remaining was recovered from the ruins of the Kei Manga headquarters and confiscated by the Japanese government.
